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-- Posted Friday, 25 January 2008 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com

The Metals:

Gold rose to a new intraday record high at $923.60 in London before it fell to find a brief loss at $905.75 by early afternoon in New York, but it then rallied back higher into the close and ended with a gain of 0.39% at a new record closing high.  Silver rose to $16.59 and fell to $16.292 before it also rallied back higher into the close and ended with a gain of 0.98% at a new 27 year closing high.

Euro gold rose to about €621, platinum gained $66 or 4.11% to $1672 to a new record high, palladium gained $10 to $380, and copper rose a couple of cents to about $3.22.

Gold and silver equities rose over 2% at the open, but they then steadily sold off as gold came off its early record highs and the major indices fell and the miners closed with slight losses.

The Economy:

There were no major economic reports today.

All of this week’s economic reports:

Next week’s economic highlights include New Home Sales on Monday, Durable Goods Orders and Consumer Confidence on Tuesday, ADP Employment, GDP, the Chain Deflator, and the FOMC policy Statement on Wednesday, the Employment Cost Index, Personal Income and Spending, Core PCE Inflation, Initial Jobless Claims, and Chicago PMI on Thursday, and January’s jobs data, Construction Spending, the ISM Index, and Michigan Sentiment on Friday.

The Markets:

Charts Courtesy of http://finance.yahoo.com/

Oil rose over a dollar on hopes that the stimulus plan will help the economy and increase energy demand.

The U.S. dollar index rose on the outlook that the fed will not be as aggressive in cutting interest rates next week as previously thought earlier this week.

Treasuries eventually rose as the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P fell over 1% by the close on worries over more writedowns and other bad news related to problems in the credit market.

Among the big names making news in the market Friday were Microsoft, Carlsberg and Heineken, Merrill Lynch, Ambac, Caterpillar, and Harley-Davidson.

The Commentary:

“Gold & silver recovered quickly and sit poised for more action next week.   Will the Fed cut rates more?   Will the $ tumble?   Will the Fed confirm they have accepted inflation and are happy to see a weaker $?   It seems so, so brace yourselves for next week’s action.”- Julian D.W. Phillips, www.goldforecaster.com

“February Gold finished up 4.9 at 910.7, 10.3 off the high and 4.7 up from the low.

March Silver closed up 0.157 at 16.49. This was 0.095 up from the low and 0.07 off the high.

The gold market started out ultra strong with an early run into new high ground. However, an afternoon setback in the equity market and a recovery bounce in the US Dollar seemed to prompt some longs to bank profits. While some other physical commodity markets were really undermined as a result of the setback in the equity market, gold had the fundamental underpin of South African production concerns. It is also possible that some gold longs were emboldened by the prospect of another US rate cut move next week. Apparently the trade is concerned that the power problems in South Africa are a sustainable issue and that could serve to de-link gold from the rest of the metals markets in the coming sessions.

The March silver contract was still unable to rise to a new high in the face of very impressive initial gains in both platinum and gold prices. Silver prices did hold up relatively impressively in the face of the afternoon equity market slide and in the face of a quasi failure in copper prices. While silver prices have favored the financial or flight to quality angle recently, some traders are still fearful that a resumption of selling in the stock market will make silver's fundamental or industrial metals characteristics into a negative again.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

GATA Posts:

Treasury's gold auditor doesn't know if reserves are leased or swapped

Ted Butler: The coming investment boom in silver

Richard J. Greene: Don't trust gold and silver ETFs to have any metal

John Crudele: You should be wary of this market rebound

European Central bank deeply split on immediate rate cut

Did Societe Generale trades trigger market rout, Fed cut?

Helicopter money could reach U.S. households by May

The Statistics:

As of close of business: 1/24/2008

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]

Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: StreetTRACKS added 0.31 tonnes.

COMEX Gold Trust (IAU)

Note: No change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data.

Silver Trust (SLV)

Note: No change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data.

The Stocks:

A power crisis in South Africa that has shut down operations at mines owned by DRDGOLD (DROOY), Gold Fields (GFI), Harmony (HMY), AngloGold (AU), and others, Barrick Gold’s (ABX) god price outlook, Aurelian’s (ARU.TO) drill results, Gammon Gold’s (GRS) appointed CFO and COO, Great Basin’s (GBN) unaffected operations, Royal Gold’s (RGLD) exercised conversion right, Crystallex’s (KRY) priced equity financing, and Vista Gold’s (VGZ) completed property acquisitions were among the big stories in the gold and silver mining industry making headlines Friday.

WINNERS

LOSERS

Winners & Losers tracks NYSE and AMEX listed gold and silver mining stocks that trade over $1.

All of today's gold and silver stock news:

Mega Uranium Ltd.: CORRECTION FROM SOURCE - More
- January 25, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Great Bear Uranium Appoints Donald Gee to President, CEO and Dr. Lawrence Dick to Its Board of Directors - More
- January 25, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Buckingham Exploration Inc. announces successful renegotiation and exercise of its option to acquire additional Colorado mining claims - More
- January 25, 2008 | Item | E-mail

DRDGOLD says suspends production at two operations - "JOHANNESBURG, Jan 25 (Reuters) - South African gold producer DRDGOLD (DRDJ.J: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Friday it had stopped underground work at its Blyvooruitzicht and ERPM operations as power supply from state utility Eskom was only enough to cover emergency maintenance services." More
- January 25, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Barrick says record gold price is sustainable - "Record gold prices, which scaled a new peak on Friday, are sustainable and could easily go higher, according to the chairman of the world's No. 1 gold producer, Barrick Gold Corp (ABX.TO: Quote, Profile, Research)." More
- January 25, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Aurus Addresses Article Written by John Helmer - More
- January 25, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Aurelian Reports Strong Infill Drill Results on FDN; Concessions in Good Standing and Progress in Government Discussions - "These include 149.63 metres grading 12.51 g/t of gold ("Au") and 15.71 g/t of silver ("Ag") in CP-07-180 and 119.05 metres grading 8.03 g/t of Au and 22.6 g/t of Ag in CP-07-170, both on section 9583450N. On section 9583550N, drilling returned 75.81 metres grading 11.06 g/t of Au and 22.5 g/t of Ag in CP-07-178A and 51.76 metres grading 10.00 g/t of Au and 15.0 g/t of Ag in CP-07-177." More
- January 25, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Taranis Intersects 12.07 m of 0.53 g/t Au In Newly Discovered Ankerite Zone - More
- January 25, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Drilling on Roxmark's Magnet Mine Property by Premier Gold Intersects Primary Target - More
- January 25, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Gammon Gold Appoints Scott Perry as Chief Financial Officer and Russell Tremayne as Chief Operating Officer - "I am pleased to see Rene building his team with such high caliber professionals" said Mr. Fred George, Gammon's President and Chairman. Mr. George went on to say, "The combination of Scott, Russell and Rene proved to be a winning team while they were in Russia and I am totally supportive of Rene's initiative to replicate that success". More
- January 25, 2008 |