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-- Posted Thursday, 14 February 2008 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com

The Metals:

Gold rose to $913.90 in Asia before it fell to $901.62 in London, but it then rallied back higher in New York and ended with a small gain.  Silver rose to $17.48 in Asian and early London trade and fell to $17.11 by early trade in New York before it rallied back near $17.40 by late morning, but it then fell back off in afternoon trade and ended with a loss of 0.4%.

Euro gold fell to about €620, platinum gained $12 to $1997 to a new record high, and copper fell roughly 4 cents to about $3.49.

Gold and silver equities remained near unchanged in morning trade, but they then fell back off a bit in afternoon trade and ended with about 1% losses.

The Economy:

Bernanke spoke before the Senate Banking Committee this morning and reiterated that the fed “will act in a timely manner as needed to support growth and to provide adequate insurance against downside risks.”  He also noted that “the outlook for the economy has worsened in recent months, and the downside risks to growth have increased” and that seemed to raise concerns for many on Wall Street.

Tomorrow at 8:30AM EST brings Import and Export Prices for January and the NY Empire State Index for February expected at 7.0.  At 9AM is the Net Foreign Purchases report for December, at 9:15 is Capacity Utilization for January expected at 81.4% and Industrial Production expected at 0.1%, and at 10AM is Michigan Sentiment for February expected at 76.5.

The Markets:

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

Oil rose back over $95 on refinery problems and a strong GDP reading out of Japan raised that demand expectations.

Treasuries fell as economic data came in slightly better than expected and traders became worried about inflation due to recent and future rate cuts by the fed.

The U.S. dollar index and the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P fell after Bernanke’s grim economic outlook.

Among the big names making news in the market today were GMAC, Goodyear, Comcast, and Ingersoll-Rand.

The Commentary:

“April Gold finished up 0.6 at 910.8, 5 off the high and 5.1 up from the low.

March Silver closed down 0.098 at 17.255. This was 0.085 up from the low and 0.195 off the high.

The gold market waffled around unchanged throughout the morning action despite a clearly weaker US Dollar. However, it seemed as if the slightly better than expected US economic data flow prompted some additional flight to quality long liquidation. However, with the equity market coming under pressure in the wake of the Fed Chairman testimony to a Senate committee it almost seemed as if the Fed rekindled concern toward the US financial sector. In fact, the Fed Chairman suggested that the US financial markets remained under significant strain and that more slowing and sub-prime problems were probably going to be seen ahead. In other words, the scheduled numbers might have reduced macro economic anxiety but the uncertainty over lingering credit market issues seems to prompt some renewed buying of gold.

While March silver did manage to climb above the prior session's highs, the market seemed to remain somewhat weaker than either the gold or platinum markets. Perhaps the sharp slide in the equity market or the weakness in copper derailed silver due to its physical commodity market ties or perhaps the silver market isn't in a position to benefit from renewed weakness in the US Dollar.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

GATA Posts:

Rescue for German bank aims to avoid crisis in confidence

Worried bankers seek to shift risk to Uncle Sam

Debt crisis spreads to U.S. municipalities

GATA's message slowly seeps into the financial mainstream

The Statistics:

As of close of business: 2/13/2008

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]

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

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:

Lundin’s (LMC) fourth quarter results and 2008 guidance, Paramount’s (PZG) drill results, Pacific Rim’s (PMU) increased financing, Aurelian’s, (ARU.TO) scoping study update, Apollo Gold’s (AGT) assay results, Goldcorp’s (GG) completed sale of its Silver Wheaton (SLW) shares, AngloGold’s (AU) agreement with B2Gold (BTO.V), Orezone’s (OZN) initial resource estimate, Great Basin’s (GBN) purchase of the remaining 63% of the fully diluted equity shares of Rusaf, Fury’s (FUR.V) drill results, Apogee’s (APE.V) drill results, Silver Eagle’s (SEG.TO) equipment purchase, Minefinders’ (MFN) updated mine economics, and Scorpio’s (SPM.TO) project update were among the big stories in the gold and silver mining industry making headlines today.

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All of today's gold and silver stock news:

Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd. - Wesdome Announces 2007 Production and 2008 Corporate Outlook - More
- February 14, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Metanor Resources Inc.: Granted of Stock Options in Favour of Directors, Employees and Management - More
- February 14, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Continental Precious Minerals Inc. Announces Normal Course Issuer Bid - More
- February 14, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Coro to Conduct Independent Preliminary Economic Assessment on 35-50,000 tpy Copper in Concentrate Production From San Jorge - More
- February 14, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Fury Drills 6.5 Meters of 216.8 g/t Silver Including 1.0 Meter of 1,260 g/t at Guijoso - "Fury Explorations Ltd. (the "Company") (CDNX:FUR.V - News) announces that it has received all assays from Phase 1 drilling at the Company's 100% controlled Guijoso property in Jalisco State, Mexico. Between September and November, 2007 Fury completed 13 diamond drill holes for a total of 2,017 meters. The program was designed to test a two kilometer strike length of a vein system, which in previous surface sampling by the Company, returned high grade silver and gold values." More
- February 14, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Laurion Updates on 2008 Exploration Programs on the Sturgeon River in Beardmore; German, Lydian, Enid-Massey and North Tisdale Properties in Timmins, Ontario - More
- February 14, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Apogee Continues to Expand High Grade Silver-Zinc-Lead Mineralization at Pulacayo, Bolivia - "Apogee Minerals Ltd. (CDNX:APE.V - News) has received assays for an additional eight drill holes from its ongoing diamond drilling program at the Pulacayo-Paca Silver-Lead-Zinc project (Figure 1 & 2, Table 1). These intersections continue to expand the thick, high grade zone of silver, zinc and lead mineralization in the upper part of the Tajo Vein System of the Pulacayo Silver Deposit (see press release dated January 28 and January 8, 2008 for previous results)." More
- February 14, 2008 | Item | E-mail

S.Africa utility Eskom says to buy back power - "South African power utility Eskom [ESCJ.J] will consider buying back "significant" amounts of power from industrial customers in order to ease an energy crisis, CEO Jacob Maroga said on Thursday." More
- February 14, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Lundin Mining Q4 2007 and 2008 Guidance - "Lundin Mining Corporation (Toronto:LUN.TO - News)(NYSE:LMC - News)(OMX: LUMI) ("Lundin Mining" or the "Company") reports that a review of the estimates of certain independent analysts for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2007 and the year ended December 31, 2008 has revealed material differences between those estimates and the Company's own forecasts. The differences are in respect of both revenue and costs." More
- February 14, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Alexander Haig on CanAlaska Uranium: Drill Programs Underway - More
- February 14, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Paramount Gold and Silver Corp. Reports High Grade Gold Results from Surface and Underground Sampling of a New Area in its San Miguel Project - "These analytical results confirm the presence of excellent gold grades across mineable widths in surface and near-surface exposures within the dacite dome complex. They also seem to be pointing us in the direction of a gold-dominant part of the system. These results further advance our objective of discovering and developing more gold rich, high-grade bodies, such as the ones in the San Miguel and San Luis Zones." More
- Febr