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-- Posted Tuesday, 19 February 2008 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com

The Metals:

Gold steadily rose throughout world trade and climbed to as high as $930.50 by noon in New York before it came back off slightly in the last hour and a half of trade, but it still ended with a gain of 2.6% from Friday’s close and just 40 cents from setting a new record closing high.  Silver climbed to $17.57 before it also came back a bit, but it still ended with a gain of 2.2% at a new 27 year closing high.

Euro gold rose to about €629, platinum gained $92.50 to $2140 to a new record high, and copper rose over 10 cents to about $3.73.

Gold and silver equities rose throughout trade and ended with nearly 5% gains.

The Economy:

There were no major economic reports today, but an index showing increasing homebuilder confidence did have some talking.  Tomorrow at 8:30AM EST brings Building Permits for January expected at 1,040,000, Housing Starts expected at 1,015,000, CPI for January expected at 0.3%, and Core CPI expected at 0.2%.  At 2PM is the release of FOMC minutes from their January 30^th meeting.

The Markets:

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

Oil rose nearly 5% to back over $100 on supply concerns as worries escalated in Nigeria and Venezuela, OPEC hinted it won’t raise production at their next meeting, and several refinery problems developed as well.

The U.S. dollar index fell on expectations that China and Australia will hike interest rates to combat inflation while the outlook for US continues to be cutting rates due to worries about the economy.

Treasuries fell on worries that tomorrow’s CPI report will start to show increasing inflation due to recent fed rate cuts.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P rose markedly in morning trade on a better than expected report from Wal-Mart, but all three indices turned lower mid-afternoon on inflation worries and closed with slight losses.

Among the big names making news in the market today were Medco, Staples, Credit Suisse, MBIA, Wal-Mart, and General Mills.

The Commentary:

“April Gold finished up 23.7 at 929.8, 4.2 off the high and 4.8 up from the low.

March Silver closed up 0.39 at 17.508. This was 0.108 up from the low and 0.092 off the high.

The gold market started out in a positive bias and then added to the gains into mid session. With the Dollar making another new low for the move early in the trading session and oil prices showing very strong gains it appeared as if gold was being supported from a number of different angles. In fact, in the face of a decent US NAHB Housing Index release (just after mid session) the gold market hardly budged away from its highs and that would seem to suggest that the gold market wasn't undermined by a better than expected US economic reading. In fact, the slight up tick in the NAHB Housing Index seemed to support stock prices and provide an added lift for silver, copper and platinum prices and that in turn probably lent some additional support to gold prices.

The silver market started out firm and seemed to maintain the strength throughout the trading session. In fact, silver seemed to feed off the strength in platinum and copper prices and even seemed to benefit from the slightly better than expected US NAHB housing index reading. With crude oil prices soaring and the US stock market showing positive action the silver market seemed to be getting support from its industrial demand base and also from its financial or flight to quality angle. Many traders attached significant weight to the fact that March managed to climb back above a recent critical even number zone of 17.50 on the charts.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

GATA Posts:

U.S. banks borrow $50 billion from Fed against 'dodgy' collateral

Al Korelin interviews GATA's Murphy and Powell

Murphy's 'Midas' discloses international participation in GATA conference

Iran opens oil products exchange, plans one for oil itself

Britain nationalizes Northern Rock 'temporarily'

Iranian envoy suggests pricing Iranian oil in rubles

Cassandra of U.S. fiscal issues, Walker leaving Government Accountability Office

Ron Paul: Let's legalize competing currencies

The Statistics:

As of close of business: 2/15/2008

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]

Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: The ASX added 0.37 tonnes and the JSE subtracted 0.62 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:

Entree’s (EGI) exploration, Banro’s (BAA) correspondence comments, Keegan’s (KGN) drilling, Tanzanian Royalty’s (TRE) private placement, Exeter’s (XRA) drill results, Northern Dynasty’s (NAK) assay results, Great Basin’s (GBN) updated resources, Goldcorp’s (GG) increase in gold reserves, Richmont’s (RIC) reserve increase, Gold Reserve’s (GRZ) progress report, Gammon Gold’s (GRS) operational indicators, Great Panther’s (GPR.TO) drill results, Endeavour’s (EXK) acquired properties, Oro Silver’s (OSR.V) 51% ownership in 18 mining concessions, Solitario’s (XPL) drill results, Valencia’s (VVI.V) interest transfer, and U.S. Silver’s (USA.V) production increases were among the big stories in the gold and silver mining industry making headlines today.

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:

Great Panther Extends Silver-Gold-Lead-Zinc Veins at the Topia Mine - "GREAT PANTHER RESOURCES LIMITED (Toronto:GPR.TO - News) is pleased to announce that ongoing drilling from surface and underground at the Company's 100% owned Topia Mine in Durango, Mexico continues to extend high grade silver, gold, lead and zinc mineralization along strike and to depth on several of the veins that are currently being mined." More
- February 19, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Latin American Minerals Reports Drilling has Started on its Tendal Massive Sulphide Project, Argentina - More
- February 19, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Explor Increases Kidd Township Property - More
- February 19, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Novawest acquires Iron-T Vanadium-Titanium-Iron Project - Strengthening its interests in strategic North American ferrovanadium projects - More
- February 19, 2008 | Item | E-mail

GWR Mobilizes Second Drill Rig at Lac La Hache - More
- February 19, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Entree Gold Commences Exploration in Southwestern U.S.A. - "Entree Gold Inc. (Toronto:ETG.TO - News)(AMEX:EGI - News)(Frankfurt:EKA.F - News) ("Entree" or the "Company") has commenced exploration of four newly generated porphyry copper targets in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. Properties covering approximately 30 square miles (48 square kilometres) were acquired through an agreement between Entree and Empirical Discovery LLC (see news release - July 18, 2007). These properties overlay buried porphyry copper targets identified from regional geophysical and district scale geological data." More
- February 19, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Uranium Bay to Proceed With Non Brokered Private Placement - More
- February 19, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Milner Announces Exercise of Options and Grant of Stock Options - More
- February 19, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Marifil Mines Retains Ascenta Capital Partners Inc. for Investor Relations Services - More
- February 19, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Minterra Permits Drilling at Fish Project in Nevada - More
- February 19, 2008 | Item | E-mail

World Ventures Inc. Grants Stock Options - More
- February 19, 2008 | Item | E-mail

First Uranium could see delays from power crisis - More
- February 19, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Victory Nickel Announces Continued Progress at Lac Rocher Project - More
- February 19, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Matamec Begins A New Drilling Program on its Vulcain Nickel-Copper Property - More
- February 19, 2008 | Item | E-mail

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