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-- Posted Tuesday, 26 February 2008 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com

The Metals:

Gold fell to $926.30 by late trade in Asia, but it then rallied back higher throughout trade in London and New York and rose to as high as $948.00 before it closed with a gain of 0.85% at a new record closing high.  Silver fell to $17.91 before it rose to a new 27 year intraday high at $18.73 and closed with a remarkable gain of 3.8%.

Euro gold rose near €634, platinum lost $5 to $2130, and copper gained roughly 4 cents to about $3.78.

Gold and silver equities rose roughly 2% by early afternoon, remained near their highs into the close, and ended about 1-2% away from setting new record closing highs last set on January 14^th 2008.

European gold sales on pace to end far below 500-tonne quota  Resource Investor

Gold dehedging to slow this year - Fortis report  Reuters

The Economy:

PPI came in at 7.4% year over year, which was the highest since 1981. Vice chairman Kohn of the federal reserve said slower growth is more of a concern than inflation.  The S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index showed home prices fell at a record rate of 8.9% in 2007.

Tomorrow at 8:30AM EST brings the Durable Goods Orders report for January expected at -4.0% and at 10AM is the New Home Sales report for January expected at 600,000.

The Markets:

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

Oil rose back above $100 and heating oil rose above $2.80, both to new record highs, as cold weather lingered in the US, geopolitical concerns remained in Iran, Turkey, and Iraq, and traders prepared for tomorrow’s inventory reports.

The U.S. dollar index fell markedly to a new record low as the euro rose on a strong reading from a German business confidence survey and stagflationary fears increased in the US after inflation came in at the highest in 27 years and Consumer Confidence came in at a 5-year low.

Treasuries found only minor gains despite poor economic data as the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P rose nearly 1% on IBM’s plans to buy back stock.

Among the big names making news in the market today were IBM, Macy’s, Target, Home Depot, CBS, and RadioShack.

The Commentary:

“April Gold finished up 8.4 at 948.9, 1.6 off the high and 12.9 up from the low.

March Silver closed up 0.635 at 18.72. This was 0.61 up from the low and 0.01 off the high.

After an initial downside failure April gold managed a rather impressive recovery move Tuesday. Certainly seeing a hotter than expected US PPI report provided the bull camp with part of its recovery capacity but another new low for the move in the US Dollar was probably an equally important element in the bounce. With oil and equity prices rising in tandem and the last of the US scheduled data for the day (the Richmond Fed Manufacturing survey) coming in slightly better than expected there were a number of developments that the bull camp might have been able to embrace. In fact, seeing sharp catch up gains in Chicago wheat prices, rising metals prices and a hot monthly inflation reading is a very strong list of bullish issues.

The silver market showed signs early in the session that it was capable of holding up even in the face of initial weakness in gold prices. However, with a sharply lower US Dollar and a mid day recovery pulse in copper prices, the silver market was potentially lifted by a host of outside market influences. In fact, seeing the US equity market manage another upside breakout on the charts, at the same time that oil prices rose to another new high would seem to put the precious metals markets back into a "perfect storm" mentality. On the other hand, one could suggest that the slowness of the US economy probably serves to keep the metals from having a true perfect storm.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

GATA Posts:

FDIC to add staff as bank failures loom

Rick Ackerman: Gold bugs could call IMF's bluff

Dan Norcini: As commodities soar, suppressing gold loses its point

Global shortage of metals looming

James Turk: An overview of gold's supply and demand

Catastrophe's cause was failure to regulate money and credit creation

Peter George's Investment Indicators letter cites GATA

U.S. backs plan for IMF to sell some gold

The Statistics:

As of close of business: 2/25/2008

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]

Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: StreetTRACKS added 8.29 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:

Claude’s (CGR) exploration results, Harmony’s (HMY) mine deaths, Buenaventura’s (BVN) possible mine strike, Entree’s (EGI) drill results, Newmont’s (NEM) possible need for an extension for its Indonesian sale, Great Panther’s (GPR.TO) drill results, Silvermex’s (SMR.V) financing, Endeavour’s (EXK) drill results, and Scorpio’s (SPM.TO) stockpile update 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:

Osisko Releases 2007 Financial Results - More
- February 26, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Century Mining Files Full Lamaque Technical Report - More
- February 26, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Chapleau Continues to Intersect High Grade Gold, Silver, Lead, Zinc and Copper Mineralization at Coringa, Brazil - More
- February 26, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Trench results up to 9.7 meters of 0.027% U3O8 from Pipewrench Lake Property, Saskatchewan - More
- February 26, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Mayfair Mining & Minerals, Inc. Enters Into a New Joint Venture Agreement to Develop Eight Mining Licenses in the Zambian Copper Belt - More
- February 26, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Platinex reduces damages claim in dispute with KI - More
- February 26, 2008 | Item | E-mail

San Gold Phase 2 Drill Program Reveals Additional New High Grade Zone at Rice Lake Deep - More
- February 26, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Murgor completes work commitments to earn a 100% interest in the Hudvam and Wim copper-gold projects in Northern Manitoba - More
- February 26, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Gold Port Exploration Update - More
- February 26, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Guyana Goldfields Inc. Announces It Will Vote Against Resolutions Proposed by Coronation at March 3 Meeting - More
- February 26, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Sola Resource Corp.: Private Placement- Consulting Agreements -