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-- Posted Tuesday, 4 March 2008 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com

The Metals:

Gold rose to as high as $988.15 in London and got within $1.40 of yesterday’s record high, but it then plummeted to as low as $960.95 by late morning in New York and ended near its low with a loss of 1.7%.  Silver climbed to $20.55 in London to come within 6 cents of yesterday’s 27 year high, but it then fell to as low as $19.65 by late morning in New York and ended near its low with a loss of 1.5%. 

Both metals fell to new lows of $956.00 and $19.52 in after hours access trade before they rebounded back near their COMEX close levels by the time of writing (4PM EST).

Euro gold fell near €633, platinum rose to $2299 before it fell to close with a gain of just $6.50 to $2235 at a new record closing high, and copper fell over 10 cents to about $3.82.

Gold and silver equities fell nearly 5% from this morning’s new all-time highs by early afternoon before they rebounded a bit in the last couple of hours of trade, but they still ended with over 3% losses.

European central bank gold sales continue to fall, prices spike  Resource Investor

The Economy:

There were no major economic reports today, but Bernanke’s banking speech and bleak housing outlook did have a few talking.  Tomorrow at 8:15 AM EST brings ADP Employment for February expected at 15,000.  At 8:30 is Productivity for the fourth quarter expected at 1.8%, at 10AM are Factory Orders for January expected at -2.5% and ISM Services for February expected at 47.5, and at 2PM is the fed’s beige Book.

The Markets:

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

Oil fell back under $100 ahead of tomorrow’s expected crude inventory build and before OPEC’s meeting that is expected to leave output unchanged, but some are speculating the cartel may cut production and that encouraged many traders in a mostly long market to take profits ahead of the events.

The U.S. dollar index found just slight losses for the third day in a row, but it still fell to a new record low as the yen continued to rise on speculation the fed may cut interest rates by 75 basis points this month.  The Bank of Canada cut interest rates today by 50 basis points as expected, but the Canadian dollar still fell as the central bank indicated that more rate cuts are to come.  The Australian dollar also fell despite a widely expected Reserve Bank of Australia 25 basis point hike as their statement also indicted a more dovish and neutral stance in the future.

Treasuries fell in late trade after another round of rumors surfaced about a bailout for bond insurer Ambac.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P fell markedly for most of trade on poor forecasts from a variety of companies, but all three indices rallied back higher in late trade and ended mixed and near unchanged on some encouraging afternoon comments from Amazon and Cisco in addition to the Ambac rumors.

Among the big names making news in the market today were Ambac, Amazon, Cisco, Jackson Hewitt, Google, Intel, Citigroup, Staples, and Walgreen.

The Commentary:

“April Gold finished down 17.9 at 966.3, 22.2 off the high and 3.3 up from the low.

May Silver closed down 0.34 at 19.84. This was 0.05 up from the low and 0.78 off the high.

The gold market was at least partially undermined as a result of the broad based physical commodity market selling seen in the markets on Tuesday. Apparently seeing the Dollar mostly weak wasn't the dominating focus of the gold trade as gold fell sharply after an attempt to return to the record highs from the prior session early in the trade. It almost seemed as if growing negative sentiment toward the US economy prompted a deflating of prices across the board, especially with a Fed member predicting a sluggish period ahead and another Fed member suggesting that the Us economy had very significant downside risk. In short, the gold market might have been undermined by too much growth and perhaps because of its recent overbought condition.

Like the gold market, the silver market on Tuesday seemed to become a little more concerned about the prospect of too much slowing. While the flight to quality mentality generally remained in place, seeing a host of physical commodities come under pressure and also seeing the US Fed predicting the prospect of significant US slowing probably prompted a number of spec and fund longs to bank profits. With platinum and copper prices also under significant pressure and oil prices falling by as much as $4.00 per barrel below their early highs, there seemed to definitively be a bearish outside market environment for silver.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

GATA Posts:

Ted Butler: Gold and silver shorts are up against the wall

Even thousand-dollar gold won't boost supply soon

Canada follows U.S. in cutting interest rates

Who wants to own the Bank of England and JPMorganChase?

Japan may move to support tumbling dollar

The Statistics:

As of close of business: 3/3/2008

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]

Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: StreetTRACKS added 8.29 tonnes and the LSE added 3.27 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:

Gold Fields’ (GFI) mine accident, Banro’s (BAA) corporate update, Orezone’s (OZN) increased resources, Sterling mining’s (SRLM.OB) TSX opening, Coeur’s (CDE) CFO appointment, and ECU’s (ECU.TO) exploration and production objectives 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:

Mexico welcomes new mining rush - "They are hardly the conquistadors that tapped open gold veins centuries ago, but the world's mining industry has once again descended upon Mexico in search of new sources of precious metals.

Drawn not only by rich gold and silver deposits, but also a stable and easy-to-navigate regulatory regime, the rush to Mexico by foreign mining firms pushed the total value of the country's mining production to a record $7.2-billion (U.S.) last year." More
- March 04, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Manicouagan Reports Results From Brabant Lake Drilling-Assays Up to 17.04% Zinc Over 5.71 Metres and 135.4 Grams Per Tonne Silver Over 8.97 Metres - More
- March 04, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Melkior Announces Closing of the Sale of its Otish Interest to Kakanda - More
- March 04, 2008 | Item | E-mail

RX Exploration Inc. to Begin Underground Drilling - More
- March 04, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Jasper Mining Corp. completes $367,500 non-brokered financing - More
- March 04, 2008 | Item | E-mail

SRA Announces Mill Start Up at Gordonsville - More
- March 04, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Purepoint Uranium Group Inc.: Responds to United Uranium's Claims - More
- March 04, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Western Warrior appoints new President and Chief Executive Officer - More
- March 04, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Nevada Exploration Inc. ("NGE") announces full exercise of Series' A Warrants, second tranche of Private Placement and granting of options - More
- March 04, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Sterling Mining Celebrates TSX Opening and Updates Current Status - "Sterling Mining Company (Toronto:SMQ.TO - News)(OTC BB:SRLM.OB - News)(Frankfurt:SMX.F - News) was profiled on February 27, 2008 at the Toronto Stock Exchange to celebrate its listing where Ray De Motte and company representatives opened the market in Toronto. The ceremony coincides with the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada's Annual Convention (PDAC) at which Sterling is an exhibitor (booth 3141) and where over 18,000 delegates are expected to attend." More
- March 04, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Baltic Shareholders Approve Plan of Arrangement - More
- March 04, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Opawica Explorations Inc. ("Opawica"/ the "Company") Announces Dingman Property Results and Atikwa Lake Property Update - More
- March 04, 2008 | Item | E-mail

StrataGold announces board of directors appointment - More
- March 04, 2008 | Item | E-mail

North Atlantic Resources Ltd.: Drilling Results From the Kourouba Gold Project, Mali - More
- March 04, 2008 | Item | E-mail