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-- Posted Wednesday, 12 March 2008 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com

The Metals:

Gold fell to $967.97 by late trade in Asia and rose to $981.95 by about 10AM EST in New York before it fell back off a bit in late morning trade, but it then climbed back higher in afternoon trade and ended near its high with a gain of 0.49%.  Silver fell to $19.378 and rose to $20.187 before it fell back off a bit into the close, but it still ended with a gain of 1.5%.

Euro gold fell near €631 on euro strength, platinum gained $10.50 to $2060.50, and copper gained roughly 5 cents to about $3.85.

Gold and silver equities remained mixed and near unchanged throughout trade.

The Economy:

Also making economic news today was the Mortgage Bankers Association’s report showing mortgage applications fell 1.9% last week.

Tomorrow at 8:30AM EST brings Import and Export Prices for February, Initial Jobless Claims for 3/08 expected at 355,000, and Retail Sales for February expected at 0.2%.  At 10AM is the Business Inventories report for January expected at 0.5%.

The Markets:

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

Oil rose to a new record intraday high of $110.20 despite the fact that inventories came in much better than expected.  Prices initially dropped about a dollar after inventory reports were released, but the energy complex marched back higher by the close as oil traders continue to concentrate on the dollar which plummeted today.

The U.S. dollar index lost more than double yesterday’s gains, treasuries rose, and the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P fell by the close as optimism faded over whether the fed’s plan announced yesterday will be able to effectively solve ongoing credit market problems.  Hawkish European Central Bank comments also helped push the dollar to a new record low while oil topping $110 a barrel was certainly a contributing factor to the Dow turning an early nearly 150 point gain into an almost 50 point loss by the close.

Among the big names making news in the market today were UPS, Freddie Mac, Humana, WellPoint, GO Capital, and American Eagle.

The Commentary:

“April Gold finished up 4.5 at 980.5, 3 off the high and 4.7 up from the low.

May Silver closed up 0.232 at 19.995. This was 0.275 up from the low and 0.225 off the high.

The gold market initially waffled around unchanged before another round of new all time lows in the Dollar seemed to give the bull's definitive control. With oil prices throwing off initial weakness and the US equity market at times adding somewhat impressively to the prior session's pattern of gains, the overall outside market environment seemed to favor the bull camp in gold. It also seemed as if the US Government Budget readings provided the gold market with a slight bounce as the US government reported a deficit of 175.56 billion for the month of February after seeing a surplus in the prior month's readings. Prior Recap Revision: The US Trade balance was incorrectly reported to be down for the second straight month in this comment yesterday, when in fact the trade balance readings were simply not as bad as were expected in each of the last two reports!

The silver market seemed to rise persistently from opening levels and finished the session with a return to the vicinity of the $20.00 even number zone. With copper and platinum prices managing to rise in sync with the US equity market and the Dollar clearly resuming its recent pattern of weakness, the bull camp seemed to have a number of outside market forces working in their favor.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

GATA Posts:

Germany remains unlikely to sell gold reserves

Fed begins monetizing everybody's busted mortgages

Fed in a desperate race with the spectre of collapse

Will gold catch oil? And silver soars without short covering

The Statistics:

As of close of business: 3/12/2008

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]

Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: StreetTRACKS subtracted 2.45 tonnes and the LSE added 1.24 tonnes.

COMEX Gold Trust (IAU)

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

Silver Trust (SLV)

Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: 77.04 tonnes were added to the trust.

The Stocks:

Metalline’s (MMG) drill results, Goldcorp’s (GG) expected output from Penasquito soon, Kinross Gold’s (KGC) operations in Russia, Rubicon’s (RBY) drill results, Aurelian’s (ARU.TO) drill results, Minco Gold’s (MGH) initial resource estimate, Kimber’s (KBX) completed private placement, Ivanhoe’s (IVN) resource estimate, Entree’s (EGI) inferred resource, Barrick’s (ABX) mine delay, Oro Silver’s (OSR.V) drill results, SNS Silver’s (SNS.V) hiring of SRK Consulting, Scorpio’s (SPM.TO) drill results, and Coeur’s (CDE) note offering were among the big stories in the gold and silver mining industry making headlines today.

WINNERS

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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:

Noront Warrant's Accelerated - More
- March 12, 2008 | Item | E-mail

New Cantech Appoints Kerr for Investor Relations - More
- March 12, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Globex Royalty Properties: Additionnal Gold Intersection in the Boucher Gold Zone - More
- March 12, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Denison Mines Corp. Year End 2007 Results Conference Call Wednesday, March 19, 2008 - More
- March 12, 2008 | Item | E-mail

GoldSpring's Latest Assay Results Continue to Improve - More
- March 12, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Metalline Mining Company Announces New Drilling Results - "Analytical results from diamond drill core samples from Sierra Mojada were recently received by Metalline Mining Company from ALS Chemex Laboratory, Vancouver, Canada. Hole D1071124, drilled to the south at a 75 degree angle upward from drill base E5 in the Encantada mine, intersected 6 meters averaging 440 grams silver per tonne, 0.17% copper, 11.8% zinc, and 3.0% lead. The interval is located in the silver rich polymetallic manto in limestone just below the San Marcos conglomerate. The mineralized interval is believed to have a true thickness of about 5 meters." More
- March 12, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Goldcorp Mexico sees Penasquito gold output soon - "Goldcorp Inc (G.TO: Quote, Profile, Research)(GG.N: Quote, Profile, Research) expects to start producing gold from its Penasquito mine in northern Mexico over the next two months, well ahead of schedule, the Canadian company's Mexico subsidiary said on Wednesday.

Goldcorp Mexico Vice President Salvador Garcia told Reuters at a Canadian Chamber of Commerce event that the company expects the Penasquito mine, in Zacatecas state, to produce at least 30,000 ounces of gold in 2008." More
- March 12, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Genco Announces Results From the Open Pit Creston Bulk Tonnage Target - More
- March 12, 2008 | Item | E-mail

High Desert Gold Corporation Expands Area of Gold Mineralization at the Canasta Dorada Property in Sonora, Mexico - More
- March 12, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Paladin eyes new mine projects, sets up market arm - More
- March 12, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Yorbeau Initiates an IP-Resistivity Ground Geophysical Survey at its Rouyn Gold Property, Quebec - More
- March 12, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Gold World Resources $900,000 Private Placement Filing Accepted - More
- March 12, 2008 | Item | E-mail

MDN Acquires New Property With High-Grade Gold Results in Northern Tanzania - More
- March 12, 2008 | Item | E-mail