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-- Posted Friday, 28 March 2008 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com

The Metals:

Gold traded just slightly lower around $945 in Asia and London, but it then dropped in early New York trade and fell to as low as $923.72 before it rebounded nearly 1% in afternoon trade and ended with a loss of 1.86%.  Silver fell to as low as $17.647 before it rebounded over 1% in the last hour and a half of trade and ended with a loss of 3.25%.

Euro gold fell near €590, platinum lost $36 to $2000, and copper fell nearly 5 cents to about $3.85.

Gold and silver equities fell over 2% in the first half hour of trade, but they quickly rebounded and traded with a little less than 1% losses for most of the rest of the day.

The Economy:

All of this week’s economic reports:

Next week’s economic highlights include Chicago PMI on Monday, Construction Spending and the ISM Index on Tuesday, ADP Employment and Factory Orders on Wednesday, Initial Jobless Claims and ISM Services on Thursday, and March’s jobs data on Friday.

The Markets:

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

Oil fell nearly $2 as supply concerns eased over the Iraqi pipeline attacked yesterday that is already back in operation.

The U.S. dollar index rose slightly on “improving money market conditions.”

Treasuries rose on tame inflation data that pushed interest rates lower.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P rose slightly in morning trade on the Core PCE inflation reading of just 0.1% for February and 2% year over year to fall within the fed’s target of 1-2%, but stocks fell off in afternoon trade and ended decently lower as traders digested a profit warning from J.C. Penney that dampened the outlook for retail stocks and kept traders wary heading into the weekend.

Among the big names making news in the market Friday were Northwest and Delta, J.C. Penny, KB Home, Fannie and Freddie, Citigroup, Clear Channel, and Maguire Properties.

The Commentary:

“April Gold finished down 18.2 at 930.6, 12.9 off the high and 5.7 up from the low.

May Silver closed down 0.61 at 17.94. This was 0.19 up from the low and 0.39 off the high.

While the gold market managed to pull back away from its lows, the market seemed to be embracing the bear case throughout the trading session. Seeing the Dollar hold in positive ground for most of the trading session and also seeing the end of the quarter approaching directly ahead seemed to give a number of markets a profit taking mentality. Even the stock market faded from its early strength and with a host of physical commodity markets under pressure one almost got a sense of the broad based commodity liquidation wave that was seen from March 17th to March 20th. With crude oil prices falling back by roughly $3 per barrel from the week's highs, there were a number of fundamental and technical angles working in the bear camp's favor.

The silver market forged a rather wide trading range today with the majority of the action favoring the downside. With copper falling back from its initial new high for the move and finishing weaker the silver market couldn't even look to the industrial metals markets for support. In the near term, portions of the trade seems to have attached some importance to the even number zone of $18.00, while other players pointed to the quasi double low level of $17.67 as an important level. In looking back on the week the silver market seemed to tighten its correlation with gold and lessen its track of the copper and platinum markets.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

GATA Posts:

Murray Pollitt: People don't yet see it's a money problem, but they will

John Lee: Silver vs. gold

Richard Daughty: The great silver sellout caper

Chinese exporters shun flagging dollar

South Korean pension fund shuns U.S. debt

John Embry: Don't let gold's volatility bother you

The Statistics:

As of close of business: 3/27/2008

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]

Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: StreetTRACKS added 7.98 tonnes and the JSE added 0.24 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:

IAMGOLD’s (IAG) fourth-quarter profit and increased resources, Barrick’s (ABX) CEO departure, Central Sun’s (SMC) environmental approval, Paramount’s (PZG) resumed trading, Nevsun’s (NSU) 2007 financial results, and Silver Eagle’s (SEG.TO) drill results were among the big stories in the gold and silver mining industry making headlines Friday.

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