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-- Posted Tuesday, 1 April 2008 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com

The Metals:

Gold steadily fell throughout most of world trade and dropped to as low as $872.60 by late morning in New York before it rebounded over $10 from that low in the last couple of hours of trade, but it still ended with a loss of 3.6%.  Silver dropped to as low as $16.30 before it rebounded over 50 cents from that low, but it still ended with a loss of 2.1%.

Euro gold fell to about €566, platinum lost $15 to $1895, and copper fell a few cents to about $3.82.

Gold and silver equities fell about 4% in the first hour of trade, but they then slowly climbed back higher for the rest of trade and ended with less than 3% losses.

The Economy:

Tomorrow at 8:15AM EST brings ADP Employment for March expected at -45,000 and at 10AM is the Factory Orders report for February expected at -0.8%.

The Markets:

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

Oil briefly fell under $100 before settling slightly lower near $101 as a stronger dollar encouraged profit taking ahead of tomorrow’s inventory reports.

The U.S. dollar index rose and treasuries fell as Construction Spending did not fall as much as expected and the ISM Index did not contract as much as expected.  The euro fell on news that UBS and Deutsche Bank took a $23 billion hit on their risky assets.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P surged higher throughout trade and ended with over 3% gains on hopes that the credit crisis is over after a couple of “kitchen sink” writedowns were announced and Lehman Brothers’ capital raising inspired confidence at the start of the second quarter.

Among the big names making news in the market today were Blackstone, GM, Ford, Toyota, UBS, Deutsche Bank, and Lehman Brothers.

The Commentary:

“April Gold finished down 33.3 at 882.9, 8.1 off the high and 2.4 up from the low.

May Silver closed down 0.42 at 16.89. This was 0.59 up from the low and 0.08 off the high.

The gold market started out under pressure and seemed to drift back into another concerted physical commodity market liquidation wave. Certainly seeing the US Dollar add to its recent gains and seeing indications that some players are beginning to downplay the US financial sector threat is cause for some long liquidation. However, the magnitude of the washout in gold prices suggests that a combination of technical and fundamental issues might have been applying pressure to gold prices on Tuesday. With sharp gains in US equities it is possible that some more flight to quality longs were pressured into exiting gold positions in favor of more lucrative plays. With the US economic reports continuing to show slightly better than expected readings (particularly in the employment sector) it is possible that macro economic uncertainty is declining and that in turn seemed to prompt some rotation away from gold and other flight to quality instruments.

The silver market remained under moderately intense liquidation pressure and seemed to be at least partially undermined by the strength of the US Dollar. With oil prices somewhat weak and a host of physical commodity markets under ongoing pressure it would seem as if silver continued to see broad based physical commodity selling pressure. With platinum sharply lower and copper prices at times under moderate duress even the industrial metals angle wasn't able to support silver! In short, the financial or flight to quality angle for silver is apparently dominating the trade and the prospect of an improvement in the economy continues to be lost in the shuffle.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

GATA Posts:

Ted Butler: Real regulatory reform

James Turk: Another look at the bull market in commodities

Dollar's decline hasn't shaken Arab central bankers yet

Dollar can be weak, strong at same time, ex-Treasury official ... er, explains

Central bank currency riggers buy dollars sold by central bank investment arms

The Statistics:

As of close of business: 3/31/2008

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]

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

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:

Paramount’s (PZG) assay results, Kimber’s (KBX) drilling, Great Basin’s (GBN) increase in losses, Keegan’s (KGN) property acquisition, Newmont’s (NEM) offered share sale to the Indonesian government, IAMGOLD’s (IAG) filed financial statements, Silver Wheaton’s (SLW) financial statements, Penoles’ (PENOLES.MX) dividend, First Majestic’s (FR.TO) new vein, Endeavour’s (EXK) management appointment, Yale’s (YLL.V) and Exmin’s (EXM.V) drilling, Coeur’s (CDE) mine commissioning, Great Panther’s (GPR.TO) 2007 results, and Silverstone’s (SST.V) financial results 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:

Bonaventure Update on Winter Drilling at K9 - More
- April 01, 2008 | Item | E-mail

GoldSpring Announces Best Drill Results to Date - More
- April 01, 2008 | Item | E-mail

East West and Temex Acquire Nickel-Copper-PGE Property South of McFaulds Lake and Noront Discovery - More
- April 01, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Paramount Gold and Silver Corp. Report Gold and Silver Assays From the Montecristo Zone at Their San Miguel Project - "Paramount Gold and Silver Corp. (Toronto:PZG.TO - News)(AMEX:PZG - News)(Frankfurt:P6G.F - News)(WKN: A0HGKQ) announces assay results from 12 drill holes in the Montecristo Zone of its San Miguel project, in the Guazapares Mining District, Mexico. These holes (LV 15-17, 19-23, and 25-28) were drilled in the southeastern margin of the Montecristo Zone (see location map at www.paramountgold.com)." More
- April 01, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Acero-Martin Drills 9.80 Meters of 2.28 g/t Gold Within 27.00 m of 1.22 g/t Gold, Pinaya Project Peru - More
- April 01, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Valdez Gold Inc. Announces Appointment of Michael Skead as CEO - More
- April 01, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Olympus Receives Positive Independent Technical Report on Feasibility Studies for the Phuoc Son Gold Project - More
- April 01, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Mantis Mineral Corp. Diamond Drill Program on Tamarack Option in the McFauld's Lake Area, James Bay Lowlands, Ontario - More
- April 01, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Platinum Group Metals Ltd.: Project 2 Update Western Bushveld Joint Venture - More
- April 01, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Tara Gold Reports Gold and Silver Assays From the Montecristo Zone at Their San Miguel Project - More
- April 01, 2008 | Item | E-mail