Latest Headlines

Search

-- Posted Wednesday, 16 April 2008 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com

The Metals:

Gold fell to $924.15 in early Asian trade before it rose throughout most of the rest of trade in London and New York and ended near its high of $948.90 with a gain of 1.81%.  Silver fell to $17.763 in Asia and rose to $18.51 by late morning in New York before it fell over 1% from that high in the last couple of hours of trade, but it still ended with an impressive gain of 2.81%.

Euro gold rose near €592, platinum gained $49.50 to $2019.50, and copper gained nearly 10 cents to about $3.99.

Gold and silver equities steadily rose throughout trade and ended at or near their highs with almost 6% gains.

The Economy:

The fed’s Beige Book confirmed the recent economic downturn due to problems in the housing and credit markets that have resulted in cuts in consumer spending.

Tomorrow at 8:30AM EST brings Initial Jobless Claims for 4/12 expected at 375,000, Leading Indicators for March expected at 0.1%, and the Philadelphia Fed survey for April expected at -15.0.

The Markets:

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

Oil rose to another new record intraday high over $115 as supply disruptions continued and inventory numbers came in lower than expected.  Oil inventories fell 2.3 million barrels rather than an expected gain, gasoline inventories fell a larger than expected 5.5 million barrels, distillates rose just 100,000 barrels, and refinery utilization fell 1.6% to 81.4%.

The U.S. dollar index fell rather dramatically to a new record low despite higher interest rates in the US as the euro rose to a new record high versus the dollar on a strong euro zone inflation reading that makes it less likely the ECB will join the fed in cutting interest rates.

Treasuries fell as the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P rose throughout most of trade on strong earnings reports.

Among the big names making news in the market today were IBM,  Intel, United Airlines, Coca-Cola, Abbot Laboratories, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, GE, St. Jude, and J.C. Penney.

The Commentary:

“June Gold finished up 16.3 at 948.3, 3.9 off the high and 6.3 up from the low.

May Silver closed up 0.475 at 18.325. This was 0.175 up from the low and 0.195 off the high.

The gold market was faced with an extremely active scheduled US report flow on Wednesday and apparently the bull camp came away from the data with a definitively supportive environment. Apparently the US CPI report offset the fear of too much slowing that was fostered by the much weaker than expected US Housing starts report. In fact, seeing the Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization readings come in slightly better than expectations seemed to give even more credence to recent views that the US economy was holding together. With energy prices rising to another round of new highs early in the trading session and the US equity market also strong, some players came to the conclusion that classic growth and inflation might be seen in the coming months. In fact, the combination of better than expected US readings, a sharp slide in the US Dollar and ongoing European inflation fears seemed to give the gold market a number of bullish themes to choose from.

Like the gold market, the silver market managed an impressive range up extension but silver was actually able to climb above the late March highs. As suggested in the morning commentary, the silver market was probably given an indirect lift in the wake of rather impressive recovery in copper prices. In the end the magnitude of the gains in all the metals markets would seem to suggest that something fresh surfaced in the metals markets on Wednesday.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

GATA Posts:

Prices soaring as biggest grain exporters halt foreign sales

Ted Butler: Super concentration

The Statistics:

As of close of business: 4/15/2008

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]

 Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: The ASX added 0.30 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:

Anatolia’s (ANO.TO) permit, Aurizon’s (AZK) letter of intent with Radisson (RDS.V), Keegan’s (KGN) drill results, Northgate’s (NXG) assay results, Hecla’s (HL) completed acquisition, Tumi’s (TUMIF.OB) exploration update, Fury’s (FUR.V) permitting, Excellon’s (EXN.TO) mill construction and CEO and President resignation, MAG Silver’s (MVG) assay results, and Hochschild’s (HOCM.L) output target 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:

Hecla Completes Acquisition of 100% of Greens Creek Joint Venture - "Hecla Mining Company (NYSE:HL - News) today announced it has completed the transaction to acquire the Rio Tinto subsidiaries that held a 70.27% interest in the Greens Creek silver mine and joint venture located near Juneau, Alaska. As a result of the transaction, Hecla subsidiaries now hold 100% of the Greens Creek joint venture, which is believed to be the fifth largest silver mine in the world in terms of annual production." More
- April 16, 2008 | Item | E-mail

EXMIN Provides Moris Mine Update, Retains 100% Interest in Moris Exploration Project and Advances Strategic Alliance - More
- April 16, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Stingray Copper Inc.: In Fill Drilling Results Continue to Demonstrate Oxide Copper Mineralization at El Pilar, Mexico - More
- April 16, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Fission Retains Key Ground Near Roughrider Zone - More
- April 16, 2008 | Item | E-mail

GoldSpring Announces Additional Assay Results - More
- April 16, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Minera Andes drilling cuts 132 meters (433ft) of 1.11 percent copper at Los Azules project - More
- April 16, 2008 | Item