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-- Posted Thursday, 22 May 2008 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com

The Metals:

Gold rose almost 1% to as high as $935.20 by late trade in Asia, but it then fell back off in choppy action for the rest of trade in London and New York and ended near its low of $917.25 with a loss of 1.03%.  Silver rose over 1% in Asia to as high as $18.19 before it dropped to as low as $17.71 by midday in London, but it then rallied back higher in New York and ended with a loss of just 0.28%.

Euro gold fell to about €585, platinum lost $18.50 to $2168, and copper fell a few cents to about $3.72.

Gold and silver equities saw slight gains at the open before they slowly fell back off and saw over 2% losses by early afternoon, but they then rallied back higher in late trade and ended only about 1% lower.

The Economy:

Tomorrow at 10AM EST brings Existing Home Sales for April expected at 4,850,000.

The Markets:

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

Oil rose to as high as $135.09 after OPEC stated they can do nothing to stop the rise in prices, but profit taking took over in New York and oil ended about 2% lower on speculation that higher prices may finally be cutting into demand.

The U.S. dollar index rose on short covering after steep losses of the last two sessions as a better than expected jobless claims report raised hopes over the economy from yesterday’s grim view given in the fed’s minutes.

Treasuries fell again on inflation concerns while the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P rebounded slightly from the severe drops of the past two sessions on relief over lower oil prices.

Among the big names making news in the market today were Ford, Moody’s, NRG and Calpine, and Cerberus.

The Commentary:

“The Dumb Award for the year goes to our revered legislators who have passed a bill allowing civil litigation against the Saudis over oil prices. If you want to see crude at $200 tomorrow, all you have to do is anger the source of energy.

Now comes the Dumber Award, which is coveted due to the difficulty in getting it.

The markets for crude, currency and gold are GLOBAL.

Gold was sold due to fear this might apply to the yellow metal as well.

It would be bullish to shut down the US market for gold because then you would have a thin market with a positive Euro bent on gold and a more positive global market would be created.

No access for major traders will be denied, that you can be sure of. I would love to see US trading stopped in paper gold. That would be good for $150 on the upside after less than 24 hours.

The poor COT would not be able to create the influence on the global market they do with the aid of the US paper market cabal.

Europe and Asia are more respectful of the price of cash trading in gold. They prefer less regulation with greater privacy.”- Jim Sinclair, JSMineset.com

“June Gold finished down 10.3 at 918.3, 9.7 off the high and equal to the low.

July Silver closed down 0.025 at 18.025. This was 0.235 up from the low and 0.075 off the high.

The gold market started out on the wrong footing early in the trading session Thursday morning and never seemed to recover. Certainly seeing the Dollar make a noted bounce undermined the gold market, even though the bounce in the US Dollar seemed to be mostly technical in nature. However, with the US initial and ongoing claims readings improving and the US equity market avoiding more serious downside action in the wake of the latest but temporary run to new all time highs in oil prices, it wasn't entirely surprising for the Dollar to bounce and for gold prices to fall back. In the end, the gold market was somewhat overbought technically after its recent run up and given what appeared to be a broad based physical commodity market setback, it wasn't at all surprising to see the bears in gold gain the upper hand during the trade on Thursday.

Like the gold market, the silver market was at least partially overbought from a technical perspective and that might have contributed to the selling bias on Thursday. However, the silver market was also confronted with overt weakness in copper and base metals prices, as well as weakness in a host of physical commodity markets. In fact, at times on Thursday it appeared as if a number of physical commodity markets were coming under broad based liquidation pressure as a result of the uncertainty being generated by the energy markets.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

GATA Posts:

GATA appeals Fed's denial of access to gold records

The Statistics:

As of close of business: 5/21/2008

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]

Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: The LSE added 1.4 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:

DRDGOLD’s (DROOY) worker deaths due to xenophobic attacks, Alexco’s (AXU) agreement with the First Nation of the Na-Cho Nyak Dun, Fortuna’s (FVI.V) first quarter results, Minco’s (MSV.TO) exploration program, and Silverstone’s (SST.V) updated reserves 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:

NWT announces 20% increased uranium grades at Niger Uranium's In Gall property; Resource calculation to be completed in June 2008 - More
- May 22, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Belvedere Signs New Off-take Agreement - More
- May 22, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Alexco Resource Corp. and the First Nation of the Na-Cho Nyak Dun Sign Cooperation Agreement - "Alexco Resource Corp. (Toronto:AXR.TO - News)(AMEX:AXU - News) ("Alexco") and the First Nation of the Na-Cho Nyak Dun ("FNNND") are pleased to announce that they have entered into a Cooperation Agreement relating to the activities of Alexco and its subsidiaries in the Keno Hill Silver District area." More
- May 22, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Fletcher Nickel finds Texmont extension, completes historical reserve confirmation drilling, commences permitting work - More
- May 22, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Victory Nickel Engages Outotec to Design Frac Sand Production Plant for Minago - More
- May 22, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Pan African Mining Corp. Consents to Open Market Purchases of Its Shares by Acquiring Party - More
- May 22, 2008 | Item | E-mail

WSR-Metalex-Arctic Star Joint Venture Intersects Massive Sulphides on Ring of Fire Geophysical Target, James Bay Lowlands, Ontario - More
- May 22, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Uranerz Welcomes Bruce Larson as Exploration Manager for Arkose Mining Venture - More
- May 22, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Lincoln Gold continues drilling Guadalupe y Calvo district - Chihuahua, Mexico - More
- May 22, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Alamos Gold Inc. Announces Results of Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders - More
- May 22, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Stingray Copper Inc.: Results Continue to Flow From El Pilar Drilling - More
- May 22, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Metalex-WSR-Arctic Star joint venture intersect massive sulphides on Ring of Fire geophysical target, James Bay Lowlands, Ontario - More
- May 22, 2008 | Item