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-- Posted Wednesday, 25 June 2008 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com

The Metals:

Gold rose to $890.60 in Asia and fell to $873.50 by late morning in New York, but it then rallied back higher in the last couple of hours of trade and ended $6.50 off its low with a loss of just 1.01%.  Silver fell to $16.52 in Asia and rose to $16.82 in early New York trade, but it then fell back off for most of the rest of trade and ended near its low of $16.477 with a loss of 0.78%.  At the time of writing (4PM EST), gold is trading over $5 higher and silver is trading over 20 cents higher in after hours trade in reaction to the fed’s statement.

Euro gold fell to about €565, platinum lost $10 to $2008.50, and copper fell slightly to about $3.78.

Gold and silver equities fell over 2% by a couple of hours into trade, but they then rallied back higher for most of the rest of trade and ended near unchanged.

The Economy:

The fed kept the fed funds rates unchanged at 2% and the discount rate unchanged at 2.25% as most expected, but Richard Fisher did dissent with the rest of the committee and wanted an increase in rates.  They expect inflation to moderate later this year and next year, but state uncertainty remains high.  The overall message from the fed was that downside risks to economic growth have diminished while upside risks to inflation have increased.  The fed appears to at least to be talking a hawkish tone, but many still doubt whether any real action comes from them anytime soon as the fed also noted that financial markets are still under considerable stress and they remain data dependent.

Tomorrow at 8:30AM EST brings Initial Jobless Claims for 6/21 expected at 375,000, first quarter GDP expected at 1.0%, and the Chain Deflator expected at 2.6%.  At 10AM is the Existing Home Sales report for May expected at 4,950,000.

The Markets:

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

Oil fell sharply after crude inventories built 800,000 barrels rather than an expected draw of nearly 1 million barrels, but it did cut its nearly $5 loss roughly in half by the close as the dollar started to fall after the fed’s statement.  Gasoline inventories fell 100,000 barrels, distillates built 2.8 million barrels, and refinery utilization fell 0.7% to 88.6%.

The U.S. dollar index fell and treasuries erased most of their early losses after the fed’s statement made most believe that the fed is not in any real hurry to actually raise interest rates regardless of any concerns they may voice.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P traded modestly higher for most of the day on lower oil prices and a fed statement that did not deliver any big surprises, but gains in the Dow and S&P were cut to minimal by the close while the Nasdaq ended with an over 1% gain.

Among the big names making news in the market today were Boeing, Barclays, Monsanto, General Mills, XM-Sirius, Merck, and MasterCard and American Express.

The Commentary:

“Dear Friends,

This is the Jim Puplava's webcast presentation titled “The Crime of the Century.” Please click the link below to download the presentation in MP3 format.

http://netcastdaily.com/broadcast/fsn2008-0621-3b.mp3 (Approximately 17.7mb)

You know that I do not read other blog sites so if I go off the mark you will have only one person to blame - me. Here is an exception, thanks to the CIGAs that demanded I listen. It was good advice.

I suggest you make the time to do the same.

Chart painting is a major tool being used now against you. I am not suggesting TA be ignored. I am, as always, suggesting that if you know the plot, you will know when you have to weigh in on the fundamentals to balance your thinking.

Many juniors are worth more dead than alive. That means you could market the pieces for more than the cap value.

The shorts seem to now be driven more by ego and power trips than brains. Brains would give them the ability to know when enough is enough, if only from a functional profit standpoint.

If a junior is shorted in a situation where it would take 3 months to cover at 50% of the legal short on an average daily volume and that company could be sold in pieces for more than the quoted value, TA might be rendered less important in the equation with fundamentals becoming more significant.”- Jim Sinclair, JSMineset.com

“August Gold finished down 9.3 at 882.3, 7.2 off the high and 6.3 up from the low.

July Silver closed down 0.13 at 16.503. This was 0.023 up from the low and 0.237 off the high.

After a morning follow through washout the gold market managed to recover just ahead of mid session and surprisingly the market extended the recovery into and through the FOMC meeting results. However, the Dollar was weaker in the wake of the FOMC statement and that seemed to give the gold market the lift many traders were expecting early in the trading session in the wake of the scheduled US economic data. With the Dollar weakening and oil prices recovering slightly the outside environment for gold was gradually improved from the morning trade. However, with the US stock market remaining strong it is possible that some potential gold buyers decided to move toward the equity market instead.

Like the gold market, silver managed a mid morning bounce and then managed to hold the morning gains through the early afternoon FOMC meeting results. However, some silver bulls might have been disappointed with the silver markets failure to actually gain some additional ground in the afternoon action in the wake of weakening in the US Dollar that was supposedly brought on by the FOMC statement. On the other hand, for silver to have forged a partially supportive afternoon trade in the face of ongoing weakness in gold, platinum and copper had to please the bull camp.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

GATA Posts:

Ted Butler: Silver is a tiger by the tail

Inflation explodes in manufacturers' prices -- but not gold and silver

The Statistics:

As of close of business: 6/24/2008

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]

 Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: The LSE added 1.08 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:

Gold Fields’ (GFI) production and one million fatality-free shifts at Kloof, Allied Nevada’s (ANV) drill results, Rubicon’s (RBY) decision to dewater underground workings, Paramount’s (PZG) resource increase, Anglo American’s (AAUK) social project in Peru, Northgate’s (NXG) Preliminary Assessment Report, Excellon’s (EXN.TO) resumed delivery of ore, Fortuna’s (FVI.V) warrant extension, and Silver Eagle’s (SEG.TO) pre-feasibility 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:

Allied Nevada Drills 640 Feet of 0.026 Ounce per Ton Gold Equivalent at Hycroft - "Allied Nevada Gold Corp. ("Allied Nevada" or the "Company") (Toronto:ANV.TO - News)(AMEX:ANV - News) is pleased to announce complete gold and silver assay results for twenty-one exploration holes and eight condemnation holes drilled at the Company's Hycroft Heap Leach Mine ("Hycroft") located near Winnemucca, Nevada. All sixteen drill holes listed in the table below were drilled in the Fire and Brimstone Zones(1)." More
- June 25, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Iberian Amends Credit Agreement with Trafigura - More
- June 25, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Richview Resources Inc. Announces Results From Their Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders - More
- June 25, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Avalon Ventures Ltd.: Further Encouraging Rare Earth Element Assays From Lake Zone Phase 2 Drilling Program, Thor Lake, NWT-Summer Drilling Program Underway - More
- June 25, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Tombstone Exploration Reports Encouraging Initial Findings From Drill Program - More
- June 25, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Amera Options Cercana Porphyry Copper Property, Peru - More
- June 25, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Excellon Resumes Delivery of Ore - "Excellon Resources Inc. (Toronto:EXN.TO - News) is pleased to announce that it has resumed delivery of ore to the Penoles' Naica mill. The Company had to temporarily suspend operations at its Platosa Test-mine located in Durango State, Mexico after an unexpected water inflow on May 20th. Shipments to Naica were continued into the first week of June from stockpile inventories and normal operations at the Platosa mine were resumed June 19th, following the dewatering of the mine below the active mining areas." More
- June 25, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Gold Resource Corporation Continues High-Grade Gold Intercepts at El Rey - More
- June 25, 2008 | Item | E-mail