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-- Posted Friday, 18 July 2008 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com

The Metals:

Gold fell over 1% to about $955 in after hours access trade yesterday and rose to almost $5 from unchanged at $964.50 in London today before it dropped to as low as $949.70 by about 8:30AM EST in New York, but it then rallied $7 from that low in the final hours and closed with a loss of 1.34%.  Silver dropped to about $18.30 in after hours access trade yesterday and rose to six cents from unchanged at $18.64 in London today before it fell back off for most of the rest of trade in New York and ended near its low of $18.03 with a loss of 3.13%.

Euro gold fell to about €604, platinum lost $38.50 to $1850.50, and copper fell nearly 5 cents to about $3.69.

Gold and silver equities rose around 1% by midmorning, but they then fell back off a bit in afternoon trade and ended mixed and near unchanged.

The Economy:

There were no major economic reports today.  All of this week’s economic reports:

Next week’s economic highlights include Leading Economic Indicators on Monday, the fed’s Beige Book on Wednesday, Exiting Home Sales on Thursday, and Durable Goods Orders, Michigan Sentiment, and New Home Sales on Friday.

The Markets:

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

Oil ended lower in mixed trade as speculation over falling demand overcame weather concerns.  All eyes now turn to the US meeting with Iran in Geneva this weekend that is not really expected to accomplish anything, but you never know.  The fact they are having level headed talks at all was encouraging to some in the bear camp.

The U.S. dollar index ended slightly higher after oil ended lower and tensions eased slightly about the health of the financial sector.

Treasuries ended lower after Citigroup eased financial worries by posting a smaller than expected loss of only $2.5 billion.  Some fed-speak from Stern and Hoenig calling for higher interest rates also may have influenced the market, but the comments come in contrast to Bernanke’s dovish talk earlier in the week.

The Dow and S&P traded mixed and near unchanged in surprisingly unvolatile and low volume trade for an options expirations day.  The Nasdaq fell over 1% on poor tech earnings reports.

Among the big names making news in the market Friday were Teva and Barr Pharma, Schlumberger, Freddie Mac, Citigroup, Google, Microsoft, Republic and Waste Management, Honeywell, and Mattel.

The Commentary:

“Anxiety levels have pulled back over the past few days but remain extremely vulnerable. Gold is reflecting this sentiment and with more financial institutions likely to fail, it will not take much to get gold going again. This appears to be a short-term respite from reality. For the next few weeks, gold will be finding terrific support in the low to mid $900’s with levels just under the $1k mark providing good resistance. At any moment gold can revive its march to and past the $1k mark.

Focus is turning back to the US’ ability to fund its deficits, its lifestyle. As confidence declines so will the desire to fund our nearly ¾ of a trillion dollar per year trade deficit, our soon to balloon internal deficits and so on. The empire of debt takes a global community of support to sustain and as this is withdrawn the consequences will be an even further weakening of the US Dollar and flight into safety. Gold will become a dominant global currency during the transition out of dollars and other paper currencies, which also face significant challenges which includes the Euro going forward.

Investors should also be cognizant of the growing anti-gold attacks from the powers to be which see the precious metal as a threat to their power, to their control which they exert through the issuance of paper money, not backed by gold but by merely trust. Yet the endgame is now upon us and a financial and monetary reckoning is underway and I do not see how the process can be easily reversed.”- Peter Spina, www.goldforecaster.com

GATA Posts:

Gold sales meant for market manipulation, MineWeb chief acknowledges

The Statistics:

As of close of business: 7/17/2008

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]

Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: SPDR added 0.62 tonnes to get within 3.37 tonnes of its record high holding set on Monday.

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.

iShares silver ETF holdings rise to record 6,092.31 tonnes - Reuters

The Stocks:

Aurelian’s (ARU.TO) update on Ecuadorian mining law was the only big story in the gold and silver mining industry making headlines Friday.

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:

Uranium City Resources Inc. Announces a Change in Management - More
- July 18, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Fortress Base Metals Corp. Announces Name Change - More
- July 18, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Fortune Minerals announces non-brokered flow-through financing - More
- July 18, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Mainstream Minerals Receives Additional Bobjo Mine Drill Results Red Lake, ON - More
- July 18, 2008 | Item