Latest Headlines

Search

-- Posted Thursday, 21 August 2008 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com

The Metals:

Gold and silver climbed higher throughout most of world trade and ended near their highs of $838.95 and $13.865 with gains of 2.86% and 5.49%.  A jump in oil and a drop in the dollar driven by increased financial and geopolitical worries had many buying the ultimate safe haven assets.

Euro gold rose to over €560, platinum gained $89 to $1453, and copper gained over 15 cents to about $3.56.

Gold and silver equities rose over 4% at the open, continued to rise throughout the day, and closed with about 6% gains.

American Eagle gold coins sold out after spree
Reuters

U.S. Suspends Sales of American Eagle Gold Coins, Treasury Says
Bloomberg

The Economy:

There are no major economic reports due out tomorrow.

The Markets:

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

Increased tensions between Georgia, Russia and the US and lingering concerns over what Tropical Storm Fay will do sent oil about 5% higher.  While these stories have been around for several days, most had expected both to have gone away by now and the market was forced to finally price them in.  Russia still has not pulled out of Georgia as had been hoped, rhetoric from Russia surrounding the missile defense deal between the US and Poland has increased, and Tropical Storm Fay continues to puzzle forecasters with its movements.

The U.S. dollar index saw significant losses as financial problems also refuse to go away and instead get even worse at firms like Lehman Brothers, Fannie and Freddie, and others.  The false assumption of the past five weeks that drove the dollar higher was that the worst may have been behind us for the credit crisis and as more in the market re-realize that is not the case the greater trend of the long term bear market in the dollar resumes.  Another round of poor economic data also reminded traders of just one of the many other fundamental reasons the dollar has been falling for some time and will likely continue to do so until that slew of problems is corrected, if possible.

Treasuries fell as the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P traded mixed for most of the day and ended near unchanged despite the financial and geopolitical worries greatly impacting other aspects of the markets.

Among the big names making news in the market today were Lehman Brothers, Fannie and Freddie, Regions Financial, Barnes & Noble, Boeing, and National City.

The Commentary:

“December Gold finished up 22.7 at 839, 5 off the high and 9.5 up from the low.

September Silver closed up 0.687 at 13.727. This was 0.147 up from the low and 0.123 off the high.

The gold market managed a significant upward adjustment and seemed to garner the majority of the strength off the back of the Dollar breakdown. However, a broad based seemingly coordinated physical commodity market rally certainly seemed to add to the bullishness in gold. With the oil market also leading the charge higher the gold market probably saw both inflationary and flight to quality buying interest. It is also possible that news of the Russia's suspension of military cooperation with NATO prompted an additional wave of geopolitical buying of gold.

Like the gold market, the silver market saw a series of patently bullish outside market forces that seemed to fan the buying interest during the trade Thursday. Certainly a sharp slide in the Dollar prompted the initial wave of buying interest in a host of physical commodity markets and silver caught part of that tide. However, a sharp rise in copper prices probably added to the silver buying burst and certainly the sharp rise in energy prices rounded out the bullish environment.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

GATA Posts:

Bank borrowing from ECB is out of control

American Eagle gold coins sold out after spree

Wall Street Journal reports gold coin shortage, cites GATA

U.S. food prices seen rising most since 1990

Jason Hommel: Silver has run out -- now

Investors expecting wipeout for Fannie and Freddie

The Statistics:

As of close of business: 8/20/2008

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: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: 101.47

The Stocks:

South Africa’s mine safety report, Allied Nevada’s (ANV) assay results, Arian Silver’s (AGQ.V) upgraded resource estimate, and Sabina’s (SBB.V) additions to its management team 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:

Canyon Copper Closes Private Placement - More
- August 21, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Sherwood Reports Further High Grade Copper-Gold Results From Areas 2 & 118 at Minto Mine - More
- August 21, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Nevoro Inc. Appoints Mel Klohn as Executive Vice President, Exploration - More
- August 21, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Apollo Gold Announces Completion of C$8,500,000 Private Placement - "Apollo Gold Corporation (“Apollo” or the “Company”) (AMEX: AGT - News)(TSX: APG - News) announced that it has completed today its private placement in Canada (the "Offering") of Flow-Through Shares for purposes of the Income Tax Act (Canada) (the "Flow-Through Shares") by selling 17,000,000 Flow-Through Shares at Cdn$0.50 per share for gross proceeds of Cdn$8,500,000." More
- August 21, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Klondex Completes CDN $1.75 Million Private Placement - More
- August 21, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Jasper Mining Corporation announces private placement to raise up to $1,200,000 with Anacort Capital Inc. - More
- August 21, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Yale Sells Its Interest in One Zacatecas Property and Options Out the Other Three - More
- August 21, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Armistice Resources Corp. bulk sampling update - More
- August 21, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Abcourt Mines Inc.: First Closing of a Non-Brokered Private Placement Without Flow-Through Shares - More
- August 21, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Appointment of Chairman & New Director to the Board of Directors - More
- August 21, 2008 | Item | E-mail