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-- Posted Thursday, 4 September 2008 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com

The Metals:

Gold and silver rose well over 1% to $815.10 and $13.18 by late trade in Asia before they fell all the way to $793.50 and $12.61 by late morning in New York, but they then rallied back higher in the last couple of hours of trade and ended with losses of just 0.58% and 0.39%.

Euro gold rose to about €556, platinum gained $17.50 to $1399.50, and copper fell over 5 cents to about $3.30.

Gold and silver equities fell for most of the day and ended about 4% lower.

The Economy:

Tomorrow at 8:30AM EST is August’s jobs report.  Nonfarm Payrolls are expected at -75,000, the Unemployment Rate is expected at 5.7%, Hourly Earnings are expected at 0.3%, and the Average Workweek is expected at 33.6.

The Markets:

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

Oil fell for the sixth straight day on global demand worries despite more hurricane activity.  Oil inventories fell 1.9 million barrels, gasoline inventories fell 1.0 million barrels, distillates fell 400,000 barrels, and refinery utilization rose 1.4% to 88.7%.

The U.S. dollar index rose after the Bank of England and the European Central Bank kept interest rates unchanged and made it clear that the cost of credit has gone up.  Trichet also hinted at problems with Europe’s economy and that significantly hurt the euro as it gave more credence to the possibility of the ECB possibly cutting rates in the future.

Treasuries rose and the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P experienced their largest 1-day drop since June and fell roughly 3% on worries over the economy after the ADP employment index showed job losses again, Initial Jobless Claims rose more than expected, and several retailers reported disappointing sales.  Financial system worries were also raised after bond king Bill Gross stated that we may be facing a financial tsunami and that he is no longer buying bank debt offerings while also calling on the Treasury to step up with Fannie and Freddie.

Among the big names making news in the market today were Wal-Mart, Gap, Nordstrom, Toll Brothers, JPMorgan, and Boeing.

The Commentary:

“December Gold finished down 5 at 803.2, 13.8 off the high and 4.7 up from the low.

December Silver closed down 0.007 at 12.94. This was 0.22 up from the low and 0.245 off the high.

The gold market attempted to rally and did manage to take out the prior session's highs before settling poorly on the day. Clearly the ongoing rise in the Dollar is simply undermining the precious metals complex and that in addition to a similar downtrend pattern in the energy complex has seemingly left a number of outside market influences sitting on the back of the gold market. It also seemed as if overt weakness in the equity market and the fear of slowing served to chase some weak handed longs out of the gold market.

It goes without saying that the outside market forces kept up the selling pressure on the silver market in the trade Thursday. Clearly the rise in the Dollar was the primary defeating issue in the silver trade but renewed weakness in the copper market and weakness in oil prices added to the bull's burden. As in the gold market we suspect that the fear of too much slowing globally and in the US fostered some selling pressure in the silver trade on Thursday.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

GATA Posts:

U.S. must buy more assets to prevent 'tsunami,' bond manager Gross says

The Statistics:

As of close of business: 9/3/2008

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]

Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: SPDR subtracted 9.19 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:

Kinross Gold’s (KGC) successful bid for Aurelian (ARU.TO), Northern Dynasty’s (NAK) mining framework in Alaska, Richmont’s (RIC) extended “Initial Commitment Period,” Agnico’s (AEM) doubled credit line and exploration update, International Royalty’s (ROY) acquired royalties, Aurizon’s (AZK) exploration update, Exeter’s (XRA) drilling, Great Basin’s (GBN) management appointments, Apollo’s (AGT) drilling program, ITH’s (THM) drill results, Silver Eagle’s (SEG.TO) expanded processing plant, Coeur’s (CDE) mine update, and Bear Creek’s (BCM.V) updated resource 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:

Alaska Voters Validate State's Regulatory Framework for Mining - "Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. ("Northern Dynasty" or the "Company") (TSX:NDM - News; AMEX: NAK - News) announces that last week, Alaskans issued a clear vote of confidence in the state's water quality standards, its protections for salmon and human health, and its overall regulatory framework for hard rock mining." More
- September 04, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Darnley Bay Resources Obtains Permit for Exploration - More
- September 04, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Government approves mining plan for Askot, India - More
- September 04, 2008 | Item | E-mail

New Ball Mill at Mana Increases Production - More
- September 04, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Vulcan Minerals Inc.-Labrador Drilling Update - More
- September 04, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Richmont Mines and LKA Agree to Extend Initial Commitment Period to Complete Current Golden Wonder Drilling Program - "Richmont Mines Inc. (Toronto:RIC.TO - News)(RIC - News) a gold exploration, development and production company with operations in North America, and LKA International, Inc. (OTC BB:LKAI.OB - News) have agreed to extend by sixty days the "Initial Commitment Period" described in the amended and restated "Letter Agreement" dated December 21, 2007, which grants Richmont an option to earn a 50% joint-venture interest in LKA's Golden Wonder Project located near Lake City, Colorado. The Initial Commitment Period, originally set to expire on September 1, 2008, will now be extended until November 1, 2008." More
- September 04, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Houston Lake Mining Raises $200,000 in a Private Placement Financing - More
- September 04, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Firstgold Corp. Announces Bond Adjudication and Pad Construction - More
- September 04, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Agnico-Eagle doubles credit lines to US$600 million - "Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited ("Agnico-Eagle" or the "Company") announced today that it has executed a new non-amortizing US$300 million revolving credit facility, maturing September 2010. Including its pre-existing credit facility, the Company now has US$600 million of credit lines." More
- September 04, 2008 | Item |