Latest Headlines

Search

-- Posted Thursday, 18 September 2008 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com

The Metals:

Gold rose to $892.97 in early Asian trade before it fell back near unchanged at $852 by the open in London, but it then chopped its way higher in London and New York, exploded to a new high of $916.90 in the last hour of trade, and closed with a gain of 5.49%.  Silver traded between $12.54 and $11.69 in Asia and rose to a new high of $13.01 in London before it fell back off in morning New York trade, but it too surged back higher in the last hour of trade and closed with a gain of 9.25%.

Note:  Both metals have sold off markedly in after hours access trade at the time of writing, presumably on rumors that a possible solution to this financial crises may be announced soon as “Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has been shopping around a proposal to congressional lawmakers that would create an entity to deal with the bad debt, similar to what was done in the savings and loan crisis, a congressional aide said on Thursday.”

Euro gold rose to about €619, platinum gained $32 to $1119.50, and copper gained a couple of cents to about $3.09.

Gold and silver equities rose over 5% at the open before they pulled back to see only about 2% gains by midmorning and then climbed back near their opening highs in early afternoon trade, but they then fell back off in late trade and ended at about unchanged on the day.

The Economy:

Also making economic news today was that the fed “almost quadrupled the amount of dollars central banks can auction around the world to $247 billion in a coordinated bid to ease the worst crisis facing financial markets since the aftermath of the 1929 Wall Street crash.”  There are no major economic reports due out tomorrow.

The Markets:

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

Oil briefly rose to over $100 in early trade before it fell back to about $97, but it still ended with a slight gain as the U.S. dollar index fell again.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P rose at the open on hopes of easing financial concerns before they fell back off to see notable losses again midday, but they then rose back substantially higher in late trade “following a report that the federal government is considering creation of a repository for banks' bad debt.”  Talks over bans on short selling across the globe also had traders buying/covering stocks and selling bonds to reverse earlier gains in the treasury market.

Among the big names making news in the market today were Citigroup and WaMu, FedEx, Morgan Stanley and Wachovia, and ConAgra.

The Commentary:

“December Gold closed up 46.5 at 897. This was 35 up from the low and 24 off the high.

December Silver finished up 1.025 at 12.7, 0.21 off the high and 0.37 up from the low.

Gold traded sharply higher extending Tuesday's gain apparently supported by intensified investor shifts into hard assets sparked by the global credit crisis and in reaction to a massive coordinated liquidity add by a number of G-7 central banks. Early Dollar weakness and apparent fear that today's G-7 liquidity add will fall short in stopping the global credit risk may have added to gold market's gains.

Silver traded sharply higher supported by spillover buying interest from the higher Gold price action and the weaker dollar as investors seek a safe haven in hard assets from the current global financial market turmoil. Silver may also have benefited from a report of last night's massive coordinated central bank liquidity add. Safe haven flows to the silver despite a generally weaker CRB trade today may suggest the silver rally is in part due to on going fears about the fallout from the credit crisis.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

GATA Posts:

SEC adopts rules against 'naked' short-selling

Taiwan's government ready to prop up stock market

Fed can buy all bad mortgages, banking chairman says

Dan Norcini: Huge outflow of foreign capital from U.S. in July

Uncle Sam taps piggy bank, borrows to aid market

Flight to quality may break more money funds

Centennial group analyzes gold's performance in crisis

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Market votes no confidence in Fed

Goldman Sachs may have to merge or divest assets -- starting with U.S. Government

SEC bans naked shorting for all securities

The Statistics:

As of close of business: 9/17/2008

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]

Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: SPDR added 36.46 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:

Andover’s (AOX.V) plans to acquire SNS Silver (SNS.V), Pacific Rim’s (PMU) cutbacks, Keegan’s (KGN) drill results, MAG Silver’s (MVG) assay results, Alexco’s (AXU) drill results, and Aquiline’s (AQI.TO) drill 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:

Tri-Valley Subsidiary Readies Two Big Gold Projects for Next Stage Exploration - More
- September 18, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Klondex Grants Incentive Options - More
- September 18, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Nyah Resources Discovers New Step-Out Zones and Provides Exploration Update on the Agnew Lake Uranium Properties - More
- September 18, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Copper Mountain Commences Trading on the TSX Exchange - More
- September 18, 2008 | Item | E-mail

GoldSpring to Hold Investor Day on October 11th at Its Comstock Property - More
- September 18, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Sherwood Sets Shareholder Meeting Date for Capstone Combination - More
- September 18, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Lund Gold Ltd. and Noront Resources Ltd.: Drilling Planned on Lund Property, Ontario - More
- September 18, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Infinito Awards Project Financing Mandate to BNP Paribas - More
- September 18, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Houston Lake Mining Continues to Define More Gold Mineralization at West Cedartree - More
- September 18, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Pacific Rim Mining Announces Head Office Cutbacks - "Pacific Rim Mining Corp. (Toronto:PMU.TO - News)(PMU - News) ("Pacific Rim" or "the Company") has made additional cuts to its overhead by significantly reducing staffing levels in the Vancouver office including Peter Neilans, COO and April Hashimoto, CFO. These cuts are a response to difficult market conditions and ongoing delays in obtaining environmental and mining permits for the El Dorado project." More