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-- Posted Thursday, 6 November 2008 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com

The Metals:

Gold and silver traded slightly lower in Asia and London before the rose sharply at the New York open and climbed to as high as $759.55 and $10.78 by about 9AM EST, but they then fell back off in late morning trade and ended not far from their lows of $728.35 and $9.88 with losses of 1.25% and 3.44%.

Euro gold fell to about €576, platinum lost $28 to $835, and copper fell nearly 10 cents to about $1.72.

Gold and silver equities rose over 3% at the open, but they then fell back off for most of the rest of trade and ended with about 9% losses.

The Economy:

“The Labor Department reported Thursday that the number of people continuing to draw unemployment benefits jumped by 122,000 to 3.84 million in late October, well above analysts' estimates of 3.74 million.”

Tomorrow at 8:30AM EST brings October’s jobs data.  Nonfarm Payrolls are expected at -200,000, the Unemployment Rate is expected at 6.3%, Hourly Earnings are expected at 0.2%, and the Average Workweek is expected at 33.6.  At 10AM are Pending Home Sales for September expected at -3.4% and Wholesale Inventories for September expected at 0.3% and at 3PM is Consumer Credit for September expected at $0.0 billion.

The Markets:

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

Oil fell to the lowest since March 21, 2007 on more economic and demand worries while the U.S. dollar index rose as the Bank of England cut by a larger than expected 150 basis points or 1.5% to 3% and the European Central Bank cut by 50 basis points to 3.25%. 

Treasuries rose only slightly as concerns over pending supply battled safe haven buying from the fact that the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P plummeted again on worries over the health of the economy.  After over 5% losses yesterday, the three indices suffered losses of roughly 5% more today.

Among the big names making news in the market today were OfficeMax, Toyota, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Macy’s, Target, Gap, Wal-Mart, Blackstone, AIG, and Dana.

The Commentary:

“December Gold closed down 10.2 at 732.2. This was 2.2 up from the low and 25.8 off the high.

December Silver finished down 0.4 at 10.055, 0.645 off the high and 0.085 up from the low.

Initially the gold bulls thought they had control as the very aggressive international rate cut moves briefly rekindled inflationary expectations or perhaps for a couple of seconds even hopes of growth. In the end, the deflationary crowd seemed to regain control which wasn't all that surprising in the face of a sharp upward thrust in the Dollar and a serious downshift in the stock market. In fact, with the energy complex and a host of physical commodity markets falling sharply the downdraft spillover seemed to be in almost every market.

While some silver players hoped that silver might hold up better than gold, the interest or lack of interest in the silver/gold or gold/silver spreads was apparently a secondary factor in the face of renewed deflationary fears. Clearly seeing the Dollar strengthen and seeing both copper and platinum prices under pressure meant that silver was seeing negative influences from a number of different directions.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

GATA Posts:

Big interest rate cuts in Britain and Europe

Lance Lewis: Mother of all short squeezes for gold?

The Statistics:

As of close of business: 11/05/2008

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: No change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data.

The Stocks:

Venezuela’s plan to offer a joint venture to Russian-owned miner Rusoro (RML.V) to operate the Las Cristinas and Brisas gold projects, Gammon Gold’s (GRS) drill results, Exeter’s (XRA) drill results, IAMGOLD’s (IAG), Aurizon’s (AZK), and Randgold’s (GOLD) third quarter results, Excellon’s (EXN.TO) sealed water flow and shareholder rights plan, Fortuna’s (FVI.V) stock options, Scorpio’s (SPM.TO) drill results, and Arian Silver’s (AGQ.V) 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:

Ontex Resources Appoints Vice President, Investor Relations & Value Strategies - More
- November 06, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Sage Gold Inc.-Drilling Update: Gold Hill Project-Arizona - More
- November 06, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Baja Mining to Host Conference Call for Investors - More
- November 06, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Sunergy Announces Acquisition of 150 Sq. Km. Mining Interest in Ghana, West Africa - More
- November 06, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Excellon Seals Water Inflow at Platosa - "Excellon Resources Inc. (Toronto:EXN.TO - News) is pleased to announce that it has successfully sealed the water inflow encountered during normal mine development on October 4th. The dewatering of the mine to active working area is expected to take several days, following which, mine production and development will resume. The Company has ore stockpiled within the mine, which when accessible will be available to deliver to the Penoles Naica mill almost immediately and regular shipping will resume shortly thereafter." More
- November 06, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Sage Gold Inc.: Exploration Update-Lynx Zone-Beardmore Geraldton Gold Camp - More
- November 06, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Venezuela to offer Russians Crystallex gold project - "Venezuela said it will offer a joint venture to Russian-owned miner Rusoro (RML.V: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to operate the Las Cristinas and Brisas gold projects, currently under contract to two Canadian companies, Mining minister Rodolfo Sanz on Thursday.

He told a Russian delegation that a memorandum of understanding would soon be signed with Rusoro." More
- November 06, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Golden Goose Resources reports its financial results for the third quarter of 2008 - More
- November 06, 2008 | Item | E-mail

United Reef Update on General Reef Investment - More
- November 06, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Gammon Gold Announces Further Positive Exploration Drilling Results and a Progress Update on the Scoping Study for the Guadalupe y Calvo Gold-Silver Project - "As of the end of October, the Company had completed 152 diamond drill holes, totaling 30,640 meters (61%) of the planned 50,000 meter drill program at the Guadalupe y Calvo project in Chihuahua State, Mexico. The Company has received assays for 95 of these 152 completed diamond drill holes. These results now show that there is a substantial volume of potentially underground-mineable vein mineralization that is locally, very high grade. Of the 95 drill holes for which assays are available, 49 (52%) had cut a minimum of 2 meter lengths grading a minimum of 3 g/t gold equivalent using a 50:1 gold to silver ratio." More
- November 06, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Avalon Takes Action on Corporate Social Responsibility - More
- November 06, 2008 | Item | E-mail