Gold and silver equities climbed over 3.5% higher at the open and remained near that level for the rest of the day.

Russia Boosted Gold Holdings to 28.1 Million Ounces Bloomberg

The Economy:

Republicans May Force Impasse Over Payroll Tax Bloomberg

Congress moves toward standoff over payroll tax Yahoo

Tomorrow at 10AM EST brings Existing Home Sales for November expected at 5,030,000.

The Markets:

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

Oil rose on increased demand expectations after better than expected economic data in both Europe and the U.S.

The U.S. dollar index fell as the euro rose on strong German business sentiment and falling borrowing costs in Spain.

Treasuries fell as the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P rose about 3% on strong housing data and relief over Europe.  Today’s $35 billion 5-year note auction sold at a high yield of 0.88% with a bid to cover of 2.86.

Among the big names making news in the market Friday were Olympus, Deutsche Telekom, Apple, Jefferies, AT&T, and Navistar.

The Commentary:

“While Gold has had a nice recovery off the recent lows and managed to climb back above the psychological resistance level of $1600, it is nowhere near out of the woods as of yet until it can AT THE MINIMUM push back above the resistance level noted in blue on the chart. That comes in near $1625. Technicians will be watching to see if it could then muster enough buying to take it above $1650. There are a fair number of buy stops located above there which market bulls would love to set off. Whether or not gold could reach them is as of yet unclear.

For now the technicals are bearish so many will be looking at rallies as selling opportunities whether for unloading stale and/or underwater long positions or to initiate new short positions.

Bulls are attempting to hold the line here but they have more work to do.”- Dan Norcini, More at http://www.traderdannorcini.blogspot.com/

GATA Posts:

Brett Arends: Will the Europeans have to sell their gold?

Gold advocate Peter Grandich to be interviewed on Fox biz TV Tuesday morning

James Turk: More deficits, more debt

Ted Butler: Don't stop complaining about shorting of SLV

Lots of gold and silver went missing at MF Global

Zero Hedge: Did GLD and other gold ETFs kill gold stocks?

New Thunder Road Report denounces market intervention, cites GATA

The Statistics:

Activity from: 12/19/2011

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]

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

COMEX Gold Trust (IAU) Total Tonnes in Trust: 172.37: No change from yesterday’s data.

Silver Trust (SLV) Total Tonnes in Trust: 9,698.04: -45.37 change from yesterday’s data.

The Miners:

Claude’s (CGR) resignation, ITH’s (THM) new Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel, Richmont’s (RIC) resource estimates, Minefinders’ (MFN) retired convertible notes, and Oremex’s (OAG.V) acquired concessions were among the big stories in the gold and silver mining industry making headlines today.

WINNERS

LOSER

Winners & Losers tracks NYSE and AMEX listed gold and silver mining stocks that trade over $1.

Please see Yahoo’s Mining/Metals News Wire for all of today’s mining news.

- Chris Mullen, Gold Seeker Report

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Additional Resources for today’s Gold Seeker Report can be found:

• http://www.capitalupdates.com
• http://www.goldseek.com
• http://www.silverseek.com
• http://www.goldreview.com 

© Gold Seeker 2011

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-- Posted Tuesday, 20 December 2011 | Digg This Article