-- Posted Friday, 27 April 2012 | | Disqus
| Close | Gain/Loss | On Week |
Gold | $1662.30 | +$4.70 | +1.24% |
Silver | $31.28 | +$0.19 | -1.17% |
XAU | 165.81 | +1.36% | +1.03% |
HUI | 449.46 | +1.45% | +1.71% |
GDM | 1295.27 | +1.25% | +1.46% |
JSE Gold | 2287.26 | +77.44 | +3.85% |
USD | 78.79 | -0.14 | -0.51% |
Euro | 132.37 | +0.30 | +0.17% |
Yen | 124.45 | +1.03 | +1.46% |
Oil | $104.93 | +$0.38 | +1.82% |
10-Year | 1.933% | -0.026 | -1.88% |
Bond | 142.71875 | +0.4375 | +0.53% |
Dow | 13228.31 | +0.18% | +1.53% |
Nasdaq | 3069.20 | +0.61% | +2.29% |
S&P | 1403.36 | +0.24% | +1.80% |
The Metals:
Gold fell $7.13 to $1650.47 in Asia before it shot up to $1667.30 in New York and then pared its gains a bit in the last few hours of trade, but it still ended with a gain of 0.28%. Silver surged to as high as $31.435 and ended with a gain of 0.61%.
Euro gold rose to over €1255, platinum gained $2.30 to $1565.80, and copper gained another 6 cents to about $3.83.
Gold and silver equities rose a little over 1% at the open and remained near that level for the rest of the day.
The Economy:
Report | For | Reading | Expected | Previous |
GDP | Q1 | 2.2% | 2.5% | 3.0% |
Chain Deflator | Q1 | 1.5% | 2.2% | 0.9% |
Employment Cost Index | Q1 | 0.4% | 0.5% | 0.4% |
Michigan Sentiment | Apr | 76.4 | 75.7 | 75.7 |
All of this week’s other economic reports:
Next week’s economic highlights include Core PCE Prices, Personal Income and Spending, and Chicago PMI on Monday, the ISM Index and Construction Pending on Tuesday, ADP Employment and Factory Orders on Wednesday, Initial Jobless Claims, Productivity, Unit Labor Costs, and ISM Services on Thursday, and April’s jobs data on Friday.
The Markets:
Charts Courtesy of http://finance.yahoo.com/
Oil ended slightly higher and the U.S. dollar index fell as the yen rose after the Bank of Japan increased bond buying by a relatively meager 10 trillion yen, a move seen as rather incremental compared to possible future measures taken by the fed.
Treasuries climbed higher on this morning’s worse than expected GDP report that raised the possibility of another round of quantitative easing from the fed.
The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P rose on better than expected earnings reports.
Among the big names making news in the market Friday were Procter & Gamble, Ford, Amazon, Chevron, Merck, Chesapeake, and Lazard.
The Commentary:
“This morning's big news item was the fact that US Q1 GDP growth came in at 2.2%, well under expectations of 2.6% growth predicted by analysts and well down from Q4 2011 growth of 3.0%. Under "normal" circumstances, such a number would have been expected to put downward pressure on the bellwether copper market. 'Twas not the case however as copper shot up on the news bursting through the 50 day moving average in the process. What gives? Simple - we are now in an environment in which the more bad news we get, the more optimistic traders are becoming that the next round of QE is coming right up.
That is what gold began sniffing out in yesterday's session and appears to be continuing today. We have been accustomed to seeing these rotten numbers generate the risk aversion trades, trades in which commodities in general are dumped and the Dollar is bid higher. We are now seeing a change in trader perceptions, which after all is what runs markets, in which the steady trickle of news showing a deteriorating growth pattern in the US is being met with increased expectations for QE sooner rather than later.
In other words, it is QE ON instead of RISK OFF.
As long as this perception continues, gold is going to move higher. The trick is just how bad do traders think the news has to get before it forces the hands of the Fed.
I think it should be noted here that we also have politics at play as far as the Fed is concerned. Governor Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee for President, has made it clear that he is not a big fan of Chairman Bernanke. Bernanke serves at the pleasure of the current President Obama. If Obama loses the upcoming election, Bernanke is OUT AND HE KNOWS IT. Now, maybe he no longer wants to play MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE, but methinks very few men are able to gladly relinquish such power. My guess is that he is going to make sure that if his boss goes down in flames at the next election, at least it will not be on Bernanke's account for not acting to keep the markets from sinking lower.
Bernanke has also kept the door open for additional QE but coyly suggests that the time is not just yet. In other words, he is keeping his options open but does not want to get too assertive about it precisely because of what we are now seeing occur in some of the commodity markets such as copper. If traders become CONVINCED (they are not there yet but leaning in that direction now more heavily) that Bernanke is going to pull the trigger on the next round of QE, they will bid the price of essential commodities higher so quickly that if you snooze you will miss it! The Fed Chairman is trying to keep that from happening, particularly with energy prices. He already has a problem with the grain markets, particularly soybeans; the last thing he needs is for crude oil to take off to the upside because the hedge funds go giddy on him.
Remember that the Fed's game has been to talk up the stock market but try to talk down the commodity markets. There are only TWO MARKETS that the Fed wants to see going up - EQUITIES AND BONDS. They want everything else going down, including the Dollar, if they can accomplish that.
This brings us back to gold - it continues to exhibit strength but has not yet cleared the single major hurdle preventing it from tearing higher, namely that stubborn $1680 level. It is creeping closer to this barrier but has not yet managed to test it. Perhaps that will come next week. We will see. One thing is for sure. All of the usual suspects who were so giddy and so presumptuous to declare the bull market in gold is over, are going to look like buffoons if Bernanke and company indeed pull the trigger and fire off another round of QE.
Besides, with China buying oil from Iran and paying for it in gold, as my pal Jim Sinclair has so brilliantly noted, the game has changed as the Western powers are being served notice. One wonders if they even get the message.”- Dan Norcini, More at http://www.traderdannorcini.blogspot.com/
GATA Posts:
Catch Sinclair at CMRE dinner before he's off to Tanzania
Futures magazine interviews gold advocate Jim Sinclair
Reuters, Russia Today interview gold standard prophet John Butler
The Statistics:
Activity from: 4/26/2012
Gold Warehouse Stocks: | 10,999,980.345 | +6,999.73 |
Silver Warehouse Stocks: | 141,869,332.506 | +1,221,282.73 |
Global Gold ETF Holdings
[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]
| Product name | Total Tonnes | Total Ounces | Total Value |
New York Stock Exchange Arca (NYSE Arca) AND Singapore Exchange (SGX) AND Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) AND Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx) | SPDR® Gold Shares | awaited | awaited | US$awaited |
London Stock Exchange (LSE) AND NYSE Euronext Paris AND Borsa Italiana AND Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse (Deutsche Börse - Xetra) | Gold Bullion Securities | awaited | awaited | US$awaited |
London Stock Exchange (LSE) AND NYSE Euronext Paris AND Borsa Italiana AND Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse (Deutsche Börse - Xetra) AND NYSE Euronext Amsterdam | ETFS Physical Gold | awaited | awaited | US$awaited |
Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) | Gold Bullion Securities | awaited | awaited | US$awaited |
Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE) | New Gold Debentures | awaited | awaited | US$awaited |
Note: No change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data.
COMEX Gold Trust (IAU) Total Tonnes in Trust: 180.17: No change from yesterday’s data.
Silver Trust (SLV) Total Tonnes in Trust: 9,552.14: No change from yesterday’s data.
The Miners:
Agnico-Eagle’s (AEM) dividend, Randgold’s (GOLD) aid to North Mali, Tanzanian Royalty’s (TRX) drilling program, and IAMGOLD’s (IAG) acquisition of Trelawney (TRR.V) were among the big stories in the gold and silver mining industry making headlines Friday.
WINNERS
1. Agnico-Eagle | AEM+9.82% $39.36 |
2. Timmins | TGD +9.37% $2.45 |
3. Nevsun | NSU +4.75% $3.53 |
LOSERS
1. Mines MGMT | MGN -3.09% $1.57 |
2. Solitario | XPL -3.05% $1.27 |
3. Northern Dynasty | NAK -1.80% $5.45 |
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
- Would you like to receive the Free Daily Gold Seeker Report in your e-mail? Click here
Additional Resources for today’s Gold Seeker Report can be found:
© Gold Seeker 2012
Note: This article may be reproduced provided the article, in full, is used and mention to Gold-Seeker.com is given.
Disclosure: The owner, editor, writer and publisher and their associates are not responsible for errors or omissions. The author of this report is not a registered financial advisor. Readers should not view this material as offering investment related advice. Gold-Seeker.com has taken precautions to ensure accuracy of information provided. Information collected and presented are from what is perceived as reliable sources, but since the information source(s) are beyond Gold-Seeker.com’s control, no representation or guarantee is made that it is complete or accurate. The reader accepts information on the condition that errors or omissions shall not be made the basis for any claim, demand or cause for action. Past results are not necessarily indicative of future results. Any statements non-factual in nature constitute only current opinions, which are subject to change. Nothing contained herein constitutes a representation by the publisher, nor a solicitation for the purchase or sale of securities & therefore information, nor opinions expressed, shall be construed as a solicitation to buy or sell any stock, futures or options contract mentioned herein. Investors are advised to obtain the advice of a qualified financial & investment advisor before entering any financial transaction.
-- Posted Friday, 27 April 2012 | Digg This Article
| Source: GoldSeek.com
Gold Seeker Weekly Wrap-Up: Gold and Silver End Mixed on the Week
