-- Posted Thursday, 23 August 2012 | | Disqus

The Metals:

Gold climbed $12.51 to $1666.91 in Asia before it fell back to $1656.90 by a little before 8AM EST, but it then rose to as high as $1674.78 in late morning New York trade and ended with a gain of 0.88%.  Silver surged to as high as $30.81 and ended with a gain of 2.28%.

Euro gold rose to about €1329, platinum gained $ to $1533.50, and copper gained a few cents to about $3.50.

Gold and silver equities saw about 1% gains for most of the morning, but they then fell back off in afternoon trade and ended with only slight gains.

The Economy:

Fed’s Bullard Says FOMC Minutes ‘Stale,’ Economy Stronger Bloomberg

Tomorrow at 8:30AM EST brings Durable Goods Orders for July expected at 2.5%.  Excluding transportation, orders are expected at 0.6%.

The Markets:

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

The U.S. dollar index fell as the euro rose on “on a report that Spain is negotiating with the euro zone over conditions for international aid.”

Treasuries rose as oil and the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P fell on concern over Europe and dampened expectations about whether or not the fed will announce a new round of stimulus.

“Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said the Federal Open Market Committee minutes released yesterday are no longer as relevant because the U.S. economy has picked up in the past month.

“The minutes are a bit stale,” Bullard said in a CNBC interview. “We have some data since then that is stronger.”

Bullard said he opposes a new asset-purchase program right now. In contrast, many Fed policy makers said additional stimulus would probably be needed soon unless the economy shows signs of a durable pickup, according to minutes of their most recent meeting released yesterday.”

Among the big names making news in the market today were Groupon, Hewlett-Packard, Citigroup, and Boeing.

The Commentary:

“The following weekly chart provides a bit of longer term perspective as it shows the very solid level of buying support that has marked an accumulation phase by some very large players down below the $1585 - $1565 level. That buying has forged a bottom in this market while it slowly gathered steam for an upside breakout that forced the hands of the speculative shorts and enticed momentum based money flows back onto the long side of the market.

There are two main points to bring away from this chart. The first is that gold has managed to clear a downsloping trend line going back to the its all-time peak (in non-inflation adjusted terms). It will tremendously aid the bullish cause should this market close above that line and especially above the $1665 level to end this week.

The second is to note how the market has been recently marching higher along the bottom tine of the pitchfork managing to close each week ABOVE this line since its spring low. This series of higher lows is indicative of a market that is seeing DEMAND arise at a progressively higher price level. That in itself is friendly.

If this market can clear psychological round number resistance at $1700, I expect it to make a fairly rapid run to the $1788 - $1800 level. The reason? Because the move will be starting from a relatively low level of speculative players on the long side in this market.

Remember Open interest has bled out of this market to the extent of over 400K contracts since its peak last year in August. That is an astonishing washout in a year's time! Speculators took their money and headed elsewhere looking for gains. If this market looks as if it is going to begin another trending move to the upside, those funds that were leaving in droves, will be returning in droves to try to capture the move higher and capitalize.

Look at the following chart of the OUTRIGHT LONG positions (Not NET LONGS) of the big managed money/hedge fund community in gold. Since peaking close to 260K contracts near the all-time high in gold last year, it has dropped over 50% to the present time. As stated many times over the past few months - the hedge fund community lost interest in gold as it was not trending. They went elsewhere looking for opportunities and found them to a great extent in the grains.

However, this camp LOVES trending markets with lots of momentum, which is why gold will move sharply higher if the algorithms remain solidly on the buy side. That will see the following chart detail a rather abrupt turn higher with the line rising instead of falling. So much of course depends on the actions of the Central Banks but the markets seem to be more and more convinced that the next "PROBLEM" it is going to have to deal with is becoming one of inflation and rising prices rather than deflation and falling prices, thanks mainly to the accommodative monetary policies that many are now expecting to be forthcoming from all corners of the globe.”- Dan Norcini, More at http://www.traderdannorcini.blogspot.com/

GATA Posts:

Public pension funds lead 'London whale' class action against JPMorgan

Egon von Greyerz: Gold and silver off to the races

The Statistics:

As of close of business: 8/22/2012

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]

Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: SPDR added 3.016 tonnes.

COMEX Gold Trust (IAU) Total Tonnes in Trust: 185.33: No change from yesterday’s data.

Silver Trust (SLV) Total Tonnes in Trust: 9,784.63: +51.24 change from yesterday’s data.

The Miners:

Claude’s (CGR) new Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Timberline’s (TLR) drill results, Brigus Gold’s (BRD) drill results, Randgold’s (GOLD) political progress in Mali, Gold Fields’ (GFI) second quarter results, Solitario’s (XPL) drill results, and MAG Silver’s (MVG) private placement 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.

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

- Chris Mullen, Gold Seeker Report

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

© Gold Seeker 2012

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-- Posted Thursday, 23 August 2012 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com

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