-- Posted Friday, 5 April 2013 | | Disqus

The Metals:

Gold edged down to $1549.10 in Asia, but it then soared to as high as $1581.10 in New York and ended with a gain of 1.67%.  Silver surged to as high as $27.35 and ended with a gain of 1.56%.

Euro gold climbed back above €1212, platinum gained $12.05 to $1530.75, and copper fell a couple of cents to about $3.34.

Gold and silver equities saw decent gains at the open, but they then fell to see about 1% losses by late morning and remained near that level for the rest of the day.

The Economy:

The BLS net birth/death adjustment added 92,000 payrolls to March’s data. Private Payrolls rose 95,000.

All of this week’s other economic reports:

Next week’s economic highlights include Wholesale Inventories on Tuesday, the Treasury Budget and FOMC Minutes on Wednesday, Initial Jobless Claims and Export and Import Prices on Thursday, and Retail Sales, PPI, Michigan Sentiment, and Business Inventories on Friday.

The Markets:

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

Oil fell along with the U.S. dollar index while treasuries rose and the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P dropped on today’s worse than expected jobs data.

Among the big names making news in the market Friday were Samsung, HP, Dell, and Wal-Mart.

The Commentary:

“It what has to be one of most miserable jobs numbers in some time, we learned today that the number of Americans who are involved in the Labor Force has now shrunk to levels not seen since 1979! Think about this for a minute - we are talking 34 year lows!

Yesterday we were greeted with the news that the US poverty rate is now back at levels last seen in the 1960's! Remember when Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty in this nation. Well, it looks like under the Obama administration, the US just lost that war.

We had a market looking for an increase in hirings somewhere in the vicinity of 200,000. Instead we got a paltry 88,000 and one has to wonder how many of those are due to the birth/death model.

Taken together, any idea of a premature end to QE3 and QE4 is certainly off the table based on this recent series of data.

While not trying to make light of the number of our fellow citizens who have completely given up on finding decent employment or have been forced into taking part time work to attempt to make ends meet, I was struck with a story appearing on the Drudge Report this AM detailing an increase in theft of maple syrup up in the state of Maine. It seems like you can get $50/gallon at the retail for this stuff. Maybe some of the unemployed have decided to go into the maple syrup business. They sure as hell cannot find work in this nation.

http://www.myfoxny.com/story/21876578/sticky-fingered-thieves-target-sap-in-maine

It looks as if the bullish euphoria, a euphoria which I have been mocking and will continue to do so, is finally wearing off of the equity bulls. WE noted this week on the S&P 500 chart a "just miss" on a Bearish downside reversal pattern. After we got news about the Bank of Japan's "all-in" on the liquidity front, the force of the reversal was lessened as risk was back in vogue. Today, that reversal pattern is seeing some further downside confirmation. The day is yet young but the S&P 500 stands a good chance of putting in a WEEKLY DOWNSIDE REVERSAL PATTERN. We have not seen one of these on the S&P 500 chart for a long time (since May 2011). If the market does not stage one of those late-in-the-session miraculous recoveries, it could very well portend that this overbought, overextended stock market is going to finally see a deeper and more protracted retracement in price.

I want to add here that in the battle between Dr. Copper and the broader US equity markets, it appears as if Dr. Copper is being vindicated. The base metals, the grains, some of the softs as well as the broader Continuous Commodity Index were all sinking while the equity world was in its own little La-La land and soaring ever higher into the clouds. Both of these cannot be right. It looks as if those concerned about slowing global growth and deflationary pressures are being vindicated although cackling before laying an egg is not a good idea. Let's see where the dust settles today before getting too dogmatic.

Something else to note here - normally in the past, on a day like this in which risk is being taken off as indicated by soaring bond prices, the US Dollar and the Yen are the recipients of safe haven flows. The Dollar is moving lower today as the Euro and the Pound are seeing inflows while the Yen is dropping sharply on the heels of the policy change by the Bank of Japan.

Just when you think you have the drill figured out, the rules of the game change. Now we will need to see how to interpret all of this in the days and weeks ahead. Is this a temporary aberration or the start of yet another new trend. It is hard to believe that anyone would consider the Euro a safe haven given the recent events over there. What does that tell you about the mess in the currency markets? This is gold's moment to shine if there ever was one. It had better not disappoint.

At least it is not disappointing in terms of the Yen. Take one look at the following chart and you can see how the Japanese public is seeing their currency debauched. Given this, why anyone would want to own Japanese government bonds outside of the Bank of Japan, I will never understand. When you are getting 0.5% on money for TEN YEARS and the underlying currency is collapsing, you would have to require a frontal lobotomy if you put any money into those things.”- Dan Norcini, More at http://www.traderdannorcini.blogspot.com/

“Note – I said earlier this week that most markets are likely to be influenced going forward for several days or weeks by the employment number that has just been released this morning. While it’s quite early in the day, I do believe that assessment shall be proven correct.

For the second month in a row, I tuned in to TOUT-TV to see the discussion just prior to, and after, the release of the employment numbers. Last month, the panel (which is always made up of mostly members of the “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” crowd and the lone “sane” mind of Rick Santelli) was hi-fiving themselves and announcing happy days were here again. The four-star General of the bunch, Steve Lies-man (as in he lies man) did all he could as usual to knock Santelli down.

Right after the release the panel went into spin-mode and of course the one sane voice of reason (Mr. Santelli), was attacked at the end by Lies-man. The number sucked-period! Despite the trillions of dollars being created out of thin-air, despite all the rhetoric out of the Obama administration, and of course the “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” crowd on Wall Street (and much of the lap-dog media that follows it), the fact is Wall Street has benefited but Main Street hasn’t. And this has once again set us up for another crisis, only this time it shall last longer and be more severe.

U.S. Stock Market – I said we would see the rally into new highs continue for a relative short period but to use it as a period to greatly lower (not expand) exposure to general equities. Because the FED has painted itself into a corner, I continue to state its hogwash when you hear the b.s. about ending QE whatever #. Because of this, the stock market can stayed supported as the spin doctors convince the public and themselves that the FED has more silver bullets. In the long run, the David Stockman’s of the world will be proven right and the Steve Lies-man wrong, wrong, wrong.

U.S. Dollar – Europe remains in crisis mode, the Japanese throw the kitchen sink at their man mouth economic woes and up until the employment number it look like the U.S. Dollar was the king currency by default. But wait a minute, maybe the Goldilocks’ scenario being spewed by the PR machine of Wall Street has a hiccup to deal with now?

The way the Japanese bond market traded Friday strongly suggests we’re in for a ride in the coming days in regards to Japan. This shall obviously impact the currency market as well so a “leave-alone” approach for now is wise.

U.S. Bonds – It’s a little bit frustrating to not yet see the inevitable sell-off but with all that FED money sloshing around financial institutions, it has to go somewhere and bonds continue to be the place… for now.

Gold – For far too long, members of the Crimenex have said this to us few remaining gold bulls. And while they have seemingly pulled out all the stops (literally), gold has managed up until today to bend but not break. In the meantime, sentiment has become extremely negative and the hedge fund community (and much of the financial media that lives off it) has piled into the short camp.

Today’s number was supportive for us few true gold bulls but until we close above $1,620, we’re still on the defensive. Here’s to a buffet of bear meat by the Memorial Day celebration (if not before).

Mining and Exploration Shares – Every time one even tries to think the worse is over… POW! But this week felt like real big-time capitulation. Badly beaten, I can’t afford (literally) to stick my head out of the foxhole yet but I suspect I can once we get above that $1,620 gold price.”- Peter Grandich, Grandich Letter

GATA Posts:

The gold price was $35 for years -- and suddenly there was no market at all

The Statistics:

Activity from: 4/4/2013

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: 210.68: -0.60 change from yesterday’s data.

Silver Trust (SLV) Total Tonnes in Trust: 10,677.89: No change from yesterday’s data.

The Miners:

Kinross Gold’s (KGC) investment in Revolution Resources and Huldra Silver’s (HDA.V) commercial production achievement were among the big stories in the gold and silver mining industry making headlines Friday.

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.goldreview.com 

© Gold Seeker 2013

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-- Posted Friday, 5 April 2013 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com

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