The Metals:

Gold rose $9.90 to $1328.50 in holiday thinned trade yesterday before it dropped back to $1312.72 by a little after 5AM EST today, but it then rebounded to as high as $1324.91 in early afternoon New York trade and ended with a gain of 0.26% from Friday.  Silver slipped to as low as $21.331 this morning, but it then climbed to as high as $21.966 and ended with a gain of 2.38% from Friday.

Euro gold fell to about €961, platinum lost $5 to $1419, and copper remained at about $3.26.

Gold and silver equities traded mostly slightly higher and ended with modest gains.

The Economy:

Household Borrowing Rises Most in Six Years in NY Fed Survey Bloomberg

Tomorrow brings Housing Starts, Building Permits, PPI, and FOMC Minutes.

The Markets:

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

Oil rose on worries about adequate supplies while the U.S. dollar index fell on poor economic data that sent treasuries higher.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P waffled near unchanged as poor economic data was offset by mostly positive company news.

Among the big names making news in the market today were Actavis and Forest Labs, Clayton Dubilier, King, Coca-Cola, and AT&T.

The Commentary:

“There continues to be both strong short covering and fresh buying occurring across the broad commodity sector this AM. The reason? Stronger than expected data out of China.

Last week it was data revealing a surge in both imports and exports. Today it was the larger than expected foreign direct investment numbers.

This is the reason that silver continues to outperform gold to the upside for now. It is also the reason that the overall commodity sector continues to march higher. Shorts are getting squeezed out across the board.

Crude oil is now trading above $101/barrel, the highest level since October 2013. Gasoline is closing in on its best level since late December. So much for the relief we were enjoying at the gas pump. That went back up in smoke. I always have mixed views on surging energy prices because while they tend to support the "buy commodity" theme, they also act as a drag on economic growth especially in today's environment in which the US consumer is so cash-strapped and with such stagnant wages.

Soybeans continue their charge higher with wheat and even corn moving up. Cotton prices are firm and coffee is flying higher while even the laggard sugar is higher today.

In short it is very difficult, if not downright impossible, to find any commodity market in the red today. That is what China does when it is in the news in any sort of positive way. Take a look at the "China Effect" on the chart.

Thus far the fallout from the emerging markets issues has been superseded by this upbeat news out of China; however, China has its own set of issues so one has to carefully monitor the data coming out of that nation.

It will be interesting to see how many of these individual commodity markets settle for the day. As can be expected in seeing this sort of thing, the US Dollar just cannot seem to find a friend just yet. It is flirting dangerously with some strong chart support just below the worst level of the day. It is either do or die time for the greenback or it risks falling all the way to the 79 level basis the USDX.

Thus far the gold shares are lagging. Perhaps they will catch a late bid.

Gold ran into a bout of selling last evening as it traded near $1330. The failed attempt to charge higher through resistance brought about a round of profit taking. The dip lower in price however was bought (it seemed to coincide with the China news however).”- Dan Norcini, More at http://www.traderdannorcini.blogspot.com/

GATA Posts:

Ted Butler: What really happened to Bear Stearns?

The Statistics:

Activity from: 2/14/2014

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]

Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: SPDR subtracted 5.097 tonnes.

COMEX Gold Trust (IAU) Total Tonnes in Trust: 163.63: No change from yesterday’s data.

Silver Trust (SLV) Total Tonnes in Trust: 10,030.84: -59.84 change from yesterday’s data.

The Miners:

Newmont’s (NEM) completion of the previously announced redemption of all of its outstanding exchangeable shares, Nevsun’s (NSU) mineral resource estimates, Coeur’s (CDE) proven and probable mineral reserve increases, Fortuna’s (FSM) updated Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resource estimates, and Impact’s (IPT.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.

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 2014

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