This week’s economic reports:

Next week’s economic highlights include New Home Sales on Monday, GDP, Consumer Confidence, and Existing Home Sales on Tuesday, Personal Income and Spending and the ISM Index on Wednesday, and Michigan Sentiment and ISM Services on Friday.

Cot Reports: Gold | Silver 

Gold started off lower in Asia, but it soon rose above $550 and held slightly higher in London before it gained throughout trade in New York and ended near its highs with a 1.75% gain.  Silver remained near unchanged in Asia before spending most of trade in London and New York around 1% higher, but it then spiked higher in the last few minutes of trade and ended with a 2.32% gain.

Gold and silver equities rose throughout trade and ended at their highs of the session with about 2.5% gains.

Euro gold rose to €470, platinum gained $16 to $1,027, palladium gained $1 to $284, and copper made slight gains above $2.20.

More Precious Metals Analysis:

“The precious metals markets came alive in the wake of the Saudi oil attacks and certainly the reaction was justified. In fact, considering the extreme economic condition that could result from an attack on the world’s largest oil producer, one can hardly underestimate reactions in the financial markets. For the gold bulls the move came at a critical junction as gold and silver prices have been vulnerable to periodic selling for the last month. We might also note that gold saw a number of higher supply stories this week and that means that higher demand might be necessary just keep supply and demand conditions supportive.” - The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

The U.S. dollar index found slight gains on the outlook for further interest rate hikes by the fed.  The euro fell to new 8 week lows.

Oil traded higher overnight due to attacks in Nigeria and then surged about 4% in US trade after a suicide bomb attack in Saudi Arabia.

Treasuries gained early on an economically disappointing Durable Goods Orders report, but they then fell off to unchanged on the day as investors continue to trade on the belief that the fed will continue to raise interest rates.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P started off lower on the weaker than expected Durable Goods Orders report and on markedly higher oil, but all three indices were able to climb higher by the close of trade and ended mixed and near unchanged.

Among the big names making news in the market Friday were GlaxoSmithKline, Time Warner, Delta and Continental, Research In Motion, DP World, National Grid and KeySpan, and Gap.

Gold & Silver Stock News Update from GoldReview.com:

Glamis Gold’s bid for Western Silver, Aurizon’s completion of a $75 million debt facility, Metallica’s announcement of Falconbridge’s increased ownership in the company, Freeport’s mining operations on hold in Papua, Penoles’ earnings, Newmont’s dividend, Stillwater’s year-end results, and Northgate’s earnings were among the big stories in the gold and silver mining industry making headlines Friday.

WINNERS

LOSERS

All of Friday's gold and silver stock news:

Halo Completes Duport 43-101 Report - More
- February 24, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Mexico's Penoles 4th-qtr net profit jumps 37 pct - "Mexico's Penoles, the world's top silver producer, said on Friday its fourth-quarter net profit rose 37 percent, helped by high world silver prices. Penoles said its profit in the October through December period hit 555 million pesos ($52 million), and revenue rose 38 percent to 6.121 billion pesos." More
- February 24, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Verena Minerals Corporation: Press Release - More
- February 24, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Glamis diversifies with bid for Western Silver - "A year after Glamis Gold Ltd. lost its bid for Goldcorp Inc., the miner said on Friday it will buy Western Silver Corp. for C$1.2 billion ($1 billion), a move that will give it more gold and a serious position in silver. Glamis, known as a mid-tier gold producer with mines and projects in Nevada, Mexico and Central America, said each Western Silver shareholder will get 0.688 of a Glamis common share and one share in a new exploration and development company called ExploreCo." More
- February 24, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Newmont Declares Regular Quarterly Dividend - "The Board of Directors of Newmont Mining Corporation today declared a regular quarterly dividend of $0.10 per share, payable March 29, 2006 to holders of record at the close of business on March 8, 2006." More
- February 24, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Golden Goose Resources Inc.: Exercise of Warrants - More
- February 24, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Fairstar Re-Iterates Tax Treatment of the April 2005 Transaction With American Bonanza Gold Mining Corp. - More
- February 24, 2006 | Item | E-mail

First Preliminary Gold, Silver & Other Precious Metals Assay Report from XYZ Gold Mine Site of Pearl Asian Mining Industries, Inc. - More
- February 24, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Petaquilla Welcomes John Cook to its Board of Directors - More
- February 24, 2006 | Item | E-mail

New Sleeper Gold Corporation Announces its Results for the Third Quarter Ended December 31, 2005 - More
- February 24, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Palmarejo Silver and Gold Corporation Announces Its Results for the Second Quarter Ended December 31, 2005 - More
- February 24, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Olympus Receives Conditional Approval for TSX Listing - More
- February 24, 2006 | Item | E-mail

UC Resources Trenching and Sampling Expands Gold and Silver Zone at El Cometa-El Refugio-Potential for Major Expansion of Epithermal System at Copalquin, NW Dur - More
- February 24, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Expiration date extension of purchase warrant - More
- February 24, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Sherwood Appoints New Director to its Board; Proceeds to be used to Fund Development of Minto Project - More
- February 24, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Northern Shield Resources Mobilize Field-Crews to Highbank Lake. - More
- February 24, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Stillwater Mining Reports 2005 Fourth Quarter and Year-End Results - "For the fourth quarter of 2005, the Company reported a net loss of $2.9 million or $0.03 per diluted share, on revenue of $133.7 million, compared to net income of $3.4 million for the fourth quarter of 2004 or $0.04 per diluted share, on revenue of $118.1 million. The weaker 2005 fourth quarter reflected $5.6 million of increased depreciation and amortization expense attributable to the additional capital placed in service during 2005, and a previously disclosed $1.8 million loss on miscellaneous metals." More
- February 24, 2006 | Item | E-mail

European Minerals Corporation: Varvarinskoye Update - More
- February 24, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Wolfden to acquire Lupin Gold Mine from Kinross - More
- February 24, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Sutter Gold CEO Updates Shareholders - More
- February 24, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Palmarejo's Important Developments From Deep Drilling in Rosario Clavo - More
- February 24, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Metanor Resources Inc./Acquisition of Claims: Expansion of the Wahnapitei Property, Sudbury - More
- February 24, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Clarification of Preliminary Gold, Silver & Other Precious Metals Assay Report From XYZ Gold Mine Site of Pearl Asian Mining Industries, Inc. - More
- February 24, 2006 | Item | E-mail

China Diamond Corp. Updates Halt Trading Status of the Company's Securities - More
- February 24, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Consolidated Abaddon Announces Vice President of Exploration - More
- February 24, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Aurogin Completes 43-101 Report on Lupita & Bridge Zones - More
- February 24, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Clifton Mining Company Inc. - Core drilling begins on potential porphyry - More
- February 24, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Aurizon Reports $75 Million Debt Facility Completed - "The loan facility has a 4.5 year term, with an initial interest rate of prime plus 1.25%, reducing to prime plus 0.875% upon the project achieving commercial production and meeting certain operating benchmarks. A standby fee of 0.75% will be charged on any un-drawn portion of the facility. The loan may be repaid at any time without penalty. Any un-drawn portion of the facility, up to a maximum of $7.5 million, may be converted to a revolving credit facility." More
- February 24, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Metallica Resources Announces Falconbridge Increases its Ownership in the Company - "Metallica Resources Inc. announces that Falconbridge Limited has filed a Schedule 13G with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission stating that, as of December 31, 2005, it owned 8.21 million shares or approximately 9.9% of the outstanding common shares of Metallica Resources. U.S. securities law requires that if a person or entity beneficially owns 5% or more of the common stock of an SEC registrant, it must publicly disclose its ownership interest, whereas similar disclosure must be filed in Canada once the ownership in a company is 10% or more." More
- February 24, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Glamis to Acquire Western Silver - "Under the plan of arrangement, each Western Silver shareholder will receive 0.688 of a Glamis common share and one share in a new exploration and development company for each issued Western Silver share. Western Silver will transfer to ExploreCo approximately C$38 million in cash, its interest in the Carmacks Copper Project in the Yukon and an early-stage exploration project in Mexico." More
- February 24, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Freeport Papua mining still on hold, army involved - "Operations at a huge U.S.-owned mine in Indonesia's remote Papua province remained suspended for a third day on Friday as the government put the military in charge of security there. The Grasberg mine, owned by a unit of U.S. firm Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. that is Indonesia's biggest taxpayer, is believed to have the world's third-largest copper reserves and one of the biggest gold deposits." More
- February 24, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Western Silver to be Acquired By Glamis - "Under the plan of arrangement, each Western Silver shareholder will receive 0.688 of a Glamis common share and one share in a new exploration and development company for each issued Western Silver share. Western Silver will transfer to ExploreCo approximately C$38 million in cash, its interest in the Carmacks Copper Project in the Yukon and an early-stage exploration project in Mexico." More
- February 24, 2006 | Item | E-mail

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- Written by Chris Mullen

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

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