Gold traded a couple dollars lower in Asia and fell near $585 in London before it rebounded to near unchanged by midmorning New York trade, but it then fell back off into the close and ended with a relatively small loss to fall from 25 year highs.  Silver traded mostly slightly lower in Asia and London and was able to find minor gains in mid-New York trade, but it also fell off into the close and ended slightly lower to fall from 22 year highs.

Euro gold fell under €480, platinum gained $5 to $1,072, palladium lost $2 to $337, and copper fell slightly from all-time highs but held above $2.50.

Gold and silver equities traded near unchanged Tuesday morning but rose throughout afternoon trade and ended with about 1% gains.

More Precious Metals Analysis:

“The gold market remained well below highs that were posted from Monday throughout the action on Tuesday. The market did manage to initially shake off a moderately bearish early posture and recover into mid session. However, the close was somewhat unimpressive and might now have some weak handed longs on edge. In fact, seeing the gold close sloppy, in the face of a sharp slide in the Dollar and in the face of a $700 per ounce Gold forecast from a key German Bank is moderate negative. Surprisingly a sharply lower US Dollar and talk of Chinese diversification away from US debt, failed to spark renewed buying interest in gold. In the end European and US gold market finishing soft and the market appears to positive momentum. One would have expected gold to see some support from the favorable US layoff figures for the month of March and from the fact that the US equity market managed to show some positive action on Tuesday afternoon. However, weak oil prices continue to discourage some would-be gold buyers, as that falling oil prices tend to dampen inflation and flight to quality expectations.

The silver market tried to lead the precious metals markets to higher levels with an early bid Tuesday above the prior day's highs but in the end the market was unable to finish higher. The close in silver on Tuesday was still above last week's high close, but below the contract high close of $11.77 from Monday. Some traders suggested that seeing the range on Tuesday, hold mostly above the 50% level of the prior session's range suggests that the chart bias remains bullish. Some traders suggested that the silver market was losing momentum and might slip into a profit taking posture. In the end, seeing equities recover and the Fed upbeat toward the US and world economies should favor the bull camp. We also think that profit taking weakness in the copper market on Tuesday indirectly undermined silver as the two markets have been tracking physical metals fundamentals in sync for the last two months.” - The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

Oil traded about 75 cents lower as traders prepared for inventory reports due out at 10:30AM EST tomorrow that are expected to show a 1 million barrel build in crude inventories and 1-2 million barrel drops in gasoline and distillate inventories.  Geopolitical and supply concerns in Nigeria, Iran, and Venezuela seemed to limit any major losses.

The U.S. dollar index fell markedly as the euro strengthened on talks of ECB rate hikes.  Several other factors that may currently just be classified as speculation may have also aided in today’s decline.  See today’s “My Two Ounces” for more.  The euro rose to 10 week highs and the dollar fell to 10 week lows.

Treasuries found slight gains early on, but they then fell off into the close as traders debated fed speak and prepared for Friday’s jobs report.  The yield on the 10-year fell slightly from 22 month highs.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P spent the morning near unchanged but all three indices were able to find decent gains in afternoon trade and ended with about 0.5% gains.

Among the big names making news in the market today were Boeing, Delta, Walgreen, Wal-Mart, Merck, CSC, Arcelor and Mittal, International Paper, Computer Sciences, Citigroup, and Microsoft.

GATA Posts:

Silver ETF could trigger price correction, analysts say

Peter Brimelow: Painting a 'perfect picture' for gold?

Chinese legislative leader urges end to buying of U.S. bonds

James Turk bids goodbye to M3 and the Fear Index

“My Two Ounces”

Things are really starting to shape up pretty badly for the U.S. Dollar.  While the dollar has been in bad shape for quite some time for reasons like record high trade and budget deficits, there have been a few recent events and rumors that have added to downward pressure on the dollar.  Not only are Europe and Asia beginning to raise their interest rates which enhance the value of their currencies, but the U.S. seems to be coming near an end to its own interest rate hiking schedule.  This interest rate advantage of the past few years seems to be one of only reasons that the dollar has held up at all.  Also, there have been rumors that the Bush administration is abandoning its “strong dollar policy.”  It seemed a year ago that about every other day there would be some kind of press release or comment from a member of the administration in support of the “strong dollar policy.”  If memory serves me correctly, we haven’t heard one of those sound bites in quite some time.  And not only that, but it seems that the captain of the strong dollar cheerleading team, Treasury Secretary John Snow, may be on his way out.  With new fed Chairman Ben Bernanke now in place and the announcement of a new White House chief of staff in Joshua Bolten, it may be the time for not only a new Treasury Secretary, but also a new dollar policy.  The dollar’s future path is likely down whether these events come to fruition or not, but that downward path may start to look more like a cliff should these rumors come true.  Gold and other precious metals have risen remarkably the past six months despite a strong or at least steady dollar.  One would think that given the historical inverse relationship between the dollar and gold that a sharp decline in the dollar will only help to accelerate the recent impressive gains in precious metals.

What are your two ounces?  Access our forum here or send your comments by email to cm@goldseek.com

Gold & Silver Stock News Update from GoldReview.com:

NovaGold’s litigation with Pioneer Metals, Almaden’s diamond project, Seabridge’s C$4 million financing, Geocom’s and Kinross Gold’s acceleration of the South Chile recon program, Ivanhoe’s future start-up of a Mongolian coal mine, and an article by The Street on Silver Wheaton were among the big stories in the gold and silver mining industry making headlines today.

WINNERS

LOSERS

All of today's gold and silver stock news:

Conquest's Drilling Intersects Visible Gold At King Bay - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Homeland Precious Metals Corp. Completes Compilation of Historic Data - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Rice Lake Mill Commences Commercial Operation - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Enterayon Executes Acquisition Agreement for Horseshoe Gold-Silver Claims - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Romios Announces Appointment of Investor Relations Consultant - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Acero-Martin Exploration Inc.: Montana de Cobre Gold Trenching Results - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

High River Gold Reports on Early Exercise of Warrants - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Pioneer Update on Grace Project Litigation with NovaGold - "Pioneer Metals Corporation wishes to update its shareholders as to the status of the legal action it began on October 17, 2005, against NovaGold Canada Inc. (formerly SpectrumGold Inc.), a wholly owned subsidiary of NovaGold Resources Inc. Pioneer has alleged, among other things, that NovaGold breached its duties in relation to an agreement dated March 26, 2004 between Pioneer and NovaGold." More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Almaden Minerals Ltd.: ATW Diamond Project Sonic Drill Program at MacKay Lake Cancelled Due to Road and Ice Conditions - "The sonic drill program on the MacKay Lake diamond prospect in the Northwest Territories has been cancelled due to poor ice conditions and the premature closing of the ice road. The drill was mobilized to the site along the winter road connecting Yellowknife to the Diavik and Ekati minesites on March 17 and drilling started shortly thereafter." More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Mediterranean Announces Services Agreement with Teck Cominco to Implement and Manage Exploration Program in Turkey Beginning in April - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Northland Resources Arranges Financing - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Silver Wheaton to Release First Quarter Results April 19, 2006 - "Silver Wheaton Corp. will release 2006 first quarter results on Wednesday, April 19, 2006 after market close. A conference call will be held Thursday, April 20, 2006 at 11:00 am (EDT) to discuss these results. You may join the call by dialing toll free 1-877-888-4605 or (416) 695-6622 for calls from outside of Canada and the US." More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Sterlite Gold announces management cease trade order and provides status update - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Private placement - Tom Exploration Inc. - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

ESO Uranium Doubles Mikwam Gold Claims - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Golden Odyssey Releases Second Quarter Financial Results - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Azimut and Everton Begin Ground Geophysics IP Survey Over 1.7-Km Gold Bearing Trend at Opinaca, James Bay, Quebec - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Fortune Minerals initiates NICO underground bulk sample program - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

New Gold Inc.: New Afton Project Additional Infill Drilling Results up to 1.34% Cu and 1.01 g/t Au over 236m - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Continuing positive phase two drilling results from Lemonga gold prospect - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

African Gold Group, Inc: $4,129,000 Closing Of Non-Brokered Private Placement - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Rocmec Announces Acceptance of Canadian Patent - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

MDN: First Drilling Programme in Eritrea - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Everton and Azimut Begin Ground Geophysics IP Survey Over the 1.7-km Long Gold Bearing Trend at Opinaca, James Bay, Quebec - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Silver mineralization to be explored on the FR property - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Garibaldi Resources Corp.: Investor Relations Agreement, Grant of Stock Options - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Argentex advances Pinguino silver-gold property, updates corporate activities - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Yorbeau Cuts 15.84 Grams Over 2.57 Meters - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

London Based Loeb Aron Initiates Coverage on SearchGold - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Golden Odyssey Raises $2.4 Million from Fully Subscribed Private Placement - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Stewart D. Redwood Appointed Technical Advisor to the Board - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Golden Tag Closes $1,225,000 Final Tranche for Total Private Placement of $1.725 Million - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Blue Note Files 43-101 Report on Caribou and Restigouche Mines - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Odyssey's Drilling Hits New Gold at Tavsan Property in Turkey - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Silver Dragon Resources Inc. Signs Strategic Cooperation Agreement with North China Geological Exploration Bureau - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Golconda Resources Ltd.: Drilling Update and Acquisition of New Property - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Alexis Minerals Listed in S&P's Market Access Program - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Galantas Gold Corporation: Notification of Exercise of Warrants and Berlin Stock Exchange Listing - More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Northgate Minerals Corporation: 2006 Annual General Meeting May 3, 2006 at 10:00 am 'ET' - "This meeting will be a live Webcast and management's AGM presentation package will be uploaded the morning of May 3 and posted on Northgate's web site at www.northgateminerals.com under Investor Information - Presentations page. Scheduled speakers for the Annual Meeting are Terry Lyons, Chairman, Ken Stowe, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Jon Douglas, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer." More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Seabridge Gold Arranges Cdn$8.4 Million Financing - "Seabridge Gold announced today that it has arranged a Cdn$8,443,750 private placement financing consisting of 875,000 common shares at Cdn$9.65 per share. The shares to be issued under this private placement will be subject to a four-month hold period. Closing of this financing is subject to regulatory approval and completion of final documentation. There are no commissions or finders fees payable on the financing." More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Geocom and Kinross Accelerate South Chile Recon Program - "Three technical teams have been deployed with a helicopter-support program that was designed and implemented to evaluate the metal anomalies outlined by a proprietary database that was validated by sampling in previous Geocom exploration programs in the area. The previous sampling programs confirmed the existence of anomalous mineralized zones. Samples consisted of stream sediment, pan concentrate, and rock chip that contained gold, copper, and other metals of potential interest." More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Silver Wheaton Shines - "Silver Wheaton, based in commodity-rich Vancouver, Canada, is the only mining company that derives 100% of its revenue from silver production, and is therefore the purest play on continued strength in silver prices. We believe the above-mentioned factors, including demand from the health care industry and solar power market, could lead to sustained high silver prices. At $11.69 per ounce, silver is trading 63% above year-ago levels." More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Ivanhoe eyes summer start-up at Mongolia coal mine - "Ivanhoe also plans to develop a smaller mine at Tsagaan Tolgoi, providing fuel for a 250 to 300 megawatt electricity station that will help power development of its vast Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold deposit, Friedland said, without setting a date. The high-quality deposits are attractive to security-conscious China, which has already built a road and railway to the border near the deposit and is providing electricity for its development, Friedland said." More
- April 04, 2006 | Item | E-mail

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