Gold Seeker Closing Report – Gold & Silver Gain Over 3% to New 25 and 22 Year Highs!

	Close	Gain/Loss
Gold	$614.50	+$18.20
Silver	$13.37	+$0.48
XAU	151.71	+4.29%
HUI	362.54	+3.95%
GDM	1132.36	+4.25%
JSE Gold	2854.12	UNCH
USD	88.66	-0.89
Euro	122.70	+1.68
Yen	84.93	+0.55
Oil	$70.40	+$0.98
10-Year	5.007%	-0.029
T-Bond	107.40625	+0.3125
Dow	11073.78	-0.57%
Nasdaq	2311.16	-0.64%
S&P	1285.33	-0.29%

Spot gold and silver rose to new 25 and 22 and ½ year highs in world trade last Friday, but both were held just slightly under the psychologically important $600 and $13 levels going into the weekend. Those levels were immediately broken at the open of trade in Asia in early trade on Monday, however, as gold immediately surged to about $605 and silver rocketed to about $13.25. Gold remained a couple of dollars above $605 in early New York trade and then furthered its gains in afternoon trade to end up near $615 at a new 25 year high. Silver fell back near $13.15 in early New York trade, but it also rallied to new highs into the close and ended at a new 22 and ½ year high.

Euro gold made new all-time highs at about €500, platinum gained $23 to $1,094 to new 26 year closing highs, palladium gained $12 to $356 to new 3 and ½ year closing highs, and copper made new all-time highs above $2.80.

Gold and silver equities jumped about 2% higher at the open and continued to move higher from there to close near their highs of the session with about 4% gains. The HUI and GDM set new record highs while the XAU remains about 5 points from new all-time highs.

“There has been some talk of late about recent raises of the silver margin requirements – two in April already. Most of the talk centers around the authorities raising the margins to hurt the longs. I see it differently.

The initial margin for silver will rise to $3,150 on Monday from $2430. The maintenance requirement rises from $1,800 to $2,600.

This means if silver moves more than 50 cents in a single trading session on the Comex, a position can go into deficit. Silver can easily move $1 in a day now. Thus, these margin requirements are TOO LOW the way I see it.

Now, if they do something stupid, like raising the requirements to 50% of the contract value, that would be a different story. But, I can't see them doing that, not at the present time.”

“In stellar upward extension the gold market provided that it had a number of different fundamental themes prompting a wave of fresh buying. In addition to a significant downward thrust in the US Dollar (and a significant rise in the Euro) we suspect that currency related buying got the call rolling early in the session on Monday morning. However, throughout the session the market was also lifted by rising flight to quality concerns off the Iranian Nuke situation, as the Iranian public relations machine was openly updating the world on the progress being made by Iran in enriching uranium. As if the bull camp didn't have enough information going its way on Monday, sharp gains in oil prices simply facilitated ongoing investment interest in gold. With the magnitude of the gains on Monday some traders are suggesting that the market has signaled its capacity to rise to an even higher trading zone.

The silver market gapped higher, backed off from the highs and then firmed again into the afternoon action. While the silver market seemed to get trading its own fundamental and technical track during the session Monday we suspect that sharply rising oil prices, a weak Dollar and spillover support for a huge rally in copper served to spark waves of speculative buying. Many traders continue to suggest that the gold/silver ratio still favors fresh purchases of silver over gold but with all the metals rising it would seem like the reasons to buy the metals are broad in scope and highly varied. With the Stock market initially holding together in the face of all the inflationary threats it is possible that bullish momentum in silver simply glossed over any concerns of macro economic slowing.” - The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

Oil set a new all-time closing high on continued geopolitical concerns over

Iran

, but it did fall short of the record intraday high of $70.85 set on August 30^th.

The U.S. dollar index fell markedly despite the fact that February’s reported Net Foreign Purchases more than covered February’s trade deficit of $65.7 billion reported last week. Even hawkish fed speak was not able to buoy the dollar as most tend to believe that the fed will stop raising rates soon as other areas of the world start or continue interest rate hiking cycles of their own.

Treasuries gained on economically disappointing New York manufacturing data and on geopolitical concerns. An article by the Wall Street Journal over the past weekend also convinced many that the fed may stop raising interest rates sooner than some previously thought. The yield on the 10-year fell from near 4 year highs, but still remained above 5%.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P opened up slightly higher on the hopes for a halt in the raising of interest rates by the fed, but they then fell in afternoon trade and ended roughly 0.5% lower as oil rose over $70 and made a new all-time closing high.

Among the big names making news in the market today were Charles Schwab, General Electric and BAA, Knight Ridder, Citigroup, Wachovia, and Suntrust.

The HUI and GDM broke out to new all-time highs today, surging past the new all-time highs noted here on 4-6-2006. To many this indicates that there is no “double top” and that we are indeed on our way to further new highs. Others will look for the XAU to confirm this before acting while still others pay no attention to these technical events. What indicators do you look to?

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

Time is up for the Bulls! Now it’s time for the Bears to have some fun as of the close (4/12/2006), the Bears took over the "short term." The Bulls now have to cover their positions. Trading ranges are always dangerous, as the time cycles can and do "square in time" in those "quiet" periods.

The $USD’s cycle is now DOWN! Today’s closing price (4/17/2006) showed the $USD proving that the Bears are back in control! The current "on the side" status for the $USD is almost over! This phenomenon is incorporated into the BoomBust Cycle Point Predictor (Copyright 2006). The subscribers to THE LOONIE WATCH

The Loonie and the $USD have run out their Bull time cycles. No market can fight its time cycle! When time is up, markets won’t turn down! When time is down, markets won’t turn up! The Loonie’s time cycle has turned Bear! The $USD’s time cycle has turned Bear! Stay tuned to GOLDSEEK.COM, your source for updates for THE LOONIE WATCHER, THE BLACK GOLD WATCHER, and the MIDAS SAYS!http://onlypill.tripod.com/themidassays/id10.html" href="http://%20http:/onlypill.tripod.com/themidassays/id10.html">

Kinross Gold’s drop in value at their Fort Knox Mine, Arizona Star’s plans to trade on the AMEX beginning tomorrow, Claude Resources’ increase in petroleum reserves, U.S. Energy’s new board member, and Banro’s drill results from Namoya were among the big stories in the gold and silver mining industry making headlines today.

First Operation Certified Under International Cyanide Management Code - "The International Cyanide Management Institute (ICMI) announced today that Barrick Gold Corporation's Cowal Mine in New South Wales, Australia has been certified as compliant with the International Cyanide Management Code (Code). This is the first operation certified under the Code." More
- April 17, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Millstream Completes Private Placement - More
- April 17, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Gold mine's value drops - "Alaska's largest gold mine has shrunk dramatically in value. Kinross Gold Corp., owner of the Fort Knox Mine near Fairbanks, wrote down the open-pit mine's book value by $142 million last year. Company executives said higher operating costs, mostly due to rising fuel and electricity prices, forced it to move two satellite deposits, True North and Gil, from reserve to resource status. That means the company has no plans to mine them anytime soon." More
- April 17, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Arizona Star to Begin Trading on AMEX - "Arizona Star Resource Corp. announced today it expects its common shares will begin trading on the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) on Tuesday April 18, 2006 under the symbol AZS. The specialist for Arizona Star will be J. Streicher & Co. LLC. Arizona Star's common shares will also continue to trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under its current symbol AZS." More
- April 17, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Claude Resources Inc. reports significant increase in petroleum reserves - "Claude Resources is a gold mining company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (CRJ) and the American Stock Exchange (CGR). The Company's principal asset is the 100% owned Seabee gold mine which has produced in excess of 700,000 ounces since it went into production in 1991. The Seabee mine is currently doubling its production capacity from 550 tonnes per day to 1,100 tonnes per day. Claude also owns the Madsen project, a 10,000 acre advanced exploration project in Red Lake, Ontario, Canada." More
- April 17, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Sage announces closing of first tranche of private placement - More
- April 17, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Allen Winters Joins Board of U.S. Energy Corp. Subsidiary - "Mr. Winters, who is currently a consultant to the mining industry, served in a variety of senior executive management positions with Homestake Mining Co. over a 20-year period (1975-1995). Homestake Mining Co. merged into Barrick Gold Corporation in December 2001 to create one of the world's largest gold mining companies. At the time of his retirement from Homestake in 1995, Mr. Winters was Vice President and General Manager of the Homestake Mine in Lead, South Dakota. From 1988 through 1992, he served as Vice President of U.S. Operations for Homestake and had direct responsibility for five domestic mining operations producing precious metals and uranium for two joint ventures." More
- April 17, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Equitable Mining Corp launches Advisory Board with Peter Howe as the first member - More
- April 17, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Haber Files Lawsuit against Leaseholder of Okeechobee, Florida Property Earmarked for Electronic Waste Facility - More
- April 17, 2006 | Item | E-mail

USCorp Announces Renegotiation of Mesquite District Gold Claims - More
- April 17, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Banro intersects further gold mineralisation from its drilling at Namoya - "Banro Corporation is pleased to announce further drilling results from the Company's wholly-owned Namoya project, located on the Twangiza-Namoya gold belt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Assay results have been received from another 11 core holes drilled at Namoya that are part of a 7,000 metre drilling program. These results are from the Namoya Summit prospect which is located in the southwest of the 2.5 kilometre long mineralised trend at Namoya." More
- April 17, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Searchlight Minerals Corp. - Drill hole results - Clarkdale Slag Project - More
- April 17, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Tulawaka Mine Produces 147,093 Ounces of Gold in its First Full Year - More
- April 17, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Mustang Makes Management Changes - More
- April 17, 2006 | Item | E-mail

CompuPrint, Inc. Signs Partnership Agreement with Leading Turkish Energy Company - More
- April 17, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Jourdan Resources Inc.: Comtois Property Acquisition - More
- April 17, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Wits Basin Updates Gold Assay Results - More
- April 17, 2006 | Item | E-mail

El Capitan Reports Status on Assays and Stage 3 Drilling - More
- April 17, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Itronics Reports 2005 Financial Results - More
- April 17, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Palladon Appoints Shortline Operator for Iron Mountain Railway - More
- April 17, 2006 | Item | E-mail

Canyon Resources Announces Latest Court Decision on Takings Claim - "Canyon Resources Corporation, a Colorado-based mining company, received notice on April 11, 2006, that the United States District Court for the District of Montana, Helena Division, has dismissed the complaint related to its federal takings claim in the case of Seven-Up Pete Venture, et al. v The State of Montana. This dismissal was based on technical grounds without deciding on the merits of the case. "We are disappointed that the court reached this decision without looking at the merits of the case or whether our rights have been violated." More
- April 17, 2006 | Item | E-mail

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