-- Posted 5 May, 2008 | Digg This Article |

The Metals:

Gold rose throughout the day in choppy trade and ended near its early afternoon New York high of $873.20 with a gain 1.9%.  Silver rose in similar fashion and ended near its midmorning New York high of $16.805 with a gain of 2.2%.

Euro gold rose to over €562, platinum gained $25.50 to $1918.50, and copper gained over 12 cents to about $3.98.

Gold and silver equities gained roughly 3% at the open and remained near their highs into the close.

The Economy:

There are no major economic reports due out tomorrow.

The Markets:

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

Oil rose to a new record intraday high at $120.36 on short covering as supply concerns and threats rose in Nigeria, Iraq, and Iran.  Word of a possible strike in France later in the week also increased supply worries in the face of still relatively strong demand.

The U.S. dollar index fell in early trade on speculation over the European Central Bank meeting this Thursday before it bounced higher after ISM Services came in better than expected, but it soon fell back off to new lows on the session as commodities of all kinds strongly reasserted their cases for ongoing bull markets.

Treasuries fell after ISM Services came in better than expected, but they rose back near unchanged by the close as the major indices fell.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P fell as Microsoft withdrew its bid for Yahoo and speculation arose that Bank of America may withdraw its offer for Countrywide as suitors realize that the assets they originally bid for may not be worth all that much in an ongoing credit/financial crisis.

Among the other big names making news in the market today were Wal-Mart, Pilgrim's Pride, and Hovnanian.

The Commentary:

“Paul Volcker was right when he said in 2000:

"Inflation is related to monetary policy. It's related to the issue of money. The issue of money is a governmental responsibility predominantly, and to use that authority in a way that leads to inflation is a system that fools a lot of people, and to keep fooling them you have to do it more and more; [that] is a moral issue. I put myself in that camp.”

When, if ever, is some talking head going to point out that over the counter derivatives have killed the financial pillars of the world?

When is someone going to realize that UBS was one of the largest over the counter derivative issuers?

The world put the blame on Michael Milken for the junk bond. He went to jail.

The inventors of over the counter derivatives as it is today, Manko and Edelman, got 5 years for their contribution to the financial world. Maybe they should have gotten a medal from the International investment banks and not hard time.

Nobody will suffer for over the counter derivatives, that is with the exception of everyone but the Fat Cats.

The Feral Reserve is supporting the world via the Begging Bowl loan auctions, Don't be too hard on Bernanke as he has no other choice of action.

There will be consequences.

Those consequences will be through price inflation that few will be able to explain and fewer will expect.

The world will be swamped in this outrageous inflation and severe geopolitical events by January 14th, 2011.”- Jim Sinclair, JSMineset.com

“June Gold finished up 16.1 at 874.1, 0.6 off the high and 8.1 up from the low.

May Silver closed up 0.365 at 16.746. This was equal to the low and 0.004 off the high.

The gold market started out slightly higher and then seemed to gather additional momentum in the wake of a sharp rise in crude and energy prices. With a slightly better than expected ISM Non Manufacturing reading and talk of soaring inflationary pressures from the ISM it wasn't surprising that gold managed to stay out from under its recent liquidating posture. It is also possible that renewed geopolitical anxiety with Iran provided some fresh flight to quality buying of gold. After almost a week of down time at a South African mine, the trade saw news that production would resume later this week and that didn't seem to dent the interest in the long side of gold, perhaps because the trade early in the session saw the prospect of improving demand in the Middle East and from India.

With the copper market ramping significantly into new highs along with crude oil prices, one got the impression that broad based buying in outside markets contributed directly to the gains in silver today. With the gold market providing positive early leadership and the industrial commodity markets also firm, silver was seeing what seemed to be a definitively bullish shift in sentiment. Like gold, the silver market was potentially seeing some speculative bargain hunting buying, but with classic inflationary conditions surfacing again, it is also possible that silver was also being seen as a flight to quality instrument again.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

GATA Posts:

Gene Arensberg: Back up truck on small gold, silver, uranium miners

Michael Kosares: Has Europe declared war on the weak dollar?

Peter Brimelow: Buggiest bugs show grit about gold

Asian nations commit $80 billion to set up their own IMF

China farms the world to feed a ravenous economy

Fed likely to prefer more lending over interest-rate cuts

Monetary policy is the forbidden issue of politics, Ron Paul says

Michael Sesit: Dollar's reserve status is tale of fading glory

Richard Daughty: Gold price suppression scheme

GATA delegation will speak at Vancouver conference in June

Central banks push again to ease money market strains

The Statistics:

As of close of business: 4//2008

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]

 Note: No change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data.

COMEX Gold Trust (IAU)

 Note: No change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data.

Silver Trust (SLV)

 Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: 43.7 tonnes were added to the trust.

The Stocks:

Gold Fields’ (GFI) memorial service and plans to resume South Deep operations on Thursday, Solitario’s (XPL) drill results, Rubicon’s (RBY) drill results, Apollo’s (AGT) debt financing, Goldcorp’s (GG) earnings and dividend, Entree’s (EGI) exploration budget, Paramount’s (PZG) alliance with Mexoro, Great Panther’s (GPR.TO) drill results, Silvercorp’s (SVM.TO) financial results, ECU’s (ECU.TO) debt financing, Minco’s (MSV.TO) drill program, Coeur’s (CDE) resumed mine operations, Bear Creek’s (BCM.V) metallurgical mapping, Metalline’s (MMG) accelerated work, MAG Silver’s (MVG) exploration program, and Scorpio’s (SPM.TO) 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.

All of today's gold and silver stock news:

Africo Resources reschedules Annual General Meeting until June 12, 2008 - More
- May 05, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Golden Peaks Resources Ltd. - T-11 Zone Extended - More
- May 05, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Lake Shore Gold Comments on May 15, 2008 Shareholder Vote - More
- May 05, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Explor Increases Kidd Township Property - More
- May 05, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Richmont Reaches Half Way Point in ''Initial Commitment Period''; Mine Rehabilitation Nearly Complete and Exploration Efforts to Commence in May - More
- May 05, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Strathmore Minerals Corp. to Webcast Live from Raymond James Uranium Conference in New York - More
- May 05, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Garrison International Ltd. Announces Special Meeting of Shareholders - More
- May 05, 2008 | Item | E-mail