-- Posted 14 May, 2008 | Digg This Article |

The Metals:

Gold fell to $859.00 by late trade in Asia before it rose to find a slight gain at $870.85 by early trade in New York, but it then fell back off a bit in the last few hours of trade and ended with a loss of 0.4%.  Silver fell to $16.54 and rose to $16.89 before it also fell back off and ended with a loss of 0.9%.

Euro gold fell to about €560, platinum lost $18.50 to $2026, and copper fell over 5 cents to about $3.70.

Gold and silver equities remained near unchanged for most of the day, but they then fell back off in the last couple hours of trade and ended nearly 2% lower.

The Economy:

Tomorrow at 8:30AM EST brings Initial Jobless claims for 5/10 expected at 370,000 and the NY Empire State Index for March expected at 0.0.  At 9AM is the Net Foreign Purchases report for March expected at $62.5 billion, at 9:15 are Capacity Utilization for April expected at 80.2% and Industrial Production expected at -0.3%, and at 10AM is the Philadelphia Fed report expected at -19.0.

The Markets:

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

Oil fell on decreasing demand reports after yesterday’s record high of $126.98.  An official from Iran also remarked that they will not be cutting exports and that eased some geopolitical tensions.  Crude inventories rose 200,000 barrels, gasoline inventories fell 1.7 million barrels, distillate inventories rose 1.4 million barrels, and refinery utilization rose 1.6% to 86.6%.

The U.S. dollar index rose marginally and treasuries fell slightly despite tame CPI data that did not push interest rates lower as one would typically expect.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P rose on the tame CPI report that eased inflation worries as oil prices also eased from yesterday’s record high.

Among the big names making news in the market today were Sony, EADS, Freddie Mac, Merrill, Deere, and Macy’s.

The Commentary:

“We live in a world which is amoral and believes that there are NO consequences for any act. All that matters is profit at any cost.

Profit is the only virtue. The ends qualify the means. Nothing is above them and they deserve it all, immediately.

This is the perfect definition of all derivative dealers and holders.

I demonstrated to you that what exists now would in fact occur now.

As Volcker has said, this is like the 70s, and will be far worse if the Fed pulls away from financing everyone or if confidence in the Fed is lost because of consequences.

The Fed simply cannot create this amount of liquidity without sinking the dollar.

A central bank can never go broke because they have a blank check with which they can write their own capital.

What a central bank can do is destroy their currency.

The US dollar is going to .5200

Gold is going to $1650

All of this will occur on or before January 14th, 2011.”- Jim Sinclair, JSMineset.com

“June Gold finished down 3.1 at 866.5, 4 off the high and 2.5 up from the low.

July Silver closed down 0.215 at 16.613. This was 0.008 up from the low and 0.287 off the high.

The gold market mostly favored the downside in the action on Wednesday which initially seemed to be the direct result of ongoing strength in the US Dollar. However, gold prices did manage to bounce by as much as $6 an ounce off their post report lows with the still mostly Dollar holding in positive ground. The currency trade continues to suggest that a close above the 74.00 level in the June Dollar Index is an extremely critical level and it appears that the gold market is also watching that level as well. In the end, the bull camp in gold might suggest that prices held up relatively well in the face of minor Dollar strength and moderate weakness in oil prices. In fact, a number of physical commodity markets were under pressure Wednesday and even that didn't seem to add to the initial weakness in gold prices.

Perhaps projections of record mine production in 2008 from a major Bank/brokerage firm prompted some of the silver selling on Wednesday but recently the silver market hasn't been that interested in the rise and fall of silver supply. In fact, like the gold market, the silver market remains mostly fixated on the action in the Dollar. In the end, it was somewhat surprising that silver wasn't under more selling pressure, when one considers the strength in the Dollar, weakness in oil and the noted pressure in copper and platinum prices on Wednesday.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

GATA Posts:

CFTC study denies manipulation in silver market

Fed gets political with market interventions, Volcker warns

Peter Grandich: Did the party end before it started?

The Statistics:

As of close of business: 5/13/2008

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]

 Note: Change in Total Tonnes from last week’s data: The LSE subtracted 1.15 tonnes.

COMEX Gold Trust (IAU)

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

Silver Trust (SLV)

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

The Stocks:

Tanzanian Royalty’s (TRE) private placements, Aurelian’s (ARU.TO) first quarter financials, Apollo’s (AGT) $25 million new issue, Allied Nevada’s (ANV) first quarter results, Midway’s (MDW) drill results, Keegan’s (KGN) drill results, Silvercorp’s (SVM.TO) special advisor appointment, MAG’s (MVG) drill results, Silver Standard’s (SSRI) increased reserves, and Pan American’s (PAAS) senior management changes and first quarter earnings 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:

Central Sun Appoints New Senior Management Positions - "Central Sun Mining Inc. (Toronto:CSM.TO - News)(Toronto:CSM-WT.TO - News)(AMEX:SMC - News) is pleased to announce the addition of three new senior individuals to the Company's management team. With these latest appointments, Central Sun has strengthened the Company's operational support team and added additional depth and experience to its operations in the Americas." More
- May 14, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Sherwood Starts 2008 Drill Program With New Discoveries at Minto Copper-Gold Mine - More
- May 14, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Consolidated Gold Win Ventures engages drill company - More
- May 14, 2008 | Item | E-mail

MDN Inc: Net Earnings of $1.8 Million or $0.02 Per Share - More
- May 14, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Mercator Reports First Quarter Results and Provides Construction Update - More
- May 14, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Cadillac Mining Corporation hires First Canadian Capital Corp. for investor relations - More
- May 14, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Goldcliff Resource Corporation: York-Viking Drilling Extends Gold Zone - More
- May 14, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Tanzanian Royalty Chairman Completes $2,100,000 Private Placements - "Tanzanian Royalty Exploration Corporation (AMEX:TRE - News) announces that Mr. James E. Sinclair has completed the $375,000 fifth tranche of the $3 million private placement and the $1,725,000 private placement, as announced on May 1, 2008. Both placements closed on May 14, 2008." More
- May 14, 2008 | Item | E-mail