-- Posted 15 May, 2008 | Digg This Article |

The Metals:

Gold fell to $862.10 in Asia and traded near unchanged in London before it exploded higher in early New York trade to as high as $887.65 by late morning, but it then fell back off slightly in the last couple of hours of trade and ended about 1% off that high with a gain of 1.47%.  Silver fell to $16.48 and rose to $16.965 before it closed with a gain of 0.18%.

Euro gold rose near €570, platinum gained $37.50 to $2063.50, and copper gained nearly 6 cents to about $3.76.

Gold and silver equities rose about 4% by late morning before they fell back off a bit in early afternoon trade, but they still ended with well over 3% gains.

The Economy:

Also making economic news today was Bernanke urging banks to raise capital if needed and the NAHB’s index showing homebuilder sentiment near a record low.  Tomorrow at 8:30AM EST brings Housing Starts and Building Permits for April expected at 940,000 and 912,000.  At 10AM is Michigan Sentiment for May expected at 62.0.

The Markets:

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

Oil traded higher around $125 in early trade before it fell back off over $2 in afternoon trade after the senate voted to close the “Enron loophole” in an effort to increase regulation and reduce speculation, but it then rallied back higher into the close and ended just slightly lower.

The U.S. dollar index fell as TIC data showed net purchases by overseas investors fell $48.2 billion in March.  Mostly poor economic data also sent treasuries higher while interest rates fell.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P rose on decent earnings reports as oil closed lower and economic data was bad, but not as horrible as some feared.

Among the big names making news in the market today were Icahn and Yahoo, Blackstone, J.C. Penney, GE, Sharper Image, and Chrysler.

The Commentary:

“Gold hit the bottom of this reaction on Thursday, April 28th. It has a great deal of work to do, but do it, gold will.

There is no question in my mind but that gold will try $1000 from the April 28th low, fail, come back fast and succeed.

To keep it simple:

No Bear market in the euro.

No Bull market in the US dollar.

No top in Gold.

All else is the daily dose of spin and cover up.”- Jim Sinclair, JSMineset.com

“June Gold finished up 13.5 at 880, 8 off the high and 14 up from the low.

July Silver closed up 0.072 at 16.685. This was 0.015 up from the low and 0.285 off the high.

The gold market managed a bigger than expected rally and the gains might have been inspired by technical short covering as the typical outside market forces didn't seem to fully justify the magnitude of the bounce off the recent lows. In fact, the Dollar was weaker but that key outside market influence didn't weaken considerably in the wake of the US data and in turn inspired the run up in gold prices. In fact, despite a reversal and a slide of almost $6.00 per barrel in crude oil the gold market mostly seemed content to sustain its early gains. With the Industrial Production reading and the NAHB housing Index both weak and the Dollar merely holding around unchanged, it is possible that volatility in the currency markets is set to decline and that could leave gold and other markets looking for a fresh theme.

The silver market mostly mirrored the action in the gold market, with minor gains extending rather impressively into early afternoon. However, the silver market seemed to give up a relatively larger portion of its gains as the afternoon progressed. It should be noted that the silver market has seen a series of potentially undermining physical supply side stories this week and therefore the action on Thursday had to leave the bull camp hopeful. In the end strength in the rest of the metals markets seemed to provide the silver market with more support than the marginally weaker action in the US Dollar.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

GATA Posts:

Derivatives monster Morgan to enter oil market

Jason Hommel: Four proofs of silver manipulation

The Statistics:

As of close of business: 5/14/2008

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]

Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: StreetTRACKS subtracted 6.44 tonnes and the LSE subtracted 1.00 tonnes.

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: 61.58 tonnes were added to the trust.

The Stocks:

AngloGold’s (AU) mine in Mali, Crystallex’s (KRY) financial results, Almaden’s (AAU) gold recovery, Nevsun’s (NSU) updated capital estimate and financial results, Metallica’s (MRB) technical report, Revett’s (RVM.TO) financial results, MAG’s (MVG) financial results, and Silver Standard’s (SSRI) board appointment and financial 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:

Venezuela shuts door on new gold mines - "Venezuela on Thursday shut the door to new gold projects and threatened other mining and logging concessions, in a new step by left-wing President Hugo Chavez to tighten control of natural resources.

The ban on mining in the mineral-laden Imataca Forest Reserve forest reserve and end to permits for open pits was a blow to Crystallex (KRY.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) and Gold Reserve (GRZ.A: Quote, Profile, Research). The Canadian companies have long been seeking environmental permits to exploit their concessions in the reserve." More
- May 15, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Dynamite Resources to Begin Next Phase of Drilling at Its Mike Lake Project in Yukon, Canada - More
- May 15, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Houston Lake Mining Raises $750,000 in a Flow-Through Financing With the Mineralfields Group - More
- May 15, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Erdene Reports First Quarter Operating and Financial Results - More
- May 15, 2008 | Item