-- Posted 23 July, 2008 | Digg This Article |

The Metals:

Gold and silver fell over 1% by midday in London before they rebounded some in early New York trade, but they then dropped to new lows of $921.85 and $17.25 by late morning and ended near those levels with losses of 2.66% and 2.9%.

Euro gold fell to about €588, platinum lost $45.50 to $1757.50, and copper fell a couple of cents to about $3.71.

Gold and silver equities steadily fell for most of trade and ended about 5% lower.

The Economy:

The Beige Book reiterated concerns over a slowing economy and rising inflation.  Commercial real estate was described as “decidedly morose” by the Boston fed bank.

Tomorrow at 8:30AM EST brings Initial Jobless Claims for 7/19 expected at 380,000.  At 10AM is the Existing Home Sales report for June expected at 4.95 million.

The Markets:

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

Oil fell once again as worries continued to ease over Tropical Storm Dolly and gasoline inventories built more than expected and evidenced the demand destruction taking place in the market.  Oil inventories fell 1.5 million barrels, gasoline inventories built 2.8 million barrels, and distillate inventories built 2.4 million barrels.

The U.S. dollar index rose and treasuries fell while the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P traded mostly slightly higher on relief over the continued drop in oil prices.

Among the big names making news in the market today were Costco, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, Boeing, McDonald’s, Wachovia, GM, and Northwest.

The Commentary:

“Dear CIGAs,

We are all crude oil traders now or so it would seem. The entirety of the financial market system is now basically following the minute by minute gyrations in the crude oil market. As it moves lower, stocks move higher and so does the dollar. As it moves higher, stocks move lower and so does the dollar. Commodities in general then take their cue from that which as you no doubt observed today, were being spit out by the hedge funds like some foul tasting broth.

Today started off with Wall Street absolutely giddy over the GSE reform package that is now expected to become law. A bit into the session, the EIA data was released which showed a sizeable build in distillates confirming the slowdown in the gasoline demand. That knocked the stool out from under crude oil allowing the equity indices to hit their highs of the day. As crude began recovering, stocks began fading with the bond market once again reduced to a following role was it moved up and down depending on the well-being or lack thereof in the equity world.

Gold, of course, obligingly followed suit and was discarded like a bad habit causing it to crash through several important support levels on the chart. The mining shares did not fare any better as some of them gave up the ghost and decided to go bobbing for earthworms.”- Dan Norcini, More free commentary at JSMineset.com

“August Gold finished down 25.7 at 922.8, 21.2 off the high and 0.8 up from the low.

September Silver closed down 0.547 at 17.458. This was 0.068 up from the low and 0.452 off the high.

Gold came under severe selling pressure this session losing its flight to safety appeal as more strength in the dollar, a further break in oil prices and gains in equity markets seemed to ease both economic and inflation jitters. With crude oil prices breaking over 15% from all time highs, ideas that the drop in fuel prices will help to temper inflation and stimulate consumer demand has certainly undermined sentiment in gold. The gold market also appeared to be pressured by broad based physical commodity selling this session as the recovery in the Dollar has made commodities less appealing to some traders. News that the amount of gold to back the largest gold ETF fell 2% yesterday added to the bearish tone. In fact, the liquidation selling in gold tied to bearish outside market influences more than offset supportive supply side industry news. News that a strike at a major South African mine had begun to affect production seemed to have little market impact although a Russian metals producer said gold output rose sharply in the 2nd quarter.

Silver prices tumbled along with gold as economic and inflation anxieties were apparently tempered by the gains in the Dollar and break in oil prices. In fact, the sell off in silver seemed to be part of a broad based liquidation wave across several physical commodity markets. The aggressive liquidation seen in the metals markets overshadowed any support silver may have garnered by the outlook for improved economic conditions as a result of the break in oil prices. With the market falling below some key levels, chart based selling also seemed to add to the downward price momentum.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

GATA Posts:

Truth about Wall Street briefly escapes president's lips

James Turk: Last plane account

John Embry: The more talk of 'strong dollar,' the less action

The Statistics:

As of close of business: 7/22/2008

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]

 Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: The SPDR subtracted 15.33 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: 46.14 tonnes were added to the trust.

iShares Silver Trust holdings rise to record 6,138 T - Reuters

The Stocks:

Polymetal’s (PMTLq.L) revenue boost, IAMGOLD’s (IAG) royalty acquisition, ITH’s (THM) drill results, a one-day mine strike in South Africa impacting output for Gold Fields (GFI), Harmony (HMY), and AngloGold (AU), and a proposed business transaction between Sterling Mining (SRLM.OB) and Minco Silver (MSV.TO) 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:

ICS Copper Drills 40.9 meters of 1.10% Cu and 16.0 meters of 1.56% Cu at the Mokambo Property - More
- July 23, 2008 | Item | E-mail

International Barytex Resources Ltd. Retains CoMo Investment Solutions Inc. - More
- July 23, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Gold Discovered at I-Zone on Mengold's Goldcreek Property - More
- July 23, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Thunder Mountain Gold Announces Completion of Private Placement - More
- July 23, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Russian miner Polymetal boosts H1 revenue 88 pct - "Russian miner Polymetal (PMTLq.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Wednesday first-half revenue rose 88 percent to $258 million on higher precious metal prices and the elimination of its hedge position on silver sales. Polymetal, Russia's top silver and third-largest gold miner, said in a statement gold production rose 20 percent year-on-year to 136,000 ounces in the first six months of 2008. Silver sales rose 11 percent to 8.8 million ounces." More
- July 23, 2008 | Item | E-mail

El Creston Molybdenum Deposit Update: Final Results Received From Infill Program-Drilling at Red Hill Zone Encounters Mineralized Porphyries - More
- July 23, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Amarc Announces Change to Executive Team - More
- July 23, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Acero-Martin Announces Update on Pinaya Drilling Program - More
- July 23, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Ramp Starting at Globex's Magusi Royalty Property - More
- July 23, 2008 | Item | E-mail

AXMIN Reports High Grade Intersections at Kofi Project, Mali - More
- July 23, 2008 | Item | E-mail

East West Joint Ventures "Feeder" Nickel-Copper Property From Its Norton-McFaulds Project - More
- July 23, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Experienced Mining Engineer Joins Inter-Citic Team to Assist with Dachang Development Plans - More
- July 23, 2008 | Item | E-mail

BacTech Announces Note Financing - More
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