-- Posted 6 August, 2008 | Digg This Article |

The Metals:

Gold rose over 1% to $886.45 by midday in London before it dropped at the New York open to a thirty cent loss at $877.20 and then rebounded back to about a 0.5% gain at $882.35, but it then fell back off again into the close and ended slightly off its session low of $872.60 with a loss of 0.35%.  Silver rose twenty cents to $16.75 and fell to $16.487 before it rebounded back to about a 0.5% gain at $16.634, but it also fell back off again and ended near its afternoon low of $16.40 with a loss of 0.57%.

Euro gold remained at about €567, platinum gained $23.50 to $1599.50, and copper remained at about $3.46.

Gold and silver equities rose over 3% in the first half hour of trade before they moderated a bit, but they still ended with roughly 2% gains.

The Economy:

There were no major economic reports today.  Tomorrow at 8:30AM EST brings Initial Jobless Claims for 8/02 expected at 420,000.  At 10AM is the Pending Home Sales report for June expected at -1.0% and at 3PM is Consumer Credit for June expected at $6.4 billion.

The Markets:

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

Oil fell after crude inventories built a larger than expected 1.7 million barrels, gasoline inventories fell a larger than expected 4.4 million barrels, and distillate inventories built a larger than expected 2.8 million barrels.

The U.S. dollar index rose and treasuries fell again on lower oil prices and evidence that poor economic data in Asia and Europe will prevent other central banks from raising rates and instead remain unchanged along with the fed.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P fell at the open on disappointing results from Freddie Mac, but they then rebounded back near unchanged after oil fell back off again and all three indices ended with slight gains.

Among the big names making news in the market today were Blackstone, Xstrata and Lonmin, Freddie Mac, Time Warner, Ambac, American Air, Qwest, and Transocean.

The Commentary:

“August Gold finished down 3 at 875.6, equal to the high and equal to the low.

September Silver closed down 0.067 at 16.505. This was 0.065 up from the low and 0.175 off the high.

The gold market seemed to lose its flight to safety edge seen early in the session and prices slid back as bearish outside market influences appeared to renew the selling bias that has taken hold in gold since the market topped in mid-July. Initially, gold prices seemed to be supported by renewed concern for the financial sector in the wake of early news from Freddie Mac. But with the Dollar rallying and oil falling back, gold seemed to lose its inflation hedge appeal as the session wore on. In fact, with general commodity prices under pressure, it appeared gold couldn't escape the pressure from another liquidation wave that looked to be taking place in several physical commodities. A report that the largest gold ETF saw a 2.2% decline in investment this week may have also dampened sentiment. But with the gold market appearing to find some support near yesterday's low, it does give the bulls some hope.

Silver prices chopped around both sides of unchanged on Wednesday. At times silver was pressured by the gold market which slid back from early gains. But silver weakness also seemed to be limited by strength in the platinum and copper markets. Although the slide in oil prices could have been seen to improve the industrial demand outlook for silver, the market seemed to be mostly weighed down by the strength in the Dollar and a general physical commodity market liquidation wave that still seems to be taking place across several markets. It appears the flight to quality longs are still exiting, but they may be close to complete.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

The Statistics:

As of close of business: 8/05/2008

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]

Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: SPDR subtracted 15.32 tonnes.

COMEX Gold Trust (IAU)

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

Silver Trust (SLV)

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

The Stocks:

Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: 2.65 tonnes were removed from the trust.

The Stocks:

A strike in South Africa, Apollo’s (AGT) private placement, Timberline’s (TLR) shareholder meeting, US Gold’s (UXG) exploration program and drill results, Xstrata’s (XTA.L) bid for Lonmin (LMI.L), Excellon’s (EXN.TO) assay results, Endeavour’s (EXK) assay results, SNS Silver’s (SNS.V) drill results, and Aquiline’s (AQI.TO) drilling update 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:

Apollo Gold Announces Bought Deal Private Placement Financing of CDN$7,000,000 - "Apollo Gold Corporation (“Apollo” or the “Company”) (AMEX: AGT - News) (TSX: APG - News) announces that it has entered into an agreement for a private placement financing pursuant to which Apollo proposes to sell 14,000,000 flow-through shares for purposes of the Income Tax Act (Canada) (“Flow Through Shares”) on a bought deal basis at CDN$0.50 per Flow Through Share to raise gross proceeds of CDN$7,000,000." More
- August 06, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Timberline Announces Shareholder Meeting Date to Consider the SMD Acquisition and Other Items - "Timberline Resources Corporation (AMEX:TLR - News) today invited its shareholders to its 2008 Annual Meeting of Stockholders at the Hampton Inn & Suites, 1500 West Riverstone Drive, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, on August 22, 2008 at 2:00pm (Pacific Daylight Time)." More
- August 06, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Arehada Mining Receives Second Bank Loan and Announces Shut Down During Olympic Games - More
- August 06, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Drilling Underway on Mt. Logano Property in Timmins, Ontario - More
- August 06, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Hard Creek Adds Dr. Dominique Francois-Bongarcon to Advisory Board - More
- August 06, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Skyline Announces Private Placement - More
- August 06, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Barrick Consolidates Sturgeon Lake Oil Assets - "Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:ABX - News)(Toronto:ABX.TO - News) announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase oil and gas assets representing production of approximately 900 barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) per day at Sturgeon Lake, Alberta, from Daylight Resources Trust for $87.5 million in cash. This transaction follows Barrick's recent $410 million cash offer for Cadence Energy Inc. and complements the Company's long term strategy to economically hedge its oil exposure." More
- August 06, 2008 | Item | E-mail

African Copper Plc: Disclosure of Shareholding - More
- August 06, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Glass Earth Gold Limited reports interim financial statements and Management Discussion & Analysis for the six months ended 30 June, 2008 - More
- August 06, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Coniagas announces appointment of Chief Financial Officer - More
- August 06, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Forsys Confirms Deeper Uranium Mineralization at Valencia - More
- August 06, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Excellon Continues to Drill High Grade Sulphides at Platosa - "Excellon Resources Inc. (Toronto:EXN.TO - News) announces assay results for massive, semi-massive sulphide, and sulphide breccia intercepts from 28 recent holes in the Platosa Test-mine area. Twelve of these holes have cut significant new mineralization in the South Central Guadalupe Manto that is easily accessible from existing underground development. The best of these is Hole LP542, which cut 6.41 metres (m) of massive sulphides grading 1,192 g/t (35 oz/T) silver, 13.7% lead and 23.8% zinc. Hole LP565, 15 m away, cut 5.55 m of massive sulphides grading 856 g/t (25.0 oz/T) silver, 9.8% lead, 14.8% zinc." More
- August 06, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Pershimco: Private Placement - More
- August 06, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Canarc Resource Corp.: Shareholder Update-Second Quarter Review 2008 - More
- August 06, 2008 | Item | E-mail