-- Posted 27 October, 2008 | Digg This Article |

The Metals:

Gold rose nearly $10 in Asia before it fell back off by early morning in London and saw as much as a $23.30 loss at $706.35 by about 6AM EST, but it then rallied back higher for the rest of the day and ended near its session high of over $746 with a gain of 1.71%.  Silver also saw over 1% gains in Asia before it fell back off and saw a 6.2% loss at as low as $8.70, but it too rallied back higher into the close and ended with a loss of just 1.24%.

Euro gold rose to about €591, platinum lost $19 to $774.50, and copper gained roughly 11 cents to about $1.79.

Gold and silver equities fell over 3% by late morning before they rallied to find slight gains by early afternoon, but they then fell back off into the close and ended with over 9% losses.

The Economy:

Tomorrow at 10AM EST brings Consumer Confidence for October expected at 52.0.

The Markets:

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

Oil fell on more demand concerns while the U.S. dollar index rose on the continued move to cash as investors sold assets they perceive as riskier than the fiat currency.

Treasuries rose as the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P ultimately ended markedly lower on more recession worries and apprehension before this week’s fed meeting and GDP data.

Among the big names making news in the market today were Humana, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, Verizon, General Motors and Chrysler, CenturyTel and Embarq, Capital One, Suntrust, Loews, Pilgrim’s Pride, and Morgan Stanley.

The Commentary:

“Dear CIGAs,

Keep your eye on the ball.

The Problem is not broken entities. That is a symptom. The basis of the problem is OTC derivatives. That is the foundation that is never addressed. If you treat symptoms without handling the cause the result is more symptoms. Because the aim of remedial actions is improper, there is little chance of a fix, only an ebb and flow in a downward spiral that lacks real intervention.

In competitive shooting it pays to aim, which is the same when attempting to right an economic crisis.

Even the Fed buying these failed special performance contracts mucks up the Fed’s balance sheet without solving the problem. It simply shifts the problem to where more serious trouble could occur, and that is in the credit rating of US Treasuries.

You can say that unless the real target is aimed at, the problem will persist. The problem now however is it is too late. There is no way to net the derivatives as many are written totally naked such as the majority of older credit default derivatives. The ability to net all OTC derivatives died as dislocations began in the ability of the final asset to maintain its value. Credit default derivatives were created on an actuarial type analysis and of course that went boom.”- Jim Sinclair, JSMineset.com

“December Gold closed up 12.6 at 742.9. This was 27.4 up from the low and 3.1 off the high.

December Silver finished down 0.1 at 9.195, 0.025 off the high and 0.365 up from the low.

From the early morning weakness the gold market managed a series of stair step rallies, with the December gold contract at times reaching as much as $40.8 an ounce above the very early morning lows. Clearly seeing some slightly better than expected US economic data served to temper some of the fears of too much slowing. However, the recovery in the gold market was probably tied to the ebb and flow of the Dollar which fell back by as much as 109 points from the mid session highs. In the end, the most beneficial development on Monday for the gold bulls was probably the fact that equity prices managed to recoil from fresh new lows early in the trading session.

Like the gold market, the silver market managed to forge a series of stair step gains after forging an early morning low. In fact, December silver managed to forge a 53 cents rally off the early morning low. Perhaps the recovery in copper prices or the bounce in equities prompted some technical short covering in silver, and in the end after the high anxiety at the beginning of the day, one could say that macro economic psychology held together rather surprisingly.” - The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

GATA Posts:

Gene Arensberg: Shorts covering, battered miners mum

Ted Butler: A shock to the system

Mints struggle to meet metals demand

Peter Brimelow: Indian brides confront gold bears again

Gold sales pick up phenomenally in India

Central banks poised to act against market panic

Gene Arensberg: Bring the bullion banks down -- take metal off Comex

U.S. has plundered world with dollar, Chinese state paper rages

Treasury considers aid to insurers too

Taiwan dumps Fannie, Freddie -- and Uncle Sam?

The Statistics:

As of close of business: 10/24/2008

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: 61.43 tonnes were removed from the trust.

The Stocks:

Richmont’s (RIC) acquisition agreement with Patricia Mining (PAT.V), Newmont’s (NEM) output in Peru, Northern Dynasty’s (NAK) pebble project, Aurizon’s (AZK) drill results, Gammon Gold’s (GRS) opening bell ringing, Apollo Gold’s (AGT) mine development, Entree’s (EGI) drilling, Fronteer’s (FRG) drill results, and Orko Silver’s (OK.V) 100% ownership of the Santa Monica Property 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:

Richmont Mines Inc. and Patricia Mining Corp. Enter Into Acquisition Agreement - "Richmont Mines Inc. ("Richmont") (Toronto:RIC.TO - News)(NYSE-A: RIC) and Patricia Mining Corp. ("Patricia Mining") (CDNX:PAT.V - News) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement (the "Acquisition Agreement") for Richmont to acquire all of Patricia Mining's outstanding shares through a combination of cash and stock. Patricia Mining shareholders will receive $0.15 in cash and 0.055 of one Richmont share for each Patricia Mining share held." More
- October 27, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Newmont's Yanacocha Peru gold pit ups output in Q3 - "Output at the Yanacocha mine in Peru, one of Latin America's largest gold mines, grew to 449,000 ounces in the third quarter of 2008, up 20 percent from the same period a year ago, the company said on Monday." More
- October 27, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Stellar Sell its Uranium Properties in the Otish Bassin - More
- October 27, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Medallion Closes $340,000 Non-Brokered Private Placement Financing - More
- October 27, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Malaga: A clarification regards the technical report published in 2006 - More
- October 27, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Southampton Ventures to Commence Drilling in Ring of Fire, McFauld's Lake, Ontario on Noront Resources Ltd.'s Option to Joint Venture "Moonbeam" Property - More
- October 27, 2008 | Item | E-mail

UNOR Announces Completion of its 2008 Field Season and 2009 Discussions - More
- October 27, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Inspiration Mining Corporation to Launch Normal Course Issuer Bid - More
- October 27, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Industrial Minerals Engages RBC Capital Markets as Financial Advisor - More
- October 27, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. - Successful 2008 Study Program Continues At Alaska's Pebble Project - "The Pebble Partnership continues to make sizable investments across a broad range of technical, environmental and social disciplines to move the project forward efficiently toward the completion of a proposed development plan and the onset of permitting," said Norther