Gold Seeker Closing Report: Gold and Silver Gain Roughly 1%

	Close	Gain/Loss
Gold	$953.30	+$6.15
Silver	$13.71	+$0.21
XAU	148.13	-0.02%
HUI	657.63	-0.11%
GDM	1092.96	-0.01%
JSE Gold	2331.92	-28.29
USD	78.76	-0.14
Euro	142.13	-0.02
Yen	106.94	+0.27
Oil	$65.40	-$0.21
10-Year	3.554%	+0.077
T-Bond	117.28125	-1.046875
Dow	8881.26	-0.39%
Nasdaq	1926.38	+0.53%
S&P	954.07	-0.05%

Gold and silver saw slight gains in Asia before they fell to see modest losses at as low as $944.60 and $13.37 in London, but they then rallied back higher for most of trade in New York and gold ended near its high of $954.45 with a gain of 0.65% while silver ended near its high of $13.748 with a gain of 1.56%.

Euro gold rose to about €670, platinum gained a dollar to $1169, and copper gained over 7 cents to about $2.52.

Gold and silver equities fell about 1.5% by midmorning before they rallied to see over 1% gains by early afternoon, but they then fell back off into the close and ended with slight losses on the day.

There were no major economic reports today, but Bernanke continued his testimony before Congress today with a Q&A session in front of the Senate Banking Committee. His comments were mixed, but the overall feeling was definitely one of cautiousness on the future of the economy heading forward. He also “fought hard to protect the independence of the

U.S.

central bank and keep responsibility for consumer protection on financial products in its hands.”

Tomorrow at 8:30AM EST brings Initial Jobless Claims for 7/18 expected at 558,000 and at 10AM is the Existing Home Sales report for June expected at 4,830,000.

Oil pared early losses but still ended slightly lower after it was announced that crude inventories fell 1.8 million barrels, gasoline inventories rose 800,000 barrels, and distillates rose 1.2 million barrels. Capacity Utilization fell 2.1% to 85.8%.

The U.S. dollar index and treasuries fell on renewed worries over the continually enormous amounts of debt to be auctioned.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P traded mixed and near unchanged in reaction to varied earnings reports.

Among the big names making news in the market today were Pfizer, GE, PepsiCo, Delta, CIT, Boeing, IBM, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo.

Gold is going for its third try against $1000 which will after minor work fall as gold moves on to $1224.

If you are not protected you are about to lose the opportunity to protect yourself.

From my vantage point, the big story of the day is the action in the copper market which soared through its high of this year and pulled gold and silver along with it even in the face of a weaker crude oil market and collapsing grain prices.

Copper is moving higher in anticipation of a rebounding Chinese economy and thoughts among some that the US economy has hit a bottom. Keep in mind that does not necessarily mean that we are off to the races in the US; even those subscribing to the “worst is over” theory are not proclaiming that. What they are looking for is very flat growth with the economy meandering sideways over here in the US. Interesting enough, the lumber market does not seem to be buying into the recovery theory. Neither do the bonds for that matter which although lower on the day thus far, have rallied sharply over the last two trading sessions especially after Bernanke’s Congressional testimony of yesterday.

Chatter today was that the CFTC looking into limiting the index funds (and perhaps some of the hedge funds) position wise spooked wheat market traders putting pressure on that market which did not help corn any, as it has been under pressure from what appears to be nearly perfect growing weather (there is talk of record yields and perhaps even a record crop). That has me eying the CCI index, which is off its high of this year but appears to be holding well above the lows it recorded late last year and early this year. If the commodity markets are looking for deflation, they do not appear to be showing it at least on that chart and particularly on the copper chart which is amazing bullish.

The commodity currencies also do not appear to be voting with the deflationists as they are all higher as well. It will take a push by the bonds above 121 ^00 to tip the scales in favor of the deflation argument as well as a meltdown in those commodity currencies. For now, that crowd seems to be running out of allies.

The Dollar was weaker today. There does not appear to be much in the way of chart support until we get down to this year’s low near 78.40. A crack of that and kiss the greenback goodbye until at least 76. That should be the catalyst to push gold above $980 and on up to $1,000. Generally once we get through August, seasonals tend to begin favoring gold advances.

Taking a look at the hourly gold chart you can see that the same pattern of consolidation, followed by a leg higher, followed by consolidation is very obvious. Resistance can clearly be seen near today’s session highs which is where our “friends” the bullion banks continue to ply their evil craft attempting to create a make believe world in which there are no consequences resulting from nearly unlimited Quantitative Easing.

The gold shares are higher today with quite a battle shaping up near the 360-363 level on the HUI. Should the miners be able to push cleanly through this level on the close, it would augur further strength and a test of the 380 level. The mining shares look to be steadily GRINDING higher. It would take a closing push through the 400 level to set them on more of a sharper uptrending move.”- Dan Norcini, More at JSMineset.com

“August Gold closed up 6.4 at 953.3. This was 8.7 up from the low and 1.7 off the high.

September Silver finished up 0.222 at 13.7, 0.045 off the high and 0.315 up from the low.

After some initial weakness the gold contract managed a fairly impressive recovery effort on Wednesday morning and that strength seemed to be off a combination of residual weakness in the Dollar, periodic up beat economic views and gains in US equity prices. With the Dollar flirting with a significant downside breakout on the charts, it is possible that the currency market influence was a dominating force in the trade. Some players even went as far as suggesting that the decision to leave quantitative easing in place (from the Humphrey Hawkins testimony) for an extended period of time might have rekindled inflationary expectations again.

The silver market seemed to outperform gold after the initial early morning choppiness. Like the gold market, the silver market seemed to garner buying interest off the combination of weakness in the Dollar, strength in equity markets and perhaps even because of strength in copper prices. In fact, copper prices managed to reach the highest level since last October and that in turn seemed to provide some spillover buying interest in the silver market.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: SPDR subtracted 2.13 tonnes.

Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: 0.91 tonnes were added to the trust.

Gammon’s (GRS) updated guidance, Apollo’s (AGT) drilling plans, Great Basin’s (GBG) board changes, Keegan’s (KGN) drill results, and SNS Silver’s (SNS.V) mine progress were among the big stories in the gold and silver mining industry making headlines today.

Winners & Losers tracks NYSE and AMEX listed gold and silver mining stocks that trade over $1.

Tiomin Announces Settlement With Jaguar Financial - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

Linear Metals Announces $900,000 Private Placement - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

Newmont Declares Regular Quarterly Dividend - "The Board of Directors of Newmont Mining Corporation (NYSE: NEM - News) today declared a regular quarterly dividend of $0.10 per share of common stock, payable September 28, 2009 to holders of record at the close of business on September 8, 2009. In Australia, CHESS Depository Nominees Pty Ltd (CAN 071 346 506) is the stockholder of record of the underlying shares of Newmont common stock. Holders of the CHESS Depository Interests (CDIs) are entitled to receive the dividend on a ten CDIs-for-one share of common stock basis." More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

Alexandria Secures 100% Interest in Valdora Gold Property, Val d'Or - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

SilverCrest Mines Inc. Announces Grant of Stock Options - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

Solitaire Minerals Corp. Options the Bienville Property located in Quebec to Gee-Ten Ventures Inc. - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

Ventana Appoints Stephen Orr as President and CEO - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

Premier continues to define high-grade gold at EP and SP Zone targets - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

Running Fox: Swaps Adjoining U.S.A. Uranium Lode Mineral Claims - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

Fortune River and Christopher James Gold Corp. Sign LOI for Second Nevada Project - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

Solitaire Minerals Corp. Options the Bienville Property Located in Quebec to Gee-Ten Ventures Inc. - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

KWG completes Ring of Fire royalty purchase - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

Cadan Appoints Technical Consultant for Mining Operations - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

Ashburton Commences Work Program in Yukon - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

American Bonanza Gold Corp.: Drilling Expands the Year One D-Zone at Copperstone - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

Etruscan converts ownership interest in Samira to a royalty interest - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

SEMAFO Increases Ownership at the Samira Hill Mine - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

El Nino Ventures options Bathurst project to Votorantim Metals Canada Inc. - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

Commerce Resources Corp. Exploring Eldor for its Rare Earth Potential - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

General Metals Receives Check Assay, Bulk Sample Assay and Draft Gold Resource Calculation Results Which Are Being Evaluated - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

Selwyn Resources Options Vinata Property, Mexico and Plans Drilling - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

B2Gold Corp. Completes $25 Million Common Share Offering - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

Amerigo Announces Q2 2009 Production Results and Dates for Release of Q2 2009 Results and Investor Conference Call - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

Trilliant Exploration Signs Definitive Documentation for Acquisition of Compania Minera Santafemining of Ecuador - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

Iberian Minerals to Buy Aguas Tenidas Underground Contractor - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

Redstar Options Carlin Trend Property in Nevada to Fronteer Development Group - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

Alix and Cloudbreak Commence Work Program in Yukon - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

KWG completes Ring of Fire royalty purchase - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

Minatura Gold Announces Signing of Agreement to Acquire Flat Holdings' 40% Interest in Gold Venture 2008, LLC - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

Golden Goose sells its Montauban properties - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

Getty Copper Receives a Positive Preliminary Feasibility Study from West Coast Environmental and Engineering on The Getty Project. - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

LEXAM Announces C$3 MILLION INVESTMENT In VG GOLD - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

VG Gold Announces Strategic Investment by Rob McEwen's Lexam Explorations - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

Hindustan Zinc Limited; Results for the First Quarter Ended 30 June 2009 - More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

SNS Silver Highlights Crescent Mine Progress - "SNS Silver Corporation ("SNS" or the "Company") (TSX-V:SNS - News) continues to advance the Crescent Mine (Silver Valley, Idaho) towards production. Resource development costs and scheduling are nearly complete with metallurgical research currently underway. Custom milling opportunities for Crescent ore are currently being investigated with several local mining companies. Historical milling information of Crescent ores, along with recent metallurgical test data, will provide useful information as to the future processing requirements." More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

Gammon Reports Preliminary Second Quarter Production and Updated 2009 Guidance - "While production at Ocampo was in line with Q1 2009, the 7-week labour disruption at El Cubo adversely affected production during the quarter. As a result of the lower consolidated production levels achieved in the quarter, consolidated cash costs are expected to be between $445 and $465 per gold equivalent ounce." More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

Apollo Gold Announces Plans for the 2009 Drilling Program at its Grey Fox Property near Timmins, Ontario, Canada - "Apollo Gold Corporation ("Apollo" or the "Company") (TSX: APG - News) (NYSE - Amex: AGT) is pleased to announce plans for a second phase of core drilling to follow up the positive drilling results from the 2008 diamond drilling program on its Grey Fox property. The 2008 program encountered several high grade intercepts, including hole GF08-10 which contained 3.5 meters (estimated true width 2.9 meters) grading 455 grams per tonne (see Table 1 for detailed drill data and Figures 2 for the cross section). Complete drilling results are available on our website." More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

Great Basin Announces Changes to the Board - "Great Basin Gold Ltd. ("Great Basin" or the "Company") (TSX: GBG; NYSE Amex: GBG; JSE: GBG) announces the resignation of Mr. Sipho Nkosi from its Board of Directors, effective July 17, 2009 consequent upon the Company's recent adoption of its majority votes policy." More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

Keegan Receives Excellent Results From 2009 Drilling at Esaase Gold Project - "Keegan Resources Inc. ("Keegan") (TSX:KGN - News)(AMEX:KGN - News) is pleased to announce results from four holes of its 2009 resource expansion-drilling program at the Esaase property in southwest Ghana. The results are from the part of the program targeting areas where Keegan had obtained significant grade widths at the end of its 2008 drilling program (see Keegan News Release dated February 18, 2009)." More
- July 22, 2009 | Item | E-mail

- Would you like to receive the Free Daily Gold Seeker Report in your e-mail? Click here

Note: This article may be reproduced provided the article, in full, is used and mention to Gold-Seeker.com is given.

Disclosure: The owner, editor, writer and publisher and their associates are not responsible for errors or omissions. The author of this report is not a registered financial advisor. Readers should not view this material as offering investment related advice. Gold-Seeker.com has taken precautions to ensure accuracy of information provided. Information collected and presented are from what is perceived as reliable sources, but since the information source(s) are beyond Gold-Seeker.com’s control, no representation or guarantee is made that it is complete or accurate. The reader accepts information on the condition that errors or omissions shall not be made the basis for any claim, demand or cause for action. Past results are not necessarily indicative of future results. Any statements non-factual in nature constitute only current opinions, which are subject to change. Nothing contained herein constitutes a representation by the publisher, nor a solicitation for the purchase or sale of securities & therefore information, nor opinions expressed, shall be construed as a solicitation to buy or sell any stock, futures or options contract mentioned herein. Investors are advised to obtain the advice of a qualified financial & investment advisor before entering any financial transaction.