Gold Seeker Weekly Wrap-Up: Gold and Silver Fall Slightly on the Week

	Close	Gain/Loss	On Week
Gold	$1081.80	-$2.30	-0.78%
Silver	$16.21	+$0.02	-4.53%
XAU	147.93	-3.58%	-6.83%
HUI	374.04	-4.00%	-7.39%
GDM	1123.33	-3.75%	-7.05%
JSE Gold	2208.51	-51.94	-3.95%
USD	79.48	+0.53	+1.55%
Euro	138.65	-1.05	-1.90%
Yen	110.76	-0.46	-0.41%
Oil	$72.89	-$0.75	-2.21%
10-Year	3.609%	-0.049	+0.31%
Bond	118.8125	+0.65625	UNCH
Dow	10067.33	-0.52%	-1.04%
Nasdaq	2147.35	-1.45%	-2.63%
S&P	1073.82	-0.99%	-1.64%

Gold briefly spiked higher following this morning’s GDP report to see a gain of $6.05 at $1090.15 before it fell back off to see a $9.50 loss at $1074.60 by midday, but it then rallied back higher into the close and ended with a loss of just 0.21%. Silver jumped to $16.34 and dropped to $16.014 before it also rose in late trade and ended with a gain of 0.12%.

Euro gold rose to about €780, platinum gained $12 to $1509, and copper fell to about $3.05.

Gold and silver equities fell about 2% midday before they rebounded slightly in early afternoon trade, but they then fell back off further into the close and ended with as much as 4% losses.

Report	For	Reading	Expected	Previous
GDP	Q4	5.7%	4.7%	2.2%
Chain Deflator	Q4	0.6%	1.3%	0.4%
Employment Cost Index	Q4	0.5%	0.4%	0.4%
Chicago PMI	Jan	61.5	57.2	58.7
Michigan Sentiment	Jan	74.4	73.0	72.8

Next week’s economic highlights include Personal Income and Spending, Construction Spending, and the ISM Index on Monday, Pending Home Sales on Tuesday, ADP Employment and ISM Services on Wednesday, Initial Jobless Claims, Productivity, Unit Labor Costs, and Factory Orders on Thursday, and January’s jobs data and Consumer Credit on Friday.

Oil fell below $73 a barrel on worries over worldwide demand while the U.S. dollar index rose on stronger than expected economic data in the US.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P saw impressive gains at the open on better than expected economic data, but they then fell back off midday and ended notably lower on concerns over Europe’s potential problems with sovereign debt.

Among the big names making news in the market Friday were Toyota, Mattel, Chevron, Honeywell, and Dover.

“Best thing gold can do is move $25 up or down from here ASAP. In either case it should signal the end of the correction. Personally I would like to see it breakdown to $1,050 – $1,060 as I think that would be the last great buying opportunity before the next leg up to $1,300+

I’m very happy to be in the bullish boat again with just a handful of long time fellow bulls like Sinclair and Murphy. Times like this separate the men from the boys!”- Peter Grandich, Grandich Letter

The big news today was the 4th quarter US GDP number. The shocking number of 5.7% growth, the fastest pace in six years, far exceeded the expectation of most analysts (Count me in as being extremely skeptical of that number especially with unemployment at current levels). That sent equities on a tear higher and while gold has recently been moving in lockstep with those, today was a turnaround from that pattern. It was taken back down through the $1,080 level as the Dollar shot upwards making mincemeat of yesterday’s sellers.

The recent pattern of the Dollar moving lower on “good” news was disrupted as traders bid the greenback higher on the “happy news”. At that point it must have been moving higher purely on momentum because the equity markets did a complete “about face” dropping well off their highs and moving into negative territory at one time. What makes the initial move higher in the equities even more suspect was the action in the bond market, which moved up more than half a point – that is not what I would expect from bond traders if they were convinced the economy was on the mend and ready for a stronger recovery. If bond traders thought for one moment that the growth number served up by the Feds was (a.) realistic, and/or (b.) sustainable, they would have taken the bonds down sharply out of concern of Fed rate hikes and liquidity withdrawal measures.

Further confirmation that the bond traders’ dubiousness is appropriate would be the bearish chart pattern in crude oil. That market certainly is not acting like energy traders believe the economy is growing at a 5.7% clip or the price of crude would not be dropping $10 barrel from $83 to $73. Heck, while we are at it, if the feds would create a cash for old refrigerators program, a cash for old motorcycles program and a cash for old television sets program, we could probably get a GDP number up near 9% this quarter and go on to pass China in our rate of growth. Like I said earlier, a 5.7% number sounds like a pile of hooey to me – then again I own a cow that just laid a huge egg big enough for 50 omelets. Takes about the same amount of intelligence to believe the latter as the former.

There are so many mixed signals being given off by the various bellwether markets that attempting to get a read on things is becoming an exercise in futility. Between constant government intervention and surreptitious rigging operations, combined with hedge fund algorithm madness, money is ricocheting back and forth in such chaotic fashion, that many traders are getting chopped to shreds. That is resulting in more and more players moving to short term trades, which then makes volatility increase all the more. Probably the best thing to do for the average investor is use the weekly charts which tend to filter out so much of this short term “noise” that seems to be getting louder to the point of annoying.

Back to gold – speculative long liquidation continues its rather torrid pace dropping off substantially in yesterday’s down market. Both longs and shorts are getting out with the shorts having their intentions frustrated by the buyer of size that continues to make their presence felt below and near the $1,080 region. It is evident that physical demand for gold is helping to stem the rate of price decline in gold. Bears are continuing to pressure the metal trying to reach further fund stops below the $1074 level but are being stymied by the strong buying that is occurring. The longer gold can bounce back from the current lows near $1,080, the stronger that support becomes technically as tentative speculative longs will begin dipping their feet in the water with nervous shorts quickly ringing the cash register when prices dip down near this level. That serves to reinforce the level further. As usual, time will make it clear for us. I am encouraged however to see this determined buyer continuing to surface on these selling bouts. Could it be China or India?

For now, the technical posture in gold remains bearish for the short term so rallies will continue to find willing sellers until price moves back above the $1100 level and remains there for a least two consecutive sessions. Support remains near the $1075 level with another level of support beneath that at $1,030 – $1, 025. Incidentally, February gold enters its delivery period next week so the speculative action will be focused on the April contract. It will be interesting to see what we get in the way of gold deliveries, not that most of us believe anything that the Comex warehouses report. You could probably have 8000 contracts of gold stopped and the warehouses would report a movement of 1,200 ounces out.

One of the big problems that the gold bulls have is the poor technical performance of the gold shares. It is difficult to get too excited about the metal’s prospects when you have hedge funds leaning on the shares with their ratio spreads. We really need to see the HUI get above 407 – 410 to garner some bullish excitement and give us some signs of life. For right now, about the best thing I can say for the shares is that many of them are extremely oversold on the daily charts.”- Dan Norcini, More at JSMineset.com

Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: The LSE subtracted 0.67 tonnes.

COMEX Gold Trust (IAU) Total Tonnes in Trust: 79.30 - No change from yesterday’s data.

Silver Trust (SLV) Total Tonnes in Trust: 9,384.98 - No change from yesterday’s data.

Randgold’s (GOLD) strengthened board and voting rights, and Excellon’s (EXN.TO) Chairman honour were among the big stories in the gold and silver mining industry making headlines Friday.

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

High Desert Gold Corporation Completes Final Tranche of Previously Announced Financing Bringing Total Gross Proceeds to $1,325,400 - More
- January 29, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Peter Crossgrove Receives Order of Ontario-Ontario's Highest Honour - "The Honourable David C. Onley invested Peter Crossgrove, Excellon's Chairman and CEO, along with 28 other outstanding Ontarians with the Order of Ontario at a ceremony held yesterday at Queen's Park. Mr. Crossgrove was honoured for his contributions to Ontario's healthcare, cancer care organizations and to the business community." More
- January 29, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Kodiak Announces 5,600 Metre Drill Program at Hercules and West Geraldton in the Beardmore-Geraldton Gold Camp - More
- January 29, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Intrepid Mines Limited Releases Activities Report for the Fourth Quarter - More
- January 29, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Carlisle Goldfields Completes Second Tranche of Non-Brokered Private Placement - More
- January 29, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Defaults on Bond Repayment to Caledonia Mining and Update on Timeline for Completion of No.4 Shaft Expansion - More
- January 29, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Bolero Provides Corporate Update - More
- January 29, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Geodex Announces Closing of $1.1 Million Private Placement - More
- January 29, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Golden Phoenix Appoints Thomas Klein as CEO and Signs Agreement to Form the Phoenix Development Group LLC With David Caldwell - More
- January 29, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Melkior Resumed Drilling on Carscallen Gold in Timmins West - More
- January 29, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Strateco Resources Inc.-Matoush: Start of a Major Drilling Program - More
- January 29, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Vior : Shares Issued to Fonds De solidarite FTQ - More
- January 29, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Sungro Minerals, Inc. Update to Conglomerate Mesa Project - More
- January 29, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Verena Minerals Announces Review of Strategic Alternatives - More
- January 29, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

TAC Gold Corp.: News Release - More
- January 29, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Yale Identifies New Zone at Orofino - More
- January 29, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Avanti Mining closes purchase of contiguous mineral tenures at Kitsault - More
- January 29, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Argonaut Gold Inc. Appoints New Chief Financial Officer, Barry Dahl - More
- January 29, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

First Quantum Minerals Ltd. and Kiwara PLC Announce Completion of Acquisition - More
- January 29, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

NAP Extends Gold Zones and Commences Shaft Deepening at Sleeping Giant Mine; Plans $6.2 Million Gold Exploration Program for 2010 - More
- January 29, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Great Quest to Start Program on the Dabia Ouest Gold Concession - More
- January 29, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Capella Resources Intersects 318 Meters of Gold at .68 g/t on its Lajitas Project in Chile - More
- January 29, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Geologix and Arian Execute Definitive Option to Purchase Agreement for the Tepal Gold-Copper Project, Mexico - More
- January 29, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Petaquilla Update on Production, Exploration and Development - More
- January 29, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Salares Lithium Appoints Mr. Pablo Mir as Director and Forms Technical Management Committee for the Salares 7 Project in Chile - More
- January 29, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

MDN Receives Positive Economic Indicators for the Niobium and Tantalum (Anita) Project - More
- January 29, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Timmins Gold Closes USD$15 Million Gold Denominated Financing With Sprott Asset Management LP - More
- January 29, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

CanAlaska Uranium and Kodiak start drilling at McTavish uranium project - More
- January 29, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Tiger Resources Issues December 2009 Quarterly Report - More
- January 29, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Randgold Resources strengthens board - "London and Nasdaq listed gold miner Randgold Resources today announced the appointment of an eminent academic, Dr Kadri Dagdelen, as a non-executive director." More
- January 29, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Randgold Resources Announces Total Voting Rights - "Randgold Resources Limited announces that, in accordance with FSA's Disclosure Rules and Transparency Rules, its issued share capital consists of 90,123,767 (ninety million one hundred and twenty three thousand seven hundred and sixty seven) ordinary shares of US$0.05 each." More
- January 29, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

- 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.