Gold Seeker Weekly Wrap-Up: Gold and Silver Gain Over 3% and 4% on the Week

Please Note: US Markets are closed on Monday in observance of Memorial Day. The Gold Seeker Report will return on Tuesday.

	Close	Gain/Loss	On Week
Gold	$1212.20	-$0.30	+3.10%
Silver	$18.34	-$0.10	+4.09%
XAU	173.93	-0.95%	+4.71%
HUI	453.70	-0.99%	+5.06%
GDM	1370.87	-0.95%	+5.23%
JSE Gold	2497.40	-36.56	+4.22%
USD	86.76	+0.50	+1.56%
Euro	122.77	-0.91	-2.35%
Yen	109.98	+0.17	-1.10%
Oil	$73.97	-$0.58	+5.61%
10-Year	3.301%	-0.037	+3.16%
Bond	123.21875	+0.28125	-1.33%
Dow	10136.63	-1.19%	-0.56%
Nasdaq	2257.04	-0.91%	+1.26%
S&P	1089.40	-1.24%	+0.16%

Gold saw a gain of $2.75 at $1215.25 at around 5AM EST before it fell to see an over $10 loss at $1202.10 by late morning in New York, but it then spiked back higher in the last couple of hours of trade and ended with a loss of just 0.025%. Silver climbed almost 1% to $18.62 and fell to as low as $18.22 before it also bounced higher in late trade, but it still ended with a loss of 0.54%.

Euro gold rose to about €985, platinum lost $6.50 to $1543.50, and copper fell 5 cents to about $3.10.

Gold and silver equities fell a little over 1% by late morning and remained near that level for most of the rest of the day.

Report	For	Reading	Expected	Previous
Personal Income	Apr	0.4%	0.4%	0.4%
Personal Spending	Apr	0.0%	0.3%	0.6%
PCE Prices - Core	Apr	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
Chicago PMI	May	59.7	60.0	63.8
Michigan Sentiment	May	73.6	73.2	73.3

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

Oil fell and the U.S. dollar index rose as Fitch cut Spain’s default rating and sent the euro lower again.

Treasuries reversed early losses and turned higher on increased worries over Europe and worse than expected economic data that sent the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P about 1% lower on the day.

Among the big names making news in the market Friday were Shell, Prudential and AIG, Toys ‘R’ Us, Apple, UAL and Delta, and Ford.

Fitch’s downgrade of Spain pushed the equity markets over the cliff after yesterday’s big relief rally on the news that the Chinese were going to stay with the Euro (what did people think they were going to say? “Oh yes – we are going to dump all of our Euro denominated debt tomorrow morning.”)

I am not particularly sure why equities faded on this news as did the Euro since everyone and their mother expected it already, so to me it is not “news”. Still, it perhaps served to bring suspicions concerning the remainder of the PIIGS’s financial footing to the forefront of short-sighted traders’ minds once again.

Once the equities went down, so did everything else except the Dollar and the bond market. That includes gold which while it held fairly well considering the widespread algorithm selling across the commodity futures market, could not get through $1,220, which is a resistance level that must be taken out to spark some short covering and kick it up to $1,227 where it then has a chance to resume trending to the upside.

Failure to take out $1,220 soon will likely lead to a setback down towards $1,190 which is the first level of chart support. Below that is much stronger support centered near $1170 or so.

It looks to me like we have a lot of holiday trade occurring today with some of the markets I watch moving rather sharply both higher and lower as the volume and liquidity drops off in front of Memorial Day.

Open interest has fallen off a decent amount this week during the rollover period and is down near 558,000 contracts. As mentioned previously, I am especially interested in seeing whether the Swap Dealers have continued to draw down their short position in this market. If so, it would make the 4th consecutive week that this fledgling trend has been intact. Keep in mind that we had three big down days last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday which would have given shorts a good opportunity to cover.

August gold is now the lead contract as June gets ready to head into its delivery period. I still do not understand why those who need some large amounts of gold do not stand for delivery and get it out of the Comex. They would end the gold suppression scheme in a week’s time and allow the metal to move to a natural level of equilibrium since the gold shorts could not deliver the gold at current prices.

The HUI is back to following the broader equity markets swinging higher and lower in sync with those.

The sort of wild swings in the equity markets this week is further proof that the hedge fund algorithms have now become the markets in the US. Whatever those infernal things do on any given day, is what the market will do, irregardless of what might be occurring fundamentally. That is why investors must not form judgments on the macroeconomic scene based on day to day price action. Study the longer term oriented price charts for clues to what the big picture is and read guys like my friend Monty Guild’s perspective to keep from having your mind whipsawed by these out-of-control hedge funds.

Jim has given you all the reasons why gold is headed inexorably higher. None of the causes behind the decade-long rise in the price of gold have changed; if anything the disease is becoming more virulent as the health of paper currencies becomes more suspect and the debt-ladened West succumbs to the “cure” of its sickness – too much debt by issuing more of the same.”- Dan Norcini, More at JSMineset.com

Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: SPDR added 0.304 tonnes to a new record high holding and the LSE added 1.19 tonnes.

COMEX Gold Trust (IAU) Total Tonnes in Trust: 84.22:+0.61 change from yesterday’s data.

Silver Trust (SLV) Total Tonnes in Trust: 9218.80: +27.43 change from yesterday’s data.

Tanzanian Royalty’s (TRE) completed private placement, ITH’s (THM) test results, and Gammon Gold’s (GRS) investment in Golden Queen Mining 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.

Minago Drilling Continues to Return Exceptional Intersections - More
- May 28, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Tanzanian Royalty Completes $1.0 Million Private Placement - "Tanzanian Royalty Exploration Corporation announces that the $1,000,000 private placement with Van Tongeren Management LLC announced May 6, 2010 has closed." More
- May 28, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Silvore Fox Minerals Announces Comprehensive Exploration Program on Coxheath Copper/Gold Property & Additional Mineral Claim Holdings - More
- May 28, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Fitch Affirms Goldcorp Inc. at 'BBB'; Outlook Stable - "Goldcorp's credit rating reflects its sizable long-lived reserves in areas of relatively low geopolitical risk, favorable cost position and strong project pipeline, as well as plans for substantial development spending over the medium term. Goldcorp is committed to maintaining a conservative investment grade capital structure given its exposure to gold prices. In weak gold markets, the company has the ability to defer development and exploration and focus on cash preservation." More
- May 28, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Yale Continues to Encounter High Grade Silver at Los Amoles - More
- May 28, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Western Lithium Changes Name to Western Lithium USA Corporation - More
- May 28, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Seafield Announces Private Placement of Units - More
- May 28, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Strateco Resources Has Held Its 2010 Annual Meeting - More
- May 28, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Mexoro Minerals Ltd announces approval of name change to Pan American Goldfields Ltd., reincorporation into Delaware and other corporate restructuring - More
- May 28, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Ascot Resources Ltd.: Second Drill Commences Work at Premier - More
- May 28, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Cartier Resources Inc. Announces AGM Election Results - More
- May 28, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Royal Roads appoints new CFO - Announcement regarding option grant - More
- May 28, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Globex's Parbec Property-Savant Hits on First Drill Hole - More
- May 28, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Kiska To Acquire Kennecott's Copper Joe Prospect Near Whistler Project, Alaska - More
- May 28, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Channel Resources Announces Change to Board of Directors and Filing of Second Quarter Financial Statements - More
- May 28, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Savant Announces Results of First Hole on the Parbec Gold Property - More
- May 28, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

First Point Grants Stock Options - More
- May 28, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Hinterland Starts 2010 Exploration Program on Ballarat Property in White Gold District, Yukon - More
- May 28, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

NGEx Resources Inc.: Los Helados Drilling Confirms and Extends Porphyry Style Mineralization - More
- May 28, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

First Liberty Power Is Pleased to Announce Successful Completion of Gravity Survey Field Work on Lida Valley Nevada Prospect - More
- May 28, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

High River Gold Announces Change to the Board of Directors and Inclusion in FTSE Gold Mines Index - More
- May 28, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Nautilus Releases Annual Report and Proposes New Director at AGM in Vancouver - More
- May 28, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Northquest Ltd. High Falls Project Option Terminated - More
- May 28, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Wits Gold announces operational review and abridged results for the year ended 28 February 2010 and posting of annual report - More
- May 28, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

American Consolidated Minerals Corporation: Drilling Program Begins - More
- May 28, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Sage-Gryphon Expanding the Borealis Gold Deposit; 21.3 Metres at 1.47g/t Au - More
- May 28, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Conway Resources Signs a Milling Agreement to Process and Refine Bulk Samples From the Conway and Paquin Veins - More
- May 28, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Northland Resources S.A.: Border River Commission Hearing on Tapuli Mine and Kaunisvaara Mill Environmental Permit Application - More
- May 28, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Tiger completes US$12 million payment and moves to 100% ownership of Congo Minerals sprl - More
- May 28, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

International Tower Hill Reports New Flotation and Column Leach Results for the Livengood Project, Alaska - "International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. (TSX:ITH - News)(AMEX:THM - News)(Frankfurt:IW9 - News) ("ITH" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the results for its first large cell flotation tests results and Column leach test results. This initial follow-up test work produced encouraging flotation concentrates, with an average of 89% of the gold reporting to the concentrate (Table 1). In addition, the initial group of column leach test results at 1/2 inch crush size were received and showed results similar to the earlier bottle role data, thus confirming the leachability of the oxide ores." More
- May 28, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

Gammon Gold Announces Strategic Investment in Golden Queen Mining Company - "Gammon Gold Inc. ("Gammon") (TSX:GAM.to - News): Gammon is pleased to announce that it has signed an agreement to acquire 5,000,000 units of Golden Queen Mining Co. Ltd. ("Golden Queen") pursuant to a non-brokered private placement. Each unit consists of one common share, one quarter of one share purchase warrant exercisable at CAD $1.75, and one quarter of one share purchase warrant exercisable at CAD $2.00 for a period of 18 months from the closing date of the transaction." More
- May 28, 2010 | Item | ShareThis

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