Gold Seeker Weekly Wrap-Up: Gold and Silver Fall Almost 3% and 5% on the Week

Please Note: U.S. and Canadian markets are closed on Monday in observance of New Year’s Day.

The Metals:

Gold climbed $35.34 to as high as $1581.14 by late morning in New York before it fell back off a bit in afternoon trade, but it still ended with a gain of 1.12%.Silver surged to as high as $28.472 by late morning in New York, but it then fell back off into the close and ended with a loss of 0.65%.

Euro gold rose to about €1208, platinum gained $23 to $1392.30, and copper gained 6 cents to about $3.43.

Gold and silver equities traded mostly slightly higher and ended with modest gains.

China gold move will cut risk, not appetite MarketWatch

The Economy:

Growth in U.S. May Quicken on Confidence Even as Europe Shrinks: Economy Bloomberg

All of this week’s economic reports:

Next week’s economic highlights include the ISM Index, Construction Spending, and FOMC Minutes on Tuesday, Factory Orders on Wednesday, Initial Jobless Claims, ADP Employment, and ISM Services on Thursday, and December’s jobs data on Friday.

The Markets:

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

Oil fell on weak factory data from China.

The U.S. dollar index fell on new spending cuts and tax hikes in Spain.

Treasuries rose as the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P fell on lingering worries about debt and slow economic growth.

Among the big names making news in the market Friday were Verizon, RIM, and Liberty Mutual.

The Commentary:

“The Dollar is being sold down today in the year's last trading session as bulls book profits and window dress their accounts after the nice run higher over the last two months in the greenback.

This is allowing the commodity complex in general to rally and is benefitting both gold and silver.

Reading too much into one day's trading action at this time of the year is generally not wise. Volume is simply too low to validate any moves and with liquidity quite low, it does not take much in the way of order size to move these markets around. Also, some of the pit locals particularly are fond of separating traders from their money in this kind of holiday trade.

That being said, the Dollar has managed to finish the year of 2011 on a positive note, even if barely. It is hardly a ringing endorsement of the greenback however as it was more a "get the hell out of the Euro" trade than anything. Risk aversion and a flight to cash were the main culprits behind the Dollar's rise, especially over the last few months. Fundamentals cannot be said to be strong for the Dollar, not when we are running over $15 trillion in federal debt and are at 100% on the Debt to GDP ratio. If that were not bad enough, the president just asked for ANOTHER $1.2 TRILLION in additional spending limits.

Getting a read on things as we head into the New Year is a bit tricky since the same problems that have plagued Europe still remain and China, while still growing, is slowing down a bit. The US economy is working along a bottom and while recent economic news has shown some signs of stability and extremely modest growth, the idea that the economy is going to expand at a rate fast enough to do much if anything to cure the ailing jobs picture or even put a dent in the federal debt is wild and wishful fantasy. The US economy has bottomed out but that is a far cry from signaling halcyon days are ahead.

It does help to put things in perspective however and that is what the long term monthly charts are good for. This chart is hardly a vote of confidence in the US Dollar which has declined 30% over the last ten years as of the end of this year. While recent Dollar bulls may be congratulating themselves for making a wee bit of money this year, try telling one's kids and grandkids that their future looks rosy based on this chart.

As we start the New Year next week, the Dollar has a chance to extend the rally of the last two months if it can better the initial resistance level near 81.40. That would set up a push to 83, which if the Dollar can take this out, would pave the way an eventual run towards 89 - 90. Much depends on the state of mind of traders regarding risk and whether they are willing to commit capital that is sitting on the sidelines or to continue keeping their powder dry and hoping for signs of improvement in the global economy as a whole.”- Dan Norcini, More at http://www.traderdannorcini.blogspot.com/

“My Dear Friends,

Today (Thursday) was the first day that we got some good action in the gold price. It will be very interesting to see if sellers appear as they have been during Asian hours. Just because the manipulators use the illiquid Asian hours to paint gold do not assume it reveals the nationality of the selling. The gold market as we all know on a day to day basis is totally rigged. In fact, find a market anywhere that is not bullied by some young buck who considers himself the Master of the Universe.

Gold is coming up on a tight group of four very major support areas that will hold the price from which the next advance is to take place. We have reached a point in terms of the depth of despair in the gold community that was never reached in the 1968 to 1980 reactions.

That is all this is. Just another reaction in a Gold price headed for Alf’s $4500.

I imagine when gold reacts off $2100 the stampede to the bath tub with their razor blades will be on again. Gold has in no way topped. The gold reaction per day in terms of percentage was nothing whatsoever. We have in no way reached the level called “thrilling with bullish bliss” common of a top. Every dollar we have won has been paid for in blood. All the short of gold wunderkin Masters of the Universe will have to be destroyed before gold is fully priced. The community, if you can still call it that, is in a psychotic episode that is soon to end.

Regards,”- Jim Sinclair, JSMineset.com

GATA Posts:

'Financial repression' is gold price suppression

The Statistics:

Activity from: 12/29/2011

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]

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

COMEX Gold Trust (IAU) Total Tonnes in Trust: 172.52: No change from yesterday’s data.

Silver Trust (SLV) Total Tonnes in Trust: 9,605.79: No change from yesterday’s data.

The Miners:

Freeport’s (FCX) returning workers and First Majestic’s (AG) new chairman were among the big stories in the gold and silver mining industry making headlines Friday.

WINNERS

LOSERS

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

Please see Yahoo’s Mining/Metals News Wire for all of today’s mining news.

- Chris Mullen, Gold Seeker Report

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