Closing Report

T he Metals:

Gold saw slight losses in Asia and then rose almost 1% to as high as $1095.25 by early trade in London before it pulled back under $1090 around 8AM EST and then rose to a new all-time high of $1095.42 by a little before noon EST, but it then fell back off in the last couple of hours of trade and ended with a gain o f just 0.19%.  Silver followed a similar pattern and ended over 1% from its session high of $17.60 with a gain of 0.99%.  At the time of writing, both metals are also climbing to new highs in after hours access trade.

Euro gold fell to about €732, platinum gained $6 to $1358.50, and copper gained a few cents to about $2.98.

Gold and silver equities rose over 2% in the first hour of trade before they fell to see slight losses by mid-afternoon and then climbed back near their earlier highs after the fed’s statement was released, but they then fell back off a bit in late trade along with the major indices and ended with less than 1% gains.

The Economy:

Treasury expects debt limit will be hit in Dec.  Yahoo

The FOMC Rate Decision kept the fed funds rate in its target range of 0.00% to 0.25%, as expected.  They said that they belie ve inflation remains subdued and that they will keep rates exceptionally low for an extended period.  Some were looking for a change in their language to perhaps open the door for an increase in rates at some point in the foreseeable future, but it appears that there will not be a change any time soon.

Tomorrow at 8:30AM EST brings third quarter Productivity expected at 6.5% and Initial Jobless Claims for 10/31 expected at 520,000.

The Markets:

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

Oil added to early gains after the Energy Information Administration announced that crude inventories surprisingly fell 4 million barrels, gasoline inventories fell 300,000 barrels, and distillates fell 400,000 barrels.

The U.S. dollar index and treasuries fell in early trade on expectations that the fed would hold rates in their record low range and also keep language in their statement that they expect to hold them there for an extended period.  Both then fell to new session lows after the fed confirmed they won’t be raising rates anytime in the near future.  2-year yields fell while 10-year and 30-year yields rose, so the yield curve steepened overall.

The Dow, Nasd aq, and S&P rose roughly 1% in the first hour of trade on decent economic data and expectations for continued low rates, but they then cut into their gains a bit midday on apprehension over what impacts the fed statement would have. All three indices eventually climbed to about their earlier highs or better as the fed did what most expected by announcing plans for exceptionally low rates for an extended period, but stocks then fell back off in the last hour of trade and ended mixed and near unchanged on worries over potential unintended consequences of rather radical actions recently taken by the fed and the government.

Among the big names making news in the market today were Pulte Homes, GMAC Financial Services, MillerCoors, Comcast, and Time Warner.

The Commentary:

“Dear CIGAs,

Today’s major event was FOMC’s unanimous decision to keep "Interest rates exceptionally low" for an "extended period of time."

This means that US dollar will remain the carry trade currency of choice as we transit to new ground with a major reserve currency as a carry trade currency. There are no rules or experience with this phenomenon.

Professor Roubini says $2000 gold is nonsense. I agree. It is probably going to a minimum of Alf’s lowest estimate of $3000.

Professor Roubini might consider the old saying of "Never say never."

I can’t tell you how many emails have I received telling me that gold would NEVER trade over $1000. One caller told me gold would never trade over $1000 in his lifetime, so I enquired how old he was. He hung up.”- Jim Sinclair

The Statistics:

Activity from: 11/03/2009

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]

 Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: SPDR added 4.88 tonnes and the LSE subtracted 3.47 tonnes.

COMEX Gold Trust (IAU) Total Tonnes in Trust: 79.83 - No change from yesterday’s data.

Silver Trust (SLV) Total Tonnes in Trust: 8,744.00 - No change from yesterday’s data.

The Miners:

Anatolia’s (ANO.TO) completed public offering, IAMGOLD’ s (IAG) third quarter results, New Gold’s (NGD) third quarter results, Excellon’s (EXN.TO) operational update, and Silver Dragon’s (SDRG.OB) drill results 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:

Toronto-listed miners issue stock at record pace - "Canada's main stock market said on Wednesday that equity financings by mining compani es so far in 2009 have already topped full-year records due to resurgent demand for gold assets and that was led by Barrick Gold Corp's(ABX.TO) C$4.3 billion ($4 billion) stock sale." More
- November 04, 2009 | Item | E-mail

Silver Dragon Discovers 914.8 g/t Silver, 7.58% Lead, and 9.11% Zinc Over 15.30 Meters at its Award-Winning Dadi Silver Polymetallic Project in Northern China - "Silver Dragon Resources Inc. (OTCBB:SDRG - News) is pleased to announce additional results from the 2009 drilling program at its Dadi silver property in Inner Mongolia, Northern China. Dadi is a silver-lead-zinc polymetallic project owned by Sanhe Sino Top Resources & Technologies, Ltd. ("Sino-Top"), of which Silver Dragon Resources Inc. has a 40% equity interest. Sino-Top was recently awarded the prestigious Prospector/Exp lorer of the Year Award at China Mining 2009 (see press release of October 22, 2009) for the Dadi project." More
- November 04, 2009 | Item | E-mail

Anatolia completes $56 million public offering - "Anatolia Minerals Development Limited ("Anatolia" or the "Company") (TSX:ANO - News) announces that it has completed its previously announced bought deal public offering of common shares of Anatolia at a price of C$2.45 per common share. The underwriters, led by BMO Capital Markets and including RBC Dominion Securities Inc., Wellington West Capital Markets Inc., National Bank Financial Inc., Paradigm Capital Inc., Dundee Securities Corporation, Haywood Securities Inc. and Raymond James Ltd., exercised their over-a llotment option resulting in a total of 23,000,000 common shares being issued for gross proceeds of C$56,350,000." More
- November 04, 2009 | Item | E-mail