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Jason Hommel: What''s the deal with the silver ETF?

Section: Daily Dispatches

5:54p ET Friday, February 24, 2006

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

How does Peter Grandich of The Grandich Letter
keep getting away with it? Here he is again tonight
quoted in a major news service story while using
the word "manipulation" in regard to gold. Along
with GATA, all gold and silver investors owe
Grandich much gratitude.

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.

* * *

Gold rises over $10 to end the week up 1%;
Amex Gold Bugs Index leads rise among benchmarks

By Myra P. Saefong
CBSMarketWatch.com
Friday, February 24, 2006

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7BCF30F9D2%
2DBAEB%2D4208%2DB7DE%2D1A8FECA5C6C3%7D&source=blq%
2Fyhoo&dist=yhoo&siteid=mkwt

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures climbed more than $10 an
ounce Friday to close at a two-week high, up over 1% for the week as
investors fretted over an explosion at an oil refinery in Saudi
Arabia and weak U.S. economic data.

"The news of an attack on an oil facility in Saudi Arabia is just an
example of the many different geopolitical events that underpin the
secular gold bull market," said Peter Grandich, editor of the
Grandich Letter.

"Throw in real physical and investment demand, inflation fears,
currency turmoil, manipulation. and shrinking mine supply, and you
should realize a gold bear may want to stay in hibernation long
after winter ends," he said.

Gold for April delivery climbed as high as $562 an ounce on the New
York Mercantile Exchange, its highest level since Feb. 10. The
contract closed up $10.30, or 1.9%, at $561.20. It closed out last
Friday's session at $554.60, so it's $6.60 higher for the week.

Saudi authorities prevented an attempted attack on one of the
biggest oil-production facilities in the world, as guards opened
fire on at least two cars carrying explosives as they attempted to
slam into the gates in an apparent suicide attack, the BBC said.
It's believed to be the first time that Saudi oil facilities have
been attacked, it said.

The news lifted futures prices for oil by almost 4% Friday.

"The trigger fingers hovering over all of the instability-sensitive
commodity 'buy' buttons (gold, oil, etc.) are as jittery as ever,"
said Jon Nadler, an investment products analyst at bullion dealers
Kitco.com. The mere thought of an organized, expanded terrorist
effort to sabotage the West's oil lifelines (and thereby its
economies) has people looking for cover and heading straight towards
gold," he said.

"Gold would like to go somewhat lower to follow long-established
seasonal patterns as well as to complete the corrective phase it was
in, after a swift race to nearly $600 per ounce," said Nadler.

But "the market finds itself compelled to react to overwhelmingly
distressing developments coming from the across the globe," he said,
adding that "whatever strength technical and fundamental factors
previously contributed to gold prices, they are now taking a back
seat to geopolitical realities and their effects on investor
psychology."

Adding to support Friday, "economic data from the U.S. has been
extremely negative...after durable goods orders fell by 10.2% in
January," James Moore, an analyst at TheBullionDesk.com, said in a
note to clients.

But the U.S. dollar had a muted reaction immediately following the
sharply weaker-than-expected durable goods orders number, which
showed the largest decline since July 2000.

Meanwhile, gold's fall on Thursday is "particularly worrisome,
because gold is in a critical period right now -- one in which it
has to prove itself, or suffer the consequences in terms of price,"
said Brien Lundin, editor of Gold Newsletter.

On Thursday, April gold fell $5.70 to close at a one-week low under
$551.

Traders should be "wary of where this market heads in the days
ahead," and be prepared to "take profits, in bits and pieces, when
they are outsized, long-term and available," he said.

Other metals trading in the futures market followed gold higher.

May silver futures rose 26.9 cents to close at $9.825 an ounce, up
over 3% for the week. April platinum tacked on $13 to end at $1,036
an ounce after losing $7.40 on Thursday. It was up 2.5% from last
week's close. March palladium closed at $287.85 an ounce, up $2.85
for the day but down 0.3% for the week.

And May copper was at $2.207 a pound, closing up 0.75 cent for the
session to post a 1% rise for the week.

On the supply side, copper inventories were up 1,785 short tons at
33,101 as of late Thursday, according to New York Mercantile
Exchange data.

Gold and silver stocks were unchanged from the previous day, with
gold supplies at 7.52 million troy ounces and silver at 127.5
million troy ounces.

On the equities side, metals-mining indexes closed broadly higher
for the session Friday as well as the week, mirroring gains in the
metals futures. ...

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