Gold and silver were moving lower early Wednesday even as the National
Association of Realtors reported a 4% jump in existing homes in November, 12.2%
above their 2010 level. Across the Atlantic, the European Central Bank began its
recently announced three-year bank lending facility, the Longer Term Refinancing
Operation , by lending a record-high 489 billion euros of three-year money at 1%
interest rates. Dampening NARs latest report were revisions it made to its
existing home sales statistics going back to 2007 that show that the market
crash was worse than it had estimated. NAR revised its original 2010 estimate
down a whopping 14.6%, to 4.19 million from an original 4.91 million sales. Home
sales for the entire 2007-10 period were revised lower by 14.3%. Spot gold was
trading about 0.2% lower around 11 a.m. Wednesday morning, with a bid price of
$1,612.40 per ounce and an ask price of $1,613.40. Spot gold traded as high as
$1,620.90 and as low as $1,604.90. The London afternoon reference price fix came
in at $1,608.50, down $5.50 an ounce from yesterdays reference price, according
to Kitco market data . Spot silver was down nearly 0.5%, bid at $29.42 per ounce
with an ask price of $29.52. The morning high as of time of writing was $29.70
and the low was $29.06. Tuesdays reference price was set at $29.75 in the London
a.m., 47 cents higher than yesterdays reference price. Gold prices had moved
down sharply by lunchtime Wednesday in London 1.9% lower than the weekly high
reached just three hours earlier, according to BullionVault s London Gold Market
Report. Some 523 bidders lined up to borrow three-year money from the ECB. This
is basically free money, BullionVault quoted Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg
market strategist Jens-Oliver Niklasch as saying. The conditions are unbeatable.
Everybody who can will try to get a piece of this cake. It remains to be seen
whether the money will filter through to the real economy as the ECB hopes. Many
banks still have to increase their capital ratios, ING economist Carsten Brzeski
said. Turning to exchange trading, gold and silver trusts were moving lower. The
SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE: GLD ) was showing losses of around 0.2%. The iShares Gold
Trust (NYSE: IAU ) was down around 0.2%. The iShares Silver Trust (NYSE: SLV )
was around 0.65% lower. Gold and silver mining ETFs were heading lower as well.
The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSE: GDX ) was around 0.2% lower. The
Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (NYSE: GDXJ ) was down over 0.5%. The
Global X Silver Miners ETF (NYSE: SIL ) was more than 1.1% lower. Gold mining
shares were mixed, with Eldorado Gold (NYSE: EGO ) up sharply following news
earlier this week it was acquiring European Goldfields. Agnico-Eagle Mines
(NYSE: AEM ) was showing gains of around 0.5%. Barrick Gold (NYSE: ABX ) was up
around 0.2%. Eldorado Gold was some 2.6% higher. Goldcorp (NYSE: GG ) was
between 0.4% and 0.9% lower. Newmont Mining (NYSE: NEM ) was around 0.3% lower.
NovaGold Resources (AMEX: NG ) was down around 2%. Silver mining shares were
broadly lower, though shares of Pan American Silver (NASDAQ: PAAS ) were up.
Coeur dAlene Mines (NYSE: CDE ) was lower by about 0.8%. Hecla Mining (NYSE: HL
) was down around 0.7%. Pan American Silver was more than 1.4% higher. Silver
Wheaton (NYSE: SLW ) was showing losses of more than 1%. Silver Standard
Resources (NASDAQ: SSRI ) was down around 1.7%. As of this writing, Andrew
Burger did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. Adrian
Ash of BullionVault contributed to this report.
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