General Comments

The Precious Metals made it “three for three” last week, as all three metals, Gold, Silver and Platinum closed higher for the third week in a row. Spot Gold was the big winner, gaining $16.13/oz to close at $682.93, up from $666.80 the prior week to end at its highest levels since late April. Spot Silver also gained ground tacking on $.26/oz to finish at $13.27, up from $13.01, a gain of 1.99%. Helped by strength in Tokyo trade, spot Platinum leaped $16.00 or 1.22% to close at $1308, within $14 of the prior Spot market close of $1322 seen back on May 9^th. With the continued strength in underlying metals, large cap mining indices also continued a robust advance with the XAU gaining another $7.30 or 4.83% to finish at a reading of 158.38, its highest weekly close since mid-May 2006. The advance in large cap mining stocks added to gains seen in prior weeks, with the XAU gaining 4.19% the week of 7/13/07, and 6.66% the week of 7/6/07.

Financial Sense Junior Gold Mining Index (FSJG) Comments

Not surprisingly, smaller cap mining stocks also gained ground with the FSJG Mining Index finishing at 322.44, up from 312.34 the prior week for a gain of 10.01 index points or 3.23%. As we went to press this weekend, we were surprised to notice an error in our spreadsheet, which we failed to compute properly last week. The error was centered in the FSJG Producer Index, where a recent substitution threw off the figures, which were in turn accidentally reported last week.

As a result, we are including the correct closes for the last few weeks for that index with apologies for the oversight: FSJG Producer Index - 7/13/07 306.25, 7/06/07 316.25, 06/29/07 296.76, 06/22/07 304.88, 06/15/07 305.26, 06/08/07 297.39. In addition, the weird readings on the Junior Producer Index forced us to re-compute the FSJG Mining Index, which was also mis-reported as it is an aggregate of all three Sub-Indices. Readings for the FSJG Mining Index (40) were as follows: 7/20/07 322.44, 7/13/07 312.34, 7/06/07 307.38, 06/29/07 290.07, 06/22/07 289.89, and 06/15/07 283.35. In tabular format, the closes and moving average data are shown as follows:

With the gain of 3.23% on the week, the FSJG Mining Index ended approximately 3.4% below the 52 week highs seen in late February and mid-April in the mid 330 range. Other indices were mostly higher with the Junior Producer Index up 3.24% and the Exploration Index up 5.37%. On the downside, Development stage stocks lost some ground, with the Development Index slipping .003%. For the Exploration Index, Friday saw the index close at a value of 222.43 up from the prior week's close of 211.08, leaving the index above the 50 day moving average at 187.89, and the 200 day average at 164.54. With respect to the Development Index, the close of 611.42 last week was just a bit below the prior week's close of 613.76, with the index ending the week above the 50 day average at 601.73, but below the 200 day average at 658.36

Of the 40 stocks with the FSJG Mining Index, only seven issues are presently within close proximity to or at 52 week new highs. As a result, breadth within the index has bee quite poor, with almost as many stocks hitting or near new lows as are making new highs. On balance, the trend for most small cap stocks over the balance of the last four months going back to the late February high has been sideways to flat. This underlying ambiguous trend is reflected by the path of daily Advance-Decline Line which remains below its late February high.

Financial Sense Junior Gold Index™

50-day & 200-day Moving Averages of 40 Stocks

Above: the FS Junior Gold Mining Index just above the 200-day moving average.

Financial Sense Junior Gold Index™

Producer Index

Financial Sense Junior Gold Index™

Development Companies

Financial Sense Junior Gold Index™

Exploration Companies

Financial Sense Junior Gold Index™
FSJG (upper) Advance/Decline Line (lower)

That’s all for now,
Frank

© 2007 Frank Barbera. All rights reserved.
Financial Sense Junior Gold Index Archive

*Please note that the individual companies in this index are proprietary and will not be disclosed due to compliance and regulatory issues resulting from the relationship of FinancialSense.com, Puplava Financial Services, Inc., Registered Investment Advisor and Puplava Securities, Inc. Member Firm FINRA/SIPC.

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