Gold Ends Weds Unchanged as Oil, Dollar and Stocks Whip on Economic & Political Fears

From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...

Gold rose almost 1% to $818.05 and silver climbed over 2% to $13.40 in Asia on Wednesday before both metals fell in New York.

Crude oil was up and down and ultimately ended slightly higher as traders digested a widely varied inventory report and a reiterated call from Goldman Sachs for $149 oil by the end of the year.

This comes despite Goldman Sachs also forecasting a strengthening Dollar.

Russia said that it will respond to the recent missile defense deal between the US and Poland with "more than just diplomatic protests" as it considers the step as an escalation to an arms race. The market was not quite sure what to make of the statement, but any further developments could certainly increase any geopolitical concern premium in energy prices.

US crude inventories meantime built 9.4 million barrels last week, gasoline inventories fell 6.2 million barrels, distillates built 500,000 barrels, and refinery utilization fell 0.2% to 85.7%.

The US Dollar index rose on the view that the outlook for other world economies going forward is relatively worse than where the US is headed.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P opened lower on more worries about the financials as Fannie and Freddie were rumored to be meeting with the Treasury despite their public claim of no need for new capital. All three indices rose as oil dropped from its highs, but gains were modest at the close.

Treasuries ended higher on economic and geopolitical jitters. Gold and silver rallied back higher into the close and ended with losses of just 0.1% and 0.72% for the day.

The Gold Price in Euros rose over €541, platinum gained $13.50 to $1364, and copper fell a few cents to about $3.40.

Gold and silver equities rose over 1% at the open before they fell to see slight losses by early afternoon, but they then rallied back higher into the close and ended mixed and near unchanged.

There were no major economic reports, but the Mortgage Bankers Association reported that US home-loan applications fell another 1.5% last week to the lowest level since December 2000.

Thursday at 13:30 GMT brings Initial Jobless Claims for 8/16 (expected at 438,000) and at 15:00 GMT comes the Leading Economic Indicators report for July – expected at -0.3% – as well as and the Philadelphia Fed, expected at -13.4.

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