Gold & Silver Slip as Dollar, T-Bonds Gain on Eurozone & US Slowdown

From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...

Gold and silver rose well over 1% by late trade in Asia on Thursday before they fell all the way to $793.50 and $12.61 by late morning in New York.

Both Gold and silver then rallied again in the last couple of hours of trade, ending with losses of 0.58% and 0.39% respectively.

The US Dollar index rose after both the Bank of England and the European Central Bank kept their interest rates unchanged and made it clear that the cost of credit has gone up.

ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet also hinted at problems with Europe's economy, comments which significantly hurt the Euro as he gave more credence to the possibility of the ECB cutting rates in the future.

The Gold Price in Euros rose to about €556, platinum gained $17.50 to $1399.50, and copper fell over 5 cents to about $3.30.

Gold miners and silver equities fell for most of the day and ended about 4% lower.

Oil fell for the sixth straight day on global demand worries despite more hurricane activity. US crude oil inventories fell 1.9 million barrels, gasoline inventories fell 1.0 million barrels, distillates fell 400,000 barrels, and refinery utilization rose 1.4% to 88.7%.

The only winner was Treasury bonds, rising yet again as the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P experienced their largest 1-day drop since June, falling roughly 3% on worries over the economy.

The private-sector ADP employment index showed job losses again, Initial Jobless Claims rose more than expected, and several retailers reported disappointing sales.

Financial system worries were also raised after bond king Bill Gross stated that we may be facing a financial tsunami and that he is no longer buying bank debt offerings while also calling on the Treasury to step up their rescue of Fannie and Freddie, the US-government sponsored home-loan agencies standing behind $5 trillion in debt.