Gold Breaks $1200 as Dollar Falls, Mining Stocks Add 5% on Mixed US Data

From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...

Gold climbed as much as $18 an ounce in Asia on Tuesday before it consolidated its gains in London, but only climbed even higher in New York and ended near its midday high of $1201.40 with a gain of 1.5% at a new closing record.

The Gold Price in Euros rose above its previous intra-day record of €794 an ounce.

Silver jumped to $18.81 in Asia before it fell back to $18.65 around the opening of trade in New York, but it then shot above $19 in the last few hours of trade and ended near its high of $19.245 with a gain of 3.4%.

Platinum gained $41.50 to $1477, and copper gained over 5 cents to about $3.20.

Gold Mining and silver equities rose throughout most of the day and ended with about 5% gains on average.

Oil rose while the US Dollar index and Treasury bonds fell on mostly better than expected economic data.

US Construction Spending was flat in November, rather than falling, while Pending Home Sales rose 3.7% instead of dropping 1.0% as forecast.

The ISM Index came in below expectations, however, and Philadelphia Federal Reserve president Charles Plosser – who won't be a voting member of the Fed's Open Market Committee until 2011 – repeated his call for higher interest rates sooner, not later, to ward off the risk of inflation spawned by monetary stimulus.

Easing worries over the Dubai debt freeze sent the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P over 1% higher on the day.

Wednesday at 08:15 EST brings the ADP Employment Report for November, expected to show 150,000 job losses, and then at 14:00 comes the release of the Fed's Beige Book from November.

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