from Chris Mullen of GoldSeek.com...

The spot gold market traded mostly slightly lower in Asia and London ahead of a small rally in early New York trade, but it then fell sharply a little after 9am EST and dropped to as low as $655.60 by late morning.

Gold prices then rebounded slightly into the close, but they still ended the US session with a loss of 0.67%. Silver rose over $13.30 in early New York trade before it dropped to as low as $13.16 and then rebounded into the close and ended with a loss of 0.45%.

The Euro price of gold fell to about €487, platinum gained $4 to $1,300, palladium gained $5 to $378, and copper rose roughly 5 cents to about $3.39.

Gold and silver equities steadily fell throughout most of trade and ended with nearly 2% losses.

There were no major economic reports on Wednesday. Thursday at 8:30am EST brings Initial Jobless Claims for week-ending June 16th, expected at 310,000. At 10am New York time are Leading Economic Indicators for May, expected at 0.2% – and at noon is the Philadelphia Fed report for June expected at 8.0.

Oil fell noticeably on Wednesday after inventory reports showed supplies built much more than expected, though some players were concerned that refinery utilization fell another 1.6% to 87.6% rather than building as expected. Some short covering took oil well off its low by the close, though it still ended with an over 1% loss.

US crude inventories built 6.9 million barrels, gasoline inventories built 1.8 million barrels, and distillates built 100,000 barrels.

The US Dollar index found slight gains on Yen weakness as minutes from the Bank of Japan's May meeting suggested interest rates will rise only "gradually".

US Treasuries followed the German Bund lower after central banks in Europe – most notably the Bank of England – signaled concerns over inflation.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P fell over 1% by the close on concerns over interest rates as they edged back up after three previous falling sessions. Among the big stocks making news in the market were News Corp. and Yahoo, Circuit City, Morgan Stanley, Nuveen and Madison Dearborn, FedEx, and Kerkorian and MGM Properties.