Gold Erases Thurs Loss, Jumps to $740, as US Equities Leap, Dollar Slips

From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...

The price of gold fell $10.05 to $708.40 in after hours access trade late Wednesday, before climbing higher in Asia and London early Thursday and reaching as high as $721 by 10:30 EST in New York.

But Gold Bullion prices then fell back off into the close and ended near the low of $699.55 with a loss of 1.55%.

After hours access trade then saw Gold Prices more than erase the Comex session's losses, even climbing past its earlier high at $739.67 per ounce.

Silver ended Thursday's near its session-low of $8.78 with a loss of 6.59%, but also climbed back after-hours, up as high as $9.515.

The Gold Price in Euros gold bounced to €578 after earlier falling to €566, platinum lost $12.50 to $807, and copper fell a few cents to about $1.62.

Gold Mining and silver equities rose over 3% about an hour into New York trade Thursday, and fell over 3% by early afternoon. But they then rallied back higher into the close and ended with over 12% gains.

Crude oil fell as US inventory stockpile reports showed a larger than expected build in gasoline supplies and confirmed the continued drop off in demand. But energy prices then rallied back higher in late trade, ending with a decent gain on optimism over rebounding conditions heading forward.

The US Dollar index fell as worries eased over the health of the financial markets and urged traders to put money to work. Treasury bonds also fell as stocks reversed early losses and ended markedly higher, up nearly 7% on the S&P500.

On the data front, US Jobless Claims climbed to the highest in 7 years and the US budget deficit for October was the largest on record. The trade gap narrowed from $59.1 billion in August to $56.5bn in Sept.

The House Oversight Committee hosted a hearing meantime on hedge funds and the financial markets, in which several hedge fund managers who made over $1 billion last year testified about their role in – and their thoughts about – recent events.

Current US president George W. Bush spoke to assert that the global financial crisis does not represent "a failure of the free market". He urged world leaders to adopt modest financial reforms that stop short of the tighter regulations that European politicians will demand at this weekend's G20 summit in Washington.

Friday at 12:30 GMT brings US Import and Export Prices for October, plus Retail Sales for Oct. – expected down by 2.1%.

Then comes the Business Inventories report for Sept., expected at -0.1%, and finally the Michigan Sentiment for Nov., expected at 57.0.