Gold ends Monday unchanged; US inflation data due

The Spot Gold Market traded roughly $1-$2 higher in Asia and London on Monday before it fell back off in choppy trade in New York and ended near its low of the session with a loss of 0.11%.

Silver followed a similar pattern and lost 0.61%. For French and German investors looking to Buy Gold, the Euro Price of Gold fell slightly under €482, platinum gained $3 to $1,313, palladium remained unchanged at $366, and copper fell roughly 4 cents to about $3.54.

Gold and silver equities fell about 2% by mid-afternoon, but they then rallied back higher in the last two hours of trade and ended with only about 1% losses.

In the US economy, the NY Empire State Index for July came in at 26.5, sharply ahead of expectations. Tuesday at 12:30 GMT brings the US producer price inflation numbers for June, expected at 0.1%, plus Core PPI expected at 0.2%.

At 13:00 GMT follows the Net Foreign Purchases report for May, expected at $72.0 billion, and at 13:15 is the US Capacity Utilization for June, expected at 81.6%, plus Industrial Production, expected to show 0.5% growth for the month.

Oil on Monday ended modestly higher in mixed trade on refinery problems and forecasts of strong future demand. The US Dollar index fell and Treasuries rose on continued subprime concerns, but moves were somewhat limited ahead of important economic data and Bernanke testimony later in the week.

The Dow rose while the Nasdaq and S&P fell as buyout rumors battled worries over subprime mortgages and high oil prices. In the gold mining stock sector, Almaden (AAU) reported a new area of copper-gold mineralization, Gammon Gold (GRS) appointed a new President to its Mexican Operations, and Northern Orion (NTO) made an ESIA submission.