Gold ends Thurs above $667; US mortgage foreclosures soar

from Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...

Spot Gold Prices rose over a dollar in Asia, added another couple of Dollars in London, and rose over 1% on the day by midmorning in New York before falling back off slightly in the last couple hours of trade.

The Gold Market still ended with a gain of 0.95%. Silver rose about 5 cents in Asia and London before it rose throughout trade in New York and ended near its high with a gain of 1.87%.

The Price of Gold in Euros rose to about €484, platinum gained $15 to $1,315, palladium gained $1 to $367, and copper fell roughly 4 cents to about $3.55.

Gold and silver equities had a mixed performance as the XAU rose about 3% early and remained near its highs into the close, but the HUI and GDM were held back by a poor performance by EGO (see more below) and ended with a little over 1% and 2% gains.

Initial US jobless claims for the week-ending 7th July came in just below expectations, and also below the previous week's number. The US Trade Balance slipped further into deficit in May from April. Also making economic news was a report showing an 87% increase in mortgage foreclosures in June compared to a year ago.

Today at 13:30 BST comes Export and Import Prices for June and Retail Sales for June expected at 0.0%. Excluding autos, sales are expected at 0.2%. An hour later is the US Business Inventories report for May, expected at 0.3%, and Michigan Sentiment for July.

In the wider markets, oil rose to new 11-month highs above $73 in the US and above $76 for Brent crude in London in early trade on renewed worries in Nigeria. But it fell back off near unchanged by the close on word of refineries coming back online in the US.

The US Dollar fell to another record low versus the Euro on continued concerns about the US mortgage market. US Treasury bonds fell in price, pushing yields higher, as traders pulled money out of fixed-income and put it into stocks.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P rose substantially on more takeover activity and individual retail sales reports that were not as bad as expected. The Dow and S&P closed at new record highs and the Nasdaq closed at a new six-and-a-half year high.

Among the big names making news in the US stock market were Wal-Mart, J.C. Penny, Macy’s, Rio Tinto and Alcan, Marriot, and Sony Ericsson.

In the gold mining sector, Eldorado ordered a mine shutdown, while Great Basin reported a feasibility study and Anatolia gave drill results. Allied Nevada increased its private placement, and Newmont made a priced offering.