Gold ends Weds 0.4% higher as Wall Street wobbles; central banks miss gold sales target

From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...

Gold Prices traded 0.5% higher in Asia on Wednesday, adding to this gain in London before falling back off into the US close but still ending 0.42% higher for the session.

Silver rose to as high as $13.677 by midday in London before it also trended slightly lower in New York. It ended with a gain of 0.82%.

Gold Priced in Euros remained above €523, platinum gained $18 to $1,385 to a new record high, palladium gained $10 to $372, and copper rose roughly eight cents to about $3.69.

Gold and silver mining equities rose more than 2% to new record highs by late morning before they fell back off a bit in afternoon trade. The Dow and S&P fell on mostly poor earnings reports while the Nasdaq was spared and rose.

Crude oil traded in a tight range on either side of unchanged for most of the day as traders waited for inventory reports that were delayed until Thursday due to the Columbus Day vacation at the start of this week. Oil prices then shot higher in later trade and ended with an over 1% gain, following news of a surprise strike in Nigeria that threatens supplies from Chevron's facilities there.

The US Dollar index continued to fall on the view that the Fed may continue to cut US interest rates. Treasury bonds ended near unchanged.

Wednesday was quiet for economic data, but the Bank of International Settlement said that signatories to the Central Bank Gold Agreement sold 475.75 tonnes of gold in 2006/07, the third year of this pact. The CBGA sets a ceiling of 500 tonnes per year, and since the start of 2007/08 last month, the banks have sold 9 tonnes so far.

Thursday at 12:30 GMT will bring US Import and Export Prices for Sept., Initial Jobless Claims for last week – expected at 315,000 – and the Trade Balance for Aug, expected to show a $59.5 billion deficit.

At 18:00 GMT will come the US Treasury budget for Sept., expected at $100 billion.

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