Gold Slips as Stocks Slide on Auto-Makers Rejection

From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...

The Gold Price fell as much as $13.55 to $908.85 by late morning trade in London on Monday before it rose to see a gain of $9.30 at $931.70 at 10:00 in New York.

But Gold Bullion prices then fell back off into the close and ended with a loss of 0.8% for the day. The Gold Price in Euros slipped back from above €700 an ounce.

Silver saw slight gains in Asia as high as $13.36 before it fell to $12.92 in London and then rallied back higher in morning New York trade. Silver also then fell back off into the close and ended with a loss of 1.9%.

Platinum lost $18 to $1108.50, and copper fell over 7 cents to about $1.76.

Gold Mining and silver equities saw slight gains midmorning before they fell over 2% by about 14:00 EST, but they then bounced back higher in the last two hours of trade and ended with only about 1.6% losses.

There were no major economic reports Monday, but traders continued to unpick US Treasury secretary Geithner's comments at the weekend that "some" US banks will continue to need "large amounts" of tax-funded aid.

President Obama meantime refused to give another $22 billion is emergency funds to US auto giants Chrysler and GM, spurring a sharp 3% drop in the major stock indices

Oil fell over 7% while the US Dollar index rose along with Treasury bonds.

Bond investors expressed disappointment, however, with the Federal Reserve's smaller than expected purchase of T-bonds in the open market.

Out of $2.5 billion in Treasuries the Fed bought, the largest tranche was in 30-year debt.

The National Association of Realtors meantime reported that sales of vacation and investment homes sank by more than one-fifth in 2008, dropping from 40% of the entire US housing market to below 30% of transactions.

Tuesday at 09:00 EST brings the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, expected at down 18.6% from this time last year. At 9:45 comes Chicago PMI for March expected at 34.4, and at 10:00 is Consumer Confidence for March expected at 28.0.