Gold Ends Weds 0.5% Lower, Silver Ticks Higher, as Stocks & Oil Rise on Bernanke's "Extended Low Rates"

From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...

Gold saw a gain of $3.94 at $1106.89 an ounce in Asia on Wednesday, before it fell sharply at the start of London trade.

Seeing a loss of $13.57 as low as $1089.38, the Gold Price then climbed back to reach a slight gain by late-morning trade in New York, but it ultimately fell back off into the close and ended with a loss of 0.5%.

The Gold Price in Euros fell to €810 an ounce.

Fed chairman Ben Bernanke meanwhile spoke before the House Financial Services Committee and will be before the Senate Banking Committee Thursday. He repeated that US interest rates will need to stay "exceptionally low" for "an extended period".

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P rose about 1% and oil climbed back to $80 a barrel as the US Dollar index fell in response.

Treasuries held near unchanged after a $42 billion auction of 5-year notes drew a high yield of 2.395% with a bid to cover ratio of 2.75.

Silver fell as low as $15.61 an ounce in early London trade, before it rose as high as $15.99 by late morning in New York and then also fell off in the last couple of hours of trade.

Silver still ended the day with a gain of 0.2% in Dollars. Platinum lost $3 to $1506 an ounce, and copper gained a couple of cents to about $3.23.

Gold Mining and silver equities traded mostly slightly higher for much of the morning, but they then fell back off a bit in afternoon trade and ended with modest losses.

New data showed sales of New US Homes sank to a record low in Jan. The Senate passed legislation giving tax breaks to employers who hire jobless workers.

Thursday at 08:30 EST brings Initial US Jobless Claims for last week, expected at 460,000, plus Durable Goods Orders for Jan., expected 1.4% better. Excluding transportation, orders are expected up 1.0%.

Then at 10:00 comes the FHFA Housing Price Index for Dec., expected up 0.4% fro Nov.

Buying Gold today...?