Gold Ends Thurs 0.5% Higher as Stocks Rise on Bush's "Hope Now" Plan for Housing; BoE Cuts, But ECB Fears Inflation
From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...
Gold Prices fell to see more than $10 losses early in London on Thursday at $784.82 per ounce, but they then spiked higher in morning New York trade.
The Gold Market remained near its high of $805.60 into the close to end with a gain of 0.51% for the day.
Silver dropped to as low as $13.96 before it spiked to $14.533 and closed with a gain of 0.98%.
Gold Prices in Euros rose to about €548, platinum lost $3 to $1462, palladium gained $1 to $346, and copper remained at about $3.00.
Gold and silver mining equities remained near unchanged in morning trade, but they then steadily rose in afternoon trade and ended near their highs with over 2% gains.
President Bush announced today a housing plan that includes freezing rates on some mortgages for five years in an effort to ease problems facing many homeowners.
The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P rose over 1% on optimism that the President's 'Hope Now' Housing Plan will help solve problems in the credit market, while Treasuries fell on expectations for a strong jobs report Friday that would take pressure off of the Fed to cut interest rates by a full 50 basis points rather than the more widely expected cut of at 25 basis points.
Initial jobless claims for last week were lower than the previous reading, but just above analyst forecasts. Friday at 13:30 GMT brings November’s jobs data. Non-farm Payrolls are expected at 70,000, the Unemployment Rate is expected at 4.8%, Hourly Earnings are expected at 0.3%, and the Average Workweek is expected at 33.8.
At 14:00 comes Michigan Sentiment for December, expected at 75.0. At 19:00 comes Consumer Credit for October expected at $6.0 billion.
Oil meantime rose over 3% Thursday to more than $90 per barrel after the mortgage plan announcement eased worries about demand. Natural gas inventories fell a greater than expected 88 billion cubic feet and raised supply concerns.
The US Dollar index fell slightly even as the Bank of England cut its interest rate and the European Central Bank held. The ECB expressed a hawkish tone on inflation and interest rates.
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