Gold Dips through $1100 as Stocks Drop 1%, Bonds & Dollar Jump on US Consumer Confidence Shock

From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...

Gold rose as much as $8.14 to $1121.14 in Asia on Tuesday, but it then fell back for most of the rest of trade in London and New York after weak US consumer confidence data sent the Dollar higher.

The Gold Price for US buyers ended near its late session low of $1099.15 with a loss of 0.9%, while the Gold Price in Euros fell to €815 an ounce.

Silver climbed 21 cents to $16.42 before it also fell back off and ended near its low of $15.77 with a loss of 2.2%.

Platinum lost $14 to $1509, and copper fell nearly 10 cents to about $3.21.

Gold Mining and silver equities fell nearly 4% by early afternoon and remained near their lows into the close.

The Case-Shiller index of home prices in the 20 largest US cities showed the 3% drop expected year-on-year for Dec., but crude oil prices fell back below $80 after surprisingly disappointing Consumer Confidence data sent the US Dollar and Treasury bonds higher on risk aversion.

Tuesday's $44 billion auction of new two-year US Treasury bonds drew a high yield of 0.895% with a strong bid-to-cover ratio of 3.33.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P fell roughly 1% on economic and fiscal worries.

Fed chairman Ben Bernanke starts his two day "Humphrey-Hawkins" testimony at 10:00 EST on Wednesday before the House Financial Services Committee. He'll then be before the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday.

Also at 10:00 Wednesday comes the New US Home Sales report for Jan., expected at 355,000.

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