Spot Gold prices bounced in a $10 range early in London on Friday,
trading just shy of $860 an ounce as new US data confirmed a six-decade
record in US job losses.

World equities slipped while the US Dollar rallied on the currency
market. Crude oil headed for a near-record 11% week-on-week drop.

The US jobless rate rose to 7.2% of the workforce in Dec., the Bureau for Labor Studies announced as Wall Street headed for a sharp drop at the opening.

"All up the technical picture for Gold
is [also] pointing to the downside near-term," reckons Phil Smith in
his latest analysis for Reuters India, "but there is big support at the
$835 level.

"That's the peak gold hit in 1980 on a combination of high inflation
linked to oil prices, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the
impact of the Iranian revolution."

Friday morning saw the Gold Price in Sterling – down almost 9% from
Monday's new all-time record highs – trade at £560 an ounce, almost
twice the peak of Jan. 1980.

The Gold Price in Euros stood at €627, some 15% below its record peak of 29 years ago (Deutsche Mark equivalent).

Over on the forex market today, the single currency headed for its
worst-ever week vs. the British Pound – despite the new all-time low in
official UK interest rates – with RBC Capital Markets in Toronto
calling it lower still ahead of Europe's interest-rate decision next
Thursday.

BNP Paribas said it sees the Euro also sliding against the Dollar if
Germany is forced to create a publicly-owned "bad bank" to buy toxic
assets from the country's ailing finance houses.

Commerzbank today accepted a €10 billion capital injection from the
federal government – giving the state a 25% stake in Germany's No.2
bank – after the acquisition of Dresdner Bank threatened its
balance-sheet.

"The final quarter of 2008 may have been worse than we expected," said
Bundesbank president Axel Weber of the German economy in Cologne late
on Thursday.

"This would weigh on our growth projections for the current year."

Looking further ahead for Gold in 2009,
"People are genuinely worried about what the world is going to look
like [this year]," says Gary Dugan, chief investment officer at US
giant Merrill Lynch – the former investment bank rescued in a $50
billion takeover by Bank of America last Sept.

"It is amazing how many clients want physical Gold Bullion, not ETFs," Dugan is quoted by The Daily Telegraph.

Today's technical analysis from the Mitsui precious-metals team in
London pegs support at $830 with resistance at Thursday's top of $865.

Gold "has gravitated back to the 100-day moving average at $853, with a relatively quiet start to the day," it adds.

For the near-term, "Currency market volatility should continue to take
precedence in precious metals," says today's note from Standard Bank.

"This could see most risk-averse precious metals investors opting to remain on the sidelines."