Gold Ends Thurs 2.8% Lower; Greenspan Says "I Was Wrong" as WaMu Derivatives Pay 57¢ on the Dollar

From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...

Gold Prices rose Thursday to $735.22 in Asia, before sinking all the way to a new 1-year low at $697.90 by mid-morning in New York.

Gold Bullion then rallied back higher into the close and ended New York trade more than 2% off that low, with a loss of 2.82%.

Silver rose over 2% to $9.702 in Asia before it saw a 31 cent loss at $9.19 by midmorning in New York and then rose to a new session high of $9.892 by a little before noon EST, but it then fell back off into the close and ended barely lower with a loss of 0.11%.

The Gold Price in Euros fell to about €557, platinum lost $53 to $789, and copper fell over 5 cents to about $1.80.

Gold and silver equities rose over 5% by midmorning, but they then fell back off for most of the rest of the day and ended with over 5% losses.

Alan Greenspan spoke before the US Congress, reversing his famous support of Adjustable Rate Mortgages and saying he was “wrong” to have opposed regulation of certain derivatives. The former Fed chairman expressed shock over what has recently happened in the credit market.

Friday at 15:00 GMT brings Existing US Home Sales for Sept., expected at 4,950,000.

Crude oil rose as Opec members made their way to Vienna for Friday’s emergency meeting, expected to announce a cut in production.

The US Dollar index slipped slightly, and Treasury bonds rose on economic worries, as initial jobless claims for last week came in higher than expected.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P mostly rose in morning trade, but they fell after the settlement of credit default swaps in failed US bank Washington Mutual drew worse than expected demand at just 57 cents on the dollar.

The Dow and S&P then bounced to end with over 1% gains while the Nasdaq remained modestly lower.