Gold Prices Slip as Euro Bounces, Wall Street Rallies from 12-Year Lows

From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...

Gold Prices fell $8.25 to $905.80 in early London trade Wednesday, before rising to $922.75 in early New York trade.

The Gold Price then fell back off into the close and ended near a new session low of $904.80 with a loss of 0.8%.

Treasuries fell as the Dow and S&P rebounded from Tuesday's 12-year closing lows.

The US Dollar index fell as the Euro rose ahead of tomorrow's ECB and Bank of England meetings, both expected to see cuts of 50 basis points each to Euro and Sterling interest rates.

All eyes and ears will be on ECB chief Trichet's following speech, set to indicate a possible change in policy – away from inflation "vigilance" to promoting credit inflation – heading forward.

US private-sector payrolls were reported 697,000 lower in Feb. from Jan. the ADP employment services agency's data.

Oil prices rose 9% as inventories fell and hopes for increasing demand from China increased after rumors surfaced about a second stimulus package from Beijing soon.

Crude oil inventories fell 700,000 barrels, gasoline inventories rose 200,000 barrels, distillates rose 1,700,000 barrels, and refinery utilization rose 1.7% to 83.1%.

Silver meantime dropped in Asia before it rose to see a gain of 2.7% at $13.15 per ounce, drifting back into the close and cutting its gains to just 1.1%.

The Gold Price in Euros fell to €719, platinum gained $15 to $1041, and copper gained roughly 9 cents more to about $1.69.

Gold Mining and silver equities rose roughly 3% at the open before they fell back off to see about 2% losses by a little after 14:00 EST, but they then rallied back higher in the last two hours of trade and ended mixed and near unchanged.

President Obama's administration meantime launched a new program aimed at keeping up to 9 million home-buyers safe from foreclosure by refinancing their mortgages to lower monthly payments.

The Federal Reserve's Beige Book of analysis showed that the US central bank does not expect an upturn in the economy until late 2009 or early 2010.

Thursday at 08:30 EST brings fourth quarter Productivity expected at 1.1%, Unit Labor Costs expected at 3.8%, and Initial Jobless Claims for 2/28 expected at 650,000.

At 10:00 comes the Factory Orders report for January, expected down 3.5%.