From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...

Gold Prices rose Thursday to find a more than 2% gains above $880 per ounce early in Asia, but Gold then fell throughout most of London and New York trade to close at a new four-month low near $847.05 for a session loss of 1.6%.

Crude oil and the Euro fell as the US Dollar index rose markedly on hopes that the credit crisis is over and all is well with the economy.

Treasury bonds rose however on a larger-than-expected climb in jobless claims. It indicates that Friday's jobs report may come in below forecast, but gains in US government bonds were limited Thursday as the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P rose throughout most of trade on confidence in the US currency.

Silver rose to as high as $16.99 in Asia before it fell to as low as $15.97 by late morning in New York and closed with a loss of 2.4%.

The Gold Price in Euros fell to €550, platinum lost $52.50 to $1863, and copper plunged over 20 cents to about $3.72.

Gold and silver equities fell over 4% by early afternoon, but they then rallied back higher into the close and ended with only about 2% losses.

"The potential for the bottom of the Gold Price being today is 75%," said Jim Sinclair of JSMineset.com as the session ended. "If it is not today, then the bottom for the price of Gold is very close by."

On the data front, US unemployment claims rose sharply for the week-ending 26th April, while Personal Income rose less quickly in March and Personal Spending.

The rate of inflation – so-called "core" PCE – rose 0.2% for the month from February against 0.1% forecast. Construction investment meantime fell 1.1% in March from Feb.'s 0.4% growth.

Friday at 13:30 GMT brings April’s US jobs data. Nonfarm Payrolls are expected to show a fall of 75,000, with the Unemployment Rate rising to 5.2%.

Hourly US Earnings are expected to have grown by 0.3%, and the Average Workweek is expected at 33.7 hours.

At 15:00 GMT comes the US Factory Orders report for March, expected to show 0.2% growth.

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