From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...

Gold Prices fell early Thursday to $862.10 before exploding in New York trade to as high as $887.65 by late morning as the US Dollar index fell on "TIC" data showing net purchases by overseas investors of US securities fell $48.2 billion in March.

Mostly poor economic data also sent Treasury bonds higher while interest rates fell.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P rose on decent earnings reports as oil closed lower. Oil traded higher around $125 in early trade before it fell back off over $2 in afternoon trade after the senate voted to close the “Enron loophole” in an effort to increase regulation and reduce speculation, but it then rallied back higher into the close and ended just slightly lower.

The Gold Market then fell back off slightly in the last couple of hours of trade and ended about 1% off that high with a gain of 1.47% for the day. Silver fell to $16.48 and rose to $16.965 before it closed with a gain of 0.18%.

The Gold Price in Euros recovered to near €570, platinum gained $37.50 to $2063.50, and copper gained nearly 6 cents to about $3.76.

Gold and silver equities rose about 4% by late morning before they fell back off a bit in early afternoon trade, but they still ended with well over 3% gains.
Also making economic news Thursday was Fed chairman Ben Bernanke urging US banks to raise capital if needed, as well as the NAHB’s index showing homebuilder sentiment near a record low.

Friday at 08:30 EST brings US Housing Starts and Building Permits for April expected at 940,000 and 912,000.

At 10:00 comes Michigan Sentiment for May, expected at 62.0.

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