Gold & Silver Slip as Oil Whips on Egypt Confusion, US Stocks Mixed

From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...

Gold Prices fell as much as $13.20 to $1351.20 by about 08:30am EST on Thursday, before gold rallied to see a $1.60 gain at as high as $1366.00 three hours later.

The Gold Price then fell back off a bit in the last couple of hours of trade and ended with a loss of 0.1%.

Euro gold climbed to over €1000 per ounce.

The Silver Price fell $0.61 to $29.66 per ounce before it rallied back to almost unchanged by late morning in New York, but it also fell back off a bit in the last couple of hours of trade and ended with a loss of 0.5%.

Platinum lost $26.75 to $1824.25, and copper rose a couple of cents to about $4.54.

Gold Mining and silver equities fell over 2% in the first half hour of trade before they rallied back to almost unchanged by midday, but they then fell back off in afternoon trade and ended with almost 1% losses.

Crude oil traded mixed and ended barely higher on conflicting reports from Egypt as to whether or not Egypt's president will step down.

Mubarak spoke after the US oil market closed, and while he reiterated that he will not run for re-election in September, he did not completely step down as most protestors are calling for.  He did however say that he will step back and give responsibility of day-to-day activities to his Vice President.

The US Dollar index rose as the Euro fell following a poor Portuguese bond auction that reignited sovereign debt worries.

Treasuries extended lower after Thursday's $16 billion 30-year note auction sold at a high yield of 4.75% with a bid to cover of 2.51.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P fell on poor earnings reports for most of the day, but they then turned higher in late trade and ended mixed as traders listened to Mubarak speak as the markets were closing.

Friday at 08:30 EST brings the US Trade Balance for December, expected at minus $40.4 billion, and at 09:55 is Michigan Sentiment for February, expected at 75.5.

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