From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...

Gold and silver climbed steadily as Asia and London opened after the US President's Day holiday Tuesday morning, rising also in New York and ending sharply higher for the session.

Gold ended near its high of $974.02 with a gain of 2.8% while silver ended near its high of $14.21 with a gain of 2.7%.

Crude oil fell almost 7% to under $35 per barrel on increased worries over waning demand worldwide.

The US Dollar index and Treasuries both rose on "safe haven" buying, while the S&P index of the 500 largest US stocks lost 4% at the opening and flat-lined from there.

For the day the S&P lost 4.6% to close within 5% of the Nov. low at 752, itself the low finish for US equities since April 1997.

The Gold Price in Euros rose to a new record high of €768, platinum gained $28 to $1085, and copper fell roughly 12 cents to about $1.42.

Gold Mining and silver equities rose roughly 5% by early afternoon before they fell back off a bit into the close, but they still ended with roughly 3% gains even as the major US indices – like the rest of world stock markets – fell hard.

US president Barack Obama signed his $787 billion package aimed at reviving the economy, saying the move represented the "essential work of keeping the American dream alive in our time."

New data showed New York state manufacturing activity sinking at a new record pace this month on the Empire State Index.

Net inflows of foreign investment into US securities rose by $34.8 billion in Jan., ahead of analyst forecasts and more than reversing Dec.'s $25.6bn outflow.

Wednesday at 08:30 EST brings US Building Permits for Jan. (expected at 525,000) plus Housing Starts (expected at 530,000 annualized), as well as Export and Import Prices.

At 9:15 comes Capacity Utilization expected at 72.4%, and Industrial Production expected down by 1.5%. Then at 2pm East-Coast time comes the release of the minutes from the Federal Reserve's Jan. 28th meeting.