Gold & Silver Hit Fresh Highs as Dollar Sinks, But Mining Stocks Lag as Equities Fall Ahead of US Data Deluge

From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...

Gold Prices climbed to a new record high of $1386.93 an ounce in Asia on Thursday, before falling back to almost unchanged at $1370.55 by about 09:30 in New York.

The Dollar fell hard after Singapore's central bank raised the limits for its currency to trade against the US unit, propelling the currency to a record high.

The Gold Price then bounced back higher in the last four hours of US trade, and ended with a gain of 0.5% at a new record closing high.

The Gold Price in Euros fell to €979 an ounce.

Silver Prices surged to a new 30-year high of $24.89 per ounce in Asia before falling back to $24.04 early in New York, but silver also bounced back higher in late trade and ended with an impressive gain of 2.4%.

Platinum gained $0.75 to $1701.75, and copper remained at about $3.81.

Gold Mining and silver equities saw slight gains around 11:00 in New York, but they then fell back off midday and ended with modest losses.

Oil rose in early trade on more dollar weakness and the Opec oil cartel's pledge to hold output steady, but it then fell back off and ended with a slight loss after the Energy Information Administration reported that US crude inventories fell only 400,000 barrels last week, gasoline inventories fell 1.8 million barrels, and distillates fell 300,000 barrels.

Treasuries fell after a $13 billion auction of new 30-year notes drew a yield of 3.852% with a bid to cover of 2.49. Overall, this week's auctions have been seen as very poor, and Thursday's was perceived as the worst.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P fell on mostly poor economic data and worries about this week's poor bond auctions, but hopes of quantitative easing continue to limit any major losses.

New data showed Initial US Jobless Claims for last week rising much faster than expected, but Sept.'s factory-input prices also showed a strong rise, with Producer Price Inflation hitting 0.4% for the month.

The US Trade Balance widened to $46.3bn in August.

Friday at 08:30 Eastern brings US Consumer Price Inflation for September, expected at 0.2% per month, with Core CPI expected at 0.1%.

Fed chairman Ben Bernanke will also be giving a speech on monetary policy early in the morning.

The NY Fed's Empire Manufacturing Survey for October is then expected at 5.75, with Retail Sales for September expected at 0.4%. Excluding autos, sales are still expected at 0.4%. Then at 9:55 comes Michigan Sentiment for October, expected at 68.5, and at 10:00 is the Business Inventories report for August expected at 0.5%. Two PM brings the Treasury Deficit for September, expected at $33.5bn.

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