Gold & Silver Rise, Stocks Fall, as Fed Refuses to Disclose Emergency Loan Program

From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...

Gold rose as much as $33.70 early Monday – gaining some 4.6% to $767.95 – while silver climbed 5.6% to $10.53 by the New York opening.

Both metals then fell back off for most of the rest of trade, but they still ended with gains of 1.8% and 2.6% respectively.

The Gold Price in Euros rose to about €585, platinum remained at $849.50, and copper gained over 5 cents to about $1.75.

Gold and silver equities rose over 7% at the open before they fell back near unchanged by early afternoon, but they then rallied back higher into the close and ended with over 4.5% gains.

There were no major economic reports Monday, but China announced a stimulus plan to spend around $586 billion over the next two years – including large infrastructure projects – to try to help the economy.

Further analysis of the announcement showed that it outlines only money that was already earmarked for ongoing programs such as earthquake relief.

Crude oil rose above $65 per barrel in overnight trade, before it dropped to a new 18-month low by midday in New York. Energy prices then rallied back higher into the close and ended with a decent gain on optimism that China’s stimulus plan will help spur demand.

The US Dollar index fell and Treasuries rose as Monday’s auction of 3-year notes drew better than expected demand. The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P erased early gains and ended about 1% lower on continued economic concerns and mostly poor company reports.

It was also reported that the Federal Reserve has refused to identify recipients of nearly $2 trillion in emergency tax-funded loans. Nor will it reveal the kind of assets it's accepted as collateral against these loans, despite a Freedom of Information request made by Bloomberg News.

The newswire is now said to be pursuing a federal lawsuit of Nov. 7th, seeking to force disclosure.

Two more US bank closures were announced over the weekend, bringing the number of failures of federally insured banks to 19 so far in 2008.

More US government aid to AIG was also revealed Monday, with the Fed refinancing a $150bn package.