Gold & Silver End Thurs Little Changed, Stocks Bounce, on Euro Rate-Cut & US Stimulus Plan

From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...

Gold Bullion and silver prices traded slightly higher in Asia and London on Thursday, rising to see gains of 1.6% and 2.1% by the New York open

Both metals were then torpedoed to new session lows of $801.72 and $10.31 respectively, but gold rebounded to end with a loss of just 0.2%. Silver bounced higher to close with a slight gain.

Oil meantime fell another 5% as the OPEC cartel cut its demand forecast and the US Dollar index rose, pushing on the dollar-price of major commodities.

The Euro fell on the European Central Bank's decision to cut rates by 50 basis points, but the Dollar turned back lower to end with only minor gains after ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet signaled that any further ECB rate cuts are unlikely to happen soon.

Treasury bonds reversed early gains to end just slightly higher as the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P fell markedly again in morning trade on persistent bank worries, before rebounding to end with small gains on hopes of another bailout from Congress.

Both silver and Gold Prices then climbed more than 1% further from their closes in after-hours access trade.

The Gold Price in Euros ended higher at €617 an ounce, platinum lost $5.50 to $919, and copper fell a few cents to about $1.44.

Gold Mining and silver equities fell to see over 3% losses by early afternoon in New York, but they then surged back higher in the last few hours of trade and ended with about 4% gains.

Over on the economic front, US Producer Prices for Dec. showed a sharp 1.9% fall, but that drop was less than analyst forecasts, less than Nov.'s drop, and actually showed a 0.2% month-on-month increase once volatile food and energy prices are excluded.

Initial jobless claims for last week rose faster than expected. US foreclosure filings rose 81% during 2008 as a whole.

Also making economic news was the House Democrats' proposal for $825 billion in tax-funded stimulus.

Friday at 13:30 GMT brings US Consumer Price data for Dec., expected down 1.0% overall but up 0.1% from Nov. on the "core" measure.

Then comes US Capacity Utilization for last month, pegged at 74.7%, and Industrial Production – expected to show a 0.8% drop.