Gold Ends Thurs 0.9% Higher as Obama's Treasury Nominee Parrots "Strong Dollar" Aim

From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...

The Gold Price dropped to $843.55 early in New York on Thursday after traded mostly higher in Asia and London.

Gold Prices then quickly popped back higher in mid-morning trade and climbed as high as $862.75 before closing with a gain of 0.9%.

The US Dollar index found slight gains as Treasury Secretary nominee Geithner parroted the line – first used under Bill Clinton – that "a Strong Dollar is in America's national interest."

Treasury bonds fell on continued over-supply fears, despite the fact that the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P fell rather markedly on banking concerns and surprisingly disappointing results from Microsoft.

Silver made a low of $11.21 midday in London and climbed as high as $11.50 by 10:30 EST in New York, before it pared its gains in the last few hours of trade, but it still ended with a gain of 0.8%.

The Gold Price in Euros rose to about €663, platinum gained $6 to $925, and copper fell nearly 4 cents to about $1.38.

Gold Mining and silver equities flirted with gains at various times throughout the day, but weakness in the major indices ultimately held the miners back and they ended with about 1% losses.

Crude oil fell 7% in early trade as inventories built much more than expected, but prices rebounded to end slightly higher on hopes that demand may finally start to rebound after another stimulus package.

US crude oil stock-pile inventories built 6.1 million barrels, gasoline inventories built 6.5 million barrels, and distillates built 800,000 barrels.

New data showed US Housing Starts fell to a new record low last month, while jobless claims last week climbed yet again to match a 26-year high.

There are no major economic reports due out Friday.