Gold ends Friday 0.46% lower; Wall Street falls on subprime & hedge fund fears
From Chris Mullen of GoldSeek.com...
The gold market remained near unchanged in Asia on Friday before it edged up in London and traded nearly 1% higher above $655 in early New York trade.
Spot gold prices then fell back to unchanged by early afternoon ahead of a $3 rally in the last 20 minutes of US trade that left it with a gain of 0.46% for the day.
Silver dropped to as low as $12.94 before it also rallied back higher in late trade, but it still ended with a loss of 0.15%.
Euro gold prices fell under €486 on Euro strength, platinum gained $8 to $1,306, palladium gained $1 to $378, and copper fell a couple of cents to about $3.36.
US gold and silver equities found slight gains at the open, but they then steadily fell off and saw nearly 1% losses by early afternoon before they rebounded a bit into the close and ended with just slight losses.
In a quiet week for economic data, new housing starts in the US were down in May from April, while jobless claims rose for the week-ending June 16th. More bullish for Dollar interest rates – and therefore the Dollar – however, were the Philadelphia Fed index, sharply higher for June, and the Leading Indicators report for May.
Next week’s US economic data releases include Existing Home Sales on Monday, followed by Consumer Confidence and New Home Sales on Tuesday.
Durable Goods Orders are due on Wednesday, with GDP, Initial Jobless Claims, the Help-Wanted index, and the Fed's latest policy statement on Thursday. US Personal Income and Spending will follow on Friday, along with Core PCE Inflation, Chicago PMI, Construction Spending, and the Michigan Sentiment Index.
In the broader markets this week, crude oil rose on renewed worries over a general strike in Nigeria that did not end as some had speculated it would.
The US Dollar index meantime fell despite the Dollar rising to a four-and-a-half year high versus the Japanese Yen, as weakness versus the Euro dragged the index down.
US Treasury bonds rose as worries over subprime mortgage defaults and leveraged hedge funds sent the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P more than 1% lower. Among the big stocks making news in the market Friday were Blackstone, Delphi, and NYSE Euronext and Borsa Italiana – now subject to merger talks with the London Stock Exchange.