From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...

Gold Prices continued Wednesday's after hours rally in early Asian trade on Thursday, breaking above $900 per ounce before drifting back in London.

The Gold Market then shot higher and climbed to a new session high of $908.67 by 11:30am in New York, finally ending the session with a gain of 1.1% at $905.20 per ounce.

Silver prices fell to as low as $16.907 in early New York trade before they also jumped higher in late morning trade and ended near the high of $17.54 with a gain of 1.5%.

The Gold Price in Euros rose near €578, platinum gained $43 to $1,985, and copper gained another couple of cents to about $3.90.

Gold and silver equities traded mostly slightly higher and ended with about 0.5% gains, while the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P fell in morning trade after jobless claims were reported at a 2-year high.

All three major indices then turned higher in afternoon trade and ended slightly higher on optimism that the financial problems that caused the collapse of Bear Stearns are now behind us.

The senate banking committee in Congress spoke first with Fed Chairman Bernanke, US Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Cox, and New York Federal Reserve Bank President Geithner on the Fed’s role in the Bear Stearns rescue.

The committee then spoke with J.P.Morgan Chairman James Dimon and Bear Stearns CEO Alan Schwartz about their actions over the last few weeks. No real new facts were revealed.

Friday at 13:30 GMT brings March’s jobs data, with Non-farm Payrolls expected to fall 50,000. The Unemployment rate is expected at 5.0%, Hourly Earnings are expected at 0.3%, and the Average Workweek is expected at 33.7.

Oil fell Thursday on worries over demand due to the poor economic outlook, while the US Dollar index fell and Treasury bonds rose.

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