Gold Ends Thurs 1.6% Higher, Silver Stalls; US Consumer Credit Shrinks $8bn, Obama Vows to Pick Up Slack
From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...
Gold and silver traded pretty much flat in Asia and London on Thursday, before they dipped as low as $837.16 and $10.79 respectively just ahead of the New York open.
Both silver and Gold Prices then rocketed higher in early US trade, and saw gains of more than 2% before pulling back slightly into the close.
Gold Bullion ended the day with a gain of 1.6%. Silver was unchanged.
The Gold Price in Euros rose to €624, platinum gained $10.50 to $984.00, and copper fell a few cents to about $1.47.
Gold Mining and silver equities rose about 4% at the open, remained near their highs into the close, and ended with over 5% gains.
US Consumer Credit showed a near-$8 billion contraction for November, while Initial Jobless claims dipped to 467,000 for last week.
President-elect Obama also spoke, expressing his belief that more massive government spending is needed to pull the US out of recession.
Friday at 13 GMT brings December's much-awaited US jobs data. Non-farm Payrolls are expected down by half-a-million, the Unemployment Rate is expected at 7.0%, Hourly Earnings are expected at 0.2%, and the Average Workweek is expected at 33.5.
Back in Thursday's action, crude oil fell with the US Dollar index while Treasuries rose slightly on more economic worries.
The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P fell for most of the day on poor retail earnings reports, but hopes that Obama’s stimulus plan will save the economy seemed to encourage some buying near the end of the day and the major indices ended mixed.