Gold Sinks 8% Week-on-Week as US Dollar Wins "Best of Bad Bunch" on Forex Market

From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...

Gold spiked down as low as $772.45 by late trade in Asia on Friday before it rose back to $799.60 by early trade in New York.

Gold then fell back off into the close and ended with a loss of 2.84% for the session. It ended the week more than 8% down.

Oil dropped with nearly all other commodities on expectations for a drop in world demand, while the US Dollar index continued its recent bounce on the forex market as investors downgraded the outlook for other world economies.

Silver dropped all the way to $12.21 in early Asian trading before it climbed back to $13.347 by early trade in New York, but it also fell back off into the close and ended with a loss of 9.78%.

The Gold Price in Euros fell to about €535, platinum lost $113.50 to $1378, and copper gained a couple of cents to about $3.34. Gold and silver equities fell over 4% by midmorning before they rebounded a bit, but they still ended with over 3% losses.

Treasury bonds rose however on geopolitical concerns due to uncertainty over the conflict between Russia and Georgia. The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P found modest gains in early trade on oil's continued fall, but worries over the health of the world economy seemed to damper sentiment and held the major indices to just slight gains while the Nasdaq ended with a small loss.

The coming week's economic highlights include US Producer Price Inflation, Building Permits, and Housing Starts on Tuesday and Initial Jobless Claims, Leading Economic Indicators, and the Philadelphia Fed on Thursday.