GS: Gold Seeker Closing Report: Gold and Silver Fall Once More
The Metals:
Gold rose to $735.22 in Asia before it fell all the way to a new 1 year low at $697.90 by midmorning in New York, but it then rallied back higher into the close and ended over 2% off that low with a loss of 2.82%. Silver rose over 2% to $9.702 in Asia before it saw a 31 cent loss at $9.19 by midmorning in New York and then rose to a new session high of $9.892 by a little before noon EST, but it then fell back off into the close and ended barely lower with a loss of 0.11%.
Euro gold fell to about €557, platinum lost $53 to $789, and copper fell over 5 cents to about $1.80.
Gold and silver equities rose over 5% by midmorning, but they then fell back off for most of the rest of the day and ended with over 5% losses.
The Economy:
Greenspan spoke before congress today and reversed his earlier support of Adjustable Rate Mortgages, said he was wrong to have opposed regulation of certain derivatives, and expressed overall shock over what has recently happened in the credit market. Tomorrow at 10AM EST brings Existing Home Sales for September expected at 4,950,000.
Greenspan Concedes to `Flaw' in His Market Ideology Bloomberg
Greenspan shocked at credit system breakdown Reuters
Greenspan: 'Credit tsunami' to have severe impact Yahoo
The Markets:
Oil rose as OPEC members made their way to Vienna for tomorrow’s emergency meeting that is expected to announce a cut in production.
The U.S. dollar index fell and treasuries rose on economic worries as initial jobless claims came in higher than expected.
The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P mostly rose in morning trade before they fell after the Washington Mutual CDS settlement drew worse than expected demand at just 57 cents on the dollar and raised more credit market concerns, but market participants quickly moved beyond that and the Dow and S&P ended with over 1% gains while the Nasdaq remained modestly lower.
Among the big names making news in the market today were Chrysler, GM, Xerox, Dow Chemical, Goldman Sachs, Raytheon, Ameritrade, Janus, and Sallie Mae.
The Commentary:
“December Gold closed down 20.5 at 714.7. This was 16.2 up from the low and 16.3 off the high.
December Silver finished up 0.04 at 9.5, 0.33 off the high and 0.27 up from the low.
The gold market apparently saw some longs throw in the towel early in the trading session, perhaps because of deteriorating economic views and perhaps because of residual strength in the Dollar. However, the gold market seemed to reject the latest new low for the move in the face of an afternoon resumption of selling in the equity market and that might hint at an oversold extreme in gold prices or a slight rekindling of flight to quality buying concerns. Once again the bull camp in gold has to be somewhat disappointed in the fact that the market was rife with talk about an emerging market credit crisis developing and yet that didn't seem to provide gold with much in the way of support. In the end, December gold managed to bounce by as much as $17 an ounce in the face of the later afternoon equity market slide and that could suggest that the fear of severe slowing was being outweighed by safe haven psychology.
The silver market impressively avoided another new low for the move despite the sharp downside extension in the gold market and the continued weakness in the US equity market. However, the silver market gave up its mid day gains in the face of the afternoon stock market slide and it is also likely that weakness in copper and platinum prices served to cap off attempts to rally in silver. In the end, the silver market on Thursday wasn't as undermined as gold by the ongoing fears of a severe global recession.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting