The Metals: Gold rose 3.15% to $777.27 and silver rose 8.45% to $10.62 by late trade in Asia, but both metals then fell back off for most of trade in London and New York and ended near their lows of $734.25 and $9.552 with losses of 2.11% and 0.41%. Euro gold fell to about €571, platinum gained $15.50 to $822.50, and copper fell nearly 20 cents to about $1.89. Gold and silver equities rose over 7% at the open before the fell to see over 4% losses midday, but they then rallied back higher into the close and ended with about 5% gains. The Economy:The GDP report showed the economy contracted at the most since 2001 and consumer spending dropped the most in 28 years. Tomorrow at 8:30AM EST brings the third quarter Employment Cost Index expected at 0.7%, Personal Income for September expected at 0.1%, and Personal Spending expected at -0.2%. At 9:45 is Chicago PMI for October expected at 48.0 and at 10AM is Michigan Sentiment for October expected at 57.5. The Markets: Oil eventually fell on continued worries over the health and sustainability of world demand as the EIA reported that oil demand was down the most since 1980 for the January to August period. The U.S. dollar index turned early losses into slight gains by the close as GDP did not fall as much as expected and furthered the case that the US may not be as bad off as the rest of the world.. The Bank of Japan meets tonight and no one is quite sure whether or not they will follow the US and China in lowering interest rates this week. Treasuries fell as the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P rose over 2% on the GDP report that was not as gloomy as expected. Among the big names making news in the market today were Exxon, Shell, GM and Chrysler, Waste Management, Motorola, Kodak, Avon, and Delta and Northwest. The Commentary: “December Gold closed down 15.5 at 738.5. This was 1.3 up from the low and 26.5 off the high. December Silver finished down 0.02 at 9.785, 0.145 off the high and 0.135 up from the low. The gold market saw a fairly violent trading session Thursday with residual strength from the prior trading session propping up prices early. However, as the Thursday session progressed it seemed as if US economic optimism waned slightly despite the fact that the US GDP readings weren't as bad as was initially anticipated. However, seeing a negative GDP reading was apparently enough to rekindle some deflationary concerns again and seeing the negative GDP also seemed to rekindle flight to quality interest in the US Dollar. It was somewhat surprising to see the gold market fall sharply into mid session despite the fact that equities remained in positive ground. In the end, the US Dollar action seemed to be the dominating force in the gold trade. The silver market did manage an initial run to new highs for the move, but a recovery in the Dollar and weakness in a host of physical commodity markets seemed to prompt a rather aggressive mid morning profit taking setback. Since the mid morning setback came in relative proximity to sharp setbacks in crude oil, gold and several other physical commodities, one got the impression that fears of renewed deflationary selling were surfacing again. Perhaps the most damaging element to the silver market on Thursday was the overt weakness in the copper market, especially after the recent strength in that market.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

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