Bullion & Business Weekend Report - Sept 13
Gold snapped its longest losing streak in 8 years Friday to climb with other precious metals. The upward moves helped recover metal losses for the week where London silver, gold and platinum plunged 12.8 percent, 7 percent and 13 percent, respectively. The Dow gained 1.8 percent and the Nasdaq 0.2 percent.
October crude-oil on Nymex briefly touched $99.99 Friday, but rose slightly by 31 cents to close to $101.18 per barrel with concerns over Hurricane Ike.
London silver closed down to $10.80 an ounce — a loss of $1.58 on the week, or $1.92 from last Friday.
London platinum fell to $1,187 an ounce — a drop of $178 for the week, or $200 from last Friday.
London gold declined to $750 an ounce, falling $56 for the week and $59 from last Friday.
"Bullion’s gains today came primarily from a slew of background financial news on Lehman and WaMu’s woes which unsettled the money markets enough to have the US dollar drop," said senior analyst Jon Nadler at Kitco Bullion Dealers.
"Next week promises to be quite dollar-centric as we might learn Lehman’s fate and continue the house-cleaning process that is now at least a year-old. It will also be time to tally Ike’s damage and project where US energy supplies will be heading before fall sets in," he added.
Gold generally follows oil and moves opposite to the greenback, as a weakened dollar encourages investors to buy gold, also considered a hedge during times of high inflation and economic uncertainty.
Silver, gold and platinum performance charts and tables follow as well as a Reuters weekly business recap video and three related precious metal articles.
