Bullion & Business Weekend Report - Oct 11

Gold, silver and platinum were pressured lower Friday, but ended higher for the week in London. London silver, gold and platinum prices climbed 4 percent, 7.7 percent, and 4.4 percent, respectively. The Dow and S&P sank just over 18 percent, while the Nasdaq lost 15.3 percent.

November crude-oil on Nymex fell $8.89 Friday to settle to $77.70 per barrel, registering a 17 percent loss for the week and the lowest level in more than a year.

London silver ended at $11.74 an ounce — a gain of 45 cents on the week, or 54 cents from last Friday.

London gold climbed to $901 an ounce, gaining $64 for the week and $73 from last Friday.

London platinum settled at $1001 an ounce — a loss of $42 for week.

"Global markets continued to go totally haywire all day long [on Friday], as confidence became harder to find than Waldo himself. As a result, lemmings. headless chickens, and rabbits galore made for the exit doors en masse today," said senior analyst Jon Nadler at Kitco Bullion Dealers.

"Gold turned negative -really negative- once again, in the midst of this Sturm und Drang. Maintenance of the $900 level became a moot point in the final trading hours of this darkest of Fridays in recent memory."

Gold typically 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.

CoinNews London Fix Charts: Silver, Gold and Platinum
(October 6-10)

The London Fix is one of the most used bullion quotes around the world. The London AM fix for gold and platinum begins at 10:30am GMT (5:30am in New York), and the PM fix begins at 3pm GMT (10am in New York). The London Fix for silver begins each business day at 12pm GMT (7am in New York).

London Fix figures: percent and dollar changes

Sept 29-Oct 4

Sept 22-26

Sept 15-19

Bullion and business related articles for the week

In related news, interesting or quick-read articles:

• October 10 - Gold ends lower amid stock plunge; copper slumps - MarketWatch
  Gold futures fell for a second day on Friday amid sharp sell-off in global stock markets. A strengthening dollar also applied downward pressure on the precious metal.

• October 10 - Gold slips 2 pct as equity slide sparks selling - Reuters
  Gold slipped nearly 2 percent on Friday after earlier touching a 2-1/2 month high as a slide in the global equity markets sparked a broad-based commodities sell-off.

• October 10 - Wanted: Rabbit-Proof Fence - Jon Nadler
  The mass-stampede for the ‘EXIT’ doors by individual investors trying to salvage anything better than half of the former value of their retirement and investment baskets continued.

Business week overview and wrap-up by Reuters News

Investors ended the worst week in Wall Street history with extremely volatile trading as some tried to lay aside recession fears.

In stock market action, the three major US indexes:

• The Dow dropped 128 points Friday to close at 8,451.19. It lost a massive 18.1 percent for the week.

• The S&P 500 fell 10.7 points Friday, closing to 899.22.

• The Nasdaq gained 4.39 points Friday to finish at 1,649.51. Its sharp weekly drop was 15.3 percent.

In other world markets:

• The German DAX lost 342.69 points to close at 4,544.31.

• The Paris CAC 40 fell 266.21 points to close at 3,176.49.

• And the London FTSE 100 moved down 381.7 points to close at 3,932.1.

Speaker: Liz Miller, President, Summit Place Financial Advisors Conway Gittens reports from New York.

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