Weekly Gold Review: Economic Turmoil Levitates Gold

Gold prices were spooked by the economic turmoil last week. The prices saw a major spark coming in a single day by Rs 994 to Rs 12746 per 10 grams on 17th Sep 2008. During the start of the week prices were hovering at 11640 levels, which moved towards 12709 at the end.

The Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange raised margin payments on gold and silver futures by as much as 47 % after price swings accelerated. The margin rate for Comex members advances to $ 5500 per contract. The new rate for non-members is $ 7425, from $ 5063. Members will pay a margin rate of $6000, compared with $ 5000 previously. Non-members will pay $ 8100, from $ 6750.

Last trading day of the week saw dollar edging higher, rising above the 106-figure versus the yen and pushing the euro lower toward the 1.42-region. The advance in the greenback and stocks was prompted by discussions for the creation of a government-sponsored entity that would remove the illiquid assets on bank balance sheets that are the underlying source of the current stresses in financial institutions and financial markets.

Global central banks announced coordinated efforts to pump massive amounts of liquidity into the financial system to alleviate "continued elevated pressures in the US dollar short-term funding markets. The FOMC has approved a $180 billion expansion of its swap lines, with the facility while the ECB increased by $55 billion to up to $110 million and the Swiss National Bank by $15 billion to up to $27 billion.

In major economic reports last week, US new residential construction fell by much more than expected in the month of August, according to a report released by the Department of Commerce on Wednesday, with housing starts falling to their lowest level in over seventeen years. The report showed that housing starts fell 6.2 percent to an annual rate of 895,000 from the revised July estimate of 954000. Economists had expected housing starts to fall to an annual rate of 950000 from the 965000 originally reported for the previous month.