Gold was little changed until New York opened, whereupon it rose to its high for the day at $911, then fell from mid-morning to noon, bottoming at $890, and finally rallied through the Globex to finish at $900.60/oz., down $4.20. Overnight, gold has drifted lower.

Platinum was in negative territory all day, experienced a sharp drop at the noon hour, but pushed higher from there to end at $961/oz., down $9. Overnight, platinum has edged higher.

Silver had a day of little consequence, peaking at the New York open, skidding below $12.20 at the noon hour, but then igniting a strong rally that carried it all the way back just into positive territory at $12.45/oz., up 2 cents. Overnight, silver has slipped lower. (Click here for charts)

It had to be a disappointing day for the gold bugs, as the usual suspects lined up pretty much in its favor, with equities posting gains, the dollar falling off, and crude on an upswing.

Analysts attributed the blah day to some carryover selling off of last week’s rally, as well as speculation that the global slowdown will weigh heavily on all commodities.

Typical was Tom Hartmann, of Altavest Worldwide Trading in Mission Viejo, California, who said that, “The reality is we’re still stuck in a deflationary mode … There’s potential inflation in the future that will help gold, but right now we’re just seeing worsening economic conditions.”

Short term, said Tom Pawlicki, of MF Global (NYSE:MF) in Chicago, “Investment has been a key supporting factor for gold,” and thus “Passage of the stimulus package in its current form would likely be inflationary and bullish for gold while a Senate filibuster would be bearish.”

At the same time, “Rapidly growing ETF holdings are a clear sign of safe-haven buying of gold,” says John Reade, of UBS in London.

And legendary investor Eric Sprott, of Sprott Asset Management in Toronto, said the U.S. is at the beginning of an economic depression that will help gold prices more than double, exceeding $2,000 amid a series of financial catastrophes.

Of interest to coin fanciers will be stats from the U.S. Mint showing that it stamped out 94,500 gold Eagles in January. Well, if so, then where are they? That is not a small number, especially for January, but none of the several dealers we contacted has seen any, nor have they been informed as to when the 2009 Eagles will be available. Very peculiar, as they say …

Source: Gold Slightly Lower, Silver Edges Higher