Gold was flat to the end of Hong Kong trading, but then pushed higher from there to mid-morning in New York, peaking at nearly $775, before declining slowly to finish at $755.30, up $11.50. Overnight, gold is trending higher.

Gold was slightly higher in Hong Kong and early London trading on Wednesday, then rose steadily during the NYMEX session before leveling off through the Globex and finishing at $880.10/oz., up $13.50. Overnight, gold has fallen off.

Those Nasty Index Speculators. Is Correlation Causation? Where Are All the Tankers? Where Will Oil Prices Go? Is it 1980 All Over Again? The Middle East, California, and Help for Myanmar.

The base metals took a severe beating on Thursday. Copper was down from the pre-dawn hours straight through the day, only coming off its lows near the noon hour and finishing at $3.497/lb., down 6 cents.

Gold was tightly rangebound from the overseas markets straight through the NYMEX and Globex sessions on Wednesday, bouncing between $860 and $870, and finishing at $864.40, down $1.30.

Gold was very rangebound from the foreign markets through the New York session on Monday, with buyers emerging when it dropped below $880 and sellers equally present when it topped $885, and it stumbled into a finish at $882.20, down $1.80.

You can’t deny 2007 was the year of living dangerously in financial markets. So far this losing streak has continued through the first quarter—with the notable exception of soaring commodity markets!

Gold held steady at around $945 in the far East, but started down once London opened, and continued to plummet through the first hour of the New York session on Friday, falling as low as $905 before turning north for the balance of the day and finishing at $916.20, down $18.10. For the week, gold lost 1.3%.

It was here in Manchester, England, that Europeans stole a march on the rest of the world. The Industrial Revolution made it possible for people to produce more wealth, more quickly.

Check out a chart showing the Q1 2008 action in the CRB Index, a widely tracked basket of 19 leading commodities, versus the S&P 500 from the beginning of the first quarter through Tuesday. The CRB Index is up 11% during that time frame. Meanwhile, the S&P is down over 7%. OUCH! Which would you rather invest in?