Gold declined from the far East into the first hour of the New York session on Thursday, bottoming at $857 before rallying after the noon hour to finish at $868.40/oz., down $11.70. Overnight, gold has fallen off further.

In the currency market, the dollar tanked against the euro. Late Thursday, the euro was trading at $1.5568 vs. $1.5435 on Wednesday.

The European Central Bank has hinted that it may toughen its stance against inflation with higher interest rates from next month, reversing recent US dollar gains and causing a $5 jump in the price of oil, reports Bloomberg.

“Europe’s central banks have clearly made inflation their priority, a stark contrast to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s aggressive rate-cutting campaign.” says Jennifer Yousfi in Money Morning.

A surprise to few, luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers Inc. (TOL) posted its second consecutive quarterly net loss today (Tuesday), though the results were better than Wall Street expected.

Tanned, rested, and ready from a week of hiking in the Rocky Mountains, your editor is happy to report that good Mexican food is still cheap in America and prices are still rising in Australia. But did we miss something while we were away?