Gold held steady above $880 through Hong Kong and the early London market yesterday, then started up and continued steadily up for most of the day, moving past $900, and recovering from each bout of selling to finish at $901.60, up $21.20.

Over the past several weeks we’ve seen a dip in the price of gold. After reaching and surpassing the $1000 mark in March, gold has eased a bit in light of some conservative Fed forecasting. But does that mean that the crisis is over and gold will be steadily falling? Hardly.

When the Federal Reserve hinted at the possibility of higher interest rates in the near future, gold dropped $50. But will higher interest rates in the future signal an end to the bull-run for gold?

Readers will note that these trends are opposite to the way we think things ought to be going. For the entire decade, we’ve been long gold and short stocks.

American shoppers handed most retailers their most dismal March in 13 years, according to a report on the AP news wire.

As retailers reported sales results on Thursday, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Costco Wholesale Corp. were among the few winners, as shoppers stuck to basics. Wal-Mart raised its earnings outlook, noting that better inventory control helped to limit markdowns on merchandise. It also said that April sales should top prior expectations.

Does This Correction Look Familiar? Major developments are taking place in the precious metals world. As we have noted here in Penny Sleuth, the price of gold is destined for upwards of $2,000. However, we are currently experiencing a very natural correction.