After some impressive early gains, the gold market started to give ground in the face of a sharp downside slide in the US equity markets. Apparently news that the US DOE was preparing 5 loan applications for the US auto makers, (for $25 billion) wasn't enough to provide lasting support to the stock market and in turn keep the bull camp conclusively positive toward gold prices. In fact, just ahead of mid session December gold prices had fallen back by as much as $27 an ounce from the morning highs. Perhaps the soft Housing data or the soft CPI readings prompted traders to bank profits on the morning rally, but in retrospect the sharp slide in equities and the attempt to bounce the US Dollar were at least temporarily undermining of gold prices.