The gold bulls seemed to have a full head of flight to quality steam in the headlines from the overnight action but the strength in gold prices reversed quickly in the face of a persistent rise in the Dollar. In fact, the gold market actually managed a fresh new low for the move during the trade which saw crude oil gains that were at times $3.00 per barrel. Furthermore, given all the financial sector concerns generated by a fresh round of write-downs, the bull camp might have expected to get a wave of flight to quality of safe haven buying. Even in the face of slack US data, falling equity prices and supportive supply side information from South Africa, the gold market simply favored the downside.