By Jon Nadler
Gold prices found their old ally -credit jitters- overnight and had a happy reunion as the dollar lost .49 on the index to drop to 76.49 on those jitters.

The parade of names on investors' minds is quite familiar: F & F, Lehman, Goldman, Morgan. The issues, the same. How much will be written off, when, who might be taken over and especially by whom. In the case of F&F it looks like Uncle Sam might have to do the adopting -something that should have been the case years ago. In Lehman's case, the would-be parents (Korea Development Bank and China's Citic Securities) broke off secret talks to acquire half of the formerly largest underwriter of mortgage bonds.

Therefore, back to jitters - they were good enough to send the yellow metal to a one-week high near $829 and start people thinking about whether the $775 level was overdone and achieved too fast, a near-term bottom, or the last buying opportunity ever. We will go with the first one. Gold above 820 is nice; gold above $875 or so is what's required as far as some are concerned. Could a clash develop once again between prices and the start of Indian buying season? Stay tuned.

New York spot trading opened with a $16.20 gain on the day, quoted at $829 as participants watched the euro gain to $1.4825 on the dollar (despite having its own problems - service and manufacturing are shrinking in the zone). Adding to the buying today were reports that central banks (but not the Swiss one) are apparently choosing to hold on to their gold and could bring the lowest amount of gold disposals to the market since 1999.

Some of today's dollar woes were reflected in the very large $2.35 gain in crude oil values, but the bulk of such gains came from rising East-West tensions. Russia is beginning to register on the anxiety scale in a serious way, as people are paying attention to that bear instead of the one running around in various markets. Silver rose 44 cents to $13.69 and platinum managed to get back to very near $1400 with a $21 gain on the open at $1387. Palladium climbed $6 to $289 per ounce. German automakers come back from summer vacations next week and the markets are hopeful on that front. Now, if they can just sell what they make. Especially in the US.

Commodity gurus like to be first in calling...something. So do stock market pundits. People like to follow what others predict - even if those others have not been putting their money where their mouth is at the time. We bring you the mini-clash of the titans now: Rogers vs. Faber. As the perceptible shift in sentiment (and participation) in commodities has been unfolding over the past few weeks, many have grappled with calling the event a full u-turn or a just dip-blip. We saw yesterday that opinion among spokesmen for trading firms and institutional desks was...divided. Why should things be any different among the celebrities in the world of 'stuff' ? It turns out, they are not. Bloomberg bring us the latest in famous punditry:

" Jim Rogers, who in April 2006 correctly predicted oil would reach $100 a barrel and gold $1,000 an ounce, said a tumble in commodities from records represented a temporary reversal in a long-term rally.

``I don't see that it's the end of the bull market,'' the chairman of Rogers Holdings, said in an interview in Bangkok before speaking at an investor conference later today. ``Until either a lot of supply comes on stream or the economy collapses, the bull market will continue,'' he said.

Soybeans, copper, platinum and crude oil have dropped from all-time highs after a rally in the dollar curbed demand for raw materials as a hedge against inflation and concerns increased that economic growth will slow. Sixteen of the 19 commodities in the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index fell this month, after the index plunged 10 percent in July, the biggest such drop in 28 years.

``I am contemplating whether it's time to get involved in base metals again,'' Rogers, 65, said today. ``I haven't bought any for awhile.''

Gold fell to the lowest since October on Aug. 15, while platinum had the biggest intraday loss since 2001. Aluminum has dropped 18 percent from a record on July 11 and Nickel is down 26 percent in the past year. Marc Faber, 62, who told investors to bail out of U.S. stocks before 1987's so-called Black Monday crash said Aug. 15 that commodities may have peaked. ``Whether that is a final peak or an intermediate peak followed by higher prices, we don't know yet. It could go lower,'' he said.

Rogers, who moved to Singapore after selling his New York townhouse last year, said he was still optimistic about agricultural commodities and China's economy, favoring the tourism, education, infrastructure, and power generation sectors. China's CSI 300 Index has slumped 58 percent from its Oct. 16 peak on concern government measures to curb consumer prices will hurt earnings growth. "

Once again, you'll have to pick whatever is closest to your line of thinking. You will surely hear all sorts of "the coast is clear!" alerts coming from various quarters. Ask them first if they were out spending money on the stuff one week ago and writing about it on the same day.

At this point, watch for growing recessionary trends in Euroland and what fears they exhibit in the markets, and look for tomorrow's Bernanke speech for clues as to what's next Stateside. Final factoid of the day: India's ICBC is now the world's most profitable bank. Worth asking them how people finance housing purchases over there...

Jon Nadler is a Senior Analyst with Kitco Bullion Dealers Montreal

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