The gold market waffled around unchanged after showing some initial weakness. With oil prices failing to hold an early bounce just ahead of mid session, it is somewhat impressive that gold hasn't fallen in sync with the rest of the metals markets. Even more surprising is the fact that gold seemed to be able to outperform silver and the rest of the metals markets in the face of a fresh revelation of a rather significant increase in Russian gold production for the first six months of 2008. One might have expected gold to show some signs of strength in the face of the slack US existing home sales readings, as that seemed to at least partially undermine the US Dollar. However, with reports that he Brazilian central bank was buying Dollars in an effort to stem the rise in the Brazilian currency, it is possible that the Greenback was simply getting a one off underpin and that more weakness would be seen in the wake of the disappointing housing figures.