I guess what is surprising me is why would investors flee from the euro into dollars, causing gold/silver price to tumble, when both euro and dollar holders should be fleeing into gold/silver. To call the dollar a safe haven at this point boggles my little peanut brain.
It is more liquid and is easy to jump into.
You don’t immediately park money on Gold.
Just wait, this money may end up there in a matter of 3-4 weeks.
This is actually part of the gold pump cycle. People first turn their assets into dollars then they turn them into gold after they are done liquidating their assets.
Easy, flee from euros into dollars, tumble gold prices, buy gold with the dollars, save money/get more gold.
"Safe haven" is somewhat of a relative term. It is a safer haven than the Euro, but that's not saying much.
Both euro and dollar holders should be fleeing into gold/silver.
They are. That's why both metals are up so much over the past several years and why both the fundamental and technical indicators are still so strong.
There are problems associated with buying the physical metal - including transport, storage, insurance and finding the it (bullion is in backwardation at the present time). The annual market is small - about $40 billion for silver and about $400 billion for gold - so it is difficult to buy very much without sending the price into orbit. There is a long lead time to lay in metals.
Paper bullion (e.g. the GLD and SLV ETF's) should be avoided at all costs, as should the Comex (almost no physical backing any of them).
Bottom line: the dollar is about the only alternative.