Sharp selloff in gold!

Gold Prices Online ^ | 07/23/2002 | Lazamataz

[Lazamataz]

Gold has sharply dropped this afternoon, losing 11.00 dollars per ounce as of 1:43PM EST. The loss amounted to more than 3% of overall value of the commodity.

Normally considered a 'refuge investment', gold has gained in value while individuals try to find a place to keep their money in the face of a foundering stock market. While this has led to a run up in prices, there are risks of sharp losses in value, as has occured today.

It is not yet clear what has caused this dropoff in gold prices.

[Edmund Burke]

The big boys are selling their gold today so that they can buy lots of stocks tomorrow at the market bottom.

[Edmund Burke]

Do you think Nortel will have to file for bankruptcy? Would the Canadian government let this happen or would they bail them out ala Chrysler?

[SamAdams76]

I doubt that Nortel will file for bankruptcy. Despite the mismanagement at the higher levels, the company puts out some excellent products. Lately they have been winning some big orders and contracts. Looks like the revenues are starting to pour in again.

[hove]

Central banks dumping gold to prop up the US$. A continuation of the manipulation of this house of cards economy. But it's starting to collapse....and boy are they getting scared.

[meyer]

One of the biggest holders of gold in the world....is Russia....and this would be a perfect time to dump gold and buy dollars cheap.

Hmmmmn! Perhaps, though they ought to learn the art of moderation if that's the case. Pretty big move in price there.

[DugwayDuke]

"This looks very much like a sale by a bank."

There's another thread about a possible emergency meeting of the fed to deal with a possible failure of either, or both, of JPM or Citicorps.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/721171/posts

[StriperSniper]

Check out this guy on C-SPAN!

[StriperSniper]

Turn on C-SPAN.

[aristeides]

Bill Murphy of GATA was on C-SPAN this morning. He says that the derivatives in which Citigroup and especially Morgan have such exposure are gold derivatives, and that, if the price of gold goes above a certain amount (I think he said 332,) Morgan will default. So the big boys are out in force keeping the price of gold down.

[Fred Mertz]

Thanks for that info. Should be interesting to see which way gold goes. I'm no expert, but as I've read and suspected, gold prices are being artificially manipulated as of late (IMHO).

[Wyatt's Torch]

You ever read his posts (posts under the name goldstandard) on CNBC's 'FedWatch' message board? Absolutely fascinating. Either this dude is extremely well connected or a total nutball. Either way, great reads.

[Wyatt's Torch]

Yeah, but productivity is up...

You're not still stuck on that are you? ;-)

Hope all is well.

[Phaedrus]

It is not yet clear what has caused this dropoff in gold prices.

This is completely counter-intuitive. Given events markedly and adversely affecting the stock markets, gold should be up strongly, not down. Pass me the tinfoil hat -- "someone" is too clever by half.

[aristeides]

No, I never heard of him before this morning. I have no expertise in the subject, but he sounded as if he knew what he was talking about.

[LS]

I'll be "stuck" on it until you can show me any evidence that it is wrong. As I recall, your only evidence was that labor hours were decreasing. I rest my case. (BTW, even with the recent scandals, several big companies are showing profits this quarter, and many more are adjusting their accounting downward, or would also show profits.)

Yep, it's bleak out there.

[aristeides]

I remember when the UK sold a lot of gold to keep the price down shortly after New Labour came to power ('98?). (There were threads here on FR about how Hillary and Goldman Sachs were exposed in short positions.) Maybe Putin has now been persuaded to do the same thing.

[Wyatt's Torch]

Here's a link -

Fed Watch

Great reading. Two best posters are lendrum (a PhD economist) and goldstandard.

[flamefront]

You mean Robert Rubin?

[jwh_Denver]

Joe Investor is cashing in his 401K and buying baby a new pair of shoes.

A pair of baby shoes is probably all he'll get out of it.