Category: Currency

Why Are Gold Stocks Falling?

Gold stocks normally amplify the gains from gold. If gold goes up 10%, then a good gold stock should go up 20%. So traders look for this ‘leverage’ to the gold price in gold stocks.

That was until ETFs became such a big force on the market.

Now traders can invest directly in gold ETFs with borrowed money to get the same effect. It saves having to do all that annoying research into a gold company.

So with all that money heading for the ETFs – instead of the stocks – the gold price and gold stocks are diverging.

Major FX Pair Weekly Review

This week a major dollar sell-off found little resistance. The major market players see the FOMC statement backdrop as a green light to pile on the decisive bearish USD downside pressure.

Gold Approached $1,570 an Ounce!

Gold approached $1,570 an ounce, extending a rally to a record, on bets that the dollar will extend a slump, enhancing the allure of the metal as a store of value. Silver posted for the biggest monthly gain in 28 years.
“Silver’s run is related to the rise in gold,” said Michael Cuggino, who helps manage about $12 billion at Permanent Portfolio Funds in San Francisco. “There’s a lot of speculation in silver. Anytime you’ve had a run like silver, you’re going to get a correction.”

Gold has climbed 33 percent in the past year, and silver has more than doubled.

Dollar Falls Versus Yen

Monday’s large aftershock came exactly a month after an earthquake and tsunami flattened towns and damaged a nuclear plant in northern Japan. It’s the second strong aftershock to hit northern Japan in less than a week.

The dollar was worth 84.75 Japanese yen in late afternoon trading in New York, down from 84.89 Japanese yen late Friday.

The Japanese yen is considered a safe-haven currency and tends to get stronger during times of turmoil. Days after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the yen reached a new record high against the dollar.

Start investing with just $100

Start investing with just $100!! I’ll let you in on a little secret about investing: Start investing: How new investors can begin with $100 © MedioImages/Corbis
Extra3/5/2010 4:00 PM ET
Start investing with just $100

Faced with a dizzying array of investment options, deciding where to put your money can be daunting. But starting small doesn’t mean it won’t pay off big.
It’s not nearly as hard as you think.
However, the fact that most people do it badly might lead a reasonable person to believe the opposite.

How badly? A study by Dalbar, a Boston investment research firm, found that from 1988 to 2008, when the S&P 500 Index ($INX) grew at an average annual rate of 11.8%, individual investors in equity mutual funds saw average returns of 4.5% a year, before taxes.