Gold: $470.60/oz

[Dreepa]

"The alien who is among you shall rise above you higher and higher, but you will go down lower and lower.

Is this talking about Tunga?

[KBCraig]

"The alien who is among you shall rise above you higher and higher, but you will go down lower and lower.

Is this talking about Tunga?

Probably. I think Tunga was pretty high yesterday!

[Tunga]

 

"Heaven let your light shine down." - Collective Soul - Shine

[Kat Kanning]

Gold $562
Silver $9.61

Both have taken a huge dive today.

[PowerPenguin]

Yeah that's insane. The bigger they are the harder they fall I guess. Anyone have any info on what the central banks are doing right now? There was some disturbance in the ETF world, especially in London (Fractional reserve frauds?!)... Also, I highly doubt it, but what if the FR is actually "having" to stoop down to the level of having to do something about inflation for once, at least just long enough to put the wool back over people's eyes. Given their history that is next to impossible, but stranger things have happened I guess. The indicator: Have prices changed at all for anyone here in terms of consumer goods? I haven't been buying things very much lately (need better work ), so I'm no expert at this moment.

[tracysaboe]

Everytime the fed raises interest rates (something much needed) Gold and heavy mettles take a dive -- but they clime back up pretty quickly.

Tracy

[Marcy]

Ok, I'm going to be the newbie dumb bunny that doesn't really understand how all this works.  Can someone explain?

I should say going into this that I don't trust or have money in the stock market, I put all excess funds into paying off the mortgage, and we try to buy a couple of ounces of silver (mostly one ounce numismatic coins) every month.  I don't scrutinize silver prices because I am holding silver for the very long haul...the only way I'd cash the coins in would be to buy food in some Mad Max future I don't even want to contemplate. 

I can understand people switching their holdings from stocks to precious metals when it looks like the stock market is going to tank.  I can understand people investing in precious metals instead of the stock market or banks when they think the value of their regular paper dollars is going to tank.  I'm pretty clear that when a lot of people want to buy something (ie move investments to precious metals) the price goes up.  Sometimes alot. 

What I don't understand is why the stock market is going down (erasing all the gains for 2006 to date) AND the price of precious metals is going down (the demand for precious metals is less so that price dives?).  So where is all that money going?  Why are precious metals going down?

[AlanM]

It is possible the Barclay's Bank has bought all the gold and silver they plan to buy for those 2 funds they began. I forget what they are called. It was a huge amount they were purchasing over time.

[Pat McCotter]

Aluminum, copper, lead, nickel, zinc, palladium, platinum and rhodium are all down. They all peaked about the 10th or 11th of May.

[Caleb]

The stock market hasn't really "tanked".  Precious metals gain strongly in a time of crisis.  We're not their yet.

So right now, they fluctuate based on varying demand.  Institutional investors control a lot of that.  Also, there's a lot of trading on the currency markets now, which means that people will dump their precious metals if another currency seems to be gaining steam (relative to the metals).  This is all day to day transactions.

[maineiac]

Gold currently trading at around $610, and I would love to have some solar collectors on my roof!

[Lex]

$812/1oz

[J’raxis 270145]

[Michael Fisher]

This crash is happening as slowly as a galaxy being swallowed by a black hole. On the other hand, now the stock market looks like it is ready to go bye-bye.

Repent now if you're still invested in the U.S. Otherwise, grab some popcorn and watch the fireworks.

[John Edward Mercier]

Why did foreign markets fair that well?