Gold prices continue to fall

Posted August 19, 2008

After a short-lived breather, gold continues to sell off. So does crude oil, platinum, the euro.

by J. Christoph Amberger

Baltimore — (TFN): If goldbugs breathed a sigh of relief at gold’s close at $805 on Monday, they were premature. As the dollar rose despite news of increased wholesale inflation, gold, oil, and the euro continued their south-bound slide.

Gold futures fell as part of a broad-based decline in metals prices in morning trading: Gold for December delivery fell $13.70 to $792 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Platinum futures crashed another 5% and palladium futures dropped 4%. Oil dropped to $110 a barrel, a loss of almost $40 per barrel in four weeks.

As far as commodities go, we’re now fully in bear market territory. Unless your investment horizon is ten to twenty years out and you really don’t care about the current valuation of your hoard, use temporary pullbacks to sell. Sell, before the big hedge funds are forced to liquidate and flood the market with depreciating commodities.

If your investment horizon is shorter and you still want to keep gold, more power to you. But you may have more worthwhile things to do right now. Like build an Ark in your backyard.

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