Gold bars
Gold is up again on Thursday, rising to $1,745 (U.S.) an ounce, up $20. That marks its fifth consecutive gain. Earlier this week, when stocks were falling, some observers were pointing out that gold's gains meant that it had regained its status as a safe-haven investment. And now, with stocks on a tear, what exactly is gold telling us?
Edel Tully, a strategist at UBS, noted that with Thursday's agreement by European leaders to deal with the sovereign-debt crisis – good news for the global economy – the logical direction for gold would be a correction up ahead. However, she points out that gold doesn't have a straightforward relationship to risk.
"Indeed, gold may be viewed as a litmus test for investors' gauge of European credibility: a stronger gold price suggests that the lack of details is a sticking point," she said in a note.
This skepticism would put gold on its own, for global markets were doing celebratory dances on Thursday. Among stocks, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 2.6 per cent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 rose 2.9 per cent and Germany's DAX index rose 5.4 per cent. Among commodities, copper rose 5.7 per cent and crude oil rose 3.5 per cent. And among government bonds, the yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury bond rose to 2.3 per cent, up a tenth of a point to a two-month high.
David Berman