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BullionVault – The Gold Price fell sharply against a strong US Dollar on Monday morning, falling through what one Asian dealer called "technical and psychological support at $942" to record the lowest Gold Fix so far this month at $937.50 an ounce.
Crude oil sank below $66 per barrel, while base metals and silver lost more than 3%.
Adding to Friday’s 0.7% loss despite news that France and Germany crept out of recession between April and July, world stock markets sank 1.4% early Monday on average – the biggest one-day loss in more than six weeks – after Japan reported 0.9% growth in its second-quarter GDP.
Enews 2.0 – Gold prices have been rising throughout February, in tandem with the world market, which stood at about 975 dollars per ounce on Thursday.
"I have never seen the gold market like this, with steady rises every day," Jitti said. "It’s being driven by big speculators abroad, the hedge funds," he opined.
The Age – Gold prices climbed on Tuesday, as the yellow metal continued to attract investors hunting a safe haven against the biting economic stormwinds, following a rise of more than 3% last week.
Spot gold was trading at $946.70 per ounce in Asian trade, up from European levels of $US942.70 yesterday. US markets were closed on Monday for the Presidents’ Day holiday.
"With the US on holiday, investors are mostly sidelined,” said Koji Suzuki, a senior analyst at SBI Futures.
Traders have pointed to the record high holdings of the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, the SPDR Gold Trust, as evidence of strong investor interest in the precious metal.
BusinessWeek – With the price of gold racing higher over the past two months, more investors are coming around to the notion that the precious metal may be the best option to protect against a possible economic catastrophe. Among the surprise new buyers? Star hedge fund manager David Einhorn.
Gold rose steadily from its November 2008 low of $682 to close at $910.70 on Jan. 26, a five-month high. Despite selling off about $10 an ounce over the next two days, investors, it seems, have realized that much of the Federal Reserve’s plan for fighting the credit crunch and reviving the economy are also likely to bolster gold’s prospects.
Economic Times - Gold, the traditional safe haven in times of economic turmoil, proved to be more a commodity that everyone loved to hate last year even amid the turbulence that engulfed world markets.
But as 2009 gets under way the yellow metal has found huge traction with money managers. In the last eight sessions, gold has rallied as much as $100 an ounce to hit a near four-month high of $915.30 on Monday — in spite of a rising dollar.
EPFR – Moneycontrol.com – Brad Durham, Managing Director of EPFR said there could be some acceleration in outflows from hedge funds. He added that India funds saw USD 24 million of inflows and that recently, outflows from some EMs (emerging markets) have tamed.
He said there has been slowdown in the pace of outflows from long-only funds and that selling momentum in some EM funds has slowed down.
Reuters- Acceleration Capital Group is the latest entry into the capital introduction space, and plans to offer services that give emerging hedge fund managers an edge for growing their businesses. Acceleration Capital was incorporated toward the end of March as a unit of Saratoga Prime Services, a multi-custody introducing broker-dealer platform that clears through Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns and Interactive Brokers.
"Our view of the industry is that prime brokerage services are extremely necessary but somewhat commoditized, and the pricing and buying of stock is not much different from shop to shop," said Lance Baraker, one of the founders of Saratoga. "But hedge funds are also looking for branding, and it helps to have a global brand name as prime broker partner and on your documents.
