sterity takes a big bite out of gold

The SPDR Gold Shares Trust (

Cameron Brandt, director of research with EPFR Global, wow gold kopen a Boston-based firm that tracks mutual fund flows, noted that there has been a steady level of redemptions from gold funds over the past few weeks.

"People are looking to get back into cash and move to the sidelines. Given Europe's troubles, there is a segment of investors that may want to be liquid either to sidestep more trouble or pounce on other opportunities," Brandt said.

Investors in gold miners seem to be wow gold ideal betting on further price declines as well. The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (Fortune 500), is down nearly 20% this year.

Ritholtz, who said his firm does have a position in gold, said that having some gold investments makes sense. dollar is weakening and inflation is a worry.

Related: Millions of Europeans face long slog

But he added that the biggest problem with the metal is wow gold that it's not as easy to objectively value it like a stock or bond. Still, he said some investors treat gold like a "cult" and refuse to believe that the prices can ever go down.

"Gold doesn't have any earnings. It doesn't pay you interest. It's a shiny yellow metal. Its value only comes from its relative rarity. It should trade on supply and demand," he said.

Gold is a commodity first and foremost, not a currency. Commodity prices, even for something like gold that doesn't have as much commercial use as other metals, tend to closely track consumer demand. So it should be no surprise that gold prices are now tumbling.

After all, copper prices are sliding. So are the prices of silver and platinum -- and just about every other commodity. Oil is at a five-month low. Wheat, corn and cotton prices are all much closer to their 52-week lows than highs.

"This should not be a surprise. There are good economic reasons for gold prices to be falling," said Gendreau. "A slowdown in Europe and China and lower retail demand for jewelry in India and other emerging markets should lead to a soft market for gold for awhile."

So it looks like austerity isn't just bad news for Greece, Spain and France, it's a downer for anyone investing in the element whose periodic table abbreviation is "Au."

Best of StockTwits: Raise your hand if you've been the CEO of Yahoo (Fortune 500) sometime in the past decade.

michellefenton:$YHOO - Good luck Mr. Loeb. U might know how to manage $, but I doubt you know anything about resuscitating a tech co.

TrendRida: Dogs don't chase cars much buy wow gold anymore. Over time they ran out of ideas of what to do when they caught the car. $YHOO

I guess you could say that the resignation of Scott Thompson as CEO is a victory for activist shareholder Dan Loeb of Third Point. But Yahoo, as I point out in today's Buzz video, is now on its seventh CEO since 2001.

It's tough to figure out how new interim CEO Ross Levinsohn, who has a media background, can transform Yahoo. The company already has tried to emphasize content numerous times in the past decade . with little success.

MichaelComeau: $YHOO up about 30 cents premarket. I wonder if folks are betting current team is giving up and pushing for asset sales.

mojoris1977: the corporate governance reform at $YHOO is the first step monetizing Asia turning around search/display as well as deploying cash is next.

Yahoo's best hopes may lie in finally selling some of its Asian assets and investments to partner Alibaba. search and display business, Levinsohn will face many challenges. For one, Yahoo search is largely out of his control. That's Microsoft's (Fortune 500) problem. And on the display side of things, Google (Fortune 500) is gaining ground there. So is a little social network called Facebook (

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Paul R. La Monica. Other than Time Warner, the parent of CNNMoney, and Abbott Laboratories, La Monica does not own positions in any individual stocks.

Market indexes are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer

LIBOR Warning: Neither BBA Enterprises Limited, nor the BBA LIBOR Contributor Banks, nor Reuters, can be held liable for any irregularity or inaccuracy of BBA LIBOR. Disclaimer.

Morningstar: 2012 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Disclaimer

The Dow Jones IndexesSM are proprietary to and distributed by Dow Jones Company, Inc. and have been licensed for use. All content of the Dow Jones IndexesSM 2012 is proprietary to Dow Jones Company, Inc.
More articles come from the:http://www.buywowgold.nl