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Tom Lydon submits:

A slowing economic recovery, falling equities, trouble in Europe and a general feeling of concern pervading the markets have converged to send investors rushing to the safe-haven of gold exchange traded funds. Gold prices are responding in kind. Gold traded near a record in New York, moving as high as $1,263 an ounce, as investors sought an alternative to equities in an attempt to protect their wealth. Nicholas Larkin for Yahoo Finance reports that the view of gold is shifting: analysts feel gold is now trading like a currency instead of a commodity.Complete Story »

Bruce Pile submits:I like to analyze stocks by looking at a company's long-term financial results - cash flow, revenue, and what not, and looking at the interplay of these things with stock price. But I have found this approach to be all but useless in picking gold stocks. The performance of gold miners has nothing to do with their current financials other than simply having enough capital to pursue their projects. You see valuation ratios all over the map during their big climbs, much more so than with any other type of stock. They defy just about any monetary type of analysis that may work reasonably well on stocks in general. So how do you analyze the miners other than projecting the price of gold? Well, you have to resort to leaning on the expert opinion from the people who know more about gold mining than you ever will. These people can be book writers, commentators, newsletter writers, or Ralph, your barber. But all these people suffer from one or both of two key shortcomings (1) they are not geologists and (2) they are not officers of the mining company. It stands to reason that these are the people who know at least as much as the most informed newsletter writer, and probably more. I wouldn't think the company's officers surrender all the key information they possess to anyone on the outside.Complete Story »

Marco G. submits:The Gold price has been on a tear this summer since July 26th, 2010. Gold has moved from $1155 USD to a peak of $1255 USD reached on September 1st, 2010. That is a move in the price of Gold of about $100 or 9%. As the author types on September 5th, Gold is sitting at $1551 USD.Complete Story »

Tom Lydon submits:

Volatility and uncertainty in the markets have driven investors to safer bets in ETFs. Take a look at the top five ETFs for August and you’ll see a trend emerge… Treasury Bonds. Yields on Treasury bonds are sinking faster than a lead balloon. The yield on the 10-year has dropped to 2.58%. The 2-year yield is 0.50%, nearly a record low. But that’s not stopping investors from taking them on as a form of protection. Bond dealers on Wall Street project that the median year-end forecast for the 10-year T-note will be 2.88%. Complete Story »

Hard Assets Investor submits: Last week, the World Gold Council launched its quarterly Gold DemandTrends report, and it had lots of lovely statistics to ponder as it surveyed what the gold market looked like for the second quarter of 2010.ETF Buyers Outweigh Jewelry BuyersComplete Story »

David Galland submits:The latest data on global gold trends, Q2 2010, just popped into my email box from the World Gold Council. The bad news is that the higher nominal price of gold has caused a 5% decrease in jewelry sales over the prior year. If you’re thinking, “Hey, that’s not that bad,” you’d be right. On this date last year, gold closed at $950, which is $286 below where it trades as I write. In other words, a 30% rise in price has resulted in a decrease of just 5% in jewelry sales. And even that number is skewed, because the currency value of the gold purchased is up – way up. For example, India – the 800-pound gorilla in the global gold jewelry market – saw total gold jewelry sales fall only by 2%, but in local currency terms, there was a 20% increase in the nominal value of the gold trading hands. China, which only relatively recently reauthorized private gold purchases, saw a 5% increase in jewelry demand, but that translated into a 35% increase in local currency terms. So, that’s the bad news.Complete Story »

Jeb Handwerger submits:The global debt crisis and the war on deflation by the Federal Reserve is causing more producers to find ways to invest their cash. This low interest rate environment which may continue for some time will force producers whom are sitting on large cash positions to acquire more reserves. Mergers and acquisitions in the mining sector have increased over this past year due to a lack of major discoveries as well as supply and demand changes in emerging economies.We have seen a trend of investments from Asia to purchase stakes in mining companies. In 2009, the Chinese Investment Corporation, a state owned company, took large ownership positions in Teck Cominco (TCK) and Penn West Energy Trust (PWE). Recently in June, China National Nuclear signed a contract with Cameco (CCJ) to supply 23 million pounds of uranium. Hanlong Investments took a large stake in General Moly, one of the leading North American molybdenum developers. Korea Electric Power (KEP) signed a deal with Denison Mines (DNN) another uranium developer. Sojitz bought a 25% interest in the Taseko’s (TGB) Gibraltar Copper Mine. Then recently we saw BHP Billiton (BHP) trying to make a deal with Potash Corp. (POT) and Kinross (KGC), a large producer buying Redback (RBAK), an exploration company. This trend should continue through 2011.Complete Story »

Michael Johnston submits:Commodities have been one of the hottest corners of the ETF market, exploding on to the scene in recent years as investors have rushed to gain access to a suddenly democratized asset class that has been shown to add valuable diversification benefits to traditional stock-and-bond portfolios. But some investors have been frustrated by the nuances of the futures-based investment strategies implemented by commodity ETFs, watching stiff headwinds in the form of contangoed markets erode returns. That has led some to take another approach to establishing commodity exposure: investing in equities of companies engaged in the discovery and extraction of the resources. This strategy is nothing new–investors have been betting on oil prices through Exxon for decades–but the rise of the ETF industry has made it easy to establish diversified exposure to a group of companies whose operations revolve around a particular commodity.Complete Story »

Martin Hutchinson submits: When recently gold sold off and fell as much as 8% below its record high level of $1,260 an ounce, investors had to be more than a little concerned. With the huge debt loads top world economies have taken on to rebound from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, investors have grabbed onto gold as the best way to hedge against the inflation and other financial calamities they felt were certain to come. So far, those calamities haven't materialized. Complete Story »

The Business Insider submits: Crises come in many forms, whether they be due to the financial system, food, water, or war. That's why there are many different kinds of defensive investments and industries. Here's a guide to the potential investments themes which could perform well across a variety of crises, combined with actionable ideas to investigate, and some of the famous bulls who are back them.Complete Story »