Hard Assets Investor submits:

by Brad Zigler

Quick! Name the best-performing single-commodity exchange-traded product (ETP) of the second quarter.

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Kevin McElroy submits:

• I’m calling it: we’re in a double-dip recession
• Gold stocks up 400% during this recession
• My favorite low-cost gold producer
  

I’m going to write today’s issue under the rash assumption that we’re already experiencing a double dip recession. I think such a recession has important implications for gold and gold investments, for the simple fact that severe downward trends in the broad market usually have deleterious effects on every asset class – at least for the short term.

If it happens again, we’ll get another great opportunity to load up on gold stocks as they get temporarily dragged to hell by the broad market.

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Market Blog submits:

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Prieur du Plessis submits:

Many “experts” remain skeptical about the performance of gold bullion and often contend gold is in a bubble. The chart below, courtesy of Casey’s Daily Dispatch, casts some light on whether the barbarous relic is displaying bubble characteristics. You be the judge …

Click to enlarge:

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Hickey and Walters (Bespoke) submit:

The price of gold came within $3 of a new all-time high today, but it has since reversed course and is now down more than 2% from its intraday high.

The metal had a similar move last Monday when it made a new high and then reversed to close the day lower. Is this just another Monday blip, or is gold beginning to top out around the $1250 mark? (Click to enlarge)

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Devon Shire submits:

My favorite current investment opportunity. I have a moderate position and am hoping to add at even better prices.

I’ll keep this short and sweet as I think this one is a pretty obvious opportunity.

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Adrian Ash submits:

Two things happen to cash savers (meaning pretty much everyone) when real interest rates get stuck below zero…

How has gold reached and breached new all-time highs in the absence of strong 1970s-style inflation?

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The Pragmatic Capitalist submits:

An in-depth look at the gold:platinum ratio could be forecasting a moderation in gold prices as the yellow metal has far outpaced its precious metal brethren. Brenda Sullivan at Sucden Financial says some caution is warranted given the recent outsized move (click link for video):

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Shalom Hamou submits:

I wrote on May 1st, 2008 an article whose title was Commodity Conundrum Solved: The Hidden Parameter in Interest Rates.

I would like to point out here a special case which I have overseen. It is the case of deflation. The spread between long term yields and short-term yields is replaced by the spread between long-term yields and inflation. That means that given the current volatility of interest rates an expected deflation of more than 0.64% and the present Yields on US Treasury Bonds of 3.96% (against a normal spread of 4.60%) would bring back the price of minerals to their marginal cost of extraction which is now much below $300 (with a predictable short term overshoot given the high volume of gold stored outside the ground for speculative purpose whose price is not limited downward by the marginal cost of extraction).

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Moses Kim submits:

One of the hardest things to do as an investor is to think through investments without presuming anything. The data will tell a story and paint a picture for you that you can then interpret. Most people shun this obvious approach to investing and instead choose to invert the process by allowing their assumptions to cloud their analysis. This is simply not a sophisticated approach to investing.

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