Gold slides despite stock losses and Yen gains

Yesterday an update here in the morning noted how Gold had not exactly impressed much given the risk dynamics and Yen gains. Well, later in the day, after the US stock markets fell sharply on the opening, the metal did rise further. Gold lifted to a high at $2,432.02 right on the 4pm London FX fix. However, it got crunched pretty soon after that was out of the way and the fall back towards and below $2,400 into the close was very much at odds with what one might expect, given the deeper losses across the US stock markets. Gold closed in the US last night at $2,397.70. Perhaps it was that lack of traction that has sent it down by over $40 today? Well, that is hard to answer, but the writing was sure on the wall yesterday evening. This looks to me like a liquidation of profitable trades being used to offset heavy losses in the equity space, by players that have really been caught out by the slide in stocks. The low seen a little earlier today was set at $2,366.86. That is just ahead of the 50 day moving average, in place just now at $2,360.90. Gold is is a little higher just now, but it is clearly rattled and ruling out further downside, as daft as that might seem right now, would appear inappropriate for the time being. Gold is currently trading at $2,375.10