The new gold rush is the same as the ultimate flight to quality… Rather than chasing dollars and getting great income of the United States bond market, gold continues to move toward being a currency whether Ben Bernanke will admit it or not. Gold hit $1,650.00 per ounce today and this has the key gold ETFs trading higher by a like amount. SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD), ETFS Physical Swiss Gold Shares (NYSE: SGOL), and iShares Gold Trust (NYSE: IAU) are all up close to 2% on the day.
What is different about today is that the miners via the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSE: GDX) and the junior miners via the Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (NYSE: GDXJ) are trading up even more. Most of the key gold stocks are still very off of their highs, so these could all continue running with the shiny yellow stuff.
Newmont Mining Corp. (NYSE: NEM), a key gold player in every gold segment, is doing better than others with a 2.5% gain to $56.70. Its 52-week range is $50.05 to $65.50, so if gold’s run continues then this one could still have much more room to run. It also has the best dividend in the sector.
Harmony Gold Mining Co. Ltd. (NYSE: HMY) is one of the top gainers in the sector today with gains of 7.5% to $14.95 with a 52-week range of $9.84 to $15.73.
Gold ETFs ALL hit new highs today. SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD) is up 2.1% at $160.99, ETFS Physical Swiss Gold Shares (NYSE: SGOL) is up 1.9% at $163.85, and iShares Gold Trust (NYSE: IAU) is up 2.1% at $16.14.
Along the lines of the mining ETFs, the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSE: GDX) is up 2.4% at $58.75 and the Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (NYSE: GDXJ) is up 3.2% at $37.45.
Earlier this summer, Tim Winmill of The Midas Fund gave us the prediction that gold would hit $1,700.00 this year in an exclusive interview. He also gave some great gold picks, one of which is extremely speculative.
What Ben Bernanke may say down the road is that he didn’t like to see gold becoming a currency. The only good news is that stores are not yet saying they will exchange gold for goods. As the world expects that a debt rating downgrade is likely heading the way of the United States with or without a deal, gold only looks that much more of the magnet.
JON C. OGG
Top Gaining Stocks
Top Losing Stocks