truthingold.com / truthing / May 21, 2014 at 08:04
Investors are shunning gold again, sending holdings in the world’s largest exchange-traded product backed by bullion to the lowest since December 2008.
Assets in the SPDR Gold Trust, which counts billionaire John Paulson as its biggest holder, dropped to 780.19 metric tons yesterday, as about $2.6 billion was wiped from the value of the fund in the past two months.
After reaching a six-month high in March, gold has dropped 7 percent as the U.S. economy recovered from a winter slowdown. Prices plunged 28 percent last year, the most since 1981, after some investors lost faith in the precious metal as a store of value, and more than $73 billion was erased from global ETPs.
“There are really no fundamental reasons to be invested in gold,” James Cordier, the founder of Optionsellers.com in Tampa, Florida, said in a telephone interview. “The safe-haven premium has dropped because the economy is improving.”
Gold futures for June delivery traded at $1,294.30 an ounce at 2:41 p.m. Singapore time from $1,294.60 yesterday on the Comex in New York. Prices have tumbled about 33 percent from an all-time high of $1,923.70 in September 2011.
