Many seem to perceive a struggle between metals and stock indices, as though investing in one excluded the other. As mentioned the other day in our comparison to the DJIA, it’s as if there’s some sort of irrational love/hate relationship with gold. Today we’ll take a look at gold’s value against what is probably the darling of many investors and traders alike, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index [Trades as SPDR S&P 500 Trust AMEX: SPY and iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN AMEX: VXX among others].The S&P 500 is one of the best barometers of investor sentiment of all the indices. Note that it is not necessarily an excellent barometer of value, since stocks do not necessarily indicate value. They indicate investor mood or sentiment in conjunction with perceived value.Gold has proven to be a barometer of sorts as well, but seems largely inconsistent in this regard. As it’s grown in popularity, it’s often moved in lockstep with various vehicles. Once seeming to always move inversely with the U.S. dollar, now it often rises with the dollar as investors increasingly perceive it as a viable alternate safe-haven. For instance, with recent euro struggles, as the euro dropped in value, the dollar and gold both moved upward. However, it seems that if stocks move northerly with the dollar, then gold moves either sideways or downward, as we’ve seen recently.
via S&P 500 & Gold; Who Treats You Better? – VXX, SPY, GLD, PHYS – Foolish Blogging Network.
