Gold's Stress Test

by Rick Ackerman
Gold’s spectacular swoon on Friday provided fresh evidence that a red-hot bull market is in no imminent danger of cooling off. The initial plunge was orchestrated by bullion bankers and other promiscuous borrowers of gold when some unsettling financial news out of Dubai triggered a misbegotten panic into, of all things, dollars.

Smelling blood, gold shorts pulled their bids when it looked as though the dollar was about to soar. Alas, the buck barely got off the launching pad before gravity re-asserted itself with a vengeance. The rally was so short-lived and feeble that it will have significantly diminished the dollar’s bizarre status as a “safe haven.” That in turn will make it harder in the future for the central banks of Europe, Japan and the U.S. to kick off an inevitable dollar-support operation with some “news” annnouncement designed to promote a short squeeze.

Conversely, gold’s powerful, market-driven surge will now be even more difficult for officialdom to suppress, since Friday’s rebound was so swift and steep as to purge all doubts that bulls are overwhelmingly in charge.