The Goldman story is affecting gold according to 24/7 Wall Street. On Friday, the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) lost 2.1% to $111.24. The guys at 24/7 reason that the Paulson & Co. hedge fund implicated in the scandal is heavily invested in gold. However, if investors pull out, the fund may need to sell gold to cash them out, putting downward pressure on the yellow metal. I think this is argument is a nonstarter. Most hedge funds require 60 to 90 days notice before investors can cash out. So, this sell off won’t happen for a while. This means, that gold may have been beaten down without good reason, and that Monday is a buying opportunity.
Meanwhile, The New York Times said on Saturday that Wall Street firms tent to settle cases like this one, but Goldman’s statement on Friday that it intends to fight may create a big problem. While the refusal to settle was intended to discourage investor lawsuits, this could set Goldman up for a long, messy public battle. The paper added that several European banks that lost money in the deal may try to recoup the money from Goldman.
Then Sunday, the Times added two congressmen want a deeper investigation into taxpayer losses while Britain’s prime minister asked his country’s securities regulator to investigate the Goldman due to losses incurred by the Royal Bank of Scotland. Germany added it may take legal action as well.
It appears Yahoo!Finance had it wrong. They didn’t even mention the volume of the Financial Select Sector SPDR (XLF) which was the third most traded stock on Friday with 380.6 million shares traded, topping the SPDR (SPY) and Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3x (FAZ), which it said had the third highest volume. On Friday, XLF fell 3.7% to $16.36 and the ProShares Ultra Financials (UYG), the one that gives 2x the positive return on the financial sector, lost 6.6% to $71.65.
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