Baltimore — (TFN): Another drop in the dollar and another big day for the equities markets. And yes, gold is on the rise as well, precariously perched at the psychologically pertinent $1,200 an ounce mark.

Enough alliteration. Let’s talk business.

Brian Hunt (The Right Side):
In the past three months, there’s been a very popular – and very wrong – thing to say about owning gold.

I hear it a lot from inexperienced Wall Street analysts, bloggers, and money managers who spend little time living in the “real world”.

Byron King, Whiskey and Gunpowder
Let’s review the big picture for gold. What’s going on? And what are people saying?

For much of 2009, gold traded in the range of low-mid $900 per ounce. There was a dip over the summer, with a strong upswing starting in September. Gold is now trading well over $1,000 per ounce, in fact just under $1,100.

Turns out that the government of India was buying gold in mid-October.

Well, I said immediate upside potential, but I didn’t realise it would be that immediate. My goodness. Last week I recommended the Canada-listed Pan African (CA:PAF) at $2.25 as a junior mining play on Madagascar. It’s virtually doubled since.

Gold futures have shed over 4% so far today in what MarkeWatch is calling “a broad-based commodities sell-off.”

According to the site, “gold for June delivery tumbled $41.80, or 4.5%, to $879.70 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Other metals futures were also sharply lower, with platinum selling off 7%.”

Read on at MarketWatch.com