Boost for precious metals as gold shines

ByDerek Blain:Gold stocks - there's not a whole lot of love towards the producers and royalty earners on the yellow metal these days. Investors have watched in dismay as calls for hyperinflation have repeatedly reached fever pitch, waiting for the era where gold truly "shines", and repeatedly seen not only the metal or its synthetic representatives (i.e.

Gold, the metal itself, has been the place to hide during periods of serious market stress, but when the recovery happens, miners tend to soar.

By Brooks McFeely: Dow Jones Industrial Average down 47.15 (-0.36%) to 12,896.67 S&P 500down 6.44 (-0.47%) to 1,367.58 Nasdaq Composite Index up 0.04 (+0.00%) to 2,976.12 GLOBAL SENTIMENT

By David Urban:Gold (GLD) (DGP) has rebounded since an end of year sell-off to poke at $1,700/oz. Now with the seasonally strong first quarter almost finished where does the yellow metal go from here?

In last week’s global macro notes we noted that precious metals were looking tired. That observation was followed up with an immediate decision to go short (via the four instruments in the chart above).

By Stoyan Bojinov:Equities started the day in green territory and gave into selling pressures throughout the day as investors digested less-than-stellar economic and earnings reports. The S&P 500 sat at the bottom of the barrel, clinching a 0.58% loss on the day, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average proved to be most resilient, finishing with a minor 0.18% loss. Gold extended its rally from yesterday as investors were prompted to reallocate assets to safer corners of the market amidst the disappointing data releases.

Andrew Wilkinson submits: Bond investors turned bearish despite a miss on the headline U.S. number, as they looked beyond the blizzards to realize that jobs growth remains very much alive. A coincident report from Canada earlier in the morning also showed that employment growth was much stronger than was expected. The big takeaway is that the economy continues to roll forward; that was confirmed by rising yields and falling bond prices beyond the data.[Click to enlarge]