Gold Bulls `Running for Cover' Signal Price Drop: Chart of Day
By Millie Munshi
Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Gold, down 21 percent from a record $1,033.90 an ounce in March, may be headed down after open interest in New York futures contracts for the precious metal plunged to the lowest level in 11 months.
The CHART OF THE DAY shows open interest, or the total number of contracts yet to be closed, liquidated or delivered. This reached 365,611 on Aug. 12, down 26 percent from a four- month high on July 18 and the lowest since Sept. 10. Open interest on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange reached 593,953 on Jan. 15 -- the highest since at least 1994 -- before gold rallied another 15 percent to a record on March 17.
``Open interest in gold is down sharply and it just shows you people are running for cover from this market right now,'' said Ron Goodis, the futures-trading director at Equidex Brokerage Group Inc. in Closter, New Jersey. ``No one wants to get into gold now.''
