Gold flying!

The gold price has spiked up sharply at the start of US trade.

Currently the metal is trading at US$942 after starting earlier today at US$902.

South African equities could sorely do with a lift in the underlying prices of precious metals like Gold and Platinum. The spectre of massive job losses in these sectors is weighing heavily on South Africa and if metals prices are up this might serve as a bit of buffer to the producers....

For example Anglo Platinum earlier this week said it was planning to shed something like 10000 jobs in the next few weeks. Platinum has added US$31 to take the price to US$1067. Nowhere near levels seen in previous years but it might help.

But like I've warned before - I get nervous when we see big unexpected spikes in the gold price.... To me it serves as a precursor for more dollar weakness and structural problems in the financial market...

Time will tell