Emma Dunkley
CityWire
Aug 8, 2011
Gold has hit all-time highs of $1,709 following a week in which Standard & Poors’ downgraded the US credit rating and equity markets plummeted on the Eurozone’s ongoing debt crisis.
The precious metal is up over 3% today and represents one of the only asset classes not to be sold off, with the FTSE 100 index opening trading this morning down 1%, while Asian markets shed 2.4%.
The sell-off follows the move by S&P on Saturday to cut the US credit rating from AAA for the first time in history, down to AA+, not long after the country’s political deadlock over raising its debt ceiling and making a deficit reduction.
Last week also saw the European Central Bank’s president Jean-Claude Trichet announce a renewal of bond buying, which failed to instil market confidence as the bank only purchased Irish and Portuguese bonds, stoking fears over Italian and Spanish sovereign debt.
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