I was musing over at the Kitco.com site just now and the pretty colours on display caught my eye. Here’s the site’s always-useful list of currencies versus gold found close to the foot of the page.
| Currency | Chg% X=1$USD |
NY Time | X= 1$USD |
X$USD =1 |
Gold Price/oz |
Gold Chg |
Gold Chg% |
|
 US Dollar |
— | 09/08-12:55 | — | — | 997.70 | +3.30 |  |
+0.33% |
| Australian Dollar |
+0.94% | 09/08-12:51 | 1.1576 | 0.8639 | 1154.89 | -7.12 |  |
-0.61% |
| Brazilian Real |
+1.08% | 09/08-12:54 | 1.8207 | 0.5492 | 1816.51 | -13.68 | |
-0.75% |
| British Pound |
+1.16% | 09/08-12:53 | 0.6048 | 1.6536 | 603.36 | -5.06 | |
-0.83% |
| Canadian Dollar |
+0.31% | 09/08-12:55 | 1.0752 | 0.9301 | 1072.68 | +0.27 | |
+0.02% |
| Chinese Yuan |
+0.02% | 09/08-05:33 | 6.8232 | 0.1466 | 6807.51 | +21.22 | |
+0.31% |
| Euro |
+1.43% | 09/08-12:54 | 0.6881 | 1.4534 | 686.47 | -7.67 | |
-1.11% |
| Hong Kong Dollar |
+0.12% | 09/08-12:48 | 7.7458 | 0.1291 | 7727.98 | +16.61 | |
+0.22% |
| Indian Rupee |
+0.35% | 09/08-12:45 | 48.4150 | 0.0207 | 48303.65 | -9.28 | |
-0.02% |
| Japanese Yen |
+1.00% | 09/08-12:54 | 92.1300 | 0.0109 | 91918.10 | -620.76 | |
-0.67% |
| Mexican Pesos |
+0.46% | 09/08-12:54 | 13.2935 | 0.0752 | 13262.92 | -17.29 | |
-0.13% |
| Russian Ruble |
+0.90% | 09/08-12:51 | 31.2082 | 0.0320 | 31136.42 | -178.23 | |
-0.57% |
| S.African Rand |
+0.82% | 09/08-12:54 | 7.5181 | 0.1330 | 7500.76 | -36.79 | |
-0.49% |
| Swiss Franc |
+1.49% | 09/08-12:54 | 1.0441 | 0.9578 | 1041.70 | -12.22 | |
-1.16% |
So today, the much-awaited bannerday of U$1,000/oz Au, spot gold is up versus the US Dollar, the Yuan and the HKD (natch, both pegged) and the loonie (by a hair’s breadth). Against all other major currencies it’s down. Something that shouldn’t be a surprise to those who have realized all along this is a dollar game and much less to do with the thing priced up in dollars (gold or many other objects), but it is a nice, topical example and an easy to note moment of the phenomenon.
UPDATE: Since pasting the above out, gold has gone negative in loonies, too. Just sayin’