ASX flat, Dow down, gold bubble continues to deflate

About Latest Posts Bruce JacksonBruce co-founded The Motley Fool UK in 1997. Now back in his native Australia, Bruce is …

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The S&P/ASX 200 ended Wednesday relatively flat, a decent performance when compared to the Dow and The Motley Fool's old whipping horse, gold.

Remember the good old days, when the sharemarket just went up? The golden days, just over a week ago, when Ben Bernanke hinted that "supportive policies" from the Federal Reserve would continue?

What the Fed giveth, the Fed taketh away.

Overnight Wednesday it said additional stimulus won't be pumped into the system unless the U.S. economy unexpectedly falters.

Cry babies
The cry babies on Wall Street reacted by throwing their toys out of the pram, at one stage sending the Dow down 133 points, before recovering to close down 65 points, or 0.49 per cent.

Here on the ASX, we finished Wednesday relatively flat.

S&P/ASX 200 winners included QBE Insurance Group (ASX: QBE), Platinum Australia (ASX: PLA), Fairfax Media (ASX: FXJ) and CSL Limited (ASX: CSL).

In the doghouse were Transfield Services (ASX: TSE) (read more here),  Boart Longyear (ASX: BLY) and Beach Petroleum (ASX: BOT). David Jones (ASX: DJS) went ex-dividend.

The end of the world has been delayed…again

Gold futures tumbled 1.9 percent to $US1,648 an ounce, a far cry from its peak of over $US1,900 an ounce.

You have to feel sorry for the doomsters. You know them…their glass is always half empty, they think GFC II is just around the corner, they've sold all their shares and stuck everything into gold.

Their time will come, again. Markets will wobble, again. Panic will come, again. And gold will rise, again.

For now, we'll just bask in the glory of our advice of September 2011 when we said investors should dump their gold in favour of shares.

Since then, the Dow has soared around 17 per cent and gold has slumped around 13 per cent.

If you are looking for more ASX investing ideas, look no further than "The Motley Fool's Top Stock for 2012." In this free report, Investment Analyst Dean Morel names his top pick for 2012…and beyond. Click here now to find out the name of this small but growing telecommunications company. But hurry – the report is free for only a limited period of time.

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