Widely followed investor Dennis Gartman, who recently sold off the gold in his personal account, said Monday that he had “no position” on the precious metal at its current prices.
“I have no position on it whatsoever at this point,” said Gartman, an economist and publisher of The Gartman Letter. “I think it might want to go weaker, but if it goes weaker, it’ll do it without me. If it gets above $1,605, I’ll say, ‘You know, that’s fairly impressive. It’s held some important trend lines.’”
U.S. gold futures and spot gold dropped below $1,600 an ounce, less than a week after it broke below its 200-day moving average.
For Gartman, that number carried a fair amount of weight.
“The fact that we’re underneath that makes it pretty difficult for even the most beginning technician to want to stand up and want to be a buyer,” he said. “I will let it go lower if it wants to.”
Gartman said that the reasonable strength of the U.S. dollar made gold a less attractive bet.
“As long as that continues, it’s hard to make a bullish case for the gold market,” he said.
“Gold is actually the second-most important reservable asset in the world. The dollar is still the No. 1 reservable asset.”
Recent swings in gold prices have led to predictions that gold prices would fall to $1,000 or rally to $2,500 next year.
The Japanese yen might also be worth watching in the near future, he added.
Gartman said that if gold remained under $1,600, mining companies might look to reduce their exposure.
“I’d be out selling 5 or 10 or 15 percent of next year’s production just to hedge some, just in case,” he said.
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Trader disclosure: On Dec. 19, 2011, the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC’s "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders: Adami owns C; Adami owns GS; Adami owns INTC; Adami owns MSFT; Adami owns NUE; Adami owns BTU; Adami owns AGU; Terranova owns TRLG; Terranova owns SWN; Terranova owns SU; Terranova owns VRTS; Terranova owns IBM; Terranova owns LQD; Terranova owns MUB; Terranova owns EMC; Terranova owns CSCO; Terranova owns AXP; Terranova owns SBUX; Kelly is short UBS; Kelly is short BCS; Kelly is short SLX; Seymour is long KRE; Seymour is long IWM; Cortes is long SO; Cortes is long TSN; Cortes is long SVU; Cortes is long Treasuries; Cortes is short AAPl; Cortes is short XRT; Cortes is short Crude;
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