Greece is cited as the major concern causing negative sentiment and worry in the markets.

October 3, 2011 – Markets opened down in the West after a 4.4% drop overnight on China’s Hang Seng Index. The Nikkei and Shanghai Indices were also down overnight. Greece is cited as the major concern causing negative sentiment and worry in the markets. This follows on the emergent story yesterday that Greece has announced it will be unable to meet its own budget reduction targets. Reportedly, Greece has enough money to keep operating for only a couple more weeks during which time the German rescue package must clear a few more hurdles.

Greece’s miss on its budget reduction targets, which it set just months ago, is a strong indication that the bailout package may not be enough to keep the country solvent. Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, is losing regional elections because of her support of the Greek intervention. It is not currently known how the problems Greece is experiencing will resolve or whether Germany, if required, will pledge more money to bolster the troubled Mediterranean nation.

While this is causing negative sentiment to reign in world markets, it is making for a rise in the gold market Monday. Increasingly, investors are moving to the relatively safe investment gold offers in the wake of the Greek crisis.

Gold was up 2% during intraday trading, or $32.50, which is a very nice gain for a Monday morning and will have investors smiling. Generally, persistent worries in the world’s stock markets are continuing to fuel a flight to the stability gold offers at this time. If you bought stocks on Friday you might be wincing right now. If you bought gold on Friday, you’re smiling.

Kevin Johnson

Senior Staff Writer – GoldCoin.net