CBS News
As gold’s price falls, investors should remember these 3 things
Getty Images/iStockphoto
The price of gold was seemingly on a never-ending price surge throughout most of 2024. Starting the year priced at just $2,063.73 per ounce, the precious metal soared past the $2,700 mark in late October, with many experts predicting that it could surpass $3,000, perhaps before the end of the year. But that price run came to an end in early November, and gold is now sitting under $2,600 with the possibility of further reductions significant right now.
That said, this lower entry price point offers an opportunity for investors who have yet to add gold to their portfolio. But whether you’re just getting started or already have gold as one element of a diversified portfolio, it’s important to remember a few key points, especially now that the price is declining again. Below, we’ll break down three things investors should remember with gold’s price falling.
Start exploring your top gold investing options here today.
What to remember as gold’s price falls
A cooling gold price could cause investors to readjust their strategy but dramatic adjustments may not be needed if investors remember the following three items:
Price drops are common (and often temporary)
A drop from nearly $2,700 to under $2,600 in less than a month may feel substantial, but it’s important to take a longer view of gold. Gold was priced near $2,600 as recently as September, so the price change isn’t as dramatic as it feels. And, more importantly, price drops in the gold market are common – and often temporary. While dips are inevitable, gold tends to move in one steady upward direction. Understanding this historical dynamic, then, investors may be better served by acting now versus waiting for the price to fall much further.
Get started with gold online today.
Gold is a safe-haven asset
While the price of any asset is important, it’s equally as important to remember the traditional functions of gold in a portfolio and that’s not to produce income as much as it is to be a safe-haven asset to protect other, more volatile assets. Gold is an inflation hedge known for providing a buffer when stocks, bonds and even real estate underperform. And that reputation has not been altered by a mere 5% drop in the price in recent weeks, nor is it likely to be different in the future.
The price is unlikely to fall back to where it was
While a price drop of a few hundred dollars may tempt prospective investors to wait for a cheaper, more ideal time to buy in, the price is unlikely to fall back to exactly where it was. Inflation rose slightly in October compared to September’s rate. And, as has been seen in recent years, as inflation has risen, interest in the metal has soared and the price has (generally) risen alongside it. Waiting for this drop to bring the price back to early 2024 levels could be a mistake, then, particularly if you can invest now at a better price than what was widely available in recent weeks.
Learn more about where the price of gold could be heading here.
The bottom line
A lower gold price needs to be evaluated for the pros and cons it offers investors, but it shouldn’t be overanalyzed either. After all, price drops for gold are common and often temporary. And those changes are unlikely to diminish the metal’s ability to serve as a safe-haven asset. Still, it’s unlikely that the price will fall back to where it was earlier this year or even in 2023, so investors waiting for that to happen may want to try a different strategy, particularly now before the metal has a chance to rise in price again with inflation ticking back up. Just remember to follow the traditional gold investing limit of 10% of your overall portfolio to avoid overcrowding your other income-producing assets at the same time.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
CBS News
Democratic senators ask Pentagon and DOJ to investigate any Elon Musk contact with Putin and other top Russians
Two top Democratic senators are asking the Pentagon and the Justice Department to investigate billionaire Trump ally Elon Musk’s reported contacts with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other top Russian officials in recent years.
Sen. Jack Reed, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a top member of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees, wrote a letter to Defense Department Inspector General Robert Storch and Attorney General Merrick Garland Friday, urging them to determine whether Musk’s reported contacts with the Russians should force a review of the federal government’s contracts with his company, SpaceX. Reuters was first to report the request.
The Wall Street Journal reported in October that Musk has been in regular contact with Putin since late 2022, and that Putin asked Musk to activate his Starlink satellite internet program over Taiwan for Chinese President Xi Jinping. SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Shaheen and Reed expressed concern that giving a security clearance to someone with a reported history of Russian communications could pose a national security risk.
“These relationships between a well-known U.S. adversary and Mr. Musk, a beneficiary of billions of dollars in U.S. government funding, pose serious questions regarding Mr. Musk’s reliability as a government contractor and a clearance holder,” the senators wrote.
The world’s richest man has become a close ally of President-elect Donald Trump in recent months, giving over $130 million to help elect him, campaigning and traveling with him, and weighing in on Cabinet picks. Trump announced earlier this week that he’s tapping Musk and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a new Department of Government Efficiency.
CBS News also reported Friday that Musk recently met with Iran’s ambassador to the U.N., Amir Saeid Iravani, at the ambassador’s residence in New York, according to two sources familiar with the meeting. The U.S. does not have diplomatic relations with Iran.
The senators also sent a separate letter to Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, expressing their concern that the Space Force’s reliance on SpaceX could also affect national security.
and
contributed to this report.
CBS News
Man accused of killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley “went hunting for females,” prosecutor says
A Venezuelan man “went hunting for females on the University of Georgia’s campus” earlier this year and ended up killing nursing student Laken Riley after a struggle, a prosecutor said Friday. The man’s lawyer, though, said the evidence is circumstantial and doesn’t prove his client is guilty.
Jose Ibarra, who entered the U.S. illegally, is charged with murder in the February killing, which helped fan the immigration debate during this year’s presidential campaign. Ibarra waived his right to a jury trial, meaning his case is being heard and decided by Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard.
Prosecutor Sheila Ross told the judge that Ibarra encountered Riley Feb. 22 while she was running on the University of Georgia campus in Athens. Riley, 22, was a student at Augusta University College of Nursing, which also has a campus in the city that is about 70 miles east of Atlanta.
“When Laken Riley refused to be his rape victim, he bashed her skull in with a rock repeatedly,” Ross said, adding that the evidence would show that Riley “fought for her life, for her dignity.”
As a result of that fight, Ibarra’s DNA was left under her fingernails, Ross said. Riley called 911 and, in a struggle over her phone, Ibarra’s thumbprint was left on the screen, she said.
That forensic evidence is sufficient to prove Ibarra’s guilt, but digital and video evidence also prove that Ibarra killed Riley, the prosecutor said.
Augusta University
Defense attorney Dustin Kirby called the evidence in the case graphic and disturbing, but he said none of it proves that his client killed Riley.
“The evidence in this case is very good that Laken Riley was murdered,” he said. “The evidence that Jose Ibarra killed Laken Riley is circumstantial.”
The killing added fuel to the national debate over immigration when federal authorities said Ibarra illegally entered the U.S. in 2022 and was allowed to stay to pursue his immigration case.
Republicans, including President-elect Donald Trump, blamed Democratic President Joe Biden’s border policies for her death. As he spoke about border security during his State of the Union address weeks after the killing, Biden mentioned Riley by name.
ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/AFP via Getty Images
Riley’s mother, Allyson Phillips, and other family members packed the courtroom Friday morning but didn’t return after lunch. Phillips put her face in her hands and cried frequently, especially when photos of her daughter were shown and during descriptions of what happened to her.
Ibarra, dressed in a plaid shirt and dark slacks and with his feet chained, wore headphones to hear a Spanish-language interpreter. He appeared attentive, sometimes looking up when photos or video were shown and other times looking down at his lap.
During her opening statement, Ross laid out a timeline using doorbell and surveillance camera footage, as well as data from Riley’s phone and watch, to piece together her final moments.
Riley left home at 9:03 a.m. and headed for wooded trails where she often ran. Data from her watch shows that at 9:10 a.m., she was running at a fast pace when something happened that made her “stop dead in her tracks.” She called 911 at 9:11 a.m.
A 911 dispatcher answered but no one responded when she repeatedly sought a response, and then the call was ended by the caller. The dispatcher immediately called back, but no one answered.
“Her encounter with him was long. Her fight with him was fierce,” Ross said, noting that Riley’s watch data showed her heart was still beating until 9:28 a.m.
Ross also played security camera video that shows a man she said is Ibarra at 9:44 a.m. in a parking lot at his apartment complex. The man tossed something in a recycling bin and then appeared to throw something in nearby bushes. In the recycling bin, officers found a dark hooded jacket with blood that turned out to be Riley’s on it and strands of long dark hair caught on a button. In the bushes, they found black disposable kitchen gloves, one of which had a hole in the tip of the thumb.
Another video from about 35 minutes later shows what appeared to be the same man wearing different clothes and walking toward a trash bin with a bag and then walking back empty-handed. That bin was emptied before police were able to search it.
One of Riley’s three roommates testified that she became worried when Riley didn’t return from a run. The four friends used a phone app to track each other’s whereabouts, and Lilly Steiner testified that she became more worried when she saw that Riley’s phone showed her in the same location for a long time.
Riley often talked to her mother by phone when she ran, and her mother also became concerned that morning when her daughter didn’t answer her calls.
Steiner and another roommate, Sofia Magana, walked to the trail where the phone app indicated Riley was located. They found what they believed was one of Riley’s earbuds on the trail and returned home to call police.
One of the officers who responded found Riley’s body partially covered by leaves, 64 feet off the trail. Although her shirt had been pulled up and her underwear was showing above the lowered waistband of her running tights, Ross said there was no evidence that Riley had been sexually assaulted.
Police arrested Ibarra the day after the killing.
Before Ross played video from the body camera of the officer who found Riley, she warned Riley’s family that her dead body would be shown. Riley’s mother left the courtroom, but other family members and friends remained, some of them crying or covering their faces during the video.
Ibarra is charged with one count of malice murder, three counts of felony murder and one count each of kidnapping, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, hindering an emergency telephone call, tampering with evidence and being a peeping Tom.
Prosecutors say that on the day of Riley’s killing, Ibarra peered into the window of an apartment in a university residential building, which is the basis for the peeping Tom charge.
