The world's relatively calm and no one's expecting World War III anytime soon.

243

The fundamental feature was the strength of the dollar versus the yen -- and statements that the Japanese won't be supporting the yen. And no one wanted to be long in gold over the weekend.

132

There have been a lot of problems: the Nikkei in Japan hit 12-year lows, there was fear the Russians would dump metals, and the Dow is off 20 percent in the last six weeks.

116

The political hedge used to be a major source of demand for gold. But it is no longer there at the moment.

106

It's just a nail in gold's coffin.

104