Panicked Investors Flee Risky Equities for Save-Haven Gold

New York (Feb 8)  US Stocks continued their selloff mid-afternoon Monday with investors finding little reason to jump back into equities as the risks over oil and earnings persisted.

The S&P 500 was down 2.6%, its worst one-day performance since mid-January, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 2.4%, or 360 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 3.3% to levels not seen since mid-2014.

Investors instead turned to safe-haven assets such as gold given there was no clear end in sight for the equity selloff. U.S. gold hit its highest level since June on Monday with spot gold climbing as high as $1,201 an ounce over the session. Gold has increased more than 12% since the beginning of the year.

U.S. stocks have been on a downward slide since the beginning of the year on a laundry list of worries. Whether it was oil, the health of the U.S. economy, or a series of weaker earnings across a number of sectors, investors have had more than enough to push them into panic mode. The S&P 500 has fallen more than 10% since the beginning of the year.

Source: TheStreet