ORLANDO, Florida, Nov 3 (Reuters) - The AI-fueled turbulence hitting markets in recent weeks has revived demand for many traditional safe-haven assets, with one glaring exception: gold.
Growing concerns about the stability and profitability of the AI boom have knocked the S&P 500 and Nasdaq from record highs, pushing investors to seek protection in classic havens like US Treasuries, the dollar , the Swiss franc, and the Japanese yen. But gold, the oldest safety play of all, has not found a bid.
The yellow metal slid below $4,000 an ounce on Friday, its lowest level in a year, despite a seemingly favorable "risk off" backdrop of falling stock prices, widening credit spreads, lower bond yields and diminishing expectations for US interest-rate hikes.
Even persistent weakness in bitcoin, once termed "digital gold", and last week's $6.3 billion cyberattack at crypto exchange Binance, potentially the world's biggest financial heist, have failed to offer gold any discernible support.
Nor has the eight-month US-Iran war. In fact, it has been a long time since gold displayed the safe-haven and inflation-hedge characteristics traditionally associated with it.