Gold is trading down $19 today, and pulling several major gold stocks down to new 52 week lows in reaction to the drop in the precious metal. If you follow gold prices, you know that the past month has not been kind on the commodity, with prices falling from above $900 an ounce a few weeks ago down to its current price of $716.30. Earlier in today's session we actually saw prices trading much lower, breaking through the psychological $700 barrier, and falling all the way down to $695.20 an ounce. This is the first time in 13 months that gold has been under $700, and marks a huge drop from the highs it set back on March 14, when it was at historic highs above $1000 an ounce. Typically, you would think that recessionary times in America would lead to a rise in gold, but this time around things are a bit different. Not only is America in hard times, but countries all around the world are dealing with their own economic slowdowns, which in turn is pushing currencies around the world lower. As this happens, the dollar, despite the current state of the American economy, has been strengthening against its foreign counterparts. As we all know, gold trades inversely proportionate to the dollar, so any strength in the American currency will result in gold prices dropping, and that is part of what we are seeing right now. Not only has the dollar been strengthening, but many analysts credit gold's recent drop to the fact that the economic slowdown in America has been mush steeper than anyone would have expected, resulting in gold becoming almost a "last resort" for capital. During September for instance, there was a sharp increase in gold sales, as funds began looking for any way possible to raise the cash that they needed to cover their margin calls and massive investor redemptions. As investors become increasingly nervous about the overall economy, people are selling off much of their top assets, and gold falls right into that category. What is the future for gold? Right now it looks unclear for the short term, but long term you would have to believe that prices will start to move higher. As more governments around the world resort to pumping more and more liquidity into their economies, global currencies are bound to continue to erode, and that includes the U.S. dollar as well. As currencies move lower, investors will start to once again pay attention to gold as a hedge against their ailing currencies and prices "should" rebound and move higher. In today's market, the drop in gold prices resulted in several gold stocks falling to set new 52 week lows on Wall Street: Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE: ABX) dropped to a new 52 week low of $18.11, and is currently trading down 7.0% to $18,76, down $1.41 on the day Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. (NYSE: AEM) set a new yearly low today, falling as low as $22.44, and is currently trading down 9.9% to $23.28, which is down $2.57 on the day Yamana Gold, Inc. (NYSE: AUY) set a new 52 week low of $3.70 a share, and is currently trading down 3.2% to $3.84, down $0.13 AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (NYSE: AU) set a new 52 week low of $14.25, and is currently trading down 2.2% to $14.65, down $0.29 For a better perspective on just how sharply prices have dropped, let's take a look at a chart for gold:

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