A number of new reports are coming out next week despite the holiday that may affect markets. Existing home sales will be reported on Monday. Economists are betting that the extension of the tax credit may lead to an increase in sales. New home sales will be reported on Wednesday.

The big data coming is the Consumer Confidence Index, which will be released on Tuesday. President Obama recently spoke about the importance consumer confidence plays in the economy. Last month the numbers came in lower than economists expected, which contributed to the spike in gold’s price as more investors feared pullbacks in the stock market.

Gold prices are holding well above $1100/oz right now. At the time of this post, today’s gold price is at $1152.80/oz.  Gold’s support remains broad, with large and small investors alike strengthening their positions in the market.

Dr. Marc Faber, the economist and entrepreneur who made his name by warning his clients to get out of stocks a week before the October 1987 crash, is still calling today’s gold price a “bargain.” His advice? The metal will rise as the S&P drops, and you’d be smart to buy gold before its too late:

“Some pundits will argue that precious metals are expensive, but this isn’t my view. Why would anyone not own some gold, rather than US dollars, when interest rates are near zero? Dollars can and will be printed en masse, whereas the supply of precious metals is extremely limited.

Returning to the argument that gold is expensive, it would appear that it is actually still a bargain compared to the S&P 500. At present, gold sells at about the same level as the S&P 500, but if I am right about the size of future US fiscal deficits and about the Fed neglecting to protect the purchasing power of the US dollar, I could envision a time when gold will sell for at least two or three times the value of the S&P 500. Also, if an investor were convinced that equities will do better than gold, he should consider investing in a basket of gold and silver shares, which are relatively depressed compared to the price of gold.”

Just wanted to write a very brief post about today’s gold prices. Remember, you can always visit our homepage and every subpage of the main website in order to view today’s gold price.