IT'S NEVER A GOOD TIME TO BE A MALTHUSIAN:

The turn in the gold cycle is quickening and investors should sell the metal, Goldman Sachs said in an April 10 recommendation that returned 5.4 percent in three days. Gold retreated as the Standard & Poor's GSCI Index of 24 raw materials fell to a nine-month low, extending a slump that Citigroup Inc. said marks the "death bell" for the supercycle, or longer-than-average period of rising prices. Global equities advanced to the highest since June 2008 as U.S. stocks reached a record.

"Anybody who did some buying before this big drop is probably in some pain," said Donald Selkin, who helps manage about $3 billion of assets as chief market strategist at National Securities Corp. in New York. "The perception is that gold is not really needed as a safe haven. People are looking at the stock market and they're stunned, and there's no inflation. So people are saying 'What do we need gold for?'"

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