It's been a brutal market lately, unless you're a bullion buff. Gold futures for April delivery passed the $1,000 milestone this morning.
I'm not an avid tracker of precious metals, so I have no insight to offer you regarding the nuances and direction of the yellow stuff. As a stock investor, I just want to lay an ounce of gold on one side of the balance, and show you how much that $1,000 value could fetch in equities on the open market.
After all, an ounce of gold these days can buy you any of the following:
- A round lot of 100 shares of General Electric
(NYSE:GE) . The conglomerate -- only a few years ago, the most valuable company on the planet -- opened at less than $10 a share this morning. - Nearly three shares of Google
(NASDAQ:GOOG) . This one stings personally. Back in 2005, Google and gold were both barreling towards the $500 mark, and I made my case for buying Google over gold. - Roughly 8,000 shares of Sirius XM Radio
(NASDAQ:SIRI) , based on last night's close. I often refer to Sirius XM as a lottery ticket, given the speculative nature of buying into the satellite radio operator these days. However, truth be told, a buck spent on a lottery ticket is now good for eight shares of Sirius XM. - Nearly three shares of NVR
(NYSE:NVR) . The homebuilder peaked in the summer of 2005, with its stock closing just 5% below the $1,000 mark. Remember when metals and real estate were considered hard assets? How times have changed! - A hundred shares apiece of Bank of America
(NYSE:BAC) , Citigroup(NYSE:C) , and General Motors(NYSE:GM) , with more than enough spare change to take that special someone to a really good steakhouse. I'm lumping these three companies together because they are part of the 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average index. Can you believe that five of the 30 stocks in the Dow are trading in the single digits?
This isn't necessarily a shopping list, though I'll risk further embarrassment by claiming that I would rather own three shares of the world's leading search engine than an ounce of gold at the moment.
Gee, $1,000 can go a long way on Wall Street these days.
Further 24-karat Foolishness: