Christie's Auction and the Flight to Quality

Investing in a highly volatile stock market is extremely risky, especially when the government implements new "reliefs" daily.  This kind of environment will, naturally, lead the investor to swap risky stocks for relatively less risky assets that have better long term stability.  Jeanine Poggi sheds some light on how this trend has been impacting auction sales in  "Why Auctions Thrive in a Bad Economy".  

In her article, (which was, in fact, featured in the "Style" section), she points out that just this past Wednesday, while the stock market was quivering, Christie's (Auction) in NY witnessed "$30 million of jewelry and precious stones change hands in less than 5 hours".  She credits this finding to the fact that jewelry and precious stones are a dependable store of value during economic downturns.  As investors feel the pinch (or wrench) of highly risky financial markets, they will seek higher quality assets.  This is often referred to as a "flight to quality", which is a reaction to increasing risk in one market relative to another less risky market.  She says that the fact that sale prices have been radically exceeding expectations is proof that demand for jewelry and precious stones is rising, which has the effect of bidding up the price.  She also remarks that not only do these precious assets retain their value well, but they also can yield quite high returns during economic upswings!