Because of the high degree of "linkage" between the various markets, any financial downdraft won't be restricted to the major stock indices, but instead will likely precipitate a plunge across the board, including for gold prices, he says. Until lately, he recommended Goldcorp (GG - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), Agnico-Eagle (AEM - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), Yamana Gold (AUY - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), Silver Wheaton (SLW - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), Golden Star Resources (GSS - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) and Newmont Mining (NEM - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) as core holdings, but now he believes they need to go. Whether Barbera's view on gold turns out to be correct, what is true is that the price action so far this year has been nothing to write home about, with sideways movements being the story since the beginning of February. Interest appears to have been waning. The tonnage of gold bought in the first quarter was down 26% from a year earlier, and more recently investors bailed on the StreetTracks Gold Shares (GLD - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) exchange-traded fund, causing it to liquidate almost 40 tons of its metal inventory from mid-April through the end of May. Subsequently, some gold has been reclaimed, but the ETF's total holdings are not yet back to the high of 501 tons reached April 17. In addition, new figures from the U.S. Mint show bullion coin sales for May were about half the level of last year, and they look likely to be low relative to June 2006, as well. These data points are important because they reflect the sentiment of investors, whose heavy buying over the past few years helped drive gold prices to levels not seen since 1980.