There are ups and downs in prices of everything on the market. But historically, gold has been tested by time and proved literally rustproof thus become a symbol of imperishable value, substituted by people across the continents to retain wealth whenever they are involved in any crises, economic - say, the Leerman Shock in 2008 - or not - social upheavals like wars or depressions or natural disasters like earthquakes and floods and their fortune is deemed vulnerable and put at the risk of devastating loss. So there is an almost eternal belief in gold. They abandon their money, rushing it to the gold. Their behavior in this option is called 'flight to simplicity'.
However, gold can be of less and less value over the shorter period of time, like the past one year. Whereas oil has been more and more highly priced meanwhile.
Their curbs are shown dramatically opposite by the graphs in these Excel files:
Excel Gold Price Chart" or formally "Excel Chart: Daily Gold Price in US Dollar per Troy Ounce, London PM Fix" Excel Chart: Cushing, OK WTI Spot Price FOB (Dollars per Barrel) - September 9, 2013 -