IMHO...you are half right.  If the stock market or gold bullion drops 50% tomorrow...rest assured, KRY will be negatively affected.  It is true that, conversely, we will be less affected to the upside lacking the permit.  Without the permit....we are exposed big time to an imminent stock market decline.  I do believe if the price of gold can hold or push higher at this juncture (rather than drop [short term] to 750 or below....which is what many respected pundits have been predicting), that it will provide a "floor" for KRYs share price.  From that point of view, I feel that the macro picture for gold and the stock market is of concern to owners of KRY.  If you were forced to sell shares on margin in the recent end of year tax related selling....perhaps foreknowledge of the likelihood of that event would have been useful to you from a trading perspective....even if it had nothing to do with the permit.