Why is gold down $1.50 today when the following news came out? In all my years of watching markets i have never seen as miserable a response to news as gold these last few months.
Friday September 17, 5:43 am Eastern Time
LDP's Ohara says Japan should buy
gold from IMF
TOKYO, Sept 17 (Reuters) - A senior ruling party member and
unofficial adviser to Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi said on Friday
Japan should use its foreign reserves to buy gold from the
International Monetary Fund.
''Why shouldn't Japan buy up gold from IMF by using the excess
dollars it owns?'' Ichizo Ohara said in an interview with Reuters,
while stressing this was only his personal opinion and that Japan was not currently discussing the issue
with the IMF.
On Thursday, a senior IMF official said in Washington the IMF was close to a deal on off-market
transactions to use its gold reserves to pay for poor countries' debt relief, taking advantage of the gap
between the price at which the IMF values the metal and the higher market price.
The IMF, backed by its major shareholders, had initially wanted to sell up to 10 million ounces of its
103 million ounce gold stockpile to pay for a programme of debt relief for poor countries.
But it abandoned the plan after stiff opposition from the U.S. Congress, which has to approve gold
sales.
The official declined to say exactly how much gold would be involved in the revaluation exercise,
under which countries repaying loans to the IMF will buy gold at market price, sell it back to the
Fund and use that money to pay their debts.
Deputy finance ministers from the 24 countries making up the IMF's policy-making Interim
Committee will discuss gold sales when they meet in Washington on Friday, and the IMF official said
the fund was determined to finalise its decision soon. |
