Look at this. Big surprise, huh?>>COMEX and NYMEX precious metals futures were mostly
higher midsession led by further gains in the gold market after news the Swiss Finance Minister
backed away from the Swiss National Bank plan to sell 1,400 tonnes of Swiss gold reserves.
''Gold was up on the day anyway, on renewed nervousness about world stocksmarkets and
weakness in the dollar, but the Swiss news prompted more fund shortcovering,'' one COMEX floor
trader said.
Swiss Finance Minister, Kaspar Villiger, said Switzerland should not sell the full 1,400 tonnes of gold
proposed in a Swiss National Bank plan last week.
The proposal floated last week was to sell about 1,400 tonnes or more than half the Swiss National
Bank's gold reserves of 2,590 tonnes, as they would not be needed if Switzerland went ahead with
plans to abolish gold backing for its currency.
In the past Villiger has backed an earlier plan announced in March to sell about 400 tonnes of gold to
fund a Holocaust victims fund and he continued to back that original plan Thursday. |
