From Fast Markets LTD (UK) this AM.. 10.5.2011
[ quoted snippet ]
PLATINUM HAMMERED BY FUND LIQUIDATION, CME ACTION
Platinum continued to fall, hitting a new multi-month low of $1,433 per ounce at one stage, its lowest since December 23, 2009. The metal has been hammered by fund liquidation and the unwinding of long positions after the latest Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) margin increase.
The exchange raised the initial and maintenance margin requirements - a sum that must be maintained on deposit - for the platinum futures contracts 28.6 percent.
Initial margins were raised to $4,950 from $3,850 per contract, while maintenance margins were hiked to $4,500, it showed on its website.
"Platinum is feeling the pinch of higher CME margin requirements, which will prompt speculators to retreat from their long positions," broker Commerzbank said.
Persistent economic worries also weighed on future demand prospects from the industrial sector. Prices were last at $1,449/1,454 per ounce, still down $34.
Palladium was just $1 lower at $566/571 per ounce, having yesterday fallen to a one-year low of $542. [ /quote]
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observation...
Platinum...ever the industrial metal. Contracting Consumer demand for all this going zoomzoom...most especially the 20+% unemployed consumeristic, overthetop indebted western consumer. |
