Hi Vinod. How ya' doin? Yeah, I hope so too.. but... and FYI (and for Gene too)....
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New York precious metals futures ended steady Wednesday, on
moderate volumes, but not before gold fell to new three-year lows.
"There wasn't a great deal of activity today, but the gold market
still feels under some pressure, despite the decision by Eurostat
(the EC statistics bureau) ruling out the use of central bank gold
sales to improve fiscal deficits to meet EMU criteria," Chase
Manhattan New York managing director, Dinsa Mehta said.
In the bullion market, spot gold ended quoted $343.90, after fixing
at $343.40 in London Wednesday afternoon, compared to the New York
close Tuesday around $344.00.
Gold prices saw fresh three year lows last week, on more concern
about central bank sales and a seasonal dip in demand during the
Ramadan and Chinese New Year holidays, with a strong US dollar
limiting investor interest in gold also. But nervous producer
hedging was also beginning to be seen, traders said. "All in all,
1997 should be a very interesting year," Merrill Lynch analyst Ted
Arnold said. "The bear market has clearly begun."
"We have already seen 1300 tonnes of gold sold by European central
banks since the Maastricht Treaty was signed in 1992 and we would
be very surprised if this year did not bring sales of at least
another 300 to 500 tonnes." In addition, "there are ten mines in
South Africa at present with working costs of at least $350 an
ounce and four with costs over $380," Arnold said.
Gold was again weaker than silver Wednesday, with the spot
gold/silver ratio edging back down to 70.65, from 70.78 at
Tuesday's close, after seeing a 15 month low at 69.79 last Friday.
(Reuters 03:39 PM ET 02/05/97) For the full text story, see
merc.com
---------------------------GOLD------------------------------
COMEX - 100 troy oz _ dollars per troy oz.
CONTRACT
CONTRACT OPEN HIGH LOW CLOSE CHANGE HIGH LOW
Feb97 344.20 345.90 343.90 345.60 ... 428.00 344.20
Apr97 345.30 346.70 344.50 346.40 ... 428.00 345.40
Jun97 347.50 349.00 346.90 348.60 ... 497.50 347.50
Aug97 350.00 351.00 349.70 351.00 ... 414.50 349.30
Oct97 353.00 353.00 352.00 353.40 _.10 426.50 352.50
Dec97 355.50 355.90 354.30 355.90 _.10 456.50 355.00
Feb98 357.40 357.40 357.40 d358.30 _.20 424.00 360.00
Jun98 362.00 362.00 361.50 d363.10 _.40 470.00 369.80
Est Sales 25000
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I know, "you" know, but Gene should really think about this before....
Regards,
Joe..<and "pop in" more often, OK...<g>> |
