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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold Price Monitor -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: long-gone who wrote (39092)	8/16/1999 7:45:00 AM
From: Rarebird	Respond to of 116823

Quiet European gold down on central bank debate LONDON, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Gold fell more than $1.00 then settled during early European trade on Monday after a report that central bankers had criticised Britain's gold sales policy for having increased pressure on them to sell, dealers said. Spot gold dropped to $259.10/$259.60, off $1.10 from its European opening, before steadying higher amid light volumes. London gold fixed at $259.25 a troy ounce versus Friday afternoon's $260.45. The Financial Times said central bankers at a Group of 10 nations meeting in Basle, Switzerland warned Britain its plan to sell more than half its gold reserve might lead to an unwelcome wider debate about gold's role as a reserve asset. ''The FT story has not helped this morning in what is a quiet market,'' said one London dealer, adding that late Friday data showing a fall in COMEX short positions was also bearish. ''This is nothing new. Gold is a topic that's certainly coming up in (central bank) board-level discussions, when it hadn't done before,'' the dealer added. Gold fell from $290 in May after Britain announced plans to sell 415 tonnes of gold in the coming years, hitting 20-year lows below $253.00 after the first 25-tonne sale in July. Gold lease rates eased in the longer dates on Monday, but remained unusually high, with one-year metal down 12 basis points at 3.18 percent and half-year rates down 13 at 3.42. Gold lending liquidity, which enables bullion forward sales, options writing and mine finance, has drained away in recent weeks amid talk of increased miner hedging, possible central bank sales and bullion bank nervousness on credit issues. London dealers were also digesting Friday data on open interest in New York COMEX gold futures, which showed a modest rise in long positions and a larger fall in short ones. Net short positions as of last Tuesday were 5.5 million ounces of gold, down from almost eight million a month ago. Given the fall, the rise in spot prices was modest, Virtual Gold Research said in a market commentary. ''This has been a very slow and faltering fuse,'' it said, adding that more shorts would have covered since Tuesday, the last day covered by the data. ''More attempts on the upside look likely in the near future. But they're going to have to depend increasingly on new longs coming into the market rather than shorts making their escape.'' Silver was last at $5.25/$5.27, down two cents, platinum was down $1.00 at $346.00/348.00 and palladium was at $335.00/$340.00, down $2.00.

To: long-gone who wrote (39092)	8/16/1999 7:53:00 AM
From: Alex	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116823

<<The Asians may be wise to hedge. The U.S. military posture around the world is badly stretched, thanks to force reductions. Last week Rear Adm. Timothy Keating, commander of the Kitty Hawk carrier group, warned that if China threatens Taiwan "they are going to have the U.S. Navy to deal with." Perhaps. Clinton sent in carriers in 1996 after Beijing fired missiles toward Taiwan. But such a move might not be so automatic now. "If we had to respond today to events in [both] North Korea and the Taiwan Strait," one U.S. admiral told NEWSWEEK, "we couldn't do it." >> newsweek.com