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To: re3 who wrote (103817)	5/23/2000 9:40:00 AM
From: H James Morris	Respond to of 164684

Ike, you like gold, but I prefer platinum. >May 23, 2000 NEW YORK -- Global demand for gold rose slightly in the first quarter from a year earlier despite a sharp decline in purchases by Americans, who were heavy buyers of gold coins last year as a hedge against possible Y2K problems, the World Gold Council said yesterday. The London-based association said the demand for gold, mainly for jewelry, totaled 795.2 metric tons in the January-March period, up less than 1 percent from the 787.7 tons a year earlier. A metric ton equals about 2,204 pounds or 32,150 ounces. The first-quarter figure was held up by gold for jewelry, which rose 7 percent to 701 tons, the group said. Demand for gold as an investment was 94.2 tons, down 29 percent from a year earlier. The report, based on a quarterly survey by the nonprofit association of gold producers, noted that almost all of the drop-off in investment purchases came in the United States. "U.S. coin sales last year were exceptionally high on Y2K concerns," the report said in a reference to the computer problems that many feared would materialize at the millennium. "Elsewhere in the world, investment demand was virtually unchanged." George Milling-Stanley, the council's manager for gold market analysis, told a conference that the drop-off was not unexpected. He noted, however, that most Americans appear to be holding on to the gold coins they purchased, suggesting they were still hedging against some disaster "like a large fall in the stock market or something like that." The council's latest survey said that the price for gold averaged $290.20 an ounce in the first quarter this year, up from $286.70 a year earlier and considerably above the 20-year low of $259.20 in the third quarter last year. Milling-Stanley said he did not expect prices to be depressed by plans by the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland to continue sales of gold from their reserves. Switzerland's central bank yesterday said it has sold 8.9 tons of gold, bringing the total since sales started at the beginning of May to 15.4 tons.