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Strategies & Market Trends : Commodities - The Coming Bull Market -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: craig crawford who wrote (1344)	6/17/2002 10:53:40 AM
From: craig crawford	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1643

when all else fails, the pinko liberals blame the tariffs. tariffs caused the great depression! tariffs lead to hostility and war! tariffs are causing inflation and a rise in gold! it is so easy to see right through the pathetic utopian agenda of the one-world globalist mandarins. Metals bandwagon is growing Experts cite tariffs, Nasdaq meltdown, inflation marketwatch.com The steady gains in gold this year, about 20 percent, and silver, about 10 percent, come as commodity prices creep higher. The CRB/Bridge Index of 18 or so commodities, from energy to agricultural, is up 4 percent this year. Some economists say gold and silver prices traditionally precede accelerating inflation in natural resources of all types -- grains, energy, farm products, the industrial and metal sectors. Commodity prices are tied in large part to the global economy. The Silver Institute this week forecast a "strong" recovery in silver fabrication demand for this year as the global economy picks up steam. Demand for silver, an industrial and precious metal, fell almost 5 percent in 2001. ........................................................................................................................ Smith, in London, says precious metals in the short term also will benefit from the politics of economies. "Anti-globalization gets a second wind ... trade wars/protectionism, plus Enron- ised move towards regulation," says Smith. China, for example, is countering the White House imposition of steel tariffs with its own, at rates of between 7 percent and 26 percent. Plus, Japan, South Korea, the European Union and other nations are putting their protests of the American steel tariffs in writing. Smith has a $355 price target as a "high" for gold this year but sees the possibility that gold will decline sharply when the world gets its act together at some point in the future. Until then, he sees the possibility that large speculators on gold futures markets will continue to boost the metal's price. Large-account speculators who are "long" gold futures on the Comex in New York have surpassed 90 in number. In 1993, when gold futures were rising sharply, the number was 77. Smith says the uncertain world picture and the erasing of hedged positions by mining companies will add to gold's momentum, but only for so long. "Momentum of uncertainty/regress -- if you're a dedicated Darwinian, like me -- and novelty of mine de-hedging (by definition) will be hard to maintain," Smith told me Friday morning from London. "Right now -- this year (I only put my head on block once a year!) - this momentum continues and is bolstered by low market interest rates reducing entry ticket into gold futures." The price of spot gold was little changed Friday morning at $321.40 an ounce. The active silver futures contract in New York was falling 2.2 cents to $4.89 an ounce. Yet some silver mining stocks continued their blistering rally. Shares of silver miner Coeur d'Alene (CDE: news, chart, profile) were up 8 percent to their highest point since May 2001. Shares of Pan American Silver (PAAS: news, chart, profile) were gaining 1 percent before midday Friday.