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Strategies & Market Trends : Aardvark Adventures -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ~digs who wrote (1799)	11/28/2005 5:08:32 PM
From: Ron	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 7944

Man.. that's a whole new market. The creativity of the money handlers.. never ending.

To: ~digs who wrote (1799)	11/29/2005 12:38:53 PM
From: paret	Respond to of 7944

UPDATE 6-Gold hits $500/oz, platinum $1,000 then retreat Tue Nov 29, 2005 9:59 AM ET By Atul Prakash today.reuters.com LONDON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Gold spiked above $500 an ounce for the first time in 18 years on Tuesday and platinum surpassed $1,000, the highest in more than two-and-a-half decades, fuelled by heavy fund buying. The metals then retreated from their highs, but growing demand, supply constraints and plans by some central banks to buy more gold were expected to support prices, dealers said. "Technical trends are looking very strong and people find it very risky to go short right now. I think that's why the rally has been continuing," said Yingxi Yu, precious metals analyst at Barclays Capital. The positive sentiment was still intact and bearish factors such as easing oil prices and low physical demand at higher prices were being ignored in a bull market, she said. Spot gold retreated to $497.10/497.90 an ounce by 1434 GMT from as high as $502.30 an ounce in Asia. It closed in New York on Monday at $498.20/499.00. Analysts said investment funds were increasing their exposure in commodities for better returns, and the trend was likely to continue for some time despite huge speculative long positions. Gold has risen more than 14 percent so far this year. "The investors are diversifying portfolios. There is a feeling that currencies and equities are not necessarily reliable and they are adding to commodities because they see the returns are greater there," said Peter Hillyard, head of metals sales, at ANZ Investment Bank. Alan Williamson, analyst at HSBC Bank, said heavy buying was not only coming from the U.S. but also from places like Japan. Over the past three months, buying at price dips had been a very profitable strategy. "People are looking for an alternative investment to U.S. dollar-based instruments. The expectations of inflation in the coming year are very high," said Albert Cheng, Far East managing director for the industry-backed World Gold Council. But jewellery manufacturers and buyers may need time to adjust to the high prices, Cheng said, The council said this month that global demand for gold in the third quarter totalled 838 tonnes, a rise of 7 percent from the same quarter a year earlier, as surging investment demand helped offset a slowdown from the jewellery sector. GOLD VULNERABLE Some analysts said gold prices could fall to as low as $475 an ounce on liquidation by investment funds to book profits. The latest weekly Commitments of Traders report issued by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Monday showed the speculative net long position in New York's COMEX gold were closer to record high levels. But the rally was also helped by reports that Russia, Argentina and South Africa had decided to increase the amount of gold in their reserves, reversing a six-year trend of central bank sales, mainly from Europe. Platinum stood at $993/996 an ounce after spiking earlier to $1,002. It closed in New York at $989/993. This year, not enough platinum is being mined and recycled to meet demand for catalytic converters and jewellery, so fundamentals have factored into the buoyant market. Refining and chemical company Johnson Matthey (JMAT.L: Quote, Profile, Research), which provides fundamental analysis of platinum group metals, said in a recent report that 6.71 million ounces of platinum would be used in 2005, exceeding supply of 6.59 million ounces as demand rises from the auto sector and other industries. It predicted that output from South Africa, the world's top producer, would be lower than planned and the shortfall would continue to support prices. Silver inched down to $8.29/8.32 an ounce from $8.35 on Tuesday. A breach of $8.43 would make the price highest in 18 years. Silver finished in New York at $8.35/8.37. Palladium rose to $262/265 from $261/264. (Additional reporting by Lewa Pardomuan in Singapore and Hari Ramachandran in New Delhi)