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Gold/Mining/Energy : GOLD-XAU -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IngotWeTrust who wrote (1017)	1/4/1998 1:16:00 AM
From: Don Green	Respond to of 1756

From the latest Baron's Gold mining stocks probably made the loudest noise. With the yellow metal sinking to new historic lows day after day in the latter part of the fourth quarter, it was impossible to go to a Wall Street cocktail party and avoid it, groans Robert Radsch, who runs the Lexington Gold Fund. As central banks threaten to sell off their gold, the metal's monetary value is fading fast, adds Frank Cappiello, who runs the Cappiello-Rushmore Gold fund. The generation that always thought of gold as a store of wealth is dying off, he says. And gold just plain "hasn't popped" in the last couple of crises like the Gulf War and the Asian financial crisis, he points out. Still, next year gold might turn out to have been down so long that it has no place to go but up. With the price so low, companies will consolidate, Cappiello predicts. "A lot of these companies can't make money at current prices, so the really efficient miners will buy up the less efficient," he says. It's probably six to eight months away, but look for Barrick Gold to be one of those who start to snap up competitors, he adds. Radsch agrees, citing out that the recent Homestake Mining purchase of Australia's Plutonic Resources as significant. He believes that other gold companies down under, such as Normandy Mining and Lihir Gold, might also be bought out. Buyouts aside, Radsch is far from alone in thinking the negativism on gold is so extreme that at least a little bounce can't be ruled out next year. Another mining group that performed woefully in 1997 was coal, but the outlook here is for continued weakness. Short of a spectacular leap in energy prices, the stocks are likely to give a sad encore next year, says Mark Baskir, a portfolio manager with Scarborough Investment Advisors: "The bottom line is that the biggest pollutant in the world is coal." Environmental regulations will only get tougher, and the few new energy plants being built won't burn coal, he adds. "I see a lot of problems and a lot of sellers of [coal] property, but I don't see many buyers." For the battered casino companies, the issue this year was an oversupply of product, namely too many gambling joints and too few bettors to fill them. It wasn't a new worry by any means, but it finally got fully expressed in stock prices after the boom of new gambling jurisdictions in the U.S. in the early to mid-1990s. The worst here doesn't appear to be over.

To: IngotWeTrust who wrote (1017)	1/4/1998 2:31:00 AM
From: Richnorth	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1756

Brits are mistrustful of EMU. IMHO, they are not likely to join. During the past thirty years or so, I have been hearing people say something like "the Brits are not truly European and they would rather team up with their neighbour across the pond..............." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Saturday January 3 1998 Britain Spy revelations threaten EU ties THE TIMES in London Relations with the European Union may deteriorate further with the disclosure that successive foreign secretaries have used MI6 to spy on Britain's European partners. Confirmation of the widely held suspicion that Britain's intelligence network had been eavesdropping on Brussels, Paris and Bonn comes only days after Prime Minister Tony Blair took over the EU presidency. Former Labour foreign secretary Lord Owen has said MI6 provided intelligence material before key negotiations in Europe. Lord Hurd of Westwell, foreign secretary under Margaret Thatcher and John Major, also admitted as much. Robin Cook, the incumbent, pointedly refused to deny it. They are all interviewed in the documentary, How To Be Foreign Secretary, to be broadcast in Britain tomorrow. Lord Hurd said: "Intelligence reports on some occasions are valuable and on some occasions crucial." Lord Owen, asked if he had made use of MI6 when he was foreign secretary, said: "A bit," adding that he had been uncomfortable about it. "I think you have to be very careful once you join the EU. These are friends and allies." Lord Renwick, former British ambassador to Washington, recalled countless meetings in Paris with his French counterparts. "I cannot believe that they have spied on me in any circumstances. They wouldn't do that, would they?" Asked whether he had spied on them, he laughed and said: "That is a separate question. You will have to ask whoever." Mr Cook, asked whether he had sanctioned spying on his EU counterparts, said: "I am sorry I cannot talk about that . . . it is secret information. We never discuss that." The programme features six former foreign secretaries who reveal the demands of one of the most glamorous posts in government. "This would be a great job, if it weren't for the bloody foreigners," one complains. "Intelligence reports on some occasions are valuable and on some occasions crucial."