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

To: Little Joe who wrote (6389)	1/21/1998 8:37:00 AM
From: Dwight Taylor	Respond to of 116780

NY precious metals end mixed, gold higher NEW YORK, Jan 20 (Reuters) - COMEX gold open interest fell a heavy 7,276 contracts on Friday to 183,327 lots, and has fallen 14,633 lots since January 9, reflecting fund shortcovering, analysts said. After gold prices saw 18-1/2 year lows in early January, momentum indicators have begun recovering, but the February contract's five-day moving-average remains just below its 20-day average and below its 50-day average, suggesting the long downtrend has not reversed yet. "From current depressed price levels, we expect downside momentum will slow, since low prices are expected to trigger cutbacks in mine output, reduced forward sales by producers, near-record demand from fabricators and some recovery in investor offtake," Smith Barney analyst David Rinehimer said. "Moreover, the gold market has discounted the likelihood that 1998 will be another year of relatively heavy supply from central banks," he said. But in the short term the market has to digest news that Koreans have collected 100 tonnes of gold for sale to help restore the country's foreign exchange reserves, traders said. Koreans contributing gold to the quasi-official campaign will be paid in Korean won, a month after submitting their gold. The Korean won has lost more than 50 pct of its value against the U.S. dollar in the past three months, pushing up the value of gold in the domestic currency. In other industry news, the slide in gold prices to 18 year lows claimed another victim Friday when U.S. gold producer Pegasus Gold Inc filed for protection from creditors under U.S. bankruptcy law, after failing to renegotiate financing. ((New York Commodities Desk, 212-859-1641; fax 212-859-1649; email: clive.mckeef@reuters.com))