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Technology Stocks : Ascend Communications (ASND) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sepku who wrote (33320)	2/4/1998 7:44:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 61433

**OT**** U.S. CFTC tight-lipped on Berkshire silver stocks Reuters Story - February 04, 1998 18:49 %MUL %US %DRV %MET %GOL %WASH BRKa V%REUTER P%RTR WASHINGTON, Feb 4 (Reuters) - The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) declined to comment on Wednesday on billionaire investor Warren Buffett's large silver holdings. A CFTC spokesman said senior agency staff held their weekly meeting on Wednesday, but he declined to give details. It was unclear if Buffett was discussed. "We have no comment," the spokesman said. Buffett made the surprise announcement late on Tuesday that his investment company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. , owned 129.7 million ounces of silver, equivalent to about 20 percent of annual world silver production. The extent of the CFTC's jurisdiction over Berkshire's silver holdings would depend on whether it held any silver contract positions on U.S. futures markets. It was unclear if Berkshire has any outstanding futures contracts at the COMEX Division of the New York Mercantile Exchange to hedge its large silver holdings against downward price swings. Last month, the CFTC said it had increased its surveillance of the silver market in response to volatility in the price of the precious metal, which had reached a high for the decade. "The CFTC conducts surveillance of all futures markets as part of its commitment to ensure the markets remain competitive and efficient. The Commission intensifies its surveillance efforts when unusual events or activity occur such as we've seen lately in the silver markets," the agency said in a statement on Jan. 14. "Further, when the surveillance efforts involve international commodity markets, the commission, as appropriate, coordinates its efforts and shares information with its foreign counterparts," the CFTC added. At the time, the CFTC said that the agency's increased surveillance did not mean the commission is investigating possible manipulation in the market. However, it did not say whether such a probe was occurring. Separately, the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) said it had no meeting planned with the Bank of England to discuss price movements in the silver market -- where prices reached a high for the decade. "We're not doing very much at the moment. We've seen the reports about Warren Buffett's silver holdings, but he's doing nothing illegal," an LBMA spokesman told Reuters. Earlier, a Bank of England spokeswoman said the bank was monitoring the silver market, but declined to comment on whether it had called a meeting with the LBMA to discuss the situation. Sharp drawdowns in U.S. stocks of silver over the past few months have been attributed to shipments to London warehouses. But the LBMA spokesman said he was unable to comment on silver stocks held in London, because no data on these holdings were available and the information was confidential to the companies involved.