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

To: Paxb2u who wrote (21372)	10/10/1998 2:00:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 116822

Peter, in this case how about some more "peaceful and calming news (I suspect next would be dominated by war/military bulletins) Shaky dollar regains ground, Euroshares firm By Nick Louth LONDON, Oct 9 (Reuters) - The dollar grabbed back some lost ground on Friday, but its safe haven status remains badly dented by its steep fall against the yen on Thursday and the absence of any firm action from central banks. After plunging to a low of 111.45 yen on Thursday in Europe the dollar was six yen firmer by mid-session, and five pfennigs above its low point against the German mark. European share markets advanced by around 1.5 to 4.0 percent, but sentiment remained fragile both because of the dollar's gyrations and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's warning on Wednesday that U.S. economic growth was set to slow. ------------------------------------------------------------ MARKET PRICES AT 1149 GMT MARK 1.6321/63 YEN 118.09/19 STERLING 1.7065/75 GOLD $298.90/299.30 -1.10 (pvs PM fix) BRENT $13.35 +0.17 FTSE 4788.1 +89.20 CAC 3,075.31 +115.34 X-DAX 3983.8 +121.91 ------------------------------------------------------------ Japanese Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa told a parliamentary committee on Friday that he would just monitor moves in the foreign exchange market unless they became "intolerable". "The movements will eventually stabilise even if we leave them alone," Miyazawa said. His remarks put the dollar under renewed pressure during the Asian trading day. However, Bank of France Governor Jean-Claude Trichet offered his support in a radio interview. "My sentiment on the U.S. dollar is that the markets have had in recent weeks a tendency to underestimate the value of the dollar," he said. Washington officials maintained a stony silence on the issue of intervention overnight, encouraging the market's belief that central bank moves were unlikely for now. Europe's share market rebound on Friday built on a sharp late recovery in Wall Street on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed back almost to unchanged levels after being 270 points down at the worst, and Globex S&P futures indicated a 55-point rise in the Dow at Friday's opening. Tokyo closed with losses of 1.2 percent. Market operators are still scrutinising the unwinding of hedge fund currency positions. The speed of the yen's rise on Thursday was blamed on hedge funds rushing to sell dollars to repay yen borrowings or repurchase yen short positions. These specialist investment groups have used cheap borrowings in yen to fund investments in safe haven currencies like marks and dollars. But, hit hard by a tightening of credit and redemptions by their own investors, they have moved to reduce the scale of their investment bets. German shares were 3.7 percent higher in electronic trading, aided by the dollar's bounce, which offered a temporary balm to German exporters' worries. Shares in software firm SAP jumped 10 percent after it said third-quarter sales rose 43 percent. London's FTSE 100 was 1.87 percent higher but sentiment was fragile in view of bond market weakness. Paris was 3.77 percent stronger, while Switzerland and Spain added 2.5-3.0 percent. "The UK is really in the hands of the rest of the world which is in a mess, and sentiment is awful," said BT Alex. Brown strategist Bob Semple. After a long period of strength the British pound is now expected to fall against European currencies on the coattails of the dollar, a move which should support shares in London. "Traders have got a mindset that sterling will weaken as interest rates will be cut," said Henry Wilkes, head of trading at Bank Julius Baer in London. "So anything over 2.80 (marks) looks like an opportunity to sell sterling given the economy is slowing down." Debt prices in Europe were under pressure on Friday on worries about hedge fund sales. British government bond prices (gilts) sank over 170 basis points in early trade. German debt futures opened sharply lower, falling over 1.5 points in the December series before some recovery set in, with liquidation by hedge funds blamed. "There are absolutely no buyers. People are afraid," said one German debt trader. "These movements are incomprehensible. We had reckoned with light gains." While the falling dollar has been a respite for commodity prices after a year of worries about deflation, oil prices shrugged off the weak greenback on renewed evidence that Asian demand is insufficient to support any price increases. London benchmark Brent blend crude regained 17 cents in light trade at $13.35, but still adrift of Thursday's opening levels. With so-called safe havens offering no respite from financial market volatility, investors nerves are being sorely tested, and few have any appetite for risk. "People are just running scared," said Steve Scott, gilts analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson. "The market's not been trading according to fundamentals for some time now so it's very difficult to get a handle on how long this is going to last." news.bbc.co.uk