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

To: Enigma who wrote (30061)	3/15/1999 8:43:00 AM
From: George Castilarin	Respond to of 116764

Monday March 15, 6:45 am Eastern Time Silver lower in early Europe, gold slipping LONDON, March 15 (Reuters) - Silver slipped lower in early European precious metals business on Monday as the market remained in the dark over the large silver position accumulated by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE:BRKa - news). Dealers said they saw some lending of silver on Monday which saw silver lending rates increase by one percentage point compared to Friday. Spot silver was last quoted at $5.20$5.22 a troy ounce from the New York close at $5.30/$5.32. Indicative lending rates on Reuters page SIFO (SIFO - news) were last at -2.0 percent for three-month, six-month and one-year metal, from -1 percent on Friday. "There is general disenchantment with the metal because Warren Buffett didn't say anything in his report this weekend. ''There may be some fund liquidation. I have seen lending and when there is lending, it generally brings selling to the market,'' one dealer said. Berkshire Hathaway, which announced a year ago that it had bought 129.7 million ounces of silver for London delivery, had nothing specific to say about the silver position as it now stands. In its report issued on Saturday, it grouped silver along with its other ''unconventional investments,'' as reported in its 1997 annual report, which also included crude oil and U.S. treasuries. On Saturday the company said, ''We can report ... that we have eliminated certain of the positions discussed last year and added certain others.'' The company report said the only reason Berkshire disclosed its silver position in 1998, which by some estimates accounted for 20 percent of total silver supply, was that "questions about our silver position that we had received from regulatory authorities led us to believe that they wished us to publicly acknowledge this investment. ''Normally ... we see no advantage in talking about specific investment actions. Therefore -- unless we again take a position that is particularly large -- we will not post you as to what we are doing in respect to any specific holding of an unconventional sort.'' Gold slipped lower in overnight trade in Asia and was marked lower in London on the back of a weakening silver price. Spot bullion was last quoted at $291.00/$291.50 a troy ounce from the New York close at $292.10/$292.60. ''Gold is not moving at all, it was sold overnight in Asia probably on disappointed longs and also it seems that the funds have short-covered most of their stuff now,'' another dealer said. Dealers saw gold remaining in its recent range between $290.00 and $295.00 with some bias to the downside. Platinum and palladium remained quiet in early Europe. Platinum was last quoted at $364.00/$366.00 an ounce, $1 down from the New York close at $365.00/$367.00 while palladium was also lower at $347.00/$352.00 an ounce versus the previous close at $348.00/$353.00.