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

To: lorne who wrote (30101)	3/16/1999 8:28:00 AM
From: George Castilarin	Respond to of 116762

Gold quiet in Europe after Monday's two pct drop LONDON, March 16 (Reuters) - Gold moved back in its old $285-$289.00 range on Tuesday after the previous day's two percent fall on talk of possible IMF gold sales and disappointment at its failed rally, dealers said. London gold fixed at $286.80 a troy ounce in the morning, down on Monday afternoon's $289.70 and nearly 2.5 percent below last Thursday's 11-week high of $294.00. Gold fell on Monday after French President Jacques Chirac lent his support to the idea of IMF gold sales for poor-country debt relief, denting prices which until then had been steady amid decent physical demand around $291.00 bid. Calls for IMF sales have grown steadily among countries in the Group of Seven rich nations, helped by last year's changeover in the German government which saw the electoral rout of those most strongly opposed to the idea. Japanese Ministry of Finance official Haruhiko Kuroda urged overnight that caution be exercised in considering IMF sales. Dealers and analysts in Europe and Asia described gold's fall as overdone, attributing the move as much to last week's failed short-covering rally as to the still uncertain prospect of 100 tonnes or more hitting the market from IMF gold sales. But Jessica Cross, head of Virtual Gold Research and Consulting UK, said Chirac's remarks were significant, marking the first time a modern French statesmen had spoken approvingly of any official gold sale. ''In a land where the titanic figure of Charles de Gaulle -- so wedded to the sanctity of gold -- still casts a giant shadow, that shadow today grew smaller,'' she said on the company's website (http://www.virtual-gold.com) in reference to the late former French President. Spot silver also drooped amid easing lease rates in the wake of Berkshire Hathaway Inc's (NYSE:BRKa - news) weekend silence about the fate of its 129.7 million ounce silver position, revealed for the first time in February 1998. Silver was last at $5.03/$5.06 a troy ounce, seven cents below Monday's New York close, as one-month lease rates chopped about at around four percent, 200 basis points down in a week. ''As the lending continues to put pressure on prices, we would look for further tests of the downside with a view to a move towards $5.00,'' said one London dealer. Platinum was less than a dollar higher at $363.00/$365.00 while palladium was at $346.00/$351.00, down nearly $4.00.