GOLD!

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Gold glitters on producer confidence

By Myra P. Saefong, CBS MarketWatch Last Update: 12:34 PM ET Feb 17, 2000 Futures Movers Agriculture Outlook

NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Reduced gold-producer hedging and the recent strength in the platinum group boosted gold to a four-day high on Thursday.

Today on CBS MarketWatch 'Imbalances' worry the Fed Nasdaq rolls past 4,500 Gates kicks off Windows 2000 keynote Oil hit by speculation on reserve sales DoubleClick slides as privacy woes mount More top stories... CBS MarketWatch Columns Updated: 02/17/2000 2:18:24 PM ET April gold gained $1.30 to $306.30 on the Commodities Exchange division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, after hitting an intraday high of $312.50, while March silver fell 3.5 cents to $5.27 an ounce.

"Expect gold to continue to climb, given the recent strength in crude oil and platinum group metals," Dave Meger, senior metals analyst at Alaron.com, said in an e-mail update. "The situation has not changed in that a reduction in hedger selling will give the market a positive tone from support areas."

Last week, Placer Dome (PDG: news, msgs) said it had completely suspended its hedging program, implying confidence in gold's present value, while Barrick Gold (ABX: news, msgs) announced a reduction to the total amount of ounces committed to its gold sales program.

Meanwhile, palladium rallied for a thirteenth-consecutive trading day, still finding support from a lack of Russian shipments.

March palladium fell $9.65 to $701.50 an ounce, pulling back from a new all-time high of $747 on the Commodities Exchange division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. April platinum lost $14.40 to $528 an ounce.

GC J0 COMX Last Chg. 3038 -12 % Chg. Vol. -0.39% 26,789 Day Lo. Day Hi. 3000 3125 Open Prev. 3053 3050

As of Feb 17/00 4:29 pm ET Last Trade 3050

In other news, Comex gold stocks, as of late Wednesday, were flat at 1,373,484 ounces. Silver stocks were up 1,980,980 to 77,473,895 ounces.

March copper was up 0.2 cent to 83.00 cents a pound. The London Metals Exchange warehouse said stocks were down 1,350 metric tons to 796,850 metric tons as of early Thursday. Comex stocks rose 23 short tons to 95,001 short tons.

Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Gold and Silver Stocks Index (XAU: news, msgs) rose 0.9 percent to 67.29, led by a 12.5 percent jump in Ashanti Goldfields (ASL: news, msgs) shares, which added 3/8 to 3 3/8 in recent trading.

-- Bill P (porterwn@one.net), February 17, 2000

Answers

Starting next week, I will trade Silver Futures. The last time I did this, I made enough to quit work-for-paychecks.

Now I wanna do it for thrills.

I think Silver is about to explode...

-- Joseph Almond (sa2000@webtv.net), February 17, 2000.

The Nasdaq Composite was up 2.75% today on over 2 Billion shares traded, record volume or close to it. there were only 450 more stocks up than down. The END is near!!

Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), February 17, 2000.

Joseph, I think you're right about silver and i want to buy futures but don't know how to go about it....could you help out here? I want to put $2000 into it and all I know is that I may want Dec expiration. My brokerage firm won't do this for me so I need someone who can...any suggestions?

Crow

-- Crow (suzan@monad.net), February 17, 2000.

Ray,

I would like to see the bubble burst so we get back to reality. It is insane. But it is not going to burst so long as people dump 401/406 money into the market.

It will obviously collapse at some point and be the worst of the worst. However, until that point, it is just going to keep going.

Todd

-- Todd Detzel (detzel@jps.net), February 17, 2000.

Since Platinum (Pl) and Palladium (Pd) have gone up so much compared to Gold (Au) and Silver (Ag), I expect that Au and Ag will go up relative to Pl and Pd (or Pl and Pd will go back down, relative to Au and Ag).

If you are more interested at the moment in accumulating OUNCES, rather than dollars, play the metals against one another, not against dollars. And eventually the purchasing power in dollars or whatever other funny money you may be subjected to will increase dramatically.

To accumulate all four metals and "play" them against each other (NON-MARGINED, not futures or options) check out http://www.e-gold.com

-- A (A@AisA.com), February 17, 2000.

Crow:

First, trade3 only bucks you can lose without tears.

Second, wait very patiently for a spike-down day. (I'll put in an open order to buy 4 of the July 5,000 oz. contracts at 5.12 or better.)

Third, once in, put in a sell at $5.47 O.B.

($6,000.00 profit)

Estimated time is 15 days.

Jack Carl is a great place for trading futures.

Good luck!

-- Joseph Almond (sa2000@webtv.net), February 17, 2000.

I want to know why there are new gold miners here in Al. We have alot of gold and silver. Many mine that have not been worked in years are know being worked. Why?

-- ET (bnevile@zebra.net), February 17, 2000.

Thanks Joseph, I'm going for it...with some unused y2k money. what does OB mean?

What would it cost to buy 4 of July 5000oz contracts at $5.12?

Whopee!

-- Crow (suzan@monad.net), February 18, 2000.