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1997 |
Waigel to hold June 18 CSU briefing on EMU, gold
By Emma Thomasson
BONN, June 6 ( Reuter ) - German Finance Minister Theo Waigel will defend his controversial plan to revalue Bundesbank assets and his stance on Europe's single currency to his Christian Social Union ( CSU ) on June 18, the CSU said on Friday.
A CSU spokesman said Waigel had been due to address the party, the Bavarian sister party of Chancellor Helmut Kohl's Christian Democrats ( CDU ) , earlier this week, but was forced to cancel because of ``important engagements in Bonn.''
Waigel on Tuesday was forced to retreat from his plan to help plug a gaping budget hole and qualify for the euro with profits from revalued central bank assets, after sharp Bundesbank criticism and disquiet in the ruling coalition.
The beleaguered Waigel on Wednesday survived an opposition parliamentary motion calling for his dismissal, after Kohl threw his weight fully behind the struggling minister.
CSU sources in Bavaria's state parliament said there was broad dissatisfaction with Waigel in his own party, particularly because of the row with the fiercely independent Bundesbank over asset revaluation.
The sources said the party was critical of their leader because he had not informed them sufficiently over his plans.
Waigel on Thursday denied there was any discussion in the CSU party about a possible delay to the start of European economic and monetary union ( EMU ) , planned for 1999, as reported by Friday's edition of the Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
The Munich-based paper said CSU members were discussing a possible delay due to the left-wing election victory in France.
Waigel also reaffirmed that Germany would meet entry criteria as outlined in the Maastricht Treaty and that the deficit criteria must be strictly met at 3.0 percent or below of Gross Domestic Product ( GDP ) .
The Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily quoted a member of the CSU state government in Bavaria as saying: ``Since the French election we have agreed currency union must be postponed.''
The report said the CSU state government and CSU members of the state assembly in Bavaria believed a single currency would be a ``monetary death sentence'' after new French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin suggested it could be launched with softer financial criteria.
A spokesman for Bavarian Premier Edmund Stoiber said in response to an inquiry that Stoiber saw only 50-50 chances of a punctual launch of the euro if France's new leaders met certain election campaign pledges.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, France's new Finance Minister, has suggested that criteria in the Maastricht treaty on monetary union, including a requirement to cut public deficits to three percent of gross domestic product, should be interpreted politically rather than in strict mathematical terms.
Stoiber, quoted by the Sueddeutsche, said softening the criteria could have disastrous consequences. ``If people notice in the year 2005 that they have given up their currency too soon, we can really talk about a bomb in Europe,'' he said.
The govenment would like to see gold at it's real value ( cost of copper ) and once and for all killing the myth that the barbaric relic of years gone by is somehow a hedge against inflation. If gold was ever to raise its ugly head as a safe haven against the evils of fiat currency the governments of the world would sell at a huge loss to stiffle the reasugance. But they do'nt have too, they will sell very slowly and reap big profits while keeping the fiat currency strong. Do you believe the EMU would let gold devalue the currency. The CB's will and are selling all the gold in thier valuts now. They know the future of this barbaric metal is gone. If the CB's had no gold who would want it?
1. 16 mo. baby bear $415.00 to $337.00
2. Almost 10 year moma bear $502.75 to $326.10
3. 17 year papa bear $850.00 to 284.25
#1 baby bear needs a test of $337.00 only -$6.00 or 2%
#2 moma bear needs a test of $326.10 just -$17.00 or %5
#3 papa bear needs a test of $284.25 - $60.00 or 17%
http://www.bday.co.za/97/0606/news/news4.htm
LONDON, June 5 ( Reuter ) - Soaring platinum and palladium
prices on a lack of available supplies dominated precious metals
trading on Thursday morning, traders said.
Palladium fixed at $235.00 per ounce, its highest fixing
since the twice-daily fix began in 1989 and its highest spot
price since early 1980.
Platinum, its sister metal, was fixed at $440, the highest
fixing since September 15, 1995.
``Things are very tight in the spot market. A big U.S. hedge
fund is holding 1.5 million ounces ( of palladium ) and who knows
when this will come on the market,'' a dealer said.
``Every participant who is short in palladium is being forced
to borrow,'' he added.
That need was sending borrowing rates -- especially for
between a day and a month -- to unprecedented levels.
``If you borrow overnight you have to pay more than 200
percent. And one-month lease rates are at 165 percent,'' he said.
Platinum one-month rates were 60 percent versus a regular
two-three percent.
``If the funds don't deliver, what will people who are short
do? Someone is squeezing palladium market and this raises legal
issues,'' the dealer said.
However a senior market source debunked any idea of
culpability. ``It maybe an ugly world but it is a free world and
the funds cannot be forced to put their metal back into the
market to relieve those who don't have any,'' the source said.
Compared with gold, platinum and palladium are very small
markets and are not blessed with overground stocks running into
tens of thousands of tonnes held by central banks.
``The funds have the ammunition to manipulate it and that is
what they are doing in conjunction with Russia's problems. It is
a sort of double whammy for the market,'' the source continued,
adding that if similar problems hit the gold market central
banks would come in.
Russia the largest exporter of palladium and the second
biggest supplier of platinum after South Africa, has been out of
the market this year due to administrative problems in Moscow.
This week it opened 1997 export talks with importers in
Japan, its biggest customer, and exports could begin on June 20,
according to Russian negotiators.
But the squeeze will take another couple of months to
unwind, according to dealers.
LONDON, June 4 ( Reuter ) - Palladium prices exploded to new
17-year highs on Wednesday in a market severely squeezed by
protracted delays in Russian supplies.
The gold market, however, ignored the excitement in the
platinum group metals ( PGMs ) , as it did the German drama over
plans to revalue gold reserves to qualify for European Monetary
Union.
Palladium, a rare white metal used in electronics, catalytic
converters and dentistry, fixed at $210 an ounce, the highest
ever level since prices were first formally set in 1989.
By contrast its previous fix on Tuesday was $188.50.
``The market is extremely nervous about Russian deliveries.
Palladium and platinum are much higher this morning even though
there has really not being any fresh news,'' said analyst
Hanspeter Hausheer of Swiss Bank Corp.
Platinum, its better-known sister metal, also jumped to fix
at a new 16-month high of $425.00 an ounce, compared to the
previous fixing of $406.50.
Both metals have soared since the start of the year -
palladium is up 85 percent from year's low and platinum is up 25
percent - due to administrative delays in Russian supplies to
key importer Japan.
Russia is the world's biggest producer of palladium and is
second to South Africa in platinum output.
The latest price surge started late on Tuesday as dealers
scrambled to cover short positions by borrowing or buying metal.
``Everyone and I mean everyone is a borrower. If there are no
lenders around all you can do its borrow stuff at very high
lease rates or buy material, which has been driving the price
up,'' a dealer said.
``It has really started to bite now,'' he added, noting that
one-month lease rates had rocketed to 90 percent or higher. In
platinum, the rates were at around 50 percent.
The market would remain extremely volatile as fresh news
emerges from ongoing supply talks between Russian exporter
Almazjuvelirexport ( Almaz ) and Japanese consumers, dealers said.
Both metals whipsawed off highs ahead of the morning fixing
on talk from Tokyo traders that Almaz officials had told
Japaense clients exports were expected to begin around June 20.
In other precious metals markets, gold fixed at $342.40 an
ounce, down $1.15 from the previous fixing and barely changed
from Tuesday's closing level in London.
The silver market was similarly stolid at a virtually
unchanged $4.74/$4.76. --London newsroom +44 171 542 2936
1. ) "The XAU index should thrust up in wave V to a new all-time high..."
2. ) " In 1989 , the year the Nikkei topped out, Elliott Wave Theorist reported that in Tokyo, some prosperous Japanese were sprinkling gold flakes on their cereal. Today in the U.S., in the equivalent 15th year of a stock mania, the Cellar in the Sky restaurant at the top of the World Trade Center has begun offering a dessert featuring edible gold."
Three-two-five update:
I've got George S. Cole broke to lead.
They hate me so much over on K-1 that
they actually want gold to go down now
so that George S. Cole can be right.
I love it. I could never have caused
them to ever admit to it on my own.
$325 here we come.
( And especially sweet now that it
has the imprimatur of GSC ) .
What a great time to be alive, in the
time of three-two-five.
I based my conclusion due to a fibonacci number related A-B-C correction on a WEEKLY CLOSE basis only from the Feb'96 highs.
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Reform is a right wing party, although initially it was a populist movement ( including all types from the leading parties ) against the Liberal and Tory mismanagement and patronage.
Recently it has become the only voice of English speaking Canadian since the Liberals silenced any voices from within its own ranks.
Our current financial success in Canada was based largely on the Liberal and Tory and NDP parties adopting the Reform financial policies. In Canada, a party does not necessarily have to hold
power to have a big influence on the Country.
British Columbian ( and Albertans ) have only one choice this election - Reform. It is by no means a good one but in the current system we find ourselves it is the only viable alternative. PC/Lib/NDP seats just go towards the Central Canadian establishment and any discent or voicing of interests from out here have been consistently silenced. BC in the past 30 years has come out consistently against the ruling Ottawa government. Even with Mulroney’s land slide - we were the only hold-outs. The NDP were our voice until it was hijacked by the politically correct and now it has become Reform. We know the Canadian federal system and senate were always stacked against us from the beginning. The old Upper and Lower Canadian just had to look at the dilution of power of New England ( and it succession movement 1808 ) to see what would happen if God-forbid the North West Territories ( Western provinces ) where incorporated and made ammends to ensure this did not happen.
Western independence is just a matter of time. Secretly I hoped for Quebec succession to expedite our own from Ottawa. This election is just a blip in history and will mean very little ( except for a trip to New York to cut a bond to pay for it ) .
In the words of Tommy Douglas ( a Prairie “socialist” for our foreign friends )
“We will not stop until we have built Jerusalem!”.
Leg A: 108.74 to 101.10= 7.64 ( 3.82 times 2 )
Leg B: 101.10 to 103.98= 2.88 ( 288 a fibo # )
Leg C: 103.98 to 99.32= 4.66
Leg C is .609 of Leg A ( very close to the .618 golden ratio )
Leg B is exactly .618 of leg C
Leg B is .377 of Leg A ( very close to the .382 fibonacci ratio )