23 replies to this topic

[skott]

European Central Banks Reach New Gold Agreement (Update1)
March 8 (Bloomberg) -- European central banks will limit their sales of gold to 500 tons annually over the next five years, renewing a five-year old accord that has helped boost gold prices.

The new accord, which is signed by the European Central Bank and the 12 euro region central banks, plus the Swiss National Bank and the Swedish Riksbank, raises the total volume from 400 tons a year in the current gold accord. It will go into effect on Sept. 27, 2004, according to a statement handed out in Basel at a meeting of the Group of 10 central banks.

The volume of the new accord is in line with a survey by the London Bullion Market Association, which last year predicted the total sales quota in a new accord would be raised to about 500 tons a year. The price of gold has risen by about half since September 1999, when the first gold agreement was signed, as concern about unexpected central bank gold sales eased.

The U.K., a signatory to the 1999 accord, said in a separate statement it has ``no plans'' to sell gold and will therefore not participate in the new agreement.

``An announcement will be made if the UK's policy on gold sales changes in the future,'' the Treasury said in an e-mailed statement.

Note: from Scott " If you didn't notice this represents an increase in 100 tons per year for each central bank"


To contact the reporter on this story:
Christian Baumgaertel in Frankfurt at cbaumgaertel@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor of this story:
Heather Harris at hharris@bloomberg.net.
Chris Kirkham, or ckirkham@bloomberg.net.

[PMILLY]

Skott, Just wondering about the plan you told us about last week. I know today has been very slow, but has it helped you decide on you plan? Just curious, so keep us posted if you have time. If you do not want to divulge anything yet, than that's fine too. That post you made last week just caught my eye. Pmilly

[skott]

I am new to this forum and have never been much of a "chat room" person. I think if you reread my last few posts you can tell where my position is. good luck scott

[skott]

all of you out there who think you are amatuers and don't know enough to post....go ahead and post. make a reply,give an opinion, say you don't know, whatever. the only way this board can be any good is if people say something. Is anybody out there besides the four who have been posting? scott

[teki]

I'm paying attention, but as you surmise, I am a novice, though my gold trades have been my most successful plays in the past year. I like what I've been seeing the past few days, this mornings open convinced me. I usually trade the a small basket of gold stocks for a few days to a few weeks. Weekly charts say that we might correct down some more, and so I'm sticking the the short term here. But I picked up DROOY, KGC, BGO, GLG and ABX as longs here. All five are on PnF buy signals, and have decent looking charts. Most are currently around 8% or so above their recent daily lows, and seemed to have sucessfully tested resistance for now. Mental stops in place at the recent daily lows. I plan on giving these a little room here. I think the dollar put in a significant bottom recently, but has hit resistance and so may go sideways for a bit. Appreciate the discussion here.

[skott]

thanks for joining in teki. does anyone know what happened to the dollar against the yen? the dollar index dropped suddenly also. may just be the thin trade. scott

[TechSkeptic]

Another novice here. Sounds like the new central bank agreement was widely anticipated. If so, then regardless of how big the increase, it should already have been discounted in the POG, and therefore I wouldn't expect the announcement to move the market. As for USD, I'm expecting a trading range for awhile, though more upside retracement is certainly possible. Long-term bearish on the buck. I sold all of my physical gold last week in the high 390's which I'd been holding since mid-2002 at around 317 average cost. I realize I'm almost certainly giving up some decent upside, but I wanted to lock in profits and reduce risk. I also cut some of my core holdings in NEM on Friday at 44.01. Otherwise, I'm staying the course at about 15% asset allocation to gold stocks (some of which positions are in the red and others in the green). Though I may trade in at out at support/resistance levels in stocks like BGO, NEM, DROOY.

[skott]

pretty good trade there on gold tech. I bougt mine at 267 and I'm holding cuz it's a insurance position for me. something big is coming in the gold stocks within the next few weeks.....we'll probably bounce around for awhile. Buffet has shorted the dollar 12 billion worth....what a patriot. He is a [edited by moderator]. I hope the dollar fries him. scott

[skott]

I wouldn't doubt Buffet is in the process of covering his short position as it becomes know to the pulic. As he did with silver scott

[mss]

He is a [edited by moderator] I hope the dollar fries him.
scott

Your new to this board so be careful with this type of wording.