US gold sale policy unchanged

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Part of Business Day

Title: US gold sale policy unchanged
Language: English
Source: Business Day XIV (99) July 15, 1980
Year: 1980
Subject: Gold -- Purchasing
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Fulltext: Business Day Business Data • Money Market • Stocks New Products • Commodity Exchange VOL. XIV NO. 99 TUESDAY, JULY 15, 1980 SECTION II PAGE 9 Extacel Natural Vitamin E and Lecithin in one capsule ; ; ■■ ■ - Market Reports EEC bigwig endorses WEEKLY COMMODITIES For week ending July 12,1980 temporary import curbs LONDON (AFP) — Gold moved up to its highest for nearly five months this week in a flurry of activity, before falling back. Elsewhere seasonal quietness appeared to be settling over the commodity markets, with prices fluctuating relatively sharply in thin trading. Coffee was an active exception with quotations falling to 16-month lows as mild weather continued in Brazil. Platinum followed gold higher, while tin fell to a ten-month low before steadying. The strength of sterling during the early part of the week, at five-year highs against the US dollar, depressed sentiment. Attention tended to be diverted away from commodities by the initial strong rise in share prices to 12-month highs on the stock exchange. Meanwhile, on the political front, rumors that the Soviet Union had offered to withdraw some troops from Eastern Europe also acted against fresh speculative interest. GOLD: Irregular — The weakness of the US dollar brought further good gains with prices reaching their highest since February. But subsequently interest slackened as the US currency improved. The decline was equally sharp in unison with New York advices, before a marginal rally developed. COPPER: Irregular - Early currency considerations were countered by a rise in US producers’ prices and the lack of progress in solving, the US copper miners’ strike. Reports of a strike by Peruvian copper workers gave an added boost to buying, although New York’s failure to follow >London’s trend brought some reaction towards the ,|er.d. Stocks were down 400 tons to 109,600 tons, /jthe lowest since November 1974, with further reductions expected. TIN: Easier — The decline in prices continued following the sharp fall in Penang and heavy trade selling developed. Stocks rose 100 tons to 1,915 tons, reflecting an easier supply positions, with further increases predicted. Prices touched their lowest since last September, with buyers wary in front of the second offering of 500 tons from the US stockpile which is due to take place next Tues day (July 15). LEAD: Irregular — The unexpected rise in stocks (up 1,850 tons to 27,375 tons) encouraged early profit-taking, but sentiment was later affected by the rise in copper stock forecasts which indicated further increases to come and buyers became more reserved in consequence. ZINC: Quiet — Prices moved comparatively narrowly in line with lead and copper. Stocks, as expected, were down 1,050 tons to 57,750 tons, with further reductions forecast. SILVER: Easier — Having fluctuated higher at first with gold, prices turned sharply easier as selling pressure built up in New York. Stocks were reduced by 160,000 ounces to 27,840,000 ounces. ALUMINUM: Steadier — A firmer trend developed following news that Alcoa, the world’s biggest producer, was cutting output to bring production more into line with demand. Alcan (Canada) made a similar move a week ago. Meanwhile, stocks were down 1,525 tons to 16,325 tons, although this fall is likely to be replaced very shortly. World stocks in May showed their first rise of the year, the International Primary Aluminum Institute said. Merchants outside the London metal exchange , quoted $1720/1740 (against $171.0/1730) a metric ton. NICKEL: Barely steady -After early steadiness as a result of the seventh successive weekly fall in stocks (down 120 tons to 5,994 tons, bringing the fall since April to 2,500 tons), buying interest faded owing to the general weakness of other metals. Merchants quoted an unchanged $2.80/3.10 per pound. OTHER METALS: Platinum moved higher reflecting heavy investment buying mainly on Swiss account and the movement in gold, before easing back to be quoted at 293.10 (against 298.90) pounds or $696 (against $703) an ounce. Cobalt eased to $18/20 (against $20/21.5) per pound following the removal of sales allocations by Zaire’s Sozacom agency. The current oversupply situation is largely due to rising production in Zaire, although other producers have also been increasing output, industry figures showed. Wolfram was quoted at $144/147 (against $143/146) a metric ton unit (ten kilos); quicksilver at $400/410 (against 395/410) a 76 pound flask; antimony $3250/3300 (against $3260/3310) a ton. SCRAP: Higher prices were quoted for copper and brass, but cheaper offers were made for whitemetal, some grades of lead and zinc, and, on a nominal basis, aluminum. RUBBER: Dull — Prices drifted off, but there was a fair interest reported at the lower levels. The steadiness of the Eastern markets where Soviet and Chinese buying was reported, was not sufficient to hold sentiment steady in London, dealers said. WOOL: Quiet — Despite the unexpected size of the increase in the floor price announced for next season’s Australian auctions, Bradford topmakers left their prices Unchanged after initial uncertainty. But it was reported that the cheap1 offers (at up to 15 pence/kilo below quoted levels) were disappearing. Meanwhile, deliveries are beginning to slow down, reflecting the start of the summer holidays. COTTON: Quiet but very steady - Trading in Liverpool encountered three blank days, before interest developed for Middle Eastern cottons. African growths also attracted attention. The Liverpool prices index moved up to its highest since the end of May. SISAL: Quiet, unchanged. JUTE: Quiet — Raw jute prices were unchanged, but jute goods turned easier following the reduction of the Bangladesh minimum export price. Bangladesh Hessians were down 5.2% and those from India fell 2.4%, while B. Twills were 5% cheaper from Bangladesh and 0.5% lower from India. TEA: Irregular -Assams eased between five and 10 pence/kilo with many withdrawals. African brighter qualities were generally dearer, and other grades eased. Sri Lankans were mostlj' firmer. Average prices (pence per kilo): quality 150 (against 149 last week): medium 97 (101) and plain 72 (70)1 GRAIN: Quiet - Domestic old crop wheat rose sharply as demand built up with still at least two weeks to go before the new crop is harvested. Steady interest was reported in futures trading as a precautionary step on weather considerations. (Continued on page 10) LONDON, July 14 (Reuter) - Luxembourg Foreign Minister Gaston Thom has said import controls may be required to help some EEC industries, but they should only be a temporary measure. In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Thorn, who is president of the EEC Council of Ministers and the expected successor next January to Britain’s Roy Jenkins as president of the mar ket’s executive council, said he opposed import controls as an answer to industrial problems. PROTECTIONISM. “Protectionism is certainly not the solution for the com munity as such at a time when we live on imports,” he said. Thorn added “of course there are some sectors where occasionally, and for a short period of time, people may need some help and we may need to cut down on imports, but that’s just for a short period,” but gave no exam ples. Thom urged EEC countries to tackle their problems together and not pursue selfish interests. “We have to convince people that nationalist solutions will not be profit able for them,” he said. “We have to find common solutions for common problems.” Japan amenable TOKYO (AFP) — Japan is ready to accept a European Community (EEC) demand for Japan to curb exports to the Common Market voluntarily in re turn for the removal of remaining import restrictions against this coun try, a government official said. In this sense, Japan will be closely watching the EEC foreign minister’s July 22 debate on a “Japan strategy” draft, drawn up by the EEC Commis sion, the official said. He also said that if EEC foreign ministers approve the commission’s Japan strategy draft, negotiations would probably start in autumn be tween the commission and the Japan ese government for elimination of import restrictions. 57 ITEMS. At these negotiations, Japan will call for the removal of restrictions of 57 items (compared with 55 items, according to the EEC calculation), the official said, adding that EEC has claimed that Japan still maintains quantitative curbs chiefly on farm products from the common mar kets. However, no such discrimination is actually being practised, he argued. The official forecast it would take a long time before Japan and the Com mon Market could reach final agree ment in view of wide differences be tween them. He said the 57 items in the EEC import restriction list include films, sewing machines, ball bearings, radio and television sets, passenger cars, trucks and auto parts. CEILINGS. For example, Italy now sets the ceiling for auto imports from Japan at 2,200 units a year. France’s ceiling on imports of television receiv ers from Japan is fixed at 88,000 sets and radios at 390,000 sets a year, he pointed out. Earlier, Kyodo quoted ranking of ficials of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) as saying that MITI cduld not accept the EEC proposal for Japan’s imposition of voluntary control on its exports to Europe. Iraq poised to nationalize all foreign oil companies Plus total boycott of US Miller tolerates tight money rules of European countries WASHINGTON, July 14 (Reuter) — Treasury Secretary G. William Miller said he does not oppose the current tight monetary policies of most European counalways the risk of hold ing (monetary policy) too tight, but I don’t believe we’re at that point,” he told Reuters in an interview. “The prospects for growth of OECD this year and next are still there.” TECHNICAL PROB LEMS. Miller attributed the continued tight monetary policies of many foreign countries to ‘‘technical problems.” The mark is at the bottom of the European monetary system, which makes it hard for the country to lower interest rates and meet its EMS obligations, he said. The French franc is at the top of the EMS, but that country has the highest inflation rate on the continent, Miller said. Miller also said, “we certainly don’t want to see the yen weaken badly again.” Japan has held its discount rate steady despite a recent sharp drop in US Interest rates. The dollar has recent ly “performed well,” al though it is at the lower end ‘of its 1.7 to 1.9 mark trading range of the last 1-1/2 years, Miller said. “But it was not long ago over 1.90 which was too high,” he said. Miller said that against most currencies, the dol lar’s recent trading range has been “quite comfort able.” He claimed that Republican presidential candidate Ronald Reagan’s talk of an “irresponsible” tax cut weakened the dollar be cause the market viewed it as a sign the Democrats would abandon monetary discipline. US gold sale policy unchanged WASHINGTON, July 14 (Reuter) — US Trea sury Secretary G. William Miller told Reuters in an interview the US policy of selling gold from time to time is unchanged. Asked under what conditions the Treasury might sell gold, Miller said the US might sell the metal if gold was attract ively priced, or if the government wished to re duce its borrowing in the capital markets, to dampen speculation in gold or other com modities, or to help the balance of payments. BEIRUT, July 14 (Reuter) — Iraqi Foreign Minister Saadoun Hammadi was quoted as say ing his country favors | nationalizing all foreign ' oil companies and a total boycott of the US to support the Arab cause. In an interview with the English language weekly magazine Mon day Morning, Hammadi also said Iraq would not be surprised if Palestinian commandos make good their threat to attack oil routes should the Arabs refuse to mobilize their resources. OIL WEAPON . Reply ing to a question, Ham madi said the Iraqi gov ernment fully supports the use of the oil weapon to promote the Arabs’ position in their struggle with Israel, but is not ready to use that weapon unless all Arabs agree to use it as well. “When we talk about using the oil weapon in the battle, we’re talking about the use of an ef fective weapon, and Iraqi oil alone would not be effective,” he told the magazine. He said he told the just-concluded Arab economic and social council conference held in Jordan the “effective use of the oil weapon in the battle” should be based on two factors. 2 FACTORS. Hammadi listed the two factors as firstly, “the transfer of the ownership of the for eign companies to the national governments in , other words, the nation alization of those com panies ...” Secondly, “the fin ancial power represented by Arab assets in the US, the boycott of the US economically, politically and diplomatically, because the US position was and remains hostile to the Arab countries.” Hammadi said whether the oil weapon would be used in the battle or not “depends on whether a consensus develops on these points.” He added he could understand the threat made by several Palestin ian leaders to attack , the Arab oil routes if Pales tinian “rights” are not granted. Asked what his gov ernment’s reaction would be in the event of Ameri can military intervention in the Gulf to protect US interests, Hammadi said. “We can never, under any circumstances, ac cept the intervention of any big power, be it the US or anyone else, in the affairs of the Arabian Gulf or any other part of the Arab world. “That is out of the question. If we see the beginning of such an intervention, we will stand against it. We will miss no opportunity to keep the superpowers as far from the borders of the Arab countries as possible, the farther the better.” NUCLE-BEC YOUR ENERGY FOOD SUPPLEMENT WRINKLES AWAY. A vailable at all leading ^Supermarkets & Drug Stores. j
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