Gold hits 7-month high on safe-haven buying
Ned
Gold futures extended gains Wednesday, climbing above $940
an ounce to their highest level in nearly seven months, as
investors continued to buy the metal amid doubts on new
economic rescue plans unveiled in the U.S.
Gold for February delivery ended up $30.10, or 3.3%, at
$943.80 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York
Mercantile Exchange, the loftiest closing level for a front-
month gold future since July. Trading more actively, the
April contract rose 3.3% to $944.50 an ounce.
Gold gained more than 2% in the previous session after
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner introduced a new plan
to rescue the ailing banking sector. The Senate also passed
an $838 billion stimulus package Tuesday by a 61-37 vote.
Markets, however, cast doubts on the plans. Stocks and
crude-oil prices tumbled, while safe-haven buying pushed up
gold and Treasury securities, as well as the U.S. dollar.
It's "flight to safety, pure and simple," said Jon Nadler,
senior analyst at Kitco Bullion Dealers...
Bruce Remick
"Ned" <nob...@pseudo.borked.net> wrote in message
news:a6072451f932082e...@pseudo.borked.net...
So while crude oil yesterday was less than $37 a barrel, gasoline prices
have continued to climb over 30 cents a gallon during the past couple
months. I haven't heard any plausible or acceptable explanation for that
one. Here I thought all the conditions that we were told would lead to
lower prices at the pump were being met. When gasoline was over $4.00 a
gallon, we heard reports and analysis on the news every day. Now, pretty
much silence on the analysis side.
mazorj
"Bruce Remick" <rem...@cox.net> wrote in message
news:4cVkl.23933$Sj1....@newsfe09.iad...
NPR, that nest of dirty hippie commie pinko libruls, provides some of
the best business reporting on the airwaves. Earlier this week they
did a short bit on gasoline prices and mentioned that in winter, more
oil production goes to heating oil and less to gas stations. It's
just a shift in demand causing a shift in supply, resulting in higher
gasoline prices. There's nothing unusual going on. They report that
phenomenon every winter whenever gas prices are in the news. The only
difference may be that with gas prices down, we may be doing a little
more driving than historical patterns would have suggested when oil
refineries set their production allocations for this winter, thus
causing a slight relative shortage of supply versus demand.
Jud
mazorj wrote:
> NPR, that nest of dirty hippie commie pinko libruls, provides some of
> the best business reporting on the airwaves. Earlier this week they
> did a short bit on gasoline prices and mentioned that in winter, more
> oil production goes to heating oil and less to gas stations. It's
> just a shift in demand causing a shift in supply, resulting in higher
> gasoline prices. There's nothing unusual going on. They report that
> phenomenon every winter whenever gas prices are in the news. The only
> difference may be that with gas prices down, we may be doing a little
> more driving than historical patterns would have suggested when oil
> refineries set their production allocations for this winter, thus
> causing a slight relative shortage of supply versus demand.
It is my understanding that the reason gas has gone up in the last few
weeks is because the refineries have cut back production of ALL
products.
mazorj
"Jud" <numis...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:67148f5a-b9d3-4ff5...@z1g2000yqn.googlegroups.com...
That is a broad-based factor at work.
http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzgas1212452728feb12,0,261925.story
Seasonal changes and the usual scheduled down time for maintenance
still are factors. It so happens that this may be another of those
milder-than-normal winters where heating oil use is below projections.
That along with consumers looking for ways to trim utility bills would
explain why heating oil production has been cut recently.
All told, suppliers probably are trying their traditional exploit of
holding down supply a bit to goose prices, under the camouflage of a
traditional, plausible cover story or three.