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"...Seven-hundred
billion here, $560 billion there, and pretty soon you're talking deposit-bank
warfare in the battle to recapitalize financial firms..."
GOLD BULLION PRICES rose
further in London on Tuesday, touching $888 an ounce and unwinding last
week's action entirely as world stock markets rallied from their new record
sell-off.
Rumors starting late in New York ran from Tokyo to London, claiming that the
US Fed and other big central banks are set to slash global interest rates in
joint action.
"If this doesn't come to fruition we could be a whole world of
trouble," says the chief dealer at I.G. Markets in London.
The "silent run" meantime continued on troubled banks – enabled
by internet cash transfers and encouraged by Competitive Bail-Outs in Europe
– with shares in RBS, one of the world's 10 largest banks, losing half
their value from last week's close on rumors it's seeking emergency aid from
the UK government.
Trying to revive its slowing economy, the Reserve Bank of Australia today slashed its target interest rate by a surprise 1%, helping the ASX share
index reverse an early 3% fall.
India's central bank cut its rate by 0.5% in Mumbai. As recently as July it
hiked the cost of money to fight inflation – then at a 13-year high.
The US Federal Reserve, meantime, may start making unsecured loans for the
first time in its history, says a report in the Financial Times,
buying "commercial paper" – issued by banks to fund business
and consumer loans – directly.
Iceland today nationalized the failing Landsbanki, the tiny country's
second-largest bank, and entered talks to secure an emergency $5.4 billion
loan from Russia.
"With oil prices collapsing and international banks being routed,"
said the chief of Libya's National Oil Corp. – calling for an emergency
meeting of the Opec oil cartel – "it's better to keep our oil
underground."
Crude oil managed its first bounce today bounced to $89 per barrel after
losing Gold today recorded a London Fix of $881.75 an ounce, more than 5.4%
above Monday morning and almost one-fifth above this time in 2007.
The S&P index of US stocks has lost almost one-third of its value since
then.
European stock markets bounced meantime, adding 1% in London after
yesterday's 21-year record plunge. Germany's Dax index, however, recovered
just 13 points of the 1,034 lost since the start of Sept.
German factory orders slumped 7.6% in August from the same month last year.
Six-month British gilt yields sank below 3.0% as large investors piled into
government paper. Borrowing 6-month gilts overnight, in contrast, now costs
4.58% annualized.
"There's still a massive lack of confidence in [the interbank lending]
market," says Jan Misch, a money-market trader at Landesbank
Baden-Wuerttemberg in Stuttgart, Germany.
"The more we talk about it, the more it becomes a self- fulfilling
prophecy. Sentiment hasn't improved much and rates remain at elevated
levels."
Today the Bank of England auctioned £40 billion ($70bn) of short-term
money in exchange for a much-widened range of collateral, now including
"AAA-rated" securities backed by corporate and consumer loans, as
well as commercial paper.
"The weekly extended collateral repos will continue until at least
Tuesday 18 November," says the Old Lady.
The Gold Price in British Pounds meantime came within a whisker of setting
new all-time highs above £510 per ounce, rising more than 3.6%.
European investors also saw Gold leap towards the record high it set back in
March, adding 2.9% to €655 an ounce.
Converted into old German Deutsche Marks, gold today recorded only its 32nd
ever morning London Gold Fix above DM 40,000 per kilo.
Eleven of those have come since Feb. this year.
Adrian Ash
Head of Research
Bullionvault.com
City correspondent for The Daily
Reckoning in London, Adrian Ash is head of research at www.BullionVault.com – giving you
direct access to investment gold, vaulted in Zurich, on $3 spreads and 0.8%
dealing fees.
Current gold price, no delay
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inform your thinking, not lead it. Only you can decide the best place for
your money, and any decision you make will put your money at risk.
Information or data included here may have already been overtaken by events
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