8:40p EDT Tuesday, December 19, 2000 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: With its weekly commentary for December 11-15, the World Gold Council has taken note of GATA's lawsuit against suppression of the price of gold -- but without comment. Not that we really needed the encouragement. You know us cranks and bitter-enders; nothing will stop us, short of a public confession by Larry Summers, the liquidation of Goldman Sachs, and the indictment of a few of its top officials. But any old ordinary member of the gold community might wonder just what the WGC thinks about GATA's lawsuit and the complaint spelled out so clearly by Reg Howe -- might wonder whether the WGC, which exacts a lot of tribute from most of the gold mining companies in the world, has even read the complaint and considered looking into the matter and adjusting its operations accordingly. Down at the bottom, the WGC's commentary invites inquiry to its New York staff member, George Milling- Stanley. I wouldn't want to clog his email box or tie him up on the phone, but if someone less partisan about this issue happens to contact him for comment on the lawsuit and gets a response, I would be glad to share it with the membership. CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc. * * * World Gold Council Weekly Gold Market Commentary 11 December to 15 December 2000 www.gold.org/Gedt/Wgmc/Wc001219.htm Gold started the week little changed, fixing at $272.50 in London on Monday morning, but soon went on the defensive as fund selling in New York quickly put downward pressure upon prices. At the same time the view that the protracted U.S. presidential election was close to resolution served to support the dollar, and as the euro slipped, so gold weakened in sympathy, falling to $270.70 later that day. Quotations steadied a little on Tuesday helped by a slight upturn in the euro and held above $270, but fund selling returned on the next day and gold slid towards $268 before uncovering fresh support. On Thursday the market held nervously above $269; a further recovery in the euro seemed to have little impact, the market focussing a little more upon the retreat of oil prices below $30, while the fall of silver to contract lows on Comex also tended to undermine confidence in gold. Although silver continued to fall on Friday gold belatedly began to react to the weakening dollar, recovering to $270.30 at the AM fix in London. Activity was beginning to fall away at the approach of the holiday season and gold traded narrowly over the rest of the day, ending the week in New York at $270.65/271.15. The commitment of traders report as published by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed further short-covering taking place on Comex during the week ended December 12, where the net short position of the large speculators fell from 26,921 contracts (equivalent to 83.7 tonnes) to 17,942 contracts (55.8 tonnes). Since then open interest on Comex has risen from 110,455 contracts to 113,626 contracts, confirming that fresh speculative short selling has been a feature over the past few days. Gold lease rates barely moved over the week, the one-month rate held unchanged at 0.65875 percent while the 12-month rate eased slightly from 1.27% to 1.25 percent. At the U.S. District Court in Boston, supported by the Gold Anti Trust Action Committee (GATA), a lawsuit was filed accusing the Bank for International Settlements, officials from the U.S. Treasury Department and the U.S. Federal Reserve, as well as five investment houses of conspiring to suppress the price of gold. The lawsuit also alleges price fixing, securities fraud, and breach of fiduciary duty. This is the last Gold Market Commentary for 2000; we wish all our readers an enjoyable holiday season. The next commentary will be published in the week beginning January 8, 2001. ---------------- Market Commentary is a review of the major events shaping opinion in the gold market during the past week. It is compiled by council staff in London and New York based on contacts in the market and a network of WGC offices around the world. If you have any questions or comments on this input, please address them to: George Milling-Stanley in our New York office: Tel. 212 317 3800, Fax. 212 688 0410 or email: george . milling _ stanley @ wgcny.gold.org. (Close up the spaces in the address above.) -END- -------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~> <FONT COLOR="#000099">eLerts It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free! </FONT><A HREF="http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/0/_/126/_/977277307/"><B>Click Here!</B></A> ---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
