Unintended Consequences

[Gonz]

or are they...?

New York gold fell to a 3-1/2 month low Friday as the United States started a major air strike against Iraq and markets buzzed about unconfirmed reports that President Saddam Hussein was dead, traders said.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices deepened a week-long plunge on Friday to hit four-month lows as U.S. and British forces secured key Iraqi oilfields and ports, calming market fears of widespread destruction by Iraqi troops.

A big wave of extra OPEC oil arriving in the West, replacing supply lost from war-torn Iraq, also helped ease the threat of shortages.

U.S. crude (CLK3) plumbed a four-month low of $26.30, ending the day down $1.12 cents at $27.00. Brent crude oil (LCOc1) futures in London fell $1.15 to $24.35 per barrel, having also hit a four-month low.

The value of oil has dropped by 30 percent in a week, having peaked at nearly $40 last month.

The dollar surged across the board Friday, breaking three-month highs against the yen and two-month highs against the Swiss franc and the euro as traders seized on some signs of progress in the early stages of the U.S.-led war in Iraq

Stocks surged on Friday, driving the blue-chip Dow average to its eighth day of gains and its best week since October 1982

 

[Gonz]

Could it happen?

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Iraqi expatriates have been facilitating negotiations among CIA operatives, U.S. military officials and senior members of the Iraq Republican Guard inside Iraq aimed at a achieving a peaceful surrender of Iraq, CNN has learned.

The expatriates, including Kurdish leaders and former military commanders who have "active contact with the Iraqi military," have been having "face-to-face discussions with senior members of the Iraqi Republican Guard in the last 24 to 36 hours," an administration official told CNN.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/03/21/sprj.irq.surrender.talks/index.html

 

[Gonz]

Should this amuse me or horrify me?

ARIS, March 20 — A small quantity of the poison ricin was found Monday in a locker at the Gare de Lyon train station, the French Interior Ministry said today.

Police officers who searched the locker found "two vials with a powder, a bottle filled with a liquid and two smaller bottles also containing a liquid," the ministry said. The two smaller bottles, the ministry said, contained "traces of ricin in a mixture that turned out to be a very toxic poison."

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/21/international/europe/21RICI.html

 

[drkavnger99]

Gonz it looks as if this thread was all yours till I moved in! j/k Gold is going to fall as fast as the tech stocks did its overvalued right now because so many invested in it being told it was a sure thing

 

[Gonz]

Gonz it looks as if this thread was all yours till I moved in!

I know when I talk to myself I'm assured a decent conversation but, by all means, c'mon in & raise the IQ.

 

[HomeLAN]

Be really careful about those stocks. We're seeing a big bounce, but the economic fundamentals haven't really improved (in fact, the news on the econ lately has been nasty). I'm not sure that a Dow above 8500 is sustainable, or realistic in the intermediate term.

I've personally been selling into this bounce. Here's hoping I end up kicking myself for it.

 

[Gonz]

The market was looking for a reason to improve. This isn't it but it is something right now.