http://www.kitco.com/charts/livegold.html

cheers GF.

I caught the last few moments of an interview on Bloomberg last night re the manipulation of gold prices by U.S. and U.K.
The suggestion was that it is preventing the rocketing of prices.
Is anyone in the know here?

sounds like a load of crap to me

here is something on this topic picked up on numismaster.com.

Gold Price Manipulation More Blatant
By Patrick A. Heller, Market Update
March 17, 2009
Other News & Articles
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Mint Not Likely to Revert to Larger Mintmarks
Gold Bounces on Bond Buying


On Friday, March 6, gold lease rates turned negative for the day. What that means is that anyone who wanted to lease gold would actually be paid a fee in addition to getting a free gold loan.

No sane person would choose to lose money loaning physical gold, in addition to the risk of never getting the gold back from the other party. However, if someone (such as the U.S. government) wanted to suppress the price of gold, this is one tactic to try to accomplish that purpose.

I can come to no other conclusion than that a large quantity of physical gold surreptitiously appeared on the market on March 6 with the sole purpose to drive down the price of gold. The quantities were large enough that they almost certainly could not come from private parties. With most of the world's central banks now being net buyers of gold reserves, they would not be the source of this gold. By process of elimination, the suspicion falls upon the U.S. government as the ultimate party responsible for this blatant action to manipulate the price of gold.

Of course, the U.S. government would not want to be identified as the cause of this leasing anomaly. Instead, such manipulation was almost certainly conducted by multiple trading partners of the U.S. government.

This sledge hammer tactic worked at driving the price of gold further away from the $1,000 level - at least temporarily. Last week, spokesmen for a number of troubled U.S. companies were suddenly issuing statements about a return to profitability (such as Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase) or not needing further government bailouts (such as General Motors). Stock values climbed as gold's price retreated.

But (and there was always a but), these massive efforts to suppress the price of gold seem to be running out of steam. First off, these "positive statements" had serious qualifiers such as the chairman of Citigroup claiming that, ignoring extraordinary items like bad loans, the bank earned an operating income in the first two months of 2009.

Then insurance company AIG bowed to pressure and revealed that a huge portion of the $150+ billion in bailout funds it had received had really been passed along as bailout money to other companies (including Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase). In fact, almost all of this money was redirected to the U.S. government's trading partners who probably have been complicit in the manipulation of the gold price.

Once the public learned that such companies have received more federal government bailout money that previously revealed, the stock market rally stalled. The price of gold started to recover. Unless the U.S. government can come up with another tactic quickly, I expect the price of gold to generally rise over time.

In the meantime, demand for physical gold has taken off again. The U.S. Mint is so far behind at meeting demand for bullion gold and silver American Eagle issues that it last week announced an indefinite suspension of plans to strike 2009-dated proof and uncirculated versions for collectors. Even further, the U.S. Mint also announced that it would not even accept orders from primary distributors for any gold or silver Eagles this week.

On the wholesale market, supplies of gold and silver American Eagles quickly disappeared. The premiums of these coins shot upward. Some retailers now have to decline orders as they don't know when they might be able to fill them or what premiums they will have to pay to acquire merchandise. My earlier prediction that by the end of April it would become almost impossible to find any physical gold or silver bullion-priced items for reasonable delivery is starting to come true.

At the American Numismatic Association's National Money Show in Portland, Ore., this past weekend, demand for U.S. gold $10s and $20s was still solid. With some such collector coins now trading at all-time high prices, however, some dealers are advising their customers to consider selling or swapping for gold bullion. As a consequence, I think most of the surge in prices has already occurred. It might be a good time to take a profit.

"On 6 February 2009 the Independent Board Committees of Aricom plc ('Aricom') and Peter Hambro Mining Plc ('Peter Hambro Mining' or 'PHM') announced that they had reached agreement on the terms of a recommended all share offer to be made by Peter Hambro Mining for the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Aricom. The offer is to be implemented by means of a scheme of arrangement ('Scheme') and is subject to the satisfaction or waiver of the conditions of the Scheme and to the approval of the High Court and of both Aricom and PHM shareholders.

The PHM Extraordinary General Meeting was held today and both the resolutions proposed, as set out in the Notice, were duly passed on a show of hands.

It is currently expected that the Scheme will become effective on or around 22 April 2009."

next stop for gold 885? could keep going down to 850 before it turns up, almost seems that the market (whoever that may be JPM and HSBC according to some) is determined to get there before having a look for new highs.

There does seem to be an element of truth in the market manipulation conspiracy if you believe everything you read, there was alot on this on goldseek.com over the weekend.

I'm hedging at the moment

It looks to me like $900 will be the key number to watch for if the 6 month uptrend is to be held.

holding well with support from 900-920, resistance at 930-60, but getting challenged this week.

are these going down hill because price of gold dropping or something to do with the ORE deal?

I think the ORE deal may not be executed at the right time. Analysts say they see little value for shareholders after Russia's No.2 gold producer makes all-share offer for Aricom. Arbuthnot says in a note: 'We see the value in the acquisition of Aricom as just representing cash, as we expect few investors will attribute much value to the group in the current climate.' Citigroup says it expects minimal earnings contribution from Aricom given its negative outlook for iron ore and steel, while the deal will significantly dilute Peter Hambro Mining shareholders based on the exchange ratio.

POG is now 415p. It will drop from this level now.

455p already, another bad prediction justyi, u must be losing a fortune

Any idea when the integration with Aricom is due to take place?

See post #706.

People buying in before the 22nd, looks that way to me.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm wonder if this is one to get stuck into.

difficult call ..... ORE is still arguably the better way in

Yep will be interesting to watch as we get nearer the deadline.

justyi has this for LESS THAN 400P.......HAHA, WHAT A LOSER

Marni,
How can you post on another thread to stop inane banter and then post your last?

bb's are for discussions, inane or otherwise, and a precursor for proper research [not instead of].
I for one, prefer proper discussions and ignore inane banter except for those threads which are so designated and then i try and join in with the best of them.

Each to their own i say

Alex

taken the words from mouth, or off my fingers anyway

i do notice however several posters on certain threads who seem to be on this 24/7.......they must be terribly sad people who need help.

ok, i wont say another word on the matter

nor make inane comment i trust, having made silly noises elsewhere about same