(September 27 – 17:30 ET) –
Apparently Wall Street analysts
were as surprised as anyone with
the agreement among central bankers
to limit gold sales. Goldman
Sachs, for one, is issuing
wholesale upgrades on gold stocks.
Goldman today released a slew of
upgrades – Kinross Gold
goes from Market Underperform to
Market Perform, as does Echo Bay
Mines and Lihir Gold Ltd.
Going from Market Perform to Market
Outperform are Homestake Mining,
Placer Dome and Ashanti
Goldfields Co., while
Battle Mountain Gold, Barrick
Gold and Newmont Mining
jump from a Market Outperform to a
Trading Buy.
Lehman Bros. also upgraded
Barrick from Neutral to Buy.
The big question in the gold
arena is whether this deal changes
the playing field for gold, or is
it just a short-term positive?
The World Gold Council, of
course, loves the move, noting:
“These decisive measures by a group
which accounts for some 50% of
all official gold holdings, will
reduce dramatically the scope for
rumour and speculation which has
been such a damaging feature of the
gold market in recent years.”
IE Staff