SILVER TARNISHED BY RUMORS; POSSIBLE MANIPULATION SENDS PRICE PLUNGING.Byline: Cliff Edwards Cliff Edwards (14 June, 1895 - 17 July, 1971), also known as "Ukelele Ike", was an American singer and musician who enjoyed considerable popularity in the 1920s and early 1930s, specializing in jazzy renditions of pop standards and novelty tunes. Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. Silver prices plummeted around the world Monday after a market analyst said lawyers in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. are preparing to sue over an alleged scheme to corner the silver market in an attempt to drive prices higher. Gold might have lost its luster for investors, but silver shined so much last year that speculation has been rampant in the market that its rise has more to do with manipulation than solid physical and investment demand. Martin Armstrong For information on the financier and securities-fraud defendant, see Martin A. Armstrong. Martin Donisthorpe Armstrong (1882-1974) was an English writer and poet, known for his stories. , president of the advisory group Princeton Economics International, has argued for weeks that the silver market is being manipulated. He was quoted Monday by The Financial Times in London as saying a lawsuit seeking class-action status will be filed soon by a group of lawyers he declined to identify. Armstrong's comments reinforced rumors that roiled the market last week, causing prices to fall sharply. Silver for March delivery tumbled an additional 16.3 cents, or 2.9 percent, Monday to $5.475 a troy ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) The world's largest physical commodity futures exchange. . At the height of its rally, on Dec. 23, silver for March delivery reached a nine-year high of $6.243 an ounce. To be sure, rumors of manipulation have been in the market since late fall. A Merrill Lynch analyst warned in mid-October that a syndicate of U.S.-based investors and traders controlled huge stockpiles of silver in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of and London and was seeking to buy more for storage in warehouses not monitored by the New York exchange to create a shortage and push prices to $9 an ounce. Silver futures prices shot up last year as inventories of the metal in exchange warehouses fell to their lowest level in more than 12 years amid reports of surging world demand for its use in amateur photography and jewelry. But prices began to slide in late December and tumbled further last week amid speculation that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the federal regulatory agency for futures trading, was established by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Act of 1974 (88 Stat. 1389; 7 U.S.C.A. 4a), approved October 23, 1974. , the industry regulating body for futures and options, has launched an investigation into possible manipulation of the silver market. |
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