John Read Quotations

We believe that new-year allocations towards commodities will keep platinum and palladium firm in the near term and see platinum at $1,100/oz and palladium at $300/oz over one month, although we suspect that profit taking will set in at some stage and see both metals lower to $1,050/oz and $270/oz in three months.

We believe that investors are likely to interpret this ... as being positive for the gold market as it will raise speculation that China will increase its gold holdings.

We believe that gold is attempting to find a range with the recent extremes of $535 and $555 likely to confine the metal for a while.

Silver's recent rally appears to have been driven by intensifying speculation that the proposed ETF will soon gain approval from the SEC, although we have seen no indications on the possible timing.

Silver is benefiting from pre-positioning ahead of the expected launch of an exchange-traded fund in silver.

Of course, gold can go higher on investment and speculative demand, but there seems no clear motivation for new money to be committed to gold at this time.

Base and precious metals are considerably above what we consider to be fair value - based on fundamental supply and demand factors - but events of the past two years have demonstrated that investment and speculative flows are very capable of lifting prices well beyond fundamental fair value.

We suspect that technical buying of gold and silver on COMEX (New York) will be triggered by a positive announcement of the silver ETF.

Gold looks set to be supported and set to move higher as we approach the anniversary of the 9/11 attack on the U.S. and the expectations of an attack on Iraq intensify.

Gold is trying to establish itself in a range at the moment. The market is looking for fresh direction.

Gold is in search of a fresh catalyst to return it to recent highs.

Gold has started 2006 in a positive manner and we suspect that this strength will continue in the near term.

Gold and the other precious metals appear to have found support after the recent sell-off, however, we believe it is too soon to turn bullish on gold specifically.

I would say that when buying gold shares, additional risk is taken on compared to buying the metal or a derivative thereon.

It is an evolving situation and we will do whatever the ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) tells us.

People have realized that the dollar is important for gold but it's not the only factor and you cannot slavishly trade gold just simply because of what's happening to the dollar.

We do not believe that this correction is over and suspect that gold will now consolidate between recent extremes of $545 and $568, with a break of $575 needed to bring back bullish sentiment.

We believe the strength of the physical market is vitally important for 2006; even though gold is rising on speculative and investment buying, at some point there will be a reversal of this trend and gold will correct.

We were going down and Duncan killed the first extra end and we played the next one and managed to win it.

We need to find the level at which underlying physical demand will support gold. Until then, I wouldn't be comfortable with gold up here, because it's all investment and speculative money at the moment.

We had a period of needed consolidation in gold ... with rallying base metals, strong silver prices and improving momentum, we can probably go higher.

We recognize that prices are above what is justifiable on the basis of supply and demand fundamentals.

We believe that all precious metals are trading above fundamentally justified fair value, but the weight of investor, speculator and commodity-index buying has demonstrated that this does not stop metals trading ever-higher.

The risk remains that the rand will be at the higher end of people's forecasts.

The thing to stress is that the ultimate decision will be the responsibility of the management board and no decision has yet been made. As things stand at the moment it is our intention to go.

It seems extremely unlikely that gold doesn't trade $600 an ounce in the spot market at some time either today or this week.

After the rapid rally in gold over the past few months a correction is almost inevitable at some point and this could be it.

I don't think there's any question about that. At some point you move on.

I do believe that the recent run up in gold has been almost entirely driven by speculative and investment demand as jewelry demand has fallen sharply.

The level at which physical demand emerges to support the metal will then form a base for gold to make fresh gains.