MOSCOW, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Leading Russian gold producer Polyus said on Friday it would issue $250 million worth of bonds, with the proceeds of the sale mainly going towards refinancing its debt.The offering is for senior unsecured guaranteed convertible bonds with a maturity of January 2021, the company said, adding that it expected them to carry a coupon of between 0.50 and 1.00 percent per annu...Read More
The U.S. stock market is mixed, as the Senate shows no signs of passing a budget agreement to avoid a government shutdown. Though the CBOE Volatility (VIX) is lower, non-cyclical consumer goods stocks are seeing notable buying, and gold futures are on the rise -- hinting at strong demand for "safer" assets. One bright spot has been the retail sector, led by strong gains from blue chip Nike (NKE),...Read More
The world's leading gold-stock ETF is nearing a major upside breakout from key technical levels. GDX is getting closer to challenging and powering above $25. That would accelerate the sentiment shift in this deeply-undervalued sector back to bullish, enticing investors to return. Good operating results from the major gold miners in their upcoming Q4'17 earnings season could prove the catalys...Read More
ACCRA, Jan 19 (Reuters) - The Bank of Ghana said the yield on its weekly 91-day bill dipped to 13.32 percent at an auction on Friday from 13.36 percent at the last such sale on Jan 12.The bank said it had accepted 472.57 million cedis ($103.9 million) worth of bids out of the 473.07 million cedis tendered for the paper, which will be issued on Monday.Ghana's treasury bill yields have eased to arou...Read More
NEW YORK, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Fitch Ratings said on Friday its top AAA debt rating for the United States would not be directly impacted by a possible federal shutdown, which will begin on Saturday if lawmakers fail to clinch a deal to fund the government. "Partial federal government shutdowns have occurred in the past and this shutdown does not have a direct impact on the sovereign's 'AAA'/Sta...Read More
Gold rally hasn't had a specific catalyst, but a variety of factors.Not the least of these has been its value relative to equities.Gold mining stocks may need "consolidative pause" before continuing higher. Whenever the price of a widely watched asset like gold is trending higher, financial writers invariably struggle to discover the rally's underlying cause. They'll usually point to...Read More
* IBM lower after saying higher tax rates will hit profit* AmEx posts first loss in 26 years on tax charge* Dow off 0.15 pct, S&P 0.09 pct, Nasdaq 0.12 pct (Changes comment, updates prices, adds details)By Sruthi ShankarJan 19 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were prodded higher by gains in consumer stocks, while investors played down fears of a looming U.S. government shutdown.Phili...Read More
MILAN, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Italian motorway operator Atlantia said on Friday it would decide on possible changes to the price and the structure of its takeover offer for Spain's Abertis once a competing offer has been approved by authorities.The Italian group could also decide to waive the minimum acceptance condition for the equity component of the takeover bid, the company said. Atlantia will con...Read More
On Thursday, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) snapped its six-session losing streak -- its longest since December 2016. This negative price action came after FB stock topped out at a record high of $188.90 on Jan. 8, and was exacerbated by a rare downgrade following news of changes to the company's News Feed. However, the equity is now stabilizing above a key trendline.Specifically, FB is currently tradin...Read More
* Republicans scramble for funding deal before midnight deadline* Euro near 3-year high, yen close to 4-month high vs dollar* Rising U.S. yields fail to lift greenback (Updates market action, changes dateline, previous LONDON)By Richard LeongNEW YORK, Jan 19 (Reuters) - The dollar held near a three-year low versus a basket of currencies on Friday, poised for a fifth week of falls and its longest l...Read More
* Worries over possible U.S. government shutdown weigh on dollar* US lawmakers try to cobble together deal to avert shutdown* 10-year Treasury yields highest since Sep 2014 (Updates with U.S. market open, changes byline, dateline; previous LONDON)By Chuck MikolajczakNEW YORK, Jan 19 (Reuters) - World equity markets climbed to a record on Friday as the U.S. dollar languished near three-year lows an...Read More
* 10-year yields hit highest since September 2014* Deadline for U.S. government funding bill approaching By Kate DuguidNEW YORK, Jan 19 - Yields on the 10-year U.S. government bond hit a three-year high on Friday as weakness in overnight trading pushed the debt through key technical support levels and resulted in further selling."This is one of those times when the price action is deciding f...Read More
aheadoftheherd.comGold is climbing as bond yields rise and the dollar falls, over speculation that China is pulling back on buying US Treasuries and Japan signals it is winding down its quantitative easing program. Meanwhile, US debt continues to grow after the Republicans under President Trump pushed a trillion dollars worth of tax cuts through the Senate, that the Congressional Budget Office thi...Read More
LONDON, Jan 19 (Reuters) - The Royal Bank of Scotland on Friday announced a range of measures for individual customers hit by the collapse of construction outsourcing company Carillion . The bank said there would be no financial cap on the measures, which include repayment holidays on loans or mortgages, refunds on overdraft and credit card charges and fee waivers for customers employed by the fai...Read More
(Updates to reflect afternoon trading)JOHANNESBURG, Jan 19 (Reuters) - South Africa's rand retreated from a two-and-a-half year high on Friday as a rally driven by a weaker dollar and optimism about the prospects for change under the new leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) ran out of steam.At 1541 GMT, the rand was 0.6 percent weaker on the day at 12.2125 to the dollar.Earlier in...Read More
By Brenna Hughes NeghaiwiRIEHEN, Switzerland, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Georg Baselitz, a provocative German artist who inspired a generation with challenging depictions of the Nazi era and the post-war division of Germany, is being honoured by a retrospective to mark his 80th birthday.Born Hans-Georg Kern in the German town of Deutschbaselitz in 1938, Baselitz gained worldwide fame in the 1970s with his...Read More
(Updates with date and likely size of sale)LONDON, Jan 19 (Reuters) - The United Kingdom Debt Management Office named Bank of America Merrill Lynch , J.P. Morgan , Lloyds Bank and Santander GBM to act as joint bookrunners for the sale of several billion pounds of a 30-year index-linked bond.The DMO said the syndication of the 2048 index-linked gilt, which carries a 0.125 percent coupon , would ta...Read More
Jan 19 (Reuters) - The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index fell on Friday and continued to linger around five month lows as the capesize segment recorded its biggest weekly percentage decline in two years. * The overall index, which factors in rates for capesize, panamax, supramax and handysize shipping vessels that ferry dry bulk commodities, shed 14 points, or 1.23 percent, to 1,125 points,...Read More
COPENHAGEN, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Denmark's central bank will open a 0.1 pct inflation-linked bullet loan 2030 on February 7, the bank said in a press release on Friday.* The government bond will be linked to the Danish consumer price index, CPI, and the interest payment date will be November 15* The new bond will replace 0.1 per cent inflation-linked bullet loan 2023 and after this the government ca...Read More
Jack Dorsey's portfolio is in focus today, after Square Inc (NYSE:SQ) and Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) both received some bullish brokerage attention. Here's a quick look at the analyst notes issued for shares of SQ and TWTR, and how the stocks are reacting.Nomura Instinet Eyes Another 'Phenomenal' Year for SQNomura Instinet raised its price target on Square stock by $16 to $64 -- the highest on Wall S...Read More