"WAR is a racket...It always has been.A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortune." - US Marine General Smedley Butler. General ButlerMy friend and occasional...Read More

New Century Resources has cut its third-quarter forecast for the Century Mine zinc tailing project in Queensland, Australia, but said it remains on track for first production in August. At an investor roadshow the company said the expected output for August to September 2018 was now 4,000 tonnes of zinc metal, rather than the 13,000 tonnes it forecast late last y...Read More

WASHINGTON/SEOUL (Reuters) - The United States appears to have shelved an “all or nothing” approach to North Korean denuclearization as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo prepares to head back to North Korea this week hoping to agree a roadmap for its nuclear disarmament.Pompeo will spend a day and a half in North Korea on Friday and Saturday on what will be his third trip to the coun...Read More

LONDON (Reuters) - World stocks were flat on Wednesday amid growing anxiety ahead of Washington’s end of week deadline to impose tariffs on Chinese imports, while the yuan steadied after China’s central bank acted to calm investors.The MSCI All-Country World index, which tracks shares in 47 countries, was lower by less than 0.1 percent on the day, recovering slightly from a 0.2 percent...Read More

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan won 52.59 percent of votes in the June 24 presidential elections, broadcaster CNN Turk said, citing official results from Turkey's High Electoral Board.The main opposition's candidate Muharrem Ince won 30.64 percent, while the jailed candidate of the pro-Kurdish opposition, Selahattin Demirtas, won 8.40 percent of votes, CNN Turk said.In the parl...Read More

BEIJING (Reuters) - China will “absolutely not” fire the first shot in a trade war with the United States and will not be the first to levy tariffs, its finance ministry said on Wednesday.A person with knowledge of the plan earlier told Reuters China’s threatened tariffs on $34 billion of U.S. goods would take effect from the beginning of the day on Friday. Given the 12-hour time...Read More

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Turkey could find itself in a quagmire if it deepens its involvement in Syria’s multi-sided civil war, a U.S. senator said on Wednesday after meeting President Tayyip Erdogan this week.Lindsey Graham, a Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Reuters on a visit to Baghdad that Turkey should support a continued U.S. presence in Syria.Turkey has launc...Read More

* ECB focus on long-dated debt keeps euro zone curves flat* German state NRW set to be first to benefit, preps 50-year bond* Most euro zone yields flat on quiet day* Euro zone periphery govt bond yields tmsnrt.rs/2ii2Bqr (Adds graphic, size of NRW bond sale, updates prices)By Abhinav RamnarayanLONDON, July 4 (Reuters) - The gap between short- and long-term euro zone borrowing costs was near its...Read More

July 4 (Reuters) - Futures pointed to a higher opening for Canada's main stock index on Wednesday as Brent oil prices made gains following a second successive weekly decline in U.S. crude inventories.The drop was caused by an outage at Syncrude Canada's oil sands facility near Fort McMurray, Alberta, which supplies to the U.S. The outage is expected to last through July.September futures on the S&...Read More

Turkish steel producers have stayed away from the deep-sea scrap market, amid limited domestic and export demand for finished steel products, sources told Metal Bulletin on Wednesday July 4.Steel mills in Turkey have already finished their deep-sea bookings for July and expected to start booking for August. But it seems they are happy to wait as long as they can because of the weak finished s...Read More

BENGALURU, July 4 (Reuters) - Gold prices rose to a one-week high early on Wednesday, rebounding from a seven-month low touched in the previous session, as the dollar weakened against the yen and an end-of-week deadline loomed for U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports.FUNDAMENTALS* Spot gold was up 0.4 percent at $1,257.51 an ounce as of 0058 GMT. It touched a one-week high of $1,257.63 earlier in the s...Read More

BEIJING/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Foreign ministers from China, France, Germany, Britain and Russia will meet with Iranian officials on Friday in Vienna to discuss how to keep a 2015 nuclear accord alive after U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned the pact in May.The EU's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini confirmed the meeting in a statement on Wednesday after Iranian state news agency IRNA annou...Read More

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that Moscow and Washington had agreed that he would meet U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo after President Vladimir Putin holds a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump on July 16.Lavrov said his meeting with Pompeo would have to take place after the summit in Helsinki and not before because of his U.S. counterpart&rsqu...Read More

Drilling operations at Nickel Creek Platinum's 100%-owned Nickel Shaw Project in the Yukon Territory. Source: Nickel Creek Platinum Ltd.Nickel Creek Platinum Ltd. [NCP-TSX; NCPCF-OTCQX], a company previously known as Wellgreen Platinum, is hitching itself onto the electric vehicle revolution in a bid to improve the economic viability of its Yukon project, attract more investors interest, and move...Read More

BEIJING (Reuters) - China is comfortable with a weakening yuan, intervening only to prevent any rapid and destabilising declines or to restore market confidence, as the economy loses momentum and faces further risks from a heated trade dispute with the United States, policy insiders said.On Tuesday, as stocks sank and the yuan fell through a key psychological level of 6.7 on the dollar, traders sa...Read More

New Century Resources has cut its third-quarter forecast for the Century Mine zinc tailing project in Queensland, Australia, but said it remains on track for first production in August. At an investor roadshow the company said the expected output for August to September 2018 was now 4,000 tonnes of zinc metal, rather than the 13,000 tonnes it forecast late last y...Read More

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Wednesday that the situation on global oil markets was unlikely to be one of the main agenda items at a summit between President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump in Helsinki on July 16.“There are much more pressing matters from the point of view of bilateral relations that will of course be examined in the first instance,” Kremlin sp...Read More

BRUSSELS/BERLIN (Reuters) - China is putting pressure on the European Union to issue a strong joint statement against President Donald Trump’s trade policies at a summit later this month but is facing resistance, European officials said.In meetings in Brussels, Berlin and Beijing, senior Chinese officials, including Vice Premier Liu He and the Chinese government’s top diplomat, State C...Read More

Some of the most active companies traded Tuesday on the Toronto Stock Exchange:Toronto Stock Exchange (16,263.16, down 14.57 points)Bombardier Inc. (TSX:BBD.B). Aerospace, rail equipment. Down 13 cents, or 2.50 per cent, to $5.07 on 8.6 million shares.Baytex Energy Corp. (TSX:BTE). Oil and gas. Down nine cents, or 2.06 per cent, to $4.28 on 5.7 million shares.Canadian Natural Resources Ltd....Read More

LONGUEUIL, Que. - Stornoway Diamond Corp. says it expects to reopen its Renard diamond mine Wednesday after suspending operations two days earlier because of a wildfire.The company says rainfall and shifting wind over the past 48 hours have helped contain the fires that threatened an access road and airport near the mine.Stornoway said Monday that it would shut down operations because the fir...Read More