PARIS, Jan 10 (Reuters) - France's central bank is slightly raising its 2017 growth estimate due to stronger activity in the final quarter than previously thought, its head Francois Villeroy de Galhau said on Wednesday."We are going to revise up our fourth quarter growth forecast ... from 0.5 percent to 0.6 percent," Villeroy said in an interview with LCI television, citing in particular...Read More
* Dollar down; bond yields hit highs after China report* Lennar falls after reporting Q4 profit miss* United Continental up on strong traffic, boost Dow Transports* Indexes down: Dow 0.05 pct, S&P 0.14 pct, Nasdaq 0.31 pct (Updates to early afternoon)By Sruthi ShankarJan 10 (Reuters) - Wall Street's major indexes pared earlier losses on Wednesday as higher U.S. government bond yields drove gai...Read More
* Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs acting as bookrunners* About 18 mln shares to be placed at 86.25-88.46 euros* Covestro shares down in late Frankfurt trade (Adds detail on placement, context)FRANKFURT/MUNICH, Jan 10 (Reuters) - German drugs and pesticides group Bayer on Wednesday said it was selling more of its stake in chemicals group Covestro , aiming to raise about 1.5 billion euros ($1.8 billion...Read More
(Repeats with no changes to text.)NEW YORK, Jan 10 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday sold $20 billion of 10-year government notes to strong demand at a yield of 2.579 percent, which was the highest since July 2014, Treasury data showed.The ratio of bids to the amount of 10-year notes offered was 2.69, which was the strongest since June 2016. The gauge of overall auction demand...Read More
RAPAPORT... Signet Jewelers reported holiday sales fell 3% year on year to $1.88 billion, as issues relating to outsourcing its credit transactions adversely impacted the business. Signet in October sold its prime credit program to Alliance Data Systems for $960 million, meaning that credit purchases were now outsourced to the third party rather than extended by Signet. However, disruptions in the...Read More
Jan 11 (Reuters) - Stock MarketsNet ChngStock MarketsNet ChngS&P/ASX 200** 6,096.70 -39.10NZX 50**8,364.9-68.33DJIA25,392.716.91NIKKEI**23,788.2 -61.79Nasdaq7,145.645-17.93FTSE**7,748.51 17.49S&P 500 2,749.59 -1.70 Hang Seng** 31,073.7262.31SPI 200 Fut 6042 -4STI** 3,520.45 -4.20SSEC**3,422.14 8.24KOSPI** 2,499.75 -10.48----------------------------------------------------------------------...Read More
RAPAPORT... RapNet launched a new site on Tuesday, promising asafer, simpler and smarter way of trading diamonds online. The aspects of RapNet that users enjoy will stay, but theredesigned platform will be easier to navigate, getting those users to theirdesired diamonds with fewer clicks. There are also handy tools such as a pricecalculator, the ability to compare up to 10 diamonds at once,...Read More
BUENOS AIRES, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Argentine biotechnology firm Bioceres will use the $100 million it seeks by way of an initial public offering to power its current business, pay debt and make a minor acquisition, company CEO Federico Trucco said in a telephone interview on Wednesday.Two days earlier the company applied to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to operate on Wall Street....Read More
(IDEX Online) - The G? 1/4 belin Gem Lab and blockchain company Everledger have signed a partnership "to create new transparency levels in the gemstone industry". The G? 1/4 belin Gem Lab, is a well-known gem lab, while Everledger is a global emerging technology enterprise. They said in a joint statement that are teaming up to drive more transparency in the gemstone industry by creating the...Read More
RAPAPORT... Kohl's and Target both reported sales growth during the holiday season, continuing the positive trend seen in the US retail sector this year. Kohl's reported a 6.9% year on year rise in total sales, with growth across most categories."We are very pleased with our holiday-period sales, which wereconsistently strong through November and December." said Kevin Mansell, chairman...Read More
LISBON, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Portugal's recently delisted small bank Caixa Economica Montepio Geral said on Wednesday its capital ratio was higher than new regulatory requirements to be applied from July 2018.The bank, whose bad loans made it a cause for market concerns after the collapse of two bigger lenders in Portugal in 2014-15, said in a statement it had received the new requirements from the...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Signet Jewelers Limited the world's largest retailer of diamond jewelry, said that same store sales (SSS) decreased by 5.3 percent, while total sales decreased by 3.1 percent in the 9 week holiday season ended December 30. The jeweler said that the implementation of strategic priorities drove double-digit eCommerce growth overall, while SSS increased by 4.0 percent at t...Read More
RAPAPORT... Chow Tai Fook reported a sharp rise in gem-set-jewelry sales in Hong Kong, while expansion in mainland China helped drive growth in its fiscal third quarter, as the local retailsector continued to improve.Overal retail sales grew 12% in the mainland and were flat in Hong Kong, the company reported Tuesday. However, same-store sales at branches open for at least one year increase 5...Read More
NEW YORK, Jan 10 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday sold $20 billion of 10-year government notes to strong demand at a yield of 2.579 percent, which was the highest since July 2014, Treasury data showed.The ratio of bids to the amount of 10-year notes offered was 2.69, which was the strongest since June 2016. The gauge of overall auction demand was 2.37 at the previous 10-year n...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The second edition of CARAT+, will take place at the Antwerp Expo from May 6 to 8. The fair will have new features and will welcome leading industry professionals from across the globe, the organizers said in a statement. The CARAT+ was launched last year and featured 130 exhibitors from 13 countries. The debut event attracted 3,000 visitors from 33 global markets. Th...Read More
Nickel continued to rally on the London Metal Exchange during afternoon trading on Wednesday January 10, closing in positive territory alongside the rest of the metals.The three-month nickel price closed up 1.8% on Tuesday's close, having hit an intraday high of $13,200 per tonne earlier, thanks to a tighter market and robust demand from the stainless steel sector."We have a constructive view over...Read More
(Adds analyst comment, update shares)By Joseph White and Aishwarya VenugopalJan 10 (Reuters) - Nvidia Corp is updating the software for its graphics processors in response to the Spectre security threat, but its chief executive said on Wednesday its chips were not subject to the same risks as those from Intel and other companies."Our GPUs are immune," Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said during...Read More
The London Metal Exchange closed 2017 in positive fashion as average daily volume (ADV) climbed 19.3% after two previous months of decline. Lead was the strongest performer, with ADV climbing over 50% from December 2016 with 55,717 lots. Last month, lead was the only base metal to record a significant year-on-year increase. Copper's ADV was up 24.3% from the previous year to 150,723 lots, after it...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Sarine has introduced what it calls an added-value upgrade for existing or new DiaExpert platforms - the DiaExpert Edge - for increased rough diamond planning accuracy, efficiency and yield. "The very first step necessary for a rough diamond's automated evaluation and planning is its accurate three-dimensional modeling. As a rough diamond is not a smooth uniform object,...Read More
RAPAPORT... G? 1/4 belin Gem Lab has partnered with developer Everledger to establish a blockchain digital ledger for colored gemstones. The Provenance Proof Blockchain tracks gemstones throughout theirlifespan until they reach the end consumer, the Swiss-based lab said Tuesday. G? 1/4 belin plans to implement itssystem across all segments along the supply chain, including miners,dealers, cut...Read More