LONDON (Reuters) - World stocks scored an eighth straight session of gains and their longest winning streak of the year on Thursday, as reassuring trade data from China kept the previous day’s post-U.S. mid-terms risk rally rolling.Traders were gearing up for the U.S. Federal Reserve meeting in a confident mood and the contrast to the last one in late September, when stock markets had just b...Read More

TECUN UMAN, Guatemala (Reuters) - Cradling a baby in his arms, the Central American man looks up fearfully as he scrambles away from a wall of Mexican police in riot gear.Thousands of migrants, mostly Hondurans fleeing poverty and violence, have been traveling in a caravan towards the United States in recent weeks. On Oct. 19, some of them rushed through Guatemalan border gates onto a long bridge...Read More

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela is seeking to repatriate about $550 million in gold bars from the Bank of England because of fears it could be caught up in international sanctions on the country, two sources with direct knowledge of the effort told Reuters.Venezuela's hard currency holdings have dwindled as existing U.S. financial sanctions have effectively blocked President Nicolas Maduro's governm...Read More

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Manfred Weber, a reserved Bavarian who has modeled himself on Germany’s pragmatic chancellor, won the backing of Europe’s center-right parties on Thursday to stand in the race to become European Commission president.Weber, a German EU lawmaker, beat former Finnish prime minister Alexander Stubb to become the European People’s Party’s (EPP) top candidate...Read More

BEIJING/SYDNEY (Reuters) - Beijing and Canberra should be cooperating in the South Pacific and not be cast as strategic rivals, China’s top diplomat said on Thursday, after Australia launched a multi-billion dollar fund to counter China’s rising influence in the region.Standing alongside Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne, Chinese State Councillor Wang Yi made the conciliatory re...Read More

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Euro zone growth is expected to slow in the coming years as the bloc faces risks from U.S. economic policies, Britain’s unclear divorce terms from the EU and free-spending plans in high-debt members, like Italy, the EU Commission said.In its quarterly economic forecasts released on Thursday, the EU executive revised down its growth estimates for the euro zone next year a...Read More

Editor's Note: Updating earlier story with more details from report.(Kitco News) -Gold remained modestly softer after Labor Department data Thursday showed thatinitial weekly U.S. jobless claims fell by 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted214,000 in the week to Saturday.Consensusexpectations compiled by various news organizations had called for initialclaims to be around 210,000 to 213,000. The gov...Read More

Editor's Note: Updating earlier story with more details from report.(Kitco News) - Gold remained modestly softer after Labor Department data Thursday showed that initial weekly U.S. jobless claims fell by 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 214,000 in the week to Saturday.Consensus expectations compiled by various news organizations had called for initial claims to be around 210,000 to 213,000. Th...Read More

(Kitco News) - Gold andsilver pricesaremodestly lower in early U.S. trading Thursday. A rebound in the U.S. dollar index today, following selling pressure this week, is working against theprecious metals market bulls. December gold futures were last down $2.50 anounce at $1,226.30. December Comex silver was last down $0.044 at $14.525 anounce. Focustoday is on the conclusion of the Federal Reserv...Read More

Bitcoin has remained unusually calm and less volatile while the S&P 500 has entered correction territory.This has given life to the thought that Bitcoin can be used as a hedging instrument to avoid catastrophic market events.Bitcoin has inherent characteristics that might turn investors away from using it for hedging purposes.Gold has been a "go to" hedge at times of market correctio...Read More

Editor's Note: Welcome to Kitco's new Bitcoin Daily Technical Alert. Every trading day veteran Kitco technical analyst Jim Wyckoff will provide you with a concise and easy-to-understand near-term technical brief on Bitcoin. Importantly, Jim will glean the short-term charts and technical studies, and then alert you to the signals he sees regarding upcoming potential bigger price moves or price tren...Read More

(Kitco News) -Hecla MiningCo. (NYSE: HL) Thursday reported a net loss for the third quarter as silveroutput fell and the price of all four of the metals produced by the companydeclined.The loss was$23.3 million, or 5 cents per share, comparedto net income of $0.2 million, or zero cents, for the same period a year ago.The company reported lower silver and gold production at San Sebastian and Greens...Read More

Aston Bay Holdings (TSX-V: BAY) has just completed the transaction to acquire all of the issued and outstanding stock of Jack's Fork Exploration (JFE). The acquisition was completed by way of a reverse triangular merger of Blue Ridge Mining, a wholly owned subsidiary of the company, into JFE, resulting in JFE being renamed "Blue Ridge Mining" and becoming a direct and wholly-owned subsidiary of As...Read More

Aston Bay Holdings (TSX-V: BAY) has just completed the transaction to acquire all of the issued and outstanding stock of Jack's Fork Exploration (JFE). The acquisition was completed by way of a reverse triangular merger of Blue Ridge Mining, a wholly owned subsidiary of the company, into JFE, resulting in JFE being renamed "Blue Ridge Mining" and becoming a direct and wholly-owned subsidiary of As...Read More

Aston Bay Holdings (TSX-V: BAY) has just completed the transaction to acquire all of the issued and outstanding stock of Jack's Fork Exploration (JFE). The acquisition was completed by way of a reverse triangular merger of Blue Ridge Mining, a wholly owned subsidiary of the company, into JFE, resulting in JFE being renamed "Blue Ridge Mining" and becoming a direct and wholly-owned subsidiary of As...Read More

Go Cobalt Mining (CSE: GOCO) has signed an option agreement with Contigo Resources to earn 100% interest in the Barachois vanadium property located in Quebec's Gaspe Peninsula.Barachois is a sedimentary hosted vanadium-selenium-silver-lead-zinc prospect that covers 1,801 hectares where carboniferous aged sediments have been shown to host sedimentary vanadium-zinc-lead mineralization. Historical wo...Read More

(Updates prices) * Gold edges down for a fifth straight session * Fed policy statement due at 1900 GMT * Platinum near more than 4-month highsBy Swati VermaBENGALURU, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Gold slid to a one-week low onThursday as the dollar firmed in the wake of the U.S. midtermelections, with market participants now awaiting clues on thepace of interest rate hikes from the U.S. Federal Reserve.The m...Read More

* Dollar extends recovery on post-election relief* China October copper imports fell, data shows (Recasts, adds detail, closing prices)By Maytaal AngelLONDON, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Copper steadied on Thursday astraders weighed an uptick in the dollar and a drop in China'simports of the metal against improved Chinese growth prospects.China, which consumes nearly half the world's copper,registered a 19...Read More

LONDON, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Credit rating agency Moody'swarned on Thursday that global economic growth was likely toslow in the next two years and that it expected the trade warbetween the United States and China to escalate further."We expect global growth to slow to under 3.0 percent in2019 and 2020, from an estimated 3.3 percent in 2017-18," theagency said in a new report.It added that...Read More

LONDON, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Italian government bond yieldsrose to a session high on Thursday, while the euro dipped afterthe European Commission cut Italy's growth forecast and said itanticipated a jump in the country's structural budget deficit.Italy's 10-year bond yield rose to 3.404 percent, up sixbasis points on the day . The euro turnednegative, slipping 0.1 percent to $1.1412 but remaining abo...Read More