WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. consumer spending rose for a seventh straight month in September, but income recorded its smallest gain in more than a year amid moderate wage growth, suggesting the current pace of spending was unlikely to be sustained.The Commerce Department said on Monday consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, increased 0.4 percent last...Read More

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices inched lower on Monday as concern over the global economy put crude on track for its biggest monthly fall since mid-2016.Brent crude oil futures LCOc1 were at $77.59 a barrel by 1225 GMT, down 3 cents from their last close, while U.S. crude futures CLc1 were down 6 cents at $67.53.Even with U.S. sanctions on Iranian exports due to come into force in under a week, oil...Read More

Dicerna Pharmaceuticals reports earnings later this week, tooThe shares of Dicerna Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:DRNA) are trading near the top of the Nasdaq today, up 16.5% at $15.14. The gene-silencing expert just announced a licensing deal with Eli Lilly (LLY) that includes a $100 million investment at aprice of $18.47 per DRNA share, and another $100 million payment upfront. DRNA is also eligibl...Read More

RIO DE JANEIRO/BRASILIA (Reuters) - Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right firebrand former Army captain, won Brazil’s presidential election in convincing fashion, wooing voters with promises to gut endemic political corruption and wage a brutal battle against powerful drug gangs.Bolsonaro, who early in his legislative career declared he was “in favor” of dictatorships and demanded that Con...Read More

TOKYO (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan is considering tweaking its bond buying operations to allow the government debt market to better reflect fundamentals, people familiar with the matter said, following years of heavy central bank buying in the sector.The proposed changes, which focus on the way the BOJ times its bond purchases, would be aimed at reviving a market that many participants say has be...Read More

China's Jiangsu Shagang Group, the country's biggest private-owned steel mill, said it will halt operations at five blast furnaces with total annual capacity of 3.07 million tonnes, between Nov.1 and Nov.15, state-backed China Securities Journal reported on Monday.Yonggang Group, a subsidiary of Shagang Group, will shut down four of its blast furnaces with total annual capacity of 2.84 million ton...Read More

India's top court Monday directed the federal electricity regulator to decide within 8 weeks on approving revised tariffs for three power producers in the western state of Gujarat due to increased cost of imported coal.The Gujarat government sought the top court's intervention to implement a state government panel's report that recommended implementing a cost-reflective tariff, which would mirror...Read More

Options volume popped on CERN after last week's earnings reactionThe shares of Cerner Corporation (NASDAQ:CERN) are up 2% ahead of the bell, after Leerink upgraded the health IT services provider to "outperform" from "market perform." The analyst in coverage waxed optimistically over the company's presence in international markets, and said the small hospital market could be a growth opportunity...Read More

Could this biotech bet bank you 1,700% profit?Contributed by Raging BullBig pharma isn't what it use to be and investors are wondering what the future holds for the Goliaths of the industry.Kyle Dennis, one of the most well known up and coming traders, saw this shift happening when others didn't. Years ago, he began to place a heavy emphasis on small-cap biotech stocks he saw enormous upside for a...Read More

The shares are trading up 18% ahead of the opening bellThe shares of Blue Apron Holdings Inc (NYSE:APRN) are soaring in electronic trading, after the meal delivery name said it has teamed up with Walmart (WMT) to offer meal kits through the retailer's e-commerce company, Jet. Against this backdrop, APRN stock is set to open up 18.4% at $1.35 per share.Today's expected upside runs counter to ARPN's...Read More

GoldcorpInc. (TSX: G, NYSE: GG) announces plans to buy back shares for cancellation.The company says it has received approval from the Toronto Stock Exchange forits “notice of intention to make a normal course issuer bid." This wouldallow Goldcorp to purchase for cancellation up to 43.5 million common shares,representing 5% of its 869.5 million outstanding shares as of Oct. 26 over a12-...Read More

Investors started pulling money out of the leveraged volatility fund just as VIX ramped higher in OctoberThe following is a reprint of the market commentary from the November 2018 edition of The Option Advisor, published on October 26. For more information, or to subscribe to The Option Advisor -- featuring 10 new option trades each month -- visit our online store.The ProShares Ultra VIX Short-Ter...Read More

Goldcorp Inc. (TSX: G, NYSE: GG) announces plans to buy back shares for cancellation. The company says it has received approval from the Toronto Stock Exchange for its “notice of intention to make a normal course issuer bid." This would allow Goldcorp to purchase for cancellation up to 43.5 million common shares, representing 5% of its 869.5 million outstanding shares as of Oct. 26 over...Read More

Stocks will try to recover some of last week's lossesU.S. stocks will try to bounce back from last week's pullback, with Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) futures trading well above fair value this morning. Traders are preparing for another heavy dose of corporate earnings, though the major releases, such as Apple's (AAPL) quarterly report, aren't due out until later in the week. Still, there's p...Read More

(Reuters) - IBM Corp said on Sunday it had agreed to acquire U.S. software company Red Hat Inc for $34 billion, including debt, as it seeks to diversify its technology hardware and consulting business into higher-margin products and services.The transaction is by far IBM’s biggest acquisition. It underscores IBM Chief Executive Ginni Rometty’s efforts to expand the company’s subs...Read More

(Reuters) - China’s top economic planning body is proposing to cut the tax levied on car purchases by half, as the impact of an escalating trade war with the United States threatens to slow the Chinese economy and affect demand for vehicles, Bloomberg reported on Monday.Shares of American and European automakers including General Motors (GM.N), BMW (BMWG.DE), Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) and Daiml...Read More

* Nikkei down 0.16 pct, Topix loses 0.4 pct* Bargain hunting helps limit overall losses* Hitachi Chemical slides after reports of data falsificationBy Shinichi SaoshiroTOKYO, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Japanese stocks slipped on Monday as further weakness in U.S. and Chinese shares dampened investor sentiment, although bargain hunting helped limit overall losses.The Nikkei swerved in and out of the red in...Read More

"Rio Tinto and Chinalco could not agree on a deal for Rio's 45% share of the troubled #Simandou iron ore project in Guinea ($) | https://t.co/hdji4TNNHj $RIO"Read full newsRead More

While 200-day breaks can precede accelerated selling, they can also mark bottoms"...traders -- specifically, equity option buyers -- have suddenly soured on the market... this group was buying equity put options relative to call options at a rate similar to that which marked the bottom of the February and March correction. By the end of the week, this ratio climbed to its highest level since Augus...Read More

The above chart shows daily price action. XAUUSD looks to have broken out of a pennant pattern (green converging lines). Pennants are continuation patterns. The target of the pennant is near $1,260. However, there is overhead resistance around the $1,240 area (red horizontal).  If the precious metal is to make any further gains towards the target it needs to break above this resistance....Read More