(Adds quotes from Circle, Poloniex, adds details)By Jemima Kelly and Anna IrreraLONDON/NEW YORK, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs-backed cryptocurrency startup Circle has acquired digital token exchange Poloniex, Circle said on Monday, as it aims to cement its position as one of the leading players in the booming market.Neither of the Boston-based companies disclosed the value of the deal that gi...Read More

Feb 26 (Reuters) - Dutch health technology company Philips said on Monday it was selling about a 12 percent stake in Philips Lighting .Following the sale and the cancellation of 2.2 million shares to be repurchased by Philips Lighting as part of the deal, Philips remaining stake in the lighting maker will be 18.3 percent, the company said.The sale was via an accelerated bookbuild offer to institut...Read More

RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Chilean equities led losses across the region on Monday, with the nation's blue-chip IPSA index falling over 1 percent largely due to share price declines in the country's lithium and forestry sectors.Shares in Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile SA (SQM) , which has attracted investor interest due to increasing demand for lithium from electric car makers, fell al...Read More

BRUSSELS, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Spain's Economy minister and soon-to-be European Central Bank Vice President Luis de Guindos said on Monday he hoped inflation in the euro area would converge towards the bank's target in the coming quarters."I hope that over the next quarters, the inflation rate and inflation expectations will convergence to the target of close to but below 2 percent," Guind...Read More

* German Bund yield touches 1-month low in early trade* Draghi says slack in economy may be bigger than thought* Italian election looms on the weekend* Euro zone periphery government bond yields (Writes through with updated figures)By Dhara Ranasinghe and Abhinav RamnarayanLONDON, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Euro zone government bond yields drifted lower on Monday with Germany's benchmark Bund yield briefl...Read More

MADRID/BRUSSELS, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Spain's Economy minister Luis de Guindos said on Monday that banks in the euro zone should accelerate the reduction of bad loans on their balance sheets.The European Central Bank is currently working on a draft of new measures targeting soured loans sitting on banks' balance sheets, although it is expected to refine its proposal after fierce criticism from lawma...Read More

With bond yields stabilizing and a surge in tech and industrial stocks, the major market indexes are trading higher at midday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) is up more than 200 points, despite a bad day for General Electric (GE) stock. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 Index (SPX) and Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) are also in the black, as traders shake off a second straight drop in monthly new home s...Read More

Joshua King from Nubicoin tells Proactive his vision for the company is to 'empower Africa to benefit and unlock the value of the continents' resources'.''We, at the very core of our vision, would like to work with sovereign governments across Sub-Saharan Africa to launch their own digital currencies and tokenise their assets ... such as commodities, agriculture and renewable energy''.''We are ver...Read More

(Adds details on cobalt asset, cobalt market, paragraphs 3-5)By Nicole MordantHOLLYWOOD, Fla., Feb 26 (Reuters) - Several parties are interested in buying Freeport-McMoRan Inc's cobalt project in the Democratic Republic of Congo but not at a price that would interest the miner and so it is not planning a sale, Freeport's chief executive officer said. As a result, Freeport is looking at other opti...Read More

* Focus on Fed chief's testimony, inflation data this week* U.S. bond yields, VIX ease further from peaks* Berkshire Hathaway gains on Buffett's comments on buy backs* Indexes up: Dow 0.86 pct, S&P 0.54 pct, Nasdaq 0.57 pct (Changes comment, adds details, updates prices)By Sruthi ShankarFeb 26 (Reuters) - Gains in technology and industrial shares boosted Wall Street on Monday, with investors a...Read More

(Adds details)MAPUTO, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Mozambique's central bank slashed its benchmark interest rate on Monday for the fourth meeting in a row as currency strength continues to slow consumer price inflation.The permanent liquidity facility interest rate was lowered by 150 basis points to 19 percent, its lowest since September 2016. The monetary policy interest rate, or MIMO, was cut by the same...Read More

(Bloomberg) - BHP Billiton Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Andrew Mackenzie touted $200 million in productivity gains at its giant Escondida copper mine in Chile, the world's largest. While that's music to the ears of investors pushing for the industry to extract more profit from operations, it may also be welcomed by Escondida workers as ammunition for their upcoming wage talks.Escondida's Union...Read More

Brazilian researchers linked to the University of S??o Paulo (USP) have developed a model based on conditions found at Mponeng gold mine near Johannesburg, South Africa, at a depth of 2.8 km, to evaluate how habitable Jupiter's icy moon Europa may be.Based on the theory that Europa may host life in an ocean of liquid water hidden under its 10 km-deep ice crust, the team located a similar environ...Read More

Brazilian researchers linked to the University of S??o Paulo (USP) have developed a model based on conditions found at Mponeng gold mine near Johannesburg, South Africa, at a depth of 2.8 km, to evaluate how habitable Jupiter's icy moon Europa may be.Based on the theory that Europa may host life in an ocean of liquid water hidden under its 10 km-deep ice crust, the team located a similar environ...Read More

Brazilian researchers linked to the University of S??o Paulo (USP) have developed a model based on conditions found at Mponeng gold mine near Johannesburg, South Africa, at a depth of 2.8 km, to evaluate how habitable Jupiter's icy moon Europa may be.Based on the theory that Europa may host life in an ocean of liquid water hidden under its 10 km-deep ice crust, the team located a similar environ...Read More

Anthony Esposito, Adriana BarreraMEXICO CITY (Reuters) - U.S., Mexican and Canadian negotiators meet on Monday seeking to narrow disagreements on how to overhaul the NAFTA trade deal despite renewed signs of tension between Mexico and U.S. President Donald Trump over his planned border wall.The trade teams began a seventh round of talks on Sunday aiming to finish reworking less contentious chapter...Read More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It would be good for the Federal Reserve to regularly review its inflation framework but any change would require conviction that a new set up would provide benefits over the current 2 percent target, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said on Monday.Several Fed policymakers have advocated a review of how the Fed sets its inflation target and “that is a good thing t...Read More

* Buffett wants CEO for health venture within one year* Buffett has confidence in Wells Fargo CEO despite scandals* Buffett calls tax cut 'tailwind' as $116 bln cash piles up (Adds healthcare discussion, bylines)By Jennifer Ablan and Jonathan StempelNEW YORK, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Warren Buffett on Monday said the healthcare company being set up by Berkshire Hathaway Inc , Amazon.com Inc and JPMorgan...Read More

WASHINGTON, Feb 26 (Reuters) - For details of the U.S. Treasury's auction of 4-week bills on Tuesday, see: (Washington economics newsroom) Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee...Read More

By Costas PitasLONDON, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Aston Martin delivered its first annual pre-tax profit since 2010 on Monday after last year's sales reached a nine-year high, while the luxury British carmaker also confirmed it is considering a stock market flotation.Pre-tax profit reached 87 million pounds ($122 million) last year at fictional spy James Bond's car brand of choice, overturning a 163 milli...Read More