BRASILIA/SAO PAULO, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Shareholders in Brazil's Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras SA decided at a meeting on Thursday that the company will assume more than 11 billion reais ($3.35 billion) of debt from distribution units it is trying to sell, two sources told Reuters.Eletrobras, as the state-run utility is known, will also assume additional possible liabilities from state electricity...Read More

NEW YORK, Feb 8 (Reuters) - The percentage of U.S. individual investors expecting a decline in stock prices has hit a three-month high, according to the American Association of Individual Investors' weekly sentiment survey.Bearish sentiment rose 6.3 percentage points to 35 percent, putting it above the historical average of 30.5 percent for the first time in nine weeks. Conversely, bullish sentime...Read More

MOSCOW, Feb 8 (Reuters) - IPSCO Tubulars, U.S. subsidiary of Russian oil and gas pipemaker TMK , said on Thursday it had halted an initial public offering (IPO) of its shares due to "adverse market conditions", IPSCO said on Thursday.TMK had commenced IPSCO's IPO on Jan. 29, a day before publication in Washington of the so-called "Russian oligarchs list".While the U.S. Treasury...Read More

By Mark WeinraubWASHINGTON, Feb 8 (Reuters) - The U.S. Agriculture Department cut its forecast for U.S. soybean exports by 2.8 percent on Thursday as top exporter Brazil is expected to take an even bigger share of the market amid rising crop expectations for that South American nation.The government projected U.S. soybean exports at 2.1 billion bushels. The 60-million bushel decline marks the thir...Read More

ALGOLD RESOURCES LTD. (TSXV:ALG) ("Algold" or the "Corporation") today announced assay results from a trenching and pitting program carried out in late Q4 2017 at the high-grade Salma zone located at the Corporation's Tijirit project in Mauritania.Read full newsRead More

Volatility continues to run rampant on Wall Street today, with the Dow last seen down over 600 points. Among individual stocks moving lower today are automaker Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) and high-end retailer Canada Goose Holdings (NYSE:GOOS), though tech concern Infinera Corp. (NASDAQ:INFN) is soaring. Here's a closer look at what's moving shares of TSLA, GOOS, and INFN today.Tesla Stock Stall...Read More

Westhaven Ventures Inc. (TSX-V:WHN) (WKN:A2AP3Q) is pleased to announce that it has been assigned the Legal Entity Identifier ("LEI") number 2549006LQ1TAHZLTOF64.Read full newsRead More

Mining Capital's Alastair Ford says after nearly touching the US$1400 an ounce barrier, gold's bumping along at monthly lows.''It's back down now closer to US$1300 an ounce after a couple of weeks of unexpected volatility in the markets.''For investors looking for exposure to gold, Ford mentions a couple of examples including Caledonia Mining Corporation PLC (LON:CMCL,TSX:CAL) and Anglo Asian Mini...Read More

Option open interest is the number of outstanding calls or puts that have been bought or sold to open, but have yet to expire or be closed. To analyze stocks, we often use option open interest as a means of measuring the relative levels of investor optimism and pessimism. More specifically, we utilize the Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) as a sentiment indicator to gauge near-term t...Read More

Richard Cowan, David MorganWASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers were expected to vote on Thursday on a two-year budget deal that would avert another government shutdown but add $300 billion to the federal deficit and leave the thorny issue of immigration unresolved.The plan faced resistance from conservatives in the Republican Party, who favor less spending on domestic government programs.At the...Read More

(Adds central bank comments)MEXICO CITY, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Mexico's central bank raised interest rates on Thursday to a nine-year high and said it could act again, if needed, to contain worries that inflation may not cool as quickly as forecast.Banco de Mexico's governing board unanimously voted to hike the key rate by 25 basis points to 7.50 percent, its highest since February 2009, as forecast...Read More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley said on Thursday that as long as the U.S. economy continue to grow at an above trend pace, he would be in favor of another interest rate rise at the U.S. central bank’s upcoming meeting in March.“We have above-trend growth, we have buoyant financial conditions, we still have an easy monetary policy and this is all...Read More

On Thursday gold lifted from the 2018 low the metal struck yesterday, exchanging hands for $1,320.40 near the close of trading.Despite recent weakness gold is still up by $75 an ounce since mid-December after large-scale speculators increased their exposure to gold on derivatives markets for the seventh week in a row. Hedge funds have more than doubled net long positions - bets that gold will be m...Read More

Russia is on track to overtake South Africa as the world's largest platinum producer after its two mining giants Norislk Nickel and Russian Platinum this week announced that they are to invest $4.4bn in a joint venture to develop some of the richest known precious metals deposits on Siberia's Taimyr Peninsula. The deposits contain proven ore reserves ...Read full newsRead More

Earnings season will continue to roll along next week. Leading the pack are blue chips Coca-Cola Co (NYSE:KO) and Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO), alongside other notables including Under Armour Inc (NYSE:UAA), PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP), and Deere & Company (NYSE:DE). On the economic front, Wall Street will digest the latest round of inflation data -- a hot topic of late -- on top of monthly re...Read More

* Gold flat, bounces after slide to one-month low* Bank of England statement feeds rate-hike jitters* Palladium breaks below technical support (New throughout; updates prices, market activity and comments; adds second byline, NEW YORK dateline)By Renita D. Young and Peter HobsonNEW YORK/LONDON, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Gold prices were flat on Thursday, slumping early on concern about rising U.S. bond yi...Read More

Volatility has ramped back up on Wall Street, with the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) earlier this week topping the key 50 handle for the first time since August 2015. Most of the price action for stocks has occurred to the downside, and the tech sector has not been immune. More specifically, the PowerShares QQQ Trust (QQQ) has plunged 8.5% from its late-January record high of $170.95 -- a move that...Read More

Subscribers to our Weekend Trader service recently doubled their money on Molson Coors Brewing Company (NYSE:TAP) April 90 puts. We're going to dissect the options trade below, looking back at what originally attracted us to TAP and how the stock performed after we recommended the puts. We entered the trade back on Jan. 16, when the stock was trading near $85. The shares had been trending lower fo...Read More

Flying Brands Limited (LON:FBDU) saw its shares lift off in afternoon trading, gaining 16.7% at 5.25p after the medical services and software company confirmed that it is in advanced negotiations in respect of an acquisition of a North American medical imaging software and analytics company.The AIM listed firm said the acquisition target owns FDA approved medical imaging software using artificial...Read More

(Adds auction results, quotes; updates prices)* Bank of England may accelerate rate increases* Treasury has soft demand for $30-year bond auction* Choppy stocks trading sways bond prices By Karen BrettellNEW YORK, Feb 8 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury yields rose on Thursday in choppy trading as stocks pared some of their earlier weakness and after the Bank of England said interest rates probably need...Read More