RAPAPORT... A jeweler in Idaho has sued Zales, claiming the retailerused its name in online advertisements to redirect customers to zales.com.During the November 2016 Black Friday season, Googlesearches for Jensen Jewelers returned a paid result at the top of the list thatshowed Jensen's name, followed by a promotion and the address "zales.com,"Jensen alleged in court documents. The Google AdWords...Read More

CAPE TOWN (miningweekly.com) – There is a new sense of hope in the mining industry and in South Africa, says Chamber of Mines (CoM) CEO Roger Baxter.“It gives us a new confidence that a resurgence is taking place in the industry for the year ahead,” said Baxter, who spoke at a media briefing at the Investing in African Mining Indaba, on Monday.AdvertisementBaxter enthused that, &...Read More

(IDEX Online) - WD Lab Grown Diamonds announced that it has created a six-carat round diamond "that now stands as the world's only known lab- made CVD diamond of its size and shape" using its patented technology.   The gem stone was grown at the company's facility located just outside Washington, DC in a secure lab that produces diamonds for the gem stone market as well as industria...Read More

(IDEX Online) - The Indian diamond industry will have to adjust to higher taxes after the government announced a rise in import taxes on polished diamonds to 5% from 2.5%.   The announcement was made by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley during his budget speech to Parliament at the end of last week.   The tax will be applicable on natural and laboratory-grown polished diamonds, as well as co...Read More

The latest metal markets news and price moves to start the North American day on Monday February 5.Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were largely consolidating during morning trading today after a broadly negative performance at the end of last week.Here is how the LME...Read More

Good morning from Metal Bulletin's offices in Shanghai as we bring you the latest news and pricing stories on Monday February 5.Base metals prices, with the exception of tin, on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were lower during Asian morning trading on Monday February 5 amid weak investor appetite and a firmer dollar.Nickel prices led on the downside, with follow-through weakness evident in Asia thi...Read More

SHANGHAI, Feb 5 (SMM) – Nonferrous metals futures saw mixed trading today with rising SHFE tin and zinc. Nickel dropped close to 2% while lead was down 0.79%. Aluminium and copper also edged down.Ferrous futures prices, however, rose across the board with coke almost 5% higher. Coking coal was up over 4% and iron ore was up 2.5%. Both rebar and hot-rolled coil registered small gains.Copper:...Read More

SHANGHAI, Feb 5 (SMM) – The operating rates of zinc smelters in January was up 1 percentage point from levels in December as output resumed at Shenzhen Zhongjin Lingnan Nonfemet, an SMM survey showed.For February, no new maintenance work has been planned so far but zinc production is set to be lower due to the Chinese New Year holiday. SMM expects the affected output would amount to ove...Read More

SHANGHAI, Feb 5 (SMM) – Nonferrous metals futures saw mixed trading today with rising SHFE tin and zinc. Nickel dropped close to 2% while lead was down 0.79%. Aluminium and copper also edged down.Ferrous futures prices, however, rose across the board with coke almost 5% higher. Coking coal was up over 4% and iron ore was up 2.5%. Both rebar and hot-rolled coil registered small gains.Copper:...Read More

Next report is scheduled to be released on Monday February 12thThe Bottom LineU.S. equity indices finally started moving lower last week from intermediate overbought levels. Short term technical indicators (momentum, 20 day moving average) turned sharply lower. Intermediate technical indicators remain overbought despite their decline last week, but have yet to show signs of bottoming. Lots of "sel...Read More

SHANGHAI, Feb 5 (SMM) – Copper scrap spot prices fell 100 yuan/mt on Monday February 5 as demand remained sluggish ahead of Chinese New Year.The 1# bare bright copper in Guangdong province traded at 46,400-46,700 yuan/mt, down from 46,500-46,800 yuan/mt last Wednesday, SMM learned. Some sellers had to let go of their cargoes at lower prices due to cashflow requirements before Chinese New Yea...Read More

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; I use to listen to the Goldbug analysts but they never change. Now the pitch is you have to protect your wealth from stock and bond market crash. They say that with the current equity bull market among the longest on record and the beginning of a bond bear market, once again they say you have to buy only gold. Being the skeptic that they have made me, is there any histori...Read More

A Colorado School of Mines professor has received a $1.5 million National Science Foundation grant to develop an online gateway that will allow researchers around the world to run quick quantum-computing simulations with the click of a button and without having to invest millions of dollars before building their experimental platform.Lincoln Carr, professor of physics and head of the Carr Theoreti...Read More

Base metals traded on the London Metal Exchange are off to a slightly negative start this week, posting an average loss of 0.4% this morning, Monday February 2. Nickel (-0.8%) is down the most, while tin (+0.3%) is the only base metal showing a gain.Volume has been fairly low with 4,947 lots traded as of 05.01 am London time.The downward pressure across the complex seems to be driven by a further...Read More

Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mostly higher at the 5pm close on Monday February 5 although lead again bucked the trend.The three-month copper price rallied to a high of $7,220 per tonne earlier, hitting a fresh three-week peak. Despite retreating slightly this afternoon, the metal still closed $125 per tonne higher than Friday's close. "A previously strong flow of material i...Read More

Comex copper prices diverged from equity markets and returned to positive territory on Monday February 5, with the global environment remaining solid for the base metals group. Copper for March settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange gained 3.75 cents or 1.2% to $3.2250 per lb. The red metal dipped to a one-week low on Friday following a heavy selloff in equity markets...Read More

Physical iron ore was traded at higher prices on Monday February 5 in line with further increases in China's steel and futures markets.Key driversChinese ferrous futures advanced across the board during the day, with the benchmark contract for iron ore rising 2.5% from the settlement price last Friday, while those for coke and coking coal posted more-impressive gains of 4.2-4.7%.The general uptren...Read More

Peter KrauthGold prices spent the last week consolidating lower. Despite the pullback, I remain bullish on gold prices in 2018 and will show you my price target for March in just a moment.Gold's biggest nemesis last week was an overbought condition rather than the dollar, since the greenback is back to nearly the same levels.What has changed is sentiment. Quite simply, gold was overbought, and the...Read More

The downward trend in the CIS export steel billet market slowed down in the week ended Monday February 5 with deal prices remaining largely unchanged week-on-week.Metal Bulletin's weekly export CIS Billet Index was stable at $492 per tonne fob Black Sea on February 5.Ukrainian steelmaker Metinvest offered billet at $490 per tonne fob Black Sea late last week, sources told Metal Bulletin.Market par...Read More

State-owned Steel Authority of India (Sail) will increase its steel production capacity 2.8 million tonnes per year after the commissioning of blast furnace No.8 in Bhilai, central India, the company said. Once the new furnace starts producing, the Bhilai site will have an overall liquid steel production capacity of 7.5 million tpy, Sail said on Saturday February 3. Just the same as compatriot ste...Read More