MELBOURNE, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Rio Tinto will set up a new office in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar, separate from its Oyu Tolgoi mine division, to focus on exploration and building local ties.The new office, which will expand to 80 staff this year, will support the company's exploration programme and local services units, as well as focus on growing relationships, the miner said in a statem...Read More

ABUJA, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Nigeria's central bank said on Monday a key interest rate setting meeting intended for January 22-23 will not be held due to an inability to form a quorum, adding that the benchmark rate will be maintained at 14 percent.The decision comes because there are not enough members of the Central Bank of Nigeria's (CBN's) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to form a quorum, the len...Read More

* Jan manufacturers' sentiment index +35 vs +27 in Dec* Service-sector index +33 in Jan vs +34 in Dec* Manufacturers' mood seen steady ahead, service sector down* Reuters Tankan backs BOJ Kuroda's optimistic economic view By Tetsushi Kajimoto and Izumi NakagawaTOKYO, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Confidence among Japanese manufacturers jumped in January to an 11-year high, the Reuters Tankan poll showed on...Read More

A collapse at an abandoned gold mine in Uzbekistan has resulted in one death and roughly 20 trapped underground.Radio Free Europe reported on Thursday that around 30 illegal gold miners managed to escape after the cave-in in Sarmarkand - located in the country's southeast. About 20 could not make it back up to surface. The mine used to be run by state-owned Navoiy Mining and Metallurgy Combine bu...Read More

A collapse at an abandoned gold mine in Uzbekistan has resulted in one death and roughly 20 trapped underground.Radio Free Europe reported on Thursday that around 30 illegal gold miners managed to escape after the cave-in in Sarmarkand - located in the country's southeast. About 20 could not make it back up to surface. The mine used to be run by state-owned Navoiy Mining and Metallurgy Combine bu...Read More

By Svea Herbst-BaylissBOSTON, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Hedge funds managers who bet on stocks scored some of the industry's biggest gains in 2017, when equity markets galloped past a series of critical milestones, according to a new list of the top 20 all-time performers. The annual list, released on Sunday, shows Steve Mandel's Lone Pine Capital, John Armitage's Egerton Capital, Andreas Halvorsen's Vik...Read More

MELBOURNE, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Australia's largest sandalwood forest company, Quintis Ltd , has called in administrators after one of its bondholders forced the firm to pay out A$37 million ($30 million), a spokesman for the administrators, KordaMentha, said on Monday.Quintis has been trying to raise new financing over the past nine months, but none of the recapitalisation strategies, including a b...Read More

Demand and prices for virtually all industrial materials and commodities - from lumber and copper to oil and agricultural products - made for strong gains in 2017, and "synchronized" global economic growth promises to continue pushing prices up throughout 2018 and 2019, according to Scotiabank Economics."Scotiabank Economics is forecasting, for the first time since the global financial crisis, tha...Read More

Jan 22 (Reuters) - Australian shares are set to open higher on Monday, snapping four straight sessions of losses, following record highs on Wall Street.Wall Street rose on Friday, led by gains in consumer stocks, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq hitting record closing highs. Material stocks are expected to buoy the market, with metal prices hitting multi-year highs. The local share price index...Read More

Jan 22 (Reuters) - Stock Markets Net ChngStock MarketsNet ChngS&P/ASX 200** 6,005.80-8.80 NZX 50**8,289.96 17.29DJIA**26,071.72 53.91 NIKKEI**23,808.0644.69Nasdaq**7,336.3840.33 FTSE**7,730.79 29.83S&P 500** 2,810.3012.27 Hang Seng** 32,254.89132.95SPI 200 Fut 5,980.0 30.0STI** 3,550.36 29.05SSEC**3,489.1114.35 KOSPI** 2,520.26 4.45----------------------------------------------------------...Read More

(Updates to include U.S. federal government shutdown Friday night)By Noel RandewichSAN FRANCISCO, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Netflix Inc's quarterly results on Monday may offer a preview of whether Facebook Inc , Amazon.com Inc and other heavyweights behind much of the U.S. stock market's record-breaking rally can keep delivering.Wall Street on Friday shrugged off the then looming U.S. government shutdow...Read More

Perseus Mining (ASX,TSX:PRU) will soon start pouring gold from its Sissingu?(C) gold mine in C??te d'Ivoire, having delivered the first crushed ore to the mill and processing plant earlier this month.Dual-listed Perseus already has a producing mine, the Edikan gold mine in Ghana, which comprises a group of large gold deposits located in the Ashanti gold belt. The Sissingu?(C) mine would be the...Read More

Perseus Mining (ASX,TSX:PRU) will soon start pouring gold from its Sissingu?(C) gold mine in C??te d'Ivoire, having delivered the first crushed ore to the mill and processing plant earlier this month.Dual-listed Perseus already has a producing mine, the Edikan gold mine in Ghana, which comprises a group of large gold deposits located in the Ashanti gold belt. The Sissingu?(C) mine would be the...Read More

Perseus Mining (ASX,TSX:PRU) will soon start pouring gold from its Sissingu?(C) gold mine in C??te d'Ivoire, having delivered the first crushed ore to the mill and processing plant earlier this month.Dual-listed Perseus already has a producing mine, the Edikan gold mine in Ghana, which comprises a group of large gold deposits located in the Ashanti gold belt. The Sissingu?(C) mine would be the co...Read More

(Adds comments by debt management chief, context)DUBAI, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has asked banks for proposals to refinance its $10 billion international syndicated loan and to help the sovereign raise funds through other means, the country's debt management office said on Sunday. In addition to the request for proposals (RFP) on the loan refinancing, the government has issued RFPs coverin...Read More

DUBAI, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has asked banks for proposals to refinance its $10 billion international syndicated loan and to help the sovereign raise funds through other means, the country's debt management office said on Sunday.In addition to the request for proposals (RFP) on the loan refinancing, the government has issued RFPs covering further U.S. dollar debt capital market issuance...Read More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans and Democrats appeared to harden their positions on Sunday as both sides hunkered down for what could be a prolonged fight, with a U.S. government shutdown in its second day.Democrats demanded that U.S. President Donald Trump negotiate on immigration issues as part of any agreement to resume government funding and accused him of reneging on an earlier accord to p...Read More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans and Democrats appeared to harden their positions on Sunday as both sides hunkered down for what could be a prolonged fight, with a U.S. government shutdown in its second day.Democrats demanded that U.S. President Donald Trump negotiate on immigration issues as part of any agreement to resume government funding and accused him of reneging on an earlier accord to p...Read More

Gold fast approaching pivotal September 2017 high.How gold price reacts to this level will determine the interim outlook.The bulls should eventually prevail, based on momentum factors.Gold is fast approaching an important benchmark, namely the $1,355 level. This was the closing high from Sept. 8, 2017 as can be seen in the February gold futures chart below. As I'll explain here, gold's reaction to...Read More

Jan 22 (Reuters) - Stock MarketsNet ChngStock MarketsNet ChngS&P/ASX 200** 6,005.80 -8.80 NZX 50**8,289.96 17.29DJIA26,071.7253.91 NIKKEI**23,808.0644.69Nasdaq7,336.38 40.33 FTSE**7,730.79 29.83S&P 500 2,810.312.27 Hang Seng** 32,254.89132.95SPI 200 Fut 5,980.030.0STI** 3,550.36 29.05SSEC**3,489.11 14.35 KOSPI** 2,520.26 4.45-----------------------------------------------------------------...Read More