(Refiles to fix typo)* Consumer prices rise 0.3 pct in Dec. vs est. rise of 0.2 pct* Retail sales up 0.4 pct vs est increase of 0.4 pct* Facebook falls after making changes to News Feed* Indexes up: Dow 0.76 pct, S&P 0.50 pct, Nasdaq 0.55 pct By Sruthi ShankarJan 12 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes surged on Friday as strong results for JPMorgan lifted financial stocks and robust retai...Read More

World stocks hit a new all time high on Friday with U.S. equity futures rising for the 8th trading day out of 9 in 2018 and the Dow is just a little over 300 points away from 26,000. The euro surged to a three-year high as Germany was said to reach aRead full newsRead More

The euro jumped to its highest level in three years after German negotiators reached a preliminary accord on a coalition.Read full newsRead More

* GRAPHIC-2017 asset returns: * LME/ShFE arb: (Updates with closing prices)By Eric OnstadLONDON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Zinc prices edged up to their highest in more than a decade on Friday, supported by potential shortages and low inventories, but some investors voiced concern about the lofty levels.Benchmark zinc on the London Metal Exchange climbed to $3,409 a tonne, the strongest since August 2007...Read More

FRANKFURT, Jan 12 (Reuters) - German residential property developer Instone Real Estate is targeting a flotation on the Frankfurt stock exchange in March, adding to a growing pipeline of spring listings in Germany, people close to the matter said. The company is working with Morgan Stanley , BNP Paribas and Unicredit as bookrunners on the deal alongside global coordinators Deutsche Bank and Credit...Read More

* Dollar falls to 3-year low against euro* Wall Street stocks gain in late morning trading (Adds U.S. market activity, changes byline, dateline; previous LONDON)By Caroline ValetkevitchNEW YORK, Jan 12 (Reuters) - A key global stock index was on track for an eighth week of gains on Friday and U.S. stocks rose amid a rally in bank shares and strong U.S December retail sales data, while a robust U.S...Read More

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) is putting an exclamation point on its big week, with the index rallying over 200 points to fresh record highs. The S&P 500 Index (SPX) and Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) have surged to all-time peaks, too, despite weakness out of the tech sector, highlighted by Facebook (FB) stock's slide. Financial shares are picking up the slack, with Dow component JPMorgan Chase...Read More

The stock markets have rocketed higher since Trump's election win on hopes for big corporate tax cuts. This extreme rally has left stocks exceedingly overvalued and overbought today. A major selloff is long overdue and likely imminent. When stocks inevitably roll over and mean revert lower to rebalance away euphoric sentiment, gold is the main beneficiary. Gold investment demand soars when stocks...Read More

The stock markets have rocketed higher since Trump's election win on hopes for big corporate tax cuts. This extreme rally has left stocks exceedingly overvalued and overbought today. A major selloff is long overdue and likely imminent. When stocks inevitably roll over and mean revert lower to rebalance away euphoric sentiment, gold is the main beneficiary. Gold investment demand soars when stocks...Read More

KINSHASA, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Congo's Central Bank on Friday raised its economic growth forecast for 2018 to 5 percent from 4.4 percent last month, but lowered its 2017 growth estimate to 3.5 percent.Congo's economy is expected to get a boost from a rebound in commodities prices after a dip since 2015 dented revenues and reduced growth to 2.5 percent in 2016.The mining and oil sectors account for s...Read More

Luckily or not, 2017 is behind us. It was a positive year for the gold market, as the yellow market gained more than 12 percent. However, investors are forward-looking, so let's focus on what the coming months will bring. The next year will be shaped mostly by the following broad economic trends:Global activity is improving.Labor markets are strengthening further.Subdued inflation is finally risin...Read More

Social media stocks are in the spotlight today, after Facebook (FB) said it is adjusting its News Feed strategy -- earning the FAANG stock a rare downgrade. FB rival Snap Inc (NYSE:SNAP) was also downgraded today, with Raymond James lowering its rating to "underperform" from "market perform," saying Snapchat user growth remains challenging, and that that the platform's young audience isn't as attr...Read More

By Collin Kettell on January 12, 2018?>>?Frank discusses gold and Hive Blockchain, a company where he is chairman. They have partnered with Genesis. Hive is a cryptocurrency mining and investing company. He became interested in the space when found out that the CEO of Fidelity a company with two trillion in funds has been discussing bitcoin. He says, "Something big is happening." Hive made far mor...Read More

By Collin Kettell on January 12, 2018?>>?Frank discusses gold and Hive Blockchain, a company where he is chairman. They have partnered with Genesis. Hive is a cryptocurrency mining and investing company. He became interested in the space when found out that the CEO of Fidelity a company with two trillion in funds has been discussing bitcoin. He says, "Something big is happening." Hive made far mor...Read More

FRANKFURT, Jan 12 (Reuters) - The risk of an imminent hike in the European Central Bank's interest rates is low, Germany's representative on the ECB's rate-setting body said on Friday, reaffirming a pledge to keep policy easy for a long time to come. Investors started to bet on a December rate hike this week after the accounts of the latest ECB meeting showed policymakers were preparing for a chan...Read More

(Includes additional detail and context, separate Goldman fine)By Pete SchroederWASHINGTON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve fined five large U.S. banks a combined $35.1 million to settle cases of mortgage servicing flaws dating back to 2011.The central bank announced the fines against Goldman Sachs , Morgan Stanley , CIT Group , U.S. Bancorp , and PNC Financial as part of a broader effort...Read More

* Stocks lifted led by resources shares* Rand falls ahead of Ramaphosa speech (Updates figures, adds detail, quotes)JOHANNESBURG, Jan 12 (Reuters) - South African shares firmed on Friday, supported by resources stocks lifted by better than expected Chinese trade data, while the rand slipped in cautious trading ahead of a weekend speech by the leader of the ruling African National Congress party. T...Read More

WASHINGTON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve fined five large U.S. banks a combined $35.1 million to settle cases of mortgage servicing flaws dating back to 2011.The central bank announced the fines against Goldman Sachs , Morgan Stanley , CIT Group , U.S. Bancorp , and PNC Financial as part of a broader effort to terminate enforcement actions begun in 2011 and 2012 against large banks for m...Read More

Gold rallies in spite of rising interest rates, perplexing the pundits.A healthy increase in inflation is also boosting gold demand in the U.S.Meanwhile, improving prospects in Europe have abetted overseas gold demand.Gold prices edged higher on Thursday, reaching their highest level since September and buoyed by a weaker dollar and rising oil prices. The yellow metal is on track for its fifth str...Read More

(Corrects day of week in first paragraph)SAO PAULO, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Brazil has made slower-than-expected progress in cutting government spending ahead of this year's presidential elections, a Standard & Poor's director said on Friday, a day after the ratings agency downgraded the country deeper into junk.In a webcast, S&P managing director Lisa Schineller highlighted the difficulty of...Read More