(Kitco News) - Gold held by globalexchange-traded funds increased by 197.5 tonnes in 2017, a gain of 8.4%, saidthe World Gold Council in its monthly report on Tuesday.The rise last year was largelydriven by European ETFs, which represented 75% of all total inflows by adding148.6 tonnes of gold ($5.8 billion) to their holdings.In turn, the European market wasdominated by Germany. “German-list...Read More

The metals are in the middle of a major bull-bear debate,as witnessed by the last few trading days. After breaking out on Jan. 2 andmaking recent highs on Jan. 4, metals have started to move sideways to lower.The pattern is typical of a market topping, and this should be the top in goldand silver for now. Volume also peaked on Jan. 4, giving all the indicationsthat the metals were ready to take a...Read More

By Renita D. YoungNEW YORK, Jan 9 (Reuters) - European gold-backed exchange-traded funds added more than double the amount of tonnes that North American ones did in 2017, growing their assets by 13.9 percent, the World Gold Council said on Tuesday.Though North America contained more than half the amount of global exchange-traded fund holdings, European funds added the most to their gold-backed ETF...Read More

(Kitco News) - Gold held by global exchange-traded funds increased by 197.5 tonnes in 2017, a gain of 8.4%, said the World Gold Council in its monthly report on Tuesday.The rise last year was largely driven by European ETFs, which represented 75% of all total inflows by adding 148.6 tonnes of gold ($5.8 billion) to their holdings.In turn, the European market was dominated by Germany. “German...Read More

The metals are in the middle of a major bull-bear debate, as witnessed by the last few trading days. After breaking out on Jan. 2 and making recent highs on Jan. 4, metals have started to move sideways to lower. The pattern is typical of a market topping, and this should be the top in gold and silver for now. Volume also peaked on Jan. 4, giving all the indications that the metals were ready to t...Read More

* Futures up: Dow 44 pts, S&P 1.25 pts, Nasdaq 6 pts By Sruthi ShankarJan 9 (Reuters) - U.S. stock futures edged higher on Tuesday, keeping alive Wall Street's 2018 winning streak that is powered by robust economic data and expectations of earnings boost from corporate tax cuts.Asian and European markets rose to a record high, buoyed by an upbeat industrial production data from Germany and ga...Read More

(Updates with stock index moves)MOSCOW, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Russian stocks hit their highest since mid-2014 on Tuesday as investors returned to work after the holiday break and the price of oil, the country's main export, remained high. At 1220 GMT, Russia's dollar-denominated RTS index was up 1.27 percent to 1,235.38 points, having reached 1,238.26 earlier in the session, its highest since Septemb...Read More

DAKAR, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa's top copper producer, collected $489.2 million in revenues from the mining sector in the first nine months of last year, up more than 9 percent over the same period in 2016, the finance ministry said.In a quarterly report seen by Reuters on Tuesday, the ministry said revenues from the oil and gas sector rose nearly 71 percent over the...Read More

Brazil's Vale (NYSE:VALE), the world's largest iron ore and nickel miner, has officially closed the sale of its fertilizer business to US-based Mosaic Co. (NYSE:MOS), the No.1 producer of phosphate fertilizer, in a deal worth about $1.4 billion, considerably less than the $2.5bn originally estimated.The transaction, part of Vale's strategy to cut debt and focus on its core businesses, excludes t...Read More

Brazil's Vale (NYSE:VALE), the world's largest iron ore and nickel miner, has officially closed the sale of its fertilizer business to US-based Mosaic Co. (NYSE:MOS), the No.1 producer of phosphate fertilizer, in a deal worth about $1.4 billion, considerably less than the $2.5bn originally estimated.The transaction, part of Vale's strategy to cut debt and focus on its core businesses, excludes t...Read More

Brazil's Vale (NYSE:VALE), the world's largest iron ore and nickel miner, has officially closed the sale of its fertilizer business to US-based Mosaic Co. (NYSE:MOS), the No.1 producer of phosphate fertilizer, in a deal worth about $1.4 billion, considerably less than the $2.5bn originally estimated.The transaction, part of Vale's strategy to cut debt and focus on its core businesses, excludes t...Read More

JAKARTA, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Indonesia's retail sales rose 2.5 percent in November from a year earlier, mainly supported by the sales of food, beverages and automotive fuels, a central bank survey showed on Tuesday.On a yearly basis, retail sales growth was 2.2 percent in October, when sales of ready-to-consume foods and tobacco bolstered growth.The survey of 700 retailers in 10 major cities project...Read More

BRUSSELS, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Euro zone unemployment fell to a new nine-year low in November thanks to strong economic growth, data showed on Tuesday, but the jobless rates differ widely across the single currency bloc.The European Union's statistics office Eurostat said the jobless rate in the 19 countries sharing the euro was 8.7 percent in November, down from 8.8 percent in October and the lowest...Read More

By William SchombergLONDON, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Britain is expected to choose a new central bank chief this year to succeed Canadian Mark Carney, who will step down in June 2019, three months after the country's scheduled exit from the European Union.Following is a summary of possible contenders to run the Bank of England (BoE), which oversees the world's sixth-biggest economy and Britain's huge fin...Read More

ISTANBUL, Jan 9 (Reuters) - The Turkish Treasury sold a net 657.8 million lira ($175 million) in a tap of its two-year benchmark bond at an average compound yield of 13.44 percent on Tuesday, central bank data showed.Earlier in non-competitive bids, it sold a net 1.22 billion lira to primary dealers and public institutions, data showed. ($1 = 3.7634 liras) (Writing by Ezgi Erkoyun; Editing by Davi...Read More

STOCKHOLM, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Sweden's bond market is functioning satisfactorily, but further reductions in issuance could worsen already strained liquidity, the Head of Debt Management at the Debt Office said on Tuesday."Naturally, it would not be good if we were forced to reduce borrowing further," Goran Robertsson said. "But .. I don't think that one should make too much of a dram...Read More

(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.)By Jamie McGeeverLONDON, Jan 9 (Reuters) - U.S. and UK interest rates are rising, the European Central Bank is cutting back its bond purchases and even the Bank of Japan is hinting it will turn off the stimulus taps one day. With rates rising and central banks no longer expanding their balance sheets, monetary policy a...Read More

The Democratic Republic of Congo's state-owned miner, G?(C)camines, is calling the government to update the 16-year-old mining code, arguing it currently benefits foreign firms more than local producers or the country itself.The company, which is heavily indebted and has consistently failed to meet production targets as of late, said in a statement it was evident the World Bank-supported Mining C...Read More

The Democratic Republic of Congo's state-owned miner, G?(C)camines, is calling the government to update the 16-year-old mining code, arguing it currently benefits foreign firms more than local producers or the country itself.The company, which is heavily indebted and has consistently failed to meet production targets as of late, said in a statement it was evident the World Bank-supported Mining C...Read More

The Democratic Republic of Congo's state-owned miner, G?(C)camines, is calling the government to update the 16-year-old mining code, arguing it currently benefits foreign firms more than local producers or the country itself.The company, which is heavily indebted and has consistently failed to meet production targets as of late, said in a statement it was evident the World Bank-supported Mining C...Read More