(IDEX Online) - Industry leaders in India are calling for a voluntary two-month ban on all rough diamond imports, to "better manage the balance between demand and supply".They say exports were down by 25 per cent in the year to August, inventories are increasing and prices are falling.The plea comes jointly from the GJEPC (Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council), the Bharat Diamond Bourse, the...Read More
U.S. equity index futures were higher this morning. S&P 500 futures were up 16 points at 8:35 AM EDT.Index futures added 3 points following release of August Durable Goods Orders at 8:30 AM EDT. Consensus was a 0.5% versus a drop of 5.2% in July. Actual was an increase of 0.2%.Costco slipped $8.46 to $544.50 despite reporting higher than consensus fiscal fourth quarter revenues and earnings. C...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Sales of Swiss watches were up by 3.5 per cent in August, with the USA and Hong Kong leading the recovery. The Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry Exports said the increase "confirms the normalisation of growth expected during the second half of the year". It follows an "excellent" increase of 14 per cent in exports during July, although June disappointed with 1.0 per cent drop....Read More
(IDEX Online) - Brazen thieves broke into a jewelry store from an empty building next door, and wheeled the safe away.The three raiders were caught on surveillance cameras as they broke into Mitch the Jeweler, in South Florida, USA.Media reports put the value of goods stolen at up to $3m.The store owner told local news station WSVN-TV: "I don't know how they moved this safe." He's offeri...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Australian miner Lucapa today reported further positive results from bulk sampling of three kimberlite targets at its Lulo mine, in Angola.The most encouraging kimberlite (L440) yielded eight diamonds with a total weight of 4.16 carats, the largest of which weighed 2.04 carats, from 1,460m3 of material.Lucapa says the primary sources for the large, high-value alluvial diamonds alre...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Antwerp is calling on the jewelry sector to support its calls for G7 sanctions on Russian diamonds.Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo (pictured) told industry representatives that Russian diamonds have "become a symbol of war and human rights violations".Speaking last week at the Belgian Consul General, in New York, he said: "The G7 wants to reduce Russian diamonds revenues....Read More
U.S. equity index futures were lower this morning. S&P 500 futures were down 20 points at 8:30 AM EDT.Thor Industries dropped $2.12 to $92.70 after reporting lower than consensus fiscal fourth quarter sales.United Natural Foods dropped $2.41 to $16.51 after the company reported a loss in its fiscal fourth quarter.Ford slipped $0.03 to $12.55 after announcing a pause in construction of a $3.5 b...Read More
U.S. equity index futures were lower this morning. S&P 500 futures were down 13 points at 8:30 AM EDT. Walt Disney added $0.60 to $81.85 and Netflix gained $3.74 to $383.55 on news that the Writers Guild and the movie studios have reached a tentative labour agreement. Amazon advanced $1.23 o $130.35 after announcing a $4 billion investment in Anthropic, a company involved in Artificial Intelli...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Alrosa's suspension of rough sale has been welcomed by India's GJEPC (Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council) as a positive move to combat overstocking.Russia's state-controlled diamond miner last week confirmed that it had cancelled sales in September and October to stabilize a volatile market.Vipul Shah, GJEPC chairman, said he'd approached a number of dia...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Long-term demand for diamonds will increase in China, says De Beers, despite a slow recovery from Covid lockdowns and a decade of declining marriage numbers.The bigger picture is that consumers in China currently account for 10 per cent of diamond purchases globally and demand closely tracks the country's economic growth.De Beers acknowledges in its newly-published research -...Read More
U.S. equity index futures were higher this morning. S&P 500 futures were up 15 points at 8:35 AM EDT.The Canadian Dollar was unchanged at US 74.49 cents following release of July Canadian Retail Sales at 8:30 AM EDT. Consensus was an increase of 0.4% versus a gain of 0.1% in June. Actual was an increase of 0.3%. Excluding auto sales, consensus was an increase of 0.5% versus a gain of 0.8% in J...Read More
(IDEX Online) - British actress Lily James is again promoting the beauty of natural diamonds in a new global ad campaign.She features in the second instalment of To Treasure Now and Forever, by the New York-based Natural Diamond Council, at a time when gap between natural and lab grown prices is widening almost daily.The 34-year-old Emmy-nominated star, known for roles in Pam and Tommy and Downton...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Scientists say they now better understand how pink diamonds from the iconic Arygle mine were formed - which may allow them to predict the location of other sources in the future.They say the clear stones got their distinctive color from the the clash of continents that formed the vast supercontinent Nuna, including Australia 1.85bn years ago.They were brought close to t...Read More
U.S. equity index futures were lower this morning. S&P 500 futures were down 43 points at 8:35 AM EDT.FedEx gained $14.38 to $264.90 following release of higher than consensus first quarter earnings. The company also offered positive guidance. KB Homes slipped $0.81 to $47.25 despite reporting higher than consensus fiscal third quarter earnings. The company also reported less than consensus sa...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Alrosa has halted all rough sales until November, as prices continue to fall.The sanctioned Russian miner told buyers in a memo that it was striving "to reverse the existing trend of diminishing demand," according to Bloomberg News, and would not be selling any goods during September and October.Prices of smaller goods - an area where Alrosa dominates - have been hit in recent week...Read More
(IDEX Online) - This is the moment when Taylor Swift realized the diamond had fallen out of a borrowed $12,000 vintage yellow gold and onyx Van Cleef & Arpels ring. The American singer-songwriter, aged 33, was at the VMAs (MTV Video Music Awards) in Newark, New Jersey, USA, where she won nine awards, including Song of the Year and Video of the Year.The ring had been booked by a stylist fo...Read More
(IDEX Online) - De Beers is again reviving the iconic "A Diamond is Forever" tagline in a $20m campaign to promote natural diamonds.A series of ads will incorporate the slogan, coined by young copywriter Frances Gerety in 1947, as the British miner sought to reverse a downward trend in diamond sales.De Beers says it's re-introducing the line to support consumer demand in natural diamonds for...Read More
U.S. equity index futures were mixed this morning. S&P 500 futures were unchanged at 8:35 AM EDT.The Canadian Dollar was unchanged at US 74.64 cents following release of the August Consumer Price Index at 8:30 AM EDT. Consensus was a year-over-year increase of 3.8% versus a gain of 3.3% in July. Actual was an increase of 4.0%. Excluding food and energy, consensus was a gain of 3.7% versus upwa...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Shree Ramkrishna Exports (SRK), one of the world's largest diamond manufacturers, has hit back after Ukraine claimed it had bought $330m of sanctioned Russian diamonds and listed it as an international war sponsor.Ukraine's National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) says the Mumbai-based company "continues to cooperate with the aggressor, purchasing diamonds in Russi...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The G7 nations are on the brink of announcing a ban on Russian diamonds, to take effect from 1 January 2024.Belgian officials say they expect confirmation of the move within the next three weeks, according to reports by Reuters and the Financial Times (FT).G7 members - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the US (and the EU) account, between them, for 70 per c...Read More