By John McCrankNEW YORK, Jan 12 (Reuters) - The post-trade processor for U.S. stocks, as well as corporate and municipal bonds, said it is taking steps to further cut the time it takes to settle trades in a bid to reduce risk in the financial system and free up more capital.The U.S. financial services industry moved to a two-day settlement cycle, which refers to the time an investor's order is exe...Read More
Bank earnings are in focus today, and financial institution Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) is expected to report its fourth-quarter earnings before the markets open on Tuesday, Jan. 16. Below, we will dig deeper into how the stock has been faring ahead of its highly anticipated report, and why C options can still be had at a bargain.C stock has had a stellar year, picking up more than 28% over the past...Read More
SAO PAULO, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Brazil's securities regulator on Friday prohibited local investment funds from buying cryptocurrencies, making it the latest global markets watchdog to call for caution with the volatile asset.Cryptocurrencies cannot be considered financial assets, regulator CVM ruled, in effect barring funds from investing directly in assets such as bitcoin.Local funds interested in...Read More
By Ben MartinLONDON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - The Singaporean billionaire trying to buy Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (M&C) has hired advisory firm Georgeson to help to drum up investor support for the deal in the face of shareholder opposition that could derail the bid.City Developments Limited (CDL), the vehicle of businessman Kwek Leng Beng, has offered 620 pence per share to acquire the 34.8...Read More
(Kitco News)- There is little standing in gold’s way next week thatwill stop prices from pushing higher in what will be a shortened trading week,according to some analysts.The gold market is seeing its fifth weekly consecutivegain as prices hold near their highest level in four months. February gold futures lasttraded at $1,331.70 an ounce, up 0.7% since last Friday. Since its December lowgo...Read More
By Marc JonesLONDON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them.YUAN TO WATCHNext week's data on Chinese GDP, industrial output and retail sales figures are expected to confirm a very modest slowdown is taking place in the world's second largest economy. It has been largely propell...Read More
Jan 12 (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Patrick Harker repeated on Friday his expectation for two interest-rate rises this year thanks to a "pretty good" U.S. economic outlook."I see two rate increases as the likely appropriate path for 2018," Harker said in prepared remarks in Ivyland, Pennsylvania that largely reflected a speech he gave a week ago.(R...Read More
LIMA, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Peru's economy likely grew "a little under" 2.7 percent last year because of weaker-than-expected public investments that factored into the bank's interest rate cut this week, the central bank said on Friday.But the bank still expects the economy to grow by 4.2 percent this year, as recent political uncertainty should be transitory, Jorge Estrella, the manager of...Read More
(Adds details on BlackRock tax rate, performance, succession plan)By Trevor HunnicuttNEW YORK, Jan 12 (Reuters) - BlackRock Inc charged past a record $6 trillion in assets, its profit beating Wall Street forecasts, as investors flooded into the relatively low-cost funds of the world's largest asset manager.A new U.S. tax law, which sliced corporate and individual income rates, also helped the com...Read More
With goldbeing up over 13% while the GDX was up just a paltry 7% in 2017, I stronglybelieve a major mean-reversion catch-up rally is in the process of unfolding inthe miners. Historically, the GDX would have leveraged the 13% gain in goldlast year by 2x to 3x for solid annual gains of at least 25% to 35%. But sinceinvestors were more focused on what seemed to be forever rising equity marketsand cr...Read More
BERLIN, Jan 12 (Reuters) - The leader of Germany's centre-left Social Democrats said on Friday he expects the European Union to have a finance minister to oversee financial issues in the bloc.The remarks by Martin Schulz to German broadcaster ZDF came hours after his party agreed a blueprint for negotiations with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives on forming a coalition government."The...Read More
As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best informationaheadoftheherd.comIn the 1800's the United States under President James Monroe invoked the Monroe Doctrine, which stated that any effort by European nations to control any independent state in North or South America would be viewed as "an unfriendly disposition towards the United States."The intent of the Mon...Read More
(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
* 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
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