Mechel, one of the leading Russian mining and metals companies, has appointed Nelli Galeeva as its new chief financial officer (CFO), the company reported on Wednesday January 10.Prior to this appointment, Galeeva had been leading Mechel's accounting and tax department for four years and oversaw work on the...Read More

Gold bullion set for fifth week of gains as dollar slumps (Reuters.com)Asia Stocks Are Mixed as Euro Gains, Bonds, Gold Bullion Steady (Bloomberg.com)U.S. runs December budget deficit of $23 billion - Treasury (MarketWatch.com)Uproar over crackdown on cryptocurrencies divides South Korea (Reuters.com)Wal-Mart Raises Hourly Wage to $11 in Wake of Tax Overhaul (Bloomberg.com)Bill Gross of Janus: '...Read More

By Ann SaphirSAN FRANCISCO, Jan 12 (Reuters) - A sharp rise in underlying inflation last month was not enough to convince at least one Federal Reserve policymaker that further interest rate hikes will soon be needed to keep a lid on rising prices.A government report Friday showed core U.S. consumer prices rose the most in 11 months in December, bolstering expectations that inflation will accelerat...Read More

Since January 2013 we have been using the worldwide Semiconductor Equipment industry as a leader within the Semiconductor sector, which is an economic cyclical leader itself. That month we noted a positive move in Equipment bookings, which became a (3 month) trend that spring. This trend was used to project positive economic signals to come.Through some turbulence in 2014 and 2015 the sector has r...Read More

Image: GlencoreZinc hit fresh highs above $3,400 a tonne on Friday, the best level since August 2007 as supply worries intensify and the base metal complex finds support from a robust outlook for global growth."From the macro point of view, this is not an environment where you'd want to be shorting metals," Michael Widmer, head of metals research at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, told Bloomberg Ne...Read More

By Trevor HunnicuttNEW YORK, Jan 12 (Reuters) - BlackRock Inc has profited by being beating its competitors in exchange-traded funds to the punch, but Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink seems happy to be out of step with at least one trend - the race to build a bitcoin fund.The world's largest asset manager on Friday reported earnings that beat Wall Street expectations, due in no small part to agg...Read More

Aluminium foundry alloy tags inched up slightly in Europe this week but stayed flat in the United States. Market participants presented varying pictures of demand around the globe - it was said to be good in general but stronger for heavier vehicles, particularly in the US.12-Jan-2018   ...Read More

Shares in Skeena Resources Limited (TSX.V:SKE) jumped 6% on Thursday after the company announced additional drill results from 13 holes at its Snip gold project located in the Golden Triangle of British Columbia.In lunchtime trade the Vancouver-based junior was exchanging hands for $0.74, up 10.4% on the TSX Venture Exchange, in more than double usual volumes. Skeena is now worth $53 million in To...Read More

(Refiles to change "expanding" to "expand" in first paragraph)By Liz HamptonHOUSTON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Oil producers are unlikely to significantly expand drilling budgets this year despite the recent run-up in crude prices, Chris Wright, chief executive of Liberty Oilfield Services Inc, told Reuters in an interview on Friday. "Spending budgets for E&P customers were...Read More

Metal Bulletin reviews the major stories that have affected the steel market over the past week.Iron ore prices retreated on Friday, to around $78 per tonne, following weakness in China's steel market, and after the potential for supply disruptions as a result of a cyclone in Australia reduced significantly.Seaborne coking coal prices were firm at the end of the week, with fob Australia...Read More

LONDON, Jan 12 (IFR) - Crown Holdings is looking to issue senior unsecured high-yield bonds to back its acquisition of peer Signode Industrial Group Holdings. The company is looking to issue 335m of five-year, 600m of eight-year and US$750m of eight-year notes, according to a banker on the deal. Citigroup is leading the trade and other banks are involved.The bonds are being issued as part of a bro...Read More

ACCRA, Jan 12 (Reuters) - The Bank of Ghana said the yield on its weekly 91-day bill edged up to 13.36 percent at an auction on Friday from 13.32 percent at the last such sale on Jan 5.The bank said it had accepted 497.89 million cedis ($110 million) worth of bids out of the 498.39 million cedis tendered for the paper, which will be issued on Monday.Ghana's treasury bill yields, which were around...Read More

Scrap prices in the world's major markets except the United States continued to strengthen in the week from Monday January 8 to Friday January 12 amid low supplies of material.Turkish steel mills resumed their deep-sea scrap bookings at the beginning of the week and have now booked three deep-sea cargoes from the Baltic Sea region.Turkey importsTurkish steel mills booked deep-sea cargoes from the...Read More

(Adds link to related content)By David LawderWASHINGTON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday he believed the Republican tax cuts will ultimately become revenue neutral over 10 years due to higher growth, but the Treasury will likely ask Congress for more money to implement the plan."We think there will be over $1 trillion in growth, so I do think this wil...Read More

Offer prices for South Korea-origin commercial grade hot-rolled coil (HRC) to India have increased by $25 tonne to $640-645 per tonne cfr Mumbai for shipments in March, Metal Bulletin heard on Friday January 12.This compared with offers made late in December at $615-620 per tonne cfr Mumbai.One Mumbai-based importer, while confirming the offers, said that the bids against the offers were in the ra...Read More

* 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 0.65 pct, S&P 0.50 pct, Nasdaq 0.59 pct (Updates to early afternoon)By Sruthi ShankarJan 12 (Reuters) - Wall Street rose to record highs on Friday as fourth-quarter earnings season kicked off with solid results fro...Read More

Good morning from Metal Bulletin's office in Singapore, as we bring you the latest news and pricing stories on Friday January 12.Nickel prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange retreated during Asian morning trading on Friday, in line with the weaker prices seen on the London Metal Exchange overnight, after selling emerged amid concerns that prices had run too high too soon.Check Metal Bulletin's l...Read More

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

By I Made SentanaJAKARTA-PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium, or Inalum, got the mandate Friday to buy a 41.64% stake in the local unit of Freeport-McMoRan Inc., but the two parties haven't reached an agreement on the value of the stake. The move will increase the state-owned company's ownership to 51% from 9.36%, which is currently held by the government. After years of negotiation, the U.S. mining com...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