Rick's Picks avidly follows the stock market's ups and downs each day, as well as the way it is influenced by the Fed's silly obfuscations. On some days it feels as though the cheerleaders at The Wall Street Journal et al. are overdoing it, generating enough hubris to stand economic logic on its head. But let's not kid ourselves. Whether this rally has a week to go, a month, or even a year, t...Read More

Gold will break free from $1320-$1340 trading range and form a new range anytime soon. Silver needs to trade over $1596 to zoom. Copper needs to trade over $291 (till Monday) to zoom. If crude oil rises today and tomorrow, then chances of $60 by next week will be very high. Germany's Merkel wants a united Europe to counter Asia. Chancellor Merkel has said that European political and business l...Read More

RAPAPORT... Sterling Jewelers has reached a mutually agreeable settlementwith Alex and Ani after a yearlong dispute over a supply deal. Judge Sara Lioi dismissed the case without prejudice,according to a February 14 motion Sterling, a division of Signet Jewelers, filedin an Ohio court. The companies will beartheir own legal costs. "The matter was resolved and settled to the parties' mutualsa...Read More

RAPAPORT... Michael Hill's sales fell 2.7% in the first half of its fiscal year due to the lingering impact of a discounting policy that it has been working to abolish, the company said. Group revenue dropped to AUD 315.4 million ($226 million), thejeweler reported Wednesday. During the first four months of the period endingDecember 31, the jeweler suffered from a marketing strategy featuring...Read More

RAPAPORT... Revenue from Rio Tinto's diamond division slid 1.6% to $695million in 2018, the miner reported Wednesday. The diamond unit's profit rose 28% to $118 million, whileearnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased4.9% to $301 million. Diamond production fell 15% to 18.4 millioncarats for the year, with output slipping at both its mines. Carat recovery...Read More

Finestar, an Indian diamond manufacturer and trader that recently acquired De Beers Sightholder status, has launched its proprietary Finestar X-ray diamond imaging software. Finestar's X-ray imaging program shows the internal framework of the given diamond. Technically speaking, it is the digital image overlapping the plotting image of a diamond grading report that shows the exact position of the...Read More

BeckyStone,Diamonds in the Library founder and CEO:Modern jewelry loverswant to put their money toward pieces they can connect with, that make astatement about who they truly are. Charms offer that personal connection likenothing else, and that's why charms - from medallions and monograms to vintageand newly minted figurals - will reign supreme in 2019. In the past few years,designers have realize...Read More

De Beers has appointed Nompumelelo (Mpumi) Zikalala as Managing Director of De Beers Group Managed Operations, the company that comes instead of De Beer Consolidated Mines (DBCM). Mpumi, currently Deputy Chief Executive Officer at DBCM will take responsibility for the restructured entity that includes the Venetia Mine (South Africa), the Gahcho Ku?(C) Mine (Canada) and De Beers Marine. She is to s...Read More

RAPAPORT... Trans Atlantic Gem Sales (TAGS) sold a record $50.1 millionworth of rough diamonds at a tender in Dubai earlier this month, it saidMonday. A total of 79,213 carats of high-quality stones from minesin South Africa, Angola and Namibia yielded an average price of $633 per carat.The sale included a number of large, single stones and exceptional specials,the company said. "TAGS has se...Read More

The Verkhne-Munskoye, one of the largest diamond mines in the world, produced a unique gem-quality rough diamond weighing 98.8 carats. The stone was found in the Zapolyarnaya kimberlite pipe. The mine Verkhne-Munskoye, which is operated by ALROSA, is located in the Sakha Republic, also known as Yakutia. Reportedly, the mine has estimated reserves of 40 million and is projected to produce 1.8 mill...Read More

RAPAPORT... The first China-Israel Diamond Week will take place in Shenzhenin April. The event - organized by the Israel Diamond Exchange(IDE), the Shanghai Diamond Exchange (SDE) and Guangdong Land Holding - willinclude a seminar, the signing of a memorandum of cooperation, visits todiamond-jewelry manufacturing facilities, and networking events. The show will also feature a sales meet, whe...Read More

HRD Antwerp NV is collaborating with MAGILABS (Rome/Helsinki) and offering and advanced, two-day workshop on spectroscopy. This course is aimed at diamond traders and experts; appraisers and graders; jewelers and designers; sales managers, buyers and job seekers. In its invitation for the course HRD Antwerp wrote: "Within the world of diamonds, one of the hot topics continues to be the one of labo...Read More

Botswana is reportedly ready to give Zimbabwe a loan of $600 million to develop and support its diamond industry. The report on the loan was initially published by the Herald, the state-owned new paper and online daily, but apparently has since been removed. Reuters reported that Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Botswana's President Mokgweetsi Masisi are expected to sign the loan agree...Read More

Endomines' golden opportunities to growSPONSOREDendomines"This number responds to the downward trend since 2014, since when the majority of projects have been suspended. [It is] a challenge to reverse this condition," said executive vice president Manuel José Fernández.The 2018 study shows a slight increase in the number of projects compared with the 294 recorded in 2017. Copper...Read More

Eastern promise for PolarXSPONSOREDpolarxIn a note dated yesterday, the bank said underlying demand remained sluggish and it had been "surprised by the strength in copper prices", which have averaged more than $6,000 per tonne to date this quarter."As a result, we mark to market our Q1 price forecast [from $5,800/t] to $6,120/t but warn that a change in sentiment could bring copper prices down abr...Read More

U.S. equity index futures were lower this morning. S&P 500 futures were down 5 points in pre-opening trade.The Canadian Dollar was virtually unchanged at 76.08 cents U.S. following release of the January Consumer Price Index. Consensus was an increase of 0.2% versus a drop of 0.1% in December. Actual was an increase of 0.1%. On a year-over-year basis, consensus for the January Consumer Price I...Read More

The official rate of unemployment in the U.S. plunged to a remarkably low 3.7% last year. The Federal Reserve forecasts that the unemployment rate will reach 3.5% by the end of this year.However the official rate hides some troubling realities: 1 out of 4 college grads is overqualified for their jobs, there are more contract workers than ever with no job security, and an army of part-time workers...Read More

“I’ll never do THAT again!”My 6-year-old Caleb is good for about one funny quote a day. If you’ve ever watched the TV show Kids Say the Darndest Things, you know exactly what I’m talking about.After attempting to slide down the banister and breaking both bones in his forearm, Caleb was quick to promise he’d never do something dangerous like that again.But this w...Read More

During the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame's induction ceremony held in Toronto in January, master of ceremonies and Franco-Nevada chairman Pierre Lassonde shared a story of a fateful encounter he once had with Brian Meikle, the late Barrick Gold geologist. Meikle was one of the five inductees of the evening, in part for his role in discovering Barrick's company-making Goldstrike gold deposit in Neva...Read More

Months after acquiring the world's first pure cobalt stream for US$300 million on Vale's Voisey's Bay nickel-copper-cobalt mine in Labrador, Cobalt 27 Capital Corp. (TSXV: KBLT; US-OTC: CBLLF) is adding substantially to its portfolio of battery metal assets.In January 2019, the company struck a deal to acquire Australian explorer, developer and miner Highlands Pacific Limited. Highlands' key asset...Read More