NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. mortgage applications fell last week as interest rates on some 30-year fixed-rate home loans reached their highest levels in more than 4-1/2 years, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday.The Washington-based industry group said its seasonally adjusted measure on mortgage requests fell 1.6 percent to 258.1 in the week ended April 27.Interest rates on “con...Read More

Aluminium Tips – BUY Aluminium at CMP 151 for Target 151.70 – 152.40 with SL below price 150.10AFTER POST CONTENT Read More

Ontario is investing in the mining supply and services sector and creating jobs in the North by investing in 12 projects, helping to create 20 new full-time jobs.Through the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation, the province is investing in 12 mining supply and services companies across Northern Ontario including NorArc Steel in Earlton. The company will receive funding to design and build a...Read More

(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc has made a formal offer to buy a 60 percent stake in Indian online retailer Flipkart, CNBC-TV18 reported on Wednesday, citing sources.Amazon also offered Flipkart a breakup fee of $2 billion, the TV channel reported. Amazon's bid is likely to be on par with Walmart Inc's bid for the Indian e-commerce company, CNBC-TV18 reported.Flipkart's investors and founders are in fa...Read More

(Reuters) - The S&P and Dow opened slightly lower on Wednesday as caution set in ahead of the Federal Reserve's decision on monetary policy, while Apple's 3.6 percent jump after results helped small gains on the tech-heavy Nasdaq.Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 1.42 points, or 0.01 percent, at the open to 24,097.63. The S&P 500 .SPX opened lower by 0.56 points, or 0.02 percent,...Read More

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank will not easily retreat from plans to end its bond purchases this year, even though growth is slowing, but it may push out expectations for interest rate increases to maintain the flow of money and support confidence.The euro zone’s economy has expanded for 20 straight quarters, but a string of indicators suggests that growth has slowed in earl...Read More

Mining giant Rio Tinto (ASX, LON, NYSE: RIO) plans to double its fleet of autonomous production drill rigs this year at its iron ore mines in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, where driverless trucks already haul over a quarter of both ore and waste material.Four additional drills, retrofitted with autonomous drilling system technology, were recently deployed at the company's Yandicoogina m...Read More

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Euro zone economic growth slowed as expected at the start of 2018, although economists said temporary factors were partly behind the weakness and that the economy should continue to expand strongly this year.Gross domestic product across the 19 countries sharing the euro currency expanded by 0.4 percent in the first quarter compared to the last quarter of 2017 and by 2.5 perce...Read More

The private sector added more jobs than estimated in MarchDow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) futures are trading slightly below fair value this morning, despite impressive earnings from Apple (AAPL) -- which posted better-than-expected profit and revenue in its fiscal second quarter, despite iPhone sales falling short, and gave a $100 billion boost to its share repurchase program. The FAANG stoc...Read More

SFLY stock is set to jump over 10% todayImage-publishing specialist Shutterfly, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFLY) is set to rally after earnings today. The company reported a smaller-than-expected loss for the first quarter and revenue topped forecasts. An upwardly revised full-year outlook is also whetting investors' appetites, especially with the company saying in the earnings release that its recent acquisiti...Read More

LONDON, (Reuters) - Euro zone factory growth slowed further last month from record highs at the turn of the year, but expansion remained strong as customers largely shrugged off rising prices, a survey showed on Wednesday.Having outpaced its peers in 2017, growth in the bloc’s economy has steadily weakened this year and a March Reuters poll said growth had peaked.But the economy remains stro...Read More

TOKYO (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan may raise its long-term interest rate target and slow asset purchases further later this year as a small step toward normalizing crisis-mode monetary policy, former central bank board member Sayuri Shirai said on Wednesday.The central bank’s decision last week to remove a timeframe for hitting its elusive 2 percent inflation target underscores the hope amo...Read More

Exchange-traded-product investorsincreased their exposure to gold over the past week, says Standard Chartered.The products trade like a stock but track the price of the commodity, withmetal put into storage to back the shares. Gold ETP holdings rose 9 tonnes.However, investors reduced their exposure to the other precious metals,Standard Chartered points out. Silver outflows reached 343 tonnes over...Read More

Exchange-traded-product investors increased their exposure to gold over the past week, says Standard Chartered. The products trade like a stock but track the price of the commodity, with metal put into storage to back the shares. Gold ETP holdings rose 9 tonnes. However, investors reduced their exposure to the other precious metals, Standard Chartered points out. Silver outflows reached 343 tonnes...Read More

Mr. Darin Wagner reportsBALMORAL CONTINUES TO EXPAND BUG GOLD DEPOSIT AND NEARBY HORSEFLY ZONE DOWN PLUNGEBalmoral Resources Ltd.'s initial results from the winter 2018 drill program on the company's Martiniere property in Quebec have successful extended down plunge both the South zone of the Bug gold deposit and the proximal, near-surface Horsefly gold zone.Drill holes MDE-18-324 and 325 both int...Read More

Mr. Darin Wagner reportsBALMORAL CONTINUES TO EXPAND BUG GOLD DEPOSIT AND NEARBY HORSEFLY ZONE DOWN PLUNGEBalmoral Resources Ltd.'s initial results from the winter 2018 drill program on the company's Martiniere property in Quebec have successful extended down plunge both the South zone of the Bug gold deposit and the proximal, near-surface Horsefly gold zone.Drill holes MDE-18-324 and 325 both int...Read More

By Rhiannon Hoyle This article is being republished as part of our daily reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S. print edition of The Wall Street Journal (May 2, 2018). SYDNEY -- Australia's corporate regulator has widened legal action against Rio Tinto Ltd. and two of the company's former executives, pursuing allegations the mining giant was late in writing down a trouble...Read More

(Kitco News)- Gold bounced nicely off strong support at the $1,302 levelyesterday, with follow-through buying as the Chinese returned from holiday. It's too early to call a bottom, as the dollar remains bid. The key level we are watching is the 1.20 euro/dollar area. Thissupport line has held for months and an overlay of gold prices to theeuro/dollar chart are in sync. Today we have the Federal Re...Read More

(Kitco News) - Gold bounced nicely off strong support at the $1,302 level yesterday, with follow-through buying as the Chinese returned from holiday. It's too early to call a bottom, as the dollar remains bid. The key level we are watching is the 1.20 euro/dollar area. This support line has held for months and an overlay of gold prices to the euro/dollar chart are in sync. Today we have the Federa...Read More

(Repeats story first published Tuesday with no changes)By Noel RandewichSAN FRANCISCO, May 2 (Reuters) - Apple Inc lavished cash on its shareholders like no company in history in the first three months of the year and it intends to keep doing so, making the iPhone maker’s investors the clearest winners yet from last year’s sweeping U.S. corporate tax cuts.With a mountain of overseas ca...Read More