(Reuters) - The U.S. Interior Department will hold the largest lease sale in American history in the offshore Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, in a major test of the oil industry’s appetite for federal acreage being offered by the Trump administration.The auction of more than 77 million acres (31.2 million hectares) - an area twice the size of Florida - is part of an effort by President Donald T...Read More

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - German conglomerate Bayer won EU antitrust approval on Wednesday for its $62.5 billion buy of U.S. peer Monsanto, the latest in a trio of mega mergers that will reshape the agrochemicals industry.The tie-up is set to create a company with control of more than a quarter of the world’s seed and pesticides market.Driven by shifting weather patterns, competition in grain exp...Read More

LONDON, (Reuters) - British factory orders lost further momentum this month but remained healthy by historic standards, a survey from the Confederation of British Industry showed on Wednesday.The CBI’s factory order book balance fell to +4 in March from +10 in February, its lowest since October and below all forecasts in a Reuters poll of economists that had only pointed to a modest drop to...Read More

(Reuters) - Cheerios cereal maker General Mills Inc (GIS.N) cut its full-year earnings forecast due to a sharp increase in freight and commodity costs, driving its shares down 9 percent in premarket trading on Wednesday.The Minneapolis-based company, which owns the H??agen-Dazs and Betty Crocker brands, said it would try to strengthen next year’s earnings by improving its distribution networ...Read More

Mark Scanlon, chief executive of Personal Group Holdings plc (LON:PGH), caught up with Proactive to discuss their preliminary results for the year to the end of December 2017.2017's been described as a 'strong' year across much of the Group's operations with underlying earnings (EBITDA) of ?10.8m - a touch ahead of market expectations.Looking ahead Scanlon says the key for them this year will be...Read More

Shares in Canada's First Quantum Minerals (TSX:FM) rebounded slightly on Wednesday, dodging what was about to become their worst two-day drop in almost two years after its chief executive said he was ready to dispute a $7.9 billion bill for alleged unpaid import duties in Zambia.Talking to investors and media during a call conference, Philip Pascall said his company refuted the charge and would wo...Read More

Shares in Canada's First Quantum Minerals (TSX:FM) rebounded slightly on Wednesday, dodging what was about to become their worst two-day drop in almost two years after its chief executive said he was ready to dispute a $7.9 billion bill for alleged unpaid import duties in Zambia.Talking to investors and media during a call conference, Philip Pascall said his company refuted the charge and would wo...Read More

There was a large inflow of gold into exchange-traded-fund vaults at thestart of the week as investors continued to fret over a potential trade war,says BMO Capital Markets. News organizations reported an inflow of some 14.3tonnes, the most since autumn, on Monday. “As trade frictions continue to escalate, macro asset allocationback towards gold is accelerating at the present time,” BM...Read More

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) on Wednesday imposed a penalty of HK$4.5 million ($573,526) on UBS Group AG’s (UBSG.S) securities unit in Asia for failure to put in place “effective controls” for some client trading activities.During an investigation in 2016, the SFC said UBS Securities Asia failed to provide the watchdog with compl...Read More

BERLIN (Reuters) - The panel of economic advisers to the German government slightly raised its growth forecast for Europe’s largest economy on Wednesday but warned that a spiral of protectionist measures could damage the robust upswing.The five economists who advise the German government on policy said they expected gross domestic product to grow by 2.3 percent this year, up 0.1 percentage p...Read More

Editor's Note: Welcome to Kitco's new Bitcoin Daily Technical Alert. Every trading day veteran Kitco technical analyst Jim Wyckoff will provide you with a concise and easy-to-understand near-term technical brief on Bitcoin. Importantly, Jim will glean the short-term charts and technical studies, and then alert you to the signals he sees regarding upcoming potential bigger price moves or price tren...Read More

(Kitco News)- Today may mark the pivot for gold's next leg. We suggestedlast week that traders may lighten up on positions until Fed Chair JeromePowell's news conference following the Fed's rate announcement at 2 p.m. EDT. The range of $1,307 - $1,322 has been stickyahead of today's announcement. The Fed will raise rates by 25 basis pointstoday, but there continues to be disagreement on whether Po...Read More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates at its first policy meeting under Chairman Jerome Powell and may signal more hikes are coming in response to tax cuts and government spending that could further stoke a robust U.S. economy.The U.S. central bank projected late last year that it would lift rates three times in 2018, but some investors believe the fiscal s...Read More

At 2 p.m. EDT, the geniuses fromthe Fed will make their announcement on interest rates. There is no doubt,based on the 94% probability from the Fed funds rate, that they will hike ratestoday. However, the decision means nothing, as the real news will be the pressconference after the decision.Will the verbiage be dovish,meaning the Fed will remain accommodative, or will it be hawkish, meaning the F...Read More

(Kitco News) - Gold pricesare modestly higher in early U.S. trading Wednesday, on some short covering bythe shorter-term futures traders. A weaker U.S. dollar index today is alsoaiding the precious metals market bulls. Many markets are quieter ahead oftoday’s U.S. interest rate decision. April Comex gold futures were last up $3.20an ounce at $1,315.10. May Comex silver was last up $0.04 at $...Read More

Leo Koot, executive chairman of Columbus Energy PLC (LON:CERP), discusses with Proactive the restructuring of the Beach Oilfield Limited (BOLT) transaction in the South West Peninsula of Trinidad.''Up until now we've been focused on Goudron and Goudron production ... this deal gives us the opportunity to allow Goudron to do what it does ... but the big growth is in this deal in the South West Peni...Read More

A digital revolution is reshaping India's $34 billion gold market, with smartphones, e-wallets and flexible investment schemes drawing new buyers into a business dominated by traditional, face-to-face transactions.Digital payment systems have ballooned in popularity in India since the government scrapped large-value bank notes in 2016.Among these offerings are applications that enable smartphone u...Read More

Take a look at the best and worst performing stocks during Easter week from the past 10 yearsNext week is a four-day trading week, as markets are closed for Good Friday. In general, the week before Easter has been kind to investors. The S&P 500 Index (SPX) averages a higher return -- with a higher percent positive -- in the week before Easter, in comparison to other weeks. The two tables below sho...Read More

   •  A modest USD retracement helps build on overnight rebound from 2-1/2 week lows.   •  The pace of further Fed rate hikes in 2018 should help determine the near-term trajectory. Gold gained some fresh positive traction on Wednesday and has now recovered a major part of previous session's slide to over 2-week lows.  The precious metal continues t...Read More

Canada-listed Fura Gems (TSX-V:FUR), a new gemstone mining and marketing company headed by the former COO of Gemfields (LON:GEM), has kicked off initial production at its Coscuez emerald mine in Colombia.The early output of 1,720 carats of emeralds, including 826 carats of top quality ones, was achieved through a bulk-sampling program carried out within eight weeks of the completing the acquisiti...Read More