Editor's Note: View Kitco News' full 2018 outlook coverage (Kitco News) - As bitcoin’s recognition grows around the world, here is what top central bankers think about popular digital currencies.Federal ReserveFed Chair Janet Yellen was asked about bitcoin during the central bank’s last monetary policy meeting of the year in December.Yellen referred to the digital currency as a “...Read More

U.S. stocks have kicked off 2018 with a bang, with the major market indexes assailing record heights out of the gate. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) just topped 25,000 for the first time ever, and the Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) is trading above the 7,000 level. The S&P 500 Index (SPX) is also trading at all-time highs, and is pacing for its best week in over a year. While this puts stocks on...Read More

The first full trading week of 2018 will feature a packed economic schedule -- including the producer price index (PPI) on Thursday, and the consumer price index (CPI) on Friday. The Federal Reserve will remain in focus, with an onslaught of central bank officials slated to speak. Plus, Wall Street will get its first glimpse of fourth-quarter earnings season, withairline name Delta Air Lines, Inc...Read More

Jonathan Stempel(Reuters) - Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor renowned for his preternatural optimism for America and its citizens’ well-being, on Thursday encouraged those worried about the economic prospects for themselves and their children to shed their fears.In an essay for the Jan. 15 issue of Time magazine, the chairman of the insurance and investment company Berkshire Hathaway...Read More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission warned Thursday that investors should “exercise caution” with cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, noting state and federal regulators may not be able to recoup any lost investments from illegal actors.Many promoters of initial coin offerings (ICOs) and other cryptocurrency investments are not following federal and state secu...Read More

(Bloomberg) - Commodities are forging a record-setting run of gains that straddles the end of 2017 and the start of the new year as crude oil notches multiyear highs and investors bet that booming global manufacturing output will help to sustain rising demand for raw materials.The Bloomberg Commodity Index, which tracks returns on 22 raw materials, was poised for an unprecedented 15 days of gains...Read More

With the Federal Reserve's latest meeting minutes showing a divide between policymakers over how fast interest rates need to rise this year, official US jobs data will be closely eyed on Friday.The US non-farm payrolls report is expected to show employers added 188,000 jobs in December, compared to 228,000 in November.The jobless rate is forecast to remain at 4.1%.Average hourly earnings growth is...Read More

LIMA, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Peru's finance minister warned on Thursday that the political crisis that roiled Peru in the last days of 2017 was not over yet but said it should not have any major impact on the economy as long as it is resolved "in a civilized way."In a rare press conference, Claudia Cooper maintained the ministry's previous forecasts and said that while public investments halt...Read More

Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) is up 1.3% to trade at $75.59 today, after receiving a price-target hike to $86 from $83 at Credit Suisse. Despite touching a nine year high of $77.92 on Dec. 4, the banking concern has stumbled into 2018, finishing lower in six out of the last ten sessions. The next few weeks will be critical for Citigroup stock, with a slew of big bank earnings set to start rolling in. Th...Read More

Paul Welch CEO of SDX (LON:SDX, CVE:SDX) brings Proactive up to date with flow testing on their three wells drilled in Morocco...all contributing significantly now to SDX's infrastructure and supply ambitions for 2018. Additionally, the company has now secured a four-month extension to the current phase of the Lalla Mimouna permit, also onshore Morocco, through to July 22 so that it will have suff...Read More

Investors jumped back into copper on Thursday after reports that top consumer China is slashing import quotas of scrap metal, a bullish development first rumoured last year.After pulling back over the first three trading days of the year, Comex copper bounced back to just below $3.30 a pound ($7,270 per tonne) in New York, up over 1% from Wednesday's settlement. While gains were pared by early af...Read More

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Strong data from the world’s largest economies helped global shares climb to new heights on Thursday, while the euro hovered near a three-year high and the U.S. dollar fell against major currencies.MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe broke a new record, .MIWD00000PUS with an advance of 0.79 percent.On Thursday, the ADP National Employment Report showed that U.S...Read More

(Bloomberg) -The year's barely started and palladium markets are set to break another record.The spot price for the precious metal only needs to climb by another 1.6 percent in London trading to push past an all-time high that's stood for 17 years. At the current pace of gains, that could happen within days.New York futures for the metal, used to cut car exhaust fumes, already touched the highest...Read More

Stocks continue to knock out fresh record highs, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), Nasdaq Composite (IXIC), and S&P 500 Index (SPX) all reaching all-time bests today. The robust ADP jobs report got the ball rolling this morning, helping push the Dow above 25,000 for the first time ever. Financial stocks are seeing some of the strongest gains -- with American Express (AXP) the best Dow...Read More

(Reuters) - The Dow Jones Industrial Average sailed past the 25,000-mark for the first time on Thursday, while other major indexes rose to new highs after a strong private jobs report added to a bullish sentiment from indications of robust growth in major economies.The ADP National Employment Report showed that U.S. private employers added 250,000 jobs in December, marking the biggest monthly incr...Read More

   •  Renewed USD selling pressure helps regain traction.   •  Surging US bond yields now seemed to cap gains.   •  ADP report might now provide a fresh trading impetus.  Gold recovered early lost ground $1306 area and refreshed session tops in the past hour, albeit lacked any strong follow-through momentum. The precious metal stalle...Read More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump has threatened his former chief strategist Steve Bannon with legal action over “defamatory” statements in a new book about a meeting Trump’s son and son-in-law held with Russians during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.Charles Harder, Trump’s personal lawyer, said on Thursday he also will seek to block Tuesday’s schedul...Read More

NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Donald Trump is ramping up calls on the U.S. Congress to stop legal immigrants from sponsoring extended family members who want to move to the United States, saying so-called “chain migration” poses a threat to national security.Even without legislative action, however, the number of immigrants approved for family-based visas has dropped this year to the...Read More

SANTIAGO, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Unionized workers at Glencore Plc's Lomas Bayas copper mine in Chile rejected a final contract offer and began government-facilitated mediation on Thursday to avoid a strike, the union said, adding that they were still far from agreement.Union president Pedro Valdivia said workers agreed to lay down tools on Jan. 10 if no agreement was reached during the mediation.New l...Read More

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia considers a U.S. proposal for an extraordinary meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the turmoil in Iran “harmful and destructive”, RIA news agency cited Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Thursday.“We see no role for the United Nations Security Council in this issue,” he said, according to the agency. “Iran’s...Read More