John Thornton is a Goldman Sachs alumnus educated at Yale, Harvard and Oxford. Mark Bristow is a South African geologist and big-game hunter.Together, this corporate odd couple has a plan to turn around the lagging fortunes of the world's largest gold-mining company, whose shares are down 67 percent from their high in 2010. Thornton, executive chairman of Barrick Gold Corp., set the partnership in...Read More

John Thornton is a Goldman Sachs alumnus educated at Yale, Harvard and Oxford. Mark Bristow is a South African geologist and big-game hunter.Together, this corporate odd couple has a plan to turn around the lagging fortunes of the world's largest gold-mining company, whose shares are down 67 percent from their high in 2010. Thornton, executive chairman of Barrick Gold Corp., set the partnership in...Read More

The company announced successful trial results for its breast cancer drugShares of Puma Biotechnology Inc (NASDAQ:PBYI) are up 6.9% at $22.90, after the company announced successful results of the Phase III NALA trial for its experimental breast cancer drug, neratinib. Analysts are waxing optimistic on PBYI shares, with Cantor Fitzgerald upping its price target to $55 from $50 -- more than double...Read More

Glencore Plc's billionaire head of copper trading, Aristotelis Mistakidis, was among executives fined and banned from being a director by Canada after admitting that its Congolese copper and cobalt unit misstated how much metal it mined.Mistakidis, who is retiring from Glencore at the end of this year, was hit with a C$2.45 million ($1.8 million) fine and a four-year director ban in Ontario at a p...Read More

Glencore Plc's billionaire head of copper trading, Aristotelis Mistakidis, was among executives fined and banned from being a director by Canada after admitting that its Congolese copper and cobalt unit misstated how much metal it mined.Mistakidis, who is retiring from Glencore at the end of this year, was hit with a C$2.45 million ($1.8 million) fine and a four-year director ban in Ontario at a p...Read More

Short sellers have been ramping up their exposure to the stockEnergy stock EOG Resources Inc (NYSE:EOG) has struggled since its mid-October highs near $133.50, down more than 25%. A negative earnings reaction in early November only exacerbated headwinds for the shares, with the Nov. 1 pre-earnings close creating a stiff ceiling in recent weeks. What's more, a recent rejection at the 40-day moving...Read More

Germany-based fertilizer producer K+S AG (FRA:SDF1) revised up its production outlook on Tuesday, as weather-related production stoppages at its Werra potash plant are expected to be shorter than previously thought.Production at the plant will now only be halted from December 24 to 26, K+S said, as recent rainfall raised water levels of the Werra river, used for minerals production and transpo...Read More

Germany-based fertilizer producer K+S AG (FRA:SDF1) revised up its production outlook on Tuesday, as weather-related production stoppages at its Werra potash plant are expected to be shorter than previously thought.Production at the plant will now only be halted from December 24 to 26, K+S said, as recent rainfall raised water levels of the Werra river, used for minerals production and transpo...Read More

Both stocks have been struggling in recent weeksBoeing Co (NYSE:BA) said it's boosting its quarterly dividend by 20%, and hiking its share buyback program by $2 billion to $20 billion. In reaction to the news, BA shares are up 4.2% to trade at $329.53, climbing back above their 320-day moving average, which has served as a magnet in recent weeks.The shares of the aerospace giant are still on track...Read More

LISBON, Dec 18 - Portugal expects to launch a tender for lithium exploration licences next year, the new secretary of state for energy said on Tuesday, confirming the general outlines of a plan devised under his predecessor, although with a slight delay.Portugal does not want to be a country that just drills holes in the ground and exports the oresIn September, Joao Galamba's predecessor Jorge Seg...Read More

There is ample room for a further shift in sentiment toward PMThe shares of Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) are down 1.8% to trade at $79.95, after Credit Suisse downgraded the tobacco name to "underpeform" from "neutral," while slashing its price target to $74 from $92. The analyst in coverage says the company's reliance on heated tobacco products leaves it exposed to significant downs...Read More

JAKARTA, Dec 18 - Indonesia's state-owned miner PT Inalum expects to finalise a deal this week to take majority control of the local unit of global mining giant Freeport McMoRan Inc, the company's chief executive told Reuters on Tuesday.The deal will close "hopefully this week", said Budi Gunadi Sadikin, adding that a conclusion looked "highly likely."Inalum was proposing to sell a 10 percent stak...Read More

JAKARTA, Dec 18 - Indonesia's state-owned miner PT Inalum expects to finalise a deal this week to take majority control of the local unit of global mining giant Freeport McMoRan Inc, the company's chief executive told Reuters on Tuesday.The deal will close "hopefully this week", said Budi Gunadi Sadikin, adding that a conclusion looked "highly likely."Inalum was proposing to sell a 10 percent stak...Read More

JAKARTA, Dec 18 - Indonesia's state-owned miner PT Inalum expects to finalise a deal this week to take majority control of the local unit of global mining giant Freeport McMoRan Inc, the company's chief executive told Reuters on Tuesday.The deal will close "hopefully this week", said Budi Gunadi Sadikin, adding that a conclusion looked "highly likely."Inalum was proposing to sell a 10 percent stak...Read More

UNG has cooled off quite a bit from its steep November ramp higherWhile stocks were taking a drubbing during the month of November, natural gas futures were in the midst of a high-volatility move of their own -- albeit in the complete opposite direction. The United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) wrapped up last month on a gain of 39.8%, which marked its biggest monthly advance in a decade (and whic...Read More

NCR shares have been hit hard in recent yearsNCR Corporation (NYSE:NCR) shares have been stuck in a two-year downtrend, falling from an early 2017 peak near $50 to Monday's close of $22.71. In more recent months, the 80- and 120-day moving averages have capped upside advances, and the stock just yesterday hit a nearly two-year low of $22.58. RBC isn't worried, however. The brokerage firm already h...Read More

WINTHROP, Washington, Dec 18 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Although the wooden boardwalk and turn-of-the-century saloons reflect Winthrop's Old West history as a mining town, residents these days are counting down to a year-end deadline that could see the government ban extraction there for 20 years.Dec. 29 will mark the culmination of a battle by citizens of the Methow Valley, a constellation of...Read More

WINTHROP, Washington, Dec 18 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Although the wooden boardwalk and turn-of-the-century saloons reflect Winthrop's Old West history as a mining town, residents these days are counting down to a year-end deadline that could see the government ban extraction there for 20 years.Dec. 29 will mark the culmination of a battle by citizens of the Methow Valley, a constellation of...Read More

The Fed will kick off its final policy-setting meeting of 2018The stock market appears to be stabilizing following yesterday's sharp sell-off, with Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) futures trading above fair value this morning. Today's focus will be on the Fed, which kicks off its final policy meeting of 2018. Fed funds futures are pricing in a 71.5% chance the central bank will raise interest r...Read More

Vedanta Zinc International (VZI), a subsidiary of London-listed Vedanta Resources (LON:VED), is bringing its Black Mountain Mining (BMM) operations in South Africa up to speed in terms of digital innovations by implementing Sandvik's OptiMine platform.The miner, which expects to boost safety, efficiency and productivity with the solution, said it will commission OptiMine for trucks, loaders and d...Read More