NEW YORK (Reuters) - Because it is unclear how long the U.S. economy can sustain its current strength, the Federal Reserve should continue with its gradual interest rate hikes until it becomes undeniable that a change of course is necessary, an influential Fed governor said on Thursday.Randal Quarles, the U.S. central bank’s vice chair of supervision, who rarely discusses monetary policy, sa...Read More
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday it would allow U.S. airlines and codeshare partners to resume flights at three Ukrainian airports and over parts of the Black Sea, citing improved safety and security in parts of Ukraine.The FAA had barred flights over the war zones of Crimea and the Ukraine in April 2014, and expanded prohibitions after Malaysia Airline...Read More
(Kitco News) - Gold prices aretrading modestly higher in early-afternoon U.S. trading Thursday. Today, a hostof worries on the geopolitical front rose to the surface to put strong pressureon the U.S. stock market and produce some safe-haven demand for gold, whichbegan to surface in late-morning action. December gold futures were last up $3.00an ounce at $1,230.50. December Comex silver was last do...Read More
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday said he would no longer attend next week’s investment conference in Saudi Arabia, as the Trump administration awaited the outcome of investigations into missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.Mnuchin announced the decision in a post on Twitter following a meeting with President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mik...Read More
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte presented his country’s 2019 draft budget to EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday, but the summit did not discuss it in any detail, the head of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker said.“The Italian Prime Minister presented the Italian situation to us, with big talent and in a very clear way, and we did not ask him about i...Read More
Cleveland-Cliffs stock has been a long-term outperformer Mining stock Cleveland-Cliffs Inc (NYSE:CLF) is down 4.8% at $11.27 in afternoon trading, though a specific catalyst remains unclear. Regardless, CLF has been a climber on the charts, and below we will take a look at what the options market has priced in for the stock's third-quarter, post-earnings move; the company is scheduled to report b...Read More
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government on Wednesday refrained from naming China or any other trading partner as a currency manipulator, as it leans on import tariffs to try to cut a trade deficit with China.In its semi-annual currency report, the U.S. Treasury Department said a recent depreciation of China’s yuan currency will likely exacerbate the U.S. trade deficit, but U.S. officials...Read More
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump threatened to deploy the military and close the southern U.S. border on Thursday if Mexico did not move to halt large groups of migrants headed for the United States from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.“I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught - and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR...Read More
(Kitco News) - Investors in China need to allocate up to 6% of their portfolios to gold, according to the World Gold Council (WGC), which sees the yellow metal as minimizing the negative effects of volatility.Chinese traders have had a tough year, with losses in both the equity and bond market spaces, said WGC Investment director Fred Yang.“China’s leading index, the CSI 300, has under...Read More
The VIX is set to snap its four-day losing streakLosses for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) are accelerating at midday, as investors continue to fret about the hawkish Fed meeting minutes and digest a big overnight sell-off in Chinese stocks. The S&P 500 Index (SPX) and Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) are also lower, as corporate earnings begin to take center stage. Elsewhere, Wall Street's "fear...Read More
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar index traded near one-week highs on Thursday as Treasury yields edged higher, after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s September meeting showed that Fed policy makers are largely united on the need to raise borrowing costs further.That came despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s view that interest rate hikes have already gone too far.Benchmark 10-yea...Read More
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday that he had told President Donald Trump that the United States should give Saudi Arabia a few more days to wrap up its investigation into the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.“I told President Trump this morning that we ought to give them a few more days ... so that we too have a complete understanding of...Read More
“Policy would need to become modestly restrictive for a time.” This is the key quote from the recent FOMC minutes. This is not a reason for gold’s joy. Fed Is Becoming More Hawkish Yesterday, the Fed released minutes from the recent FOMC meeting. As everyone knows, the Committee hiked commrates by another 25 basis points in September. But what about the future stance? Well, the m...Read More
The stock was overbought heading into today's tradingIntelsat SA (NYSE:I) has had a jaw-dropping run in 2018, up nearly 1,000% year-to-date. What's more, the shares hit a record high of $37.70 yesterday, but were last seen down 1.4% to trade at $36.96. Today's pullback may have been in the cards, considering I stock's 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) closed last night 77 -- deep in overbought...Read More
• A modest USD retracement/cautions mood helps regain some positive traction. • Fed rate hike prospects/surging US bond yields seemed to cap strong gains. Gold reversed an early dip to $1219 area and is currently trading with modest gains, near the top end of its daily trading range. The commodity stalled this week's retracement slide from 2...Read More
MOSCOW, Oct 18 (Reuters) - A U.S.-China trade war could shave 0.1 to 0.2 percentage points off Russia's economic growth in the short term, the Russian central bank said on Thursday, adding there were risks of a slowdown by year-end.In an analytical note, the bank also said Russia's annual inflation in September continued to move towards its target of 4 percent. (Reporting by Katya Golubkova Editin...Read More
MEXICO CITY, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Hawkish Mexican central bank board member Manuel Ramos-Francia voted for 25 basis point rate hike at the Oct. 4 monetary policy meeting due to the “high degree of persistence” of core inflation, minutes of that meeting showed on Thursday.The other four members of the Bank of Mexico’s board voted to keep the benchmark interest rate steady at 7.75 pe...Read More
NEW YORK, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Blackstone Group LP, the world's largest manager of alternative assets, on Thursday posted third-quarter economic net income (ENI) per unit of 76 cents, slightly ahead of analysts' expectations.The mean forecast was for 74 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. A year earlier, Blackstone reported ENI per share of 68 cents.Blackstone owns financial data provider R...Read More
NVS will pay $2.1 billion in cash for ECYTSwitzerland's Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) said it will pay $2.1 bllion in cash for Endocyte (ECYT) -- or $24 per ECYT share -- hoping to capitalize on the Indiana-based drugmaker's prostrate cancer treatment. Novartis also reported better-than-expected third-quarter profit and raised its full-year revenue forecast, even as quarterly sales fell just short of the...Read More
(Reuters) - U.S. stocks opened lower on Thursday as some industrials reported disappointing results, while the Federal Reserve's minutes showed officials broadly agreed on raising interest rates further, fanning concerns that contributed to last week's sharp selloff.The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 61.12 points, or 0.24 percent, at the open to 25,645.56. The S&P 500 opened lower by 7.21 p...Read More