MILAN, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Intesa Sanpaolo is planning to refinance in full 11 billion euros ($14 billion) in wholesale bonds coming to maturity in 2018, the chief financial officer of Italy's biggest retail bank said on Thursday.Stefano Del Punta told Reuters in a phone interview the bank did not have large refinancing needs this year, as it was still relying on cheap funding provided by the Europ...Read More
* Proposed changes likely to mollify U.S. banks* The new rules could affect UK banks after Brexit* Amendments would remove some banks from scope of rules By Huw Jones and Francesco GuarascioLONDON/BRUSSELS, Feb 22 (Reuters) - The European Union has been urged by its presidency to ease proposed new regulations on foreign banks within the block to bring them in line with U.S. requirements, EU docum...Read More
Feb 22 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index was little changed on Thursday as investors took in a raft of corporate earnings and as resource-related shares benefited from a rise in commodity prices.* At 10:15 a.m. ET (15:15 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index was up 20.68 points, or 0.13 percent, at 15,544.69.* Magna International Inc provided one of the biggest boosts...Read More
(Recasts lead, adds background)NEW YORK, Feb 22 (Reuters) - The amount of U.S. commercial paper outstanding recorded its steepest one-week decline in seven months this week, suggesting a further drop in short-term corporate borrowing activity, Federal Reserve data showed on Thursday.Companies sell these short-term debt to money market mutual funds and other investors to raise cash to finance their...Read More
(Adds detail)MOSCOW, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Novatek is interested in Saudi Aramco joining the Arctic LNG-2 plant as a partner, the Russian gas producer's head Leonid Mikhelson said on Thursday, highlighting growing ties between Russia and Saudi Arabia. Both countries have been instrumental in implementing a global pact on cutting oil production by almost 1.8 million barrels per day.Novatek and its pa...Read More
OceanaGoldCorp. (TSX, ASX: OGC) reports a record net profit for both the fourth quarterand full-year 2017, helped by record revenues. The full-year profit was $172million, or 28 cents a share, up from $136 million, or 22 cents, in 2016. Theincrease was 26% despite a non-cash impairment of $18 million taken in thesecond quarter, OceanaGold says. Record annual revenue was $724 million, 15%higher tha...Read More
Clovis Oncology Inc (NASDAQ:CLVS) stock is up 7.4% to trade at $59 this morning, after the company received a positive trend vote from a European Union (EU) committee for its ovarian cancer drug marketing application. In response, RBC upgraded CLVS stock to "outperform" from "sector perform," while cutting its price target to $72 from $80. The analyst in coverage is calling for a positive outcome...Read More
Gold and gold ETF now testing critical near-term benchmark price.Failure to hold above this level would break the immediate-term trend.Fear factor still high, so don't give up on the metal yet. Spot gold closed lower on Wednesday after its biggest daily slide in 10 weeks the previous day. Gold struggled to rise in the face of a higher U.S. dollar index and ignored weakness in U.S. equities for...Read More
* U.S. weekly jobless claims fall more than expected* Bond yields ease from Wednesday's peak* Futures pick up after Bullard's comment on rates* Indexes up: Dow 0.87 pct, S&P 0.77 pct, Nasdaq 0.7 pct (Updates to open)By Sruthi ShankarFeb 22 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes rose on Thursday, led by gains in technology and industrial shares as investors looked past fears of more interest ra...Read More
By Andrew TorchiaDUBAI, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Dubai consumer inflation rose only moderately in January when the United Arab Emirates introduced a 5 percent value-added tax, as authorities look to balance a need to increase state revenues with continued economic growth.Last month's imposition of VAT on the UAE's low-tax economy, designed to strengthen state finances in the face of low oil prices, was...Read More
ZAGREB, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Croatia will offer 1.3 billion kuna ($215.35 million) worth of treasury bills at an auction next week, the same amount itoffered this week, the Finance Ministry said on Thursday.On Feb. 27 the ministry will offer one-year paper, which has been regularly on offer in recent auctions. Occasionally the ministry also offers bills of three-month and six-month maturities as wel...Read More
(Kitco News) - Goldprices have pushed to session highs and have takenback overnight losses in late-morning trading Thursday. The yellow metal hasbeen given a lift as the U.S. dollar index has dropped to lower levels and iscurrently trading near its daily low. April gold was last down $0.80 at$1,331.20. By Jim Wyckoff For Kitco NewsFollow @jimwyckoffjwyckoff@kitco.comwww.kitco.com Disclaimer:...Read More
We are seeing yields moving strongly to the upside as several key inflation readings have been hitting new multi-year highs.There has been a clear downward trend in production over the last 8 years and there was barely any growth in output last year.Gold is on track for three years of gains in a row.Chart of GLD remains extremely bullish.As I have explained in previous articles, the reason why I'm...Read More
Fiber-optic networking producer Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) reported a fourth-quarter adjusted earnings beat last night, but revenue fell short of estimates, and the company gave an unimpressive first-quarter forecast. As such, the shares of AAOI have fallen more than 21% to trade at $27.25 -- earlier hitting a new annual low of $26.93 -- and have received no fewer than one downgr...Read More
Feb 22 (Reuters) - Finland's Financial Supervisory Authority said on Thursday it had obliged Croatian investor Danko Koncar to launch a takeover bid for the Finnish metal producer Afarak . * Koncar, Afarak's chief operating officer, is supposed to publish a bid within a month from the decision* Koncar is the general director of investing company Kermas Limited, which became Afarak's biggest shareh...Read More
MEXICO CITY, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Most of Mexico's central bank board are concerned that recent shocks to consumer prices could slow a projected drop in annual inflation back to policymakers' 3 percent target, minutes from the last decision showed on Thursday.Banco de Mexico's governing board unanimously voted to hike the key rate by 25 basis points on Feb 8 to 7.50 percent, its highest since Februa...Read More
(Kitco News) -Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE, TSX: ABX) Thursday outlined thecompany’s plans to develop a number of projects that are expected to addanother 1 million ounces or more of annual production starting in 20212.Nevada projects at Cortez Deep South, Goldrush and TurquoiseRidge have been approved, while work on a project to extend the life of theLagunas Norte Mine in Peru is under way, sai...Read More
(Kitco News) - Kitco aficionados, it isnow time to have your say in where you think gold prices are heading in theshort-term.Will gold prices go higher, lower or remain unchanged nextweek? Kitco readers will have until 9 a.m. EDT, Friday to cast their vote. The results will be tabulated and released after noon (12PM EDT) along with the results fromour market professional survey.Readers can also se...Read More
Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P) stock is set to jump nearly 5.8% at the open, after the music streaming service reported a 63% rise in subscription revenue to $97.7 million, and said its number of subscribers increased 25% from this time last year to 5.48 million. This is helping to overshadow a wider-than-expected fourth-quarter loss of 21 cents per share, though revenue of $395.3 million beat expecta...Read More
Streaming TV technology provider Roku Inc (NASDAQ:ROKU) exploded onto the Wall Street scene after going public back in late September, mostly thanks to a huge post-earnings surge from early November to mid-December that saw the shares rally from just under $20 to nearly $59. ROKU stock settled at $51.10 yesterday -- corresponding with a $5 billion market cap -- but in premarket trading it's down 1...Read More