Diamond News Archives
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(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell may have a problem on his hands. Buoyed by three interest-rate cuts, not only did the U.S. housing market stand as a pillar of economic support in 2019, it largely offset the protracted slowdown in business investment. Now, though, cracks have begun to appear in housing.
Focusing solely on forward-looking indicators of residential real estate, the direct input to gross domestic product, building permits in the South and Northeast, which account for about 60% of permits, fell in December. As for what’s to come on the sales side, pending homes sales fell by 4.9%, the steepest decline in a decade.
Neither of these data points place housing at risk. The 5.8% gain in residential real estate that supported fourth-quarter gross domestic product topped the third quarter read of 4.6% of GDP that followed a contraction in seven of the prior eight quarters. Even as consumption has faded, this strength should hold. December was one of the warmest for that month on record, and construction data released for that month indicates residential’s contribution to GDP was even higher than initially reported, which will lead to an upward GDP revision. December single-family housing starts, at 1.61 million on a seasonally adjusted annualized rate, were the most in 13 years.
Even with this strength, it's hard to ignore the dip in housing permits and weakness in pending home sales, which were not aberrant in any way, as the softness was not isolated to any pocket of the country. Pending home sales fell 4.0% in the Northeast and 3.6% in the Midwest. And in the critical building hubs of the South and West, pending sales sunk 5.5% and 5.4%.
While many factors are no doubt at work, affordability is key. The downside...
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Gold futures on Thursday remained buoyant for a second session, as some experts foresee a lower-for-longer, interest-rate regime buttressing the yellow metal, even as anxieties around a novel strain of coronavirus in China has appeared to ebb.
“While safe-haven demand for gold may fade as the coronavirus outbreak is brought under control, the yellow metal also has fundamental support from low real rates, which reduce the opportunity cost of holding gold, and is likely to benefit if the US dollar weakens as we expect,” wrote a team at UBS led by Mark Haefele, global chief investment officer, in a Thursday research report.
Gold for April delivery GCJ20, +0.19%[1] on Comex added $6.60, or 0.4%, to $1,569.40 an ounce, after rising 0.5% in the previous session.
March silver SIH20, +0.64%[2] added 25 cents, or 1.4%, to $17.6 an ounce, after settling 0.2% higher on Wednesday.
The modest gains come as stocks in the U.S., and globally, were set to stage a fourth straight gain, as China announced it would halve tariffs[3] on $75 billion of U.S. imports, starting next week, coming after the signing of the phase one U.S.-China trade deal in January.
The tariff reductions come as coronavirus has claimed[4] at least 565 lives and infected more than 28,000 people, according to China’s National Health Commission. But investors appear ready to bet that the outbreak
“Gold prices remain resilient even though a risk-on...
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(IDEX Online) - The Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) has announced plans to hold its second African Diamond Conference (ADC). The conference will take place in Durban, South Africa on May 5-6.
The last ADC took place in Brussels in 2017.
The AWDC website[1] describes the event as a high-level gathering for African mining ministers, the diplomatic corps, global diamond industry, civil society and academia to discuss the challenges and opportunities for African diamond-producing countries now and in the future.
Topics planned for discussion include: advancing diamond benificiation in Africa, greenfield diamond exploration, strategies to market natural rough diamonds, leveraging the diamond industry for socio-economic development, and the importance of diamond trading centres in the global value chain.
According to Diamond Loupe[2], the key objectives of the conference will be to "promote direct and mutually-beneficial relations between African diamond producing countries and the (Belgian) diamond industry, linking capacity building with higher revenues for diamond producing countries, as well as launching initiatives to foster good governance in the diamond industry."
"We believe constructive dialogue between equal partners is essential as we confront the many challenges facing our industry," said AWDC CEO Ari Epstein, as reported by Diamond Loupe. ...
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This is a live blog. Please check back for updates.
Total cases: More than 24,000 as of Wednesday morning.
Total deaths: At least 490 worldwide as of Wednesday morning
2:31 pm: Life under quarantine. Civil rights activists criticize lockdowns
Jarred Evans spent his fourth night of quarantine on the March Air Reserve Base with the 194 other Americans he was evacuated with last week from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. Evans and the other Americans at the base in Riverside, California were the first U.S. citizens to be quarantined by the federal government since the 1960s, health officials said last week. American Civil Liberties Union senior policy analyst Jay Stanley said the move is an escalation by the Trump administration that tests the balance of public health and individual liberty[1]. "Quarantining somebody is an extraordinary deprivation of their liberties," he said. "There's a burden on the government to determine that it's really using the least restrictive alternative."
2:25 pm Wisconsin confirms first case of virus
A Wisconsin resident who recently traveled to China has been infected with the coronavirus, state health officials said at a news conference. The patient is currently "doing well" and in isolation at home, they said. Health officials said there is no immediate danger and the risk to the broader public is "low." - Lovelace
2:13 pm: US House panel holds hearing on the outbreak
The U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Foreign Affairs is holding a hearing on the outbreak scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. ET. Witnesses include senior scholar at Johns Hopkins University's Center for Health Security Jennifer Nuzzo, senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation Jennifer Bouey and former White...
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BOSTON, Feb 5 (Reuters) - The New York Federal Reserve said it accepted $47.5 billion in overnight bids from primary dealers in a repurchase agreement (repo) operation, a move intended to keep the federal funds rate within its target range. (Reporting by Ross Kerber editing by Louise Heavens)...