Diamond News Archives
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Corporations, like people, are pretty simple: They do what they are rewarded to do. So when the Federal Reserve, by keeping interest rates very low for nearly a decade, rewards companies for borrowing money by making it historically inexpensive to do so, it can’t be a surprise to anyone that that’s exactly what they did.
In 2008, in the wake of the financial crisis, the Fed began its “quantitative easing” program, a determined effort to buoy the economy by lowering the cost of borrowing. It bought up trillions of dollars in Treasury and other debt securities, effectively reducing long-term interest rates. Debt issuance exploded. In the last decade, the amount of corporate bonds outstanding nearly doubled[1] to $9 trillion, from $5.5 trillion.
Much of that surge has come in the form of bonds rated BBB, near the riskier end of the investment-grade spectrum — meaning that the money borrowed remains at some danger, albeit low, of not being paid back. There is now nearly $2.5 trillion of United States corporate debt rated in the BBB category, close to triple the amount of 2008[2], making up half of the investment-grade bond market.
It’s been quite a party. Now comes the hangover.
In the last decade, well-established companies including G.E., AT&T, CVS Health, Sherwin-Williams and Campbell Soup went on acquisition binges fueled largely by cheap borrowing. As interest rates rise and the economy appears to be slowing, they are in not-insignificant danger of defaulting on the debt, a fear that has started to cause disturbing ripples in the debt and equity markets. ...
References
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Mountain Province Diamonds (TSX, NASDAQ: MPVD) issued a statement today saying it expects the Gahcho Kué mine, its joint venture De Beers, to produce between 6.6 and 6.9 million carats in 2019, recovered after processing some 3.1 to 3.2 million tonnes of ore.
This guidance for the new fiscal year estimates that production costs would be of up to CAD$120 per tonne of ore processed and of CAD$50 to CAD$54 per carat recovered. Most of the ore tonnes mined and processed in 2019 are expected to be from the Hearne pit.
Gahcho Kué is Canada’s newest diamond mine and the world’s largest in the last 14 years. Located in the Northwest Territories, the operation officially opened in September 2016 and achieved commercial production the following year.
In addition to the 2019 guidance, Mountain Province presented a 3-year production outlook for the mine, which sees steady recovery rates in 2020 and a growth between 6.8 and 7.1 million carats in 2021.
In the press release, the Toronto-based miner said that, based on the tonnes that are currently being treated, management is confident that Gahcho Kué will achieve and probably surpass its 2018 production guidance of 6.6 million carats.
“With the 2018 fiscal year coming to an end, we are well on our way to exceed the upper end of our 2018 guidance. As we look forward to 2019 and beyond, our business plan demonstrates the quality of our core asset and the excellent work that the operations team has carried out over the past year, both in exceeding the targets for the current year, and building a stronger longer-term business plan that should extend the life of mine beyond 2028,” Stuart Brown, the company's President and CEO, said in...
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Mike Maloney was excited. It was our weekly company meeting, and he interrupted it to tell us all about a new recession indicator he’d just discovered. In fact, he said it is “one of the most reliable indicators of a pending recession I have ever come across.”
And that’s the basis of his just-released video, "I Found a Brand New Recession Indicator and It Says Look Out Below![1]"
He showed us a series of charts, some of which were highlighted in his Early Warning Webinar[2]. They include the Wilshire 5000 Index, the US monetary base, and the federal government’s tax receipts. And it is the correlation of those charts that formed the basis of what Mike calls the “financialization of government.” And then he showed us a new indicator that has a strong track record of predicting recessions.
It works like this…
Since 2000, the data show that tax revenues fall when the stock market falls. In other words, a rising stock market feeds higher and higher tax receipts to the government. If tax revenues fall, however, federal income declines, because less tax on capital gains come in. And this leads to an expansion in the deficit. You’d think the government would be better prepared for this reality, but they never are because they never plan on a recession.
So when the stock market inevitably crashes, the government reacts by lowering interest rates, printing money, or expanding government programs – all of which, of course, grow the deficit even larger.
But where the story gets very interesting is when Mike compares tax revenue to the timeline of past recessions, particularly tax receipts on corporate income. You might think that tax revenues would fall...
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(IDEX Online) – The holiday sales season in the United States got off to a record-breaking start, according to figures for Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.<?xml:namespace prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /?>
A record $6.22 billion was spent on Black Friday, reported Adobe Analytics, which tracks sales at 80 of the top US 100 retailers.
That is 24% higher than the $5.03 billion spent during Black Friday in 2017.
Adobe expects that customers would spend another $7.8 billion on Cyber Monday deals, which would make it the largest online shopping day ever in the United States.
That would also represent a huge increase compared with the 2017 figure of 18%, Adobe Analytics said, and made Monday the biggest online shopping day in U.S. history.
Thanksgiving day spending is estimated at $3.7 billion.
The strength of the US economy is seen giving the retail industry a big boost.
"Black Friday kicked the holiday shopping season into high gear, driven by positive consumer sentiment and great deals from retailers," said Tom McGee, CEO of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC).
"When consumers think of Thanksgiving Weekend and Cyber Monday, they think of big brands and great deals, and an omnichannel experience offers the best of both worlds. To capitalize on this, retailers are doubling down on experience and promotion, and so far the results have been impressive."
An estimated 151 million people visited a mall or shopping center over the weekend, according to the ICSC, and spent an average of $222.70 each on...
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News flow out of the diamond industry in 2018 has been dominated by the progression of lab-created diamond production, distribution and pricing dynamics. Numerous new players have entered the space, production capabilities have improved and supply has been scaled. This year alone, the price differential of a generic 1-carat lab-created diamond has fallen by almost 50% relative to the price a comparable natural diamond (the discount in late-November of 42% has risen from 29% in January).
In late-May, industry bellwether De Beers crossed the Rubicon, announcing the company would be entering the lab-created diamond jewelry space through a subsidiary called Lightbox. The move implies a nuanced strategy with a general aim at differentiating consumer perception of lab-created and natural diamonds.
In late September the product became available to consumers exclusively through the company’s website with the notable item a 1-carat solitaire pendant offered for $800 plus a nominal setting fee. At the time of launch an equivalent-quality 1-carat generic lab-created diamond was selling for around $3,700.
(By Paul Zimnisky)
The post 2018: The year of the lab-created diamond appeared first on MINING.com....