Gold futures rose Monday to settle at their highest since late July as benchmark stock indexes mostly declined and a leading dollar index weakened. December gold GCZ8, +0.34% rose $8.30, or 0.7%, to settle at $1,230.30 an ounce. That was the highest finish for a most-active contract since July 31, according to FactSet data. Meanwhile, December SIZ8, +0.80% silver rose 9.2 cents, or 0.6%,... read more

Having unilaterally reimposed sanctions on Iran, US President Donald Trump's administration is threatening to penalize companies doing business with the Islamic Republic by denying them access to US banks. But that could hasten the dollar's demise as the main global currency. BRUSSELS – US President Donald Trump’s unilateralism is reshaping the world in profound and irreversible ways.... read more

Jeffrey Gundlach believes the U.S. stock market can't diverge from global equity markets forever. The bond investor noted the S&P 500 was strangely outperforming the rest of the world's equity markets since the summer into this month. "I said [before] ... if the global stock [market] is going to take out the low and put in a new low, something bad must be happening. I don't think the U.S.... read more

1. The End of Easy Money To offset the effects of the global financial crisis a decade ago, central banks increased liquidity by slashing interest rates and buying trillions of dollars’ worth of government securities. Now, however, it looks as though banks are ready to start tightening, and no one is really quite sure what the consequences will be. The Federal Reserve was the first, in late... read more

ZURICH) - The era of mystery-cloaked numbered Swiss bank accounts has officially come to a close as Switzerland, the world’s biggest center for managing offshore wealth, began automatically sharing client data with tax authorities in dozens of other countries. The Federal Tax Administration (FTA) said on Friday it had for the first time exchanged financial account data at the end of Septe... read more

China is pouring more cash into its flagging economy as it braces for further pain from the trade war with the United States. The Chinese economy has lost momentum this year following government efforts to try to rein in high levels of debt. It's also coming under pressure from US tariffs on more than $250 billion of Chinese exports. China's central bank said Sunday that it would move to fr... read more

A decade after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, global debt levels are higher than in 2008, lending has moved into the opaque realm of asset management and private equity, and the dollar is surging. Given the proliferating risks, another financial crisis and downturn could be in store. BASEL – No one should overestimate economists’ powers of understanding. Just as the magnitude of the gl... read more

Get ready, gold bulls: The precious metal could be close to finding a bottom. The price of gold fell back below $1,200 an ounce again last week as the U.S. dollar advanced following another federal funds rate hike. The precious metal logged its sixth straight month of declines, its longest losing streak since 1989. That gold’s not trading below $1,150 is, I believe, remarkable. There’s a... read more

New York City's pricey real estate has become a "buyers market," new data suggests, characterized by lowball offers and a rise in the number of properties staying on the market for longer. The latest figures from Warburg Realty show that among higher-priced homes, New York City is in the throes of a "major shift" that reflects a cooling market, the likes of which hasn't been seen in almost a d... read more

Gold has a bad reputation among some investors. The shiny metal has long been seen as “the investment choice of the cranky and the fearful”, says Andrew Bary in Barron’s. It yields nothing, and in the words of Warren Buffett, it just “looks at you”. It has certainly fallen out of favour this year. The price has fallen by 11.2% since 22 January to just under $1,200 an ounce – that’... read more