Hit Chinese sci-fi novel to be published in English

 The English version of a best-seller by China's most popular science fiction writer is expected to hit shelves in the United States in October, China Educational Publications Import and Export Corporation Ltd. (CEPIT) announced Monday.

In Liu Cixin's Three Body trilogy, the entire solar system is flattened into a two-dimensional image in an apocalyptic battle between earthlings and aliens.

The masterpiece by Liu, an engineer by trade, has been hailed for its extraordinary artistic vision. Three specially selected translators, Ken Liu, Joel Martinsen, and Eric Abrahamsen, have been working on the English version of the trilogy.

Ken Liu, himself a winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards, undertook the first part, "The Three-Body Problem." Some episodes in the book take place during China's Cultural Revolution (1966-76). Though the historical setting is unusual for science fiction, it serves to foreshadow later developments in the novel.

Both Ken Liu and Martinsen, who translated "Dark Forest," have finished translation. Abrahamsen's translation of "Dead End" has yet to be completed.

According to CEPIT, the English version of "Dark Forest" is expected to hit the market in May 2015, while the translation of "Dead End" will be released in January 2016. The trilogy will be available both in paper and electronic forms.

It took CEPIT and its US partner, Tor Books, 17 months to complete procedures to sign a contract allowing for global publication of the novel in English.

The first book in the trilogy,"The Three-Body Problem," was originally serialized by Science Fiction World magazine from May to December 2006.

"There was no best-seller in the science fiction genre in China," said Yao Haijun, chief editor of Science Fiction World, the largest sci-fi magazine in the world with a monthly circulation of 100,000 copies.

"Liu Cixin was the right sci-fi writer to make science fiction more popular," Yao said, explaining why his magazine published "The Three-Body Problem."

Yao recalled that letters from readers flooded into his office, most of which were compliments to Liu Cixin.

"The Three-Body Problem" was reprinted in January 2008.

Yao said the trilogy is the best-selling sci-fi novel in China and the first to be translated into English in the past three decades. He said 400,000 copies had been printed in Chinese as of last year, though he said he did not have data about how many copies have been sold.

He believes that "The Three-Body Problem" meets Western readers' expectations for a sci-fi novel and presents Chinese solutions to some future problems.

The science fiction genre has represented a literary minority in China, as highly imaginative works were once thought of as nonsense.

Only three decades ago, when Liu Cixin was in college, China's science fiction suffered a blow as it was seen as "spiritual pollution" from the West that should be cleaned up.

Liu never imagined that one day his sci-fi novel would reach the West.

Science fiction writer Han Song believes the trilogy will win Liu the Hugo Award from the World Science Fiction Society. Liu, though hopeful, expects nothing.

"I wish to win, but it's not easy," said Liu in an earlier telephone interview with Xinhua.

The trilogy won him a national children's literature prize last September. In China's government-backed literature awards, science fiction is grouped with children's literature.

China's returned overseas students top 1.4 million

Over 1.4 million Chinese overseas students returned to China after graduation in the past 35 years, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Education (MOE) on Tuesday.

The MOE cited figures that over 3.05 million people had pursued degrees in foreign countries from 1978, the beginning of China's opening-up policy, to the end of 2013.

Among the more than 1.6 million people who have not returned, 1.07 million are studying or doing research abroad.

Along with its rising strength and economic development, China's demand for talents is also on the rise, according to a statement issued by the MOE, and the number of students studying abroad and graduates returning to China will continue to grow rapidly.

Source: Xinhua

China's Huangshan hosts dialogue on world heritage protection

 An international dialogue on the use of space technologies in world heritage protection kicked off on Tuesday at China's Mount Huangshan, a UNESCO natural and cultural heritage site and global geopark.

Representatives of UNESCO-designated places, including World Heritage Sites, Biosphere Reserves and UNESCO-affiliated Global Geoparks, gathered together for the first time for a four-day dialogue in Huangshan, Anhui Province.

The dialogue was aimed at boosting communication and cooperation among UNESCO-designated places, and enhancing protection, management and sustainable development of these places through space technologies, said Hong Tianhua, secretary-general of the dialogue's organizing committee.

As the number of UNESCO-designated places has increased in recent years, protection and management of these places have become more challenging. The rapid development of space technologies, such as aeronautical, astronautical and ground-based monitoring, have been one of the key technologies to solve global environmental and development issues, said Hong, also executive deputy director of the International Center on Space Technologies for Natural and Cultural Heritages (HIST).

Established in July 2011, the Beijing-based HIST is under the auspices of UNESCO and hosted by the Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth (RADI) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), which is aimed at providing technical services to UNESCO and its member states on the use of space technologies for UNESCO-designated places.

More than 160 representatives from UNESCO-designated places in 23 countries attended the dialogue, which was organized by HIST and the RADI of CAS and hosted by the Mount Huangshan Administrative Committee.

Source: Xinhua

Xinhua: China to clean up(??) instant messaging services, companies to cooperate(?)

The Chinese government started a month-long campaign to eliminate malpractice on instant messaging services like WeChat on Tuesday.

While such services have become popular online communication channels, some people have used them to distribute illegal and harmful information, seriously undermining public interests and order in cyberspace, said a statement from the State Internet Information Office (SIIO).

The campaign will target public accounts on instant messaging services, which can spread information on a large scale and mobilize followers, according to the statement.

WeChat has more than 800 million users. Besides private accounts used for communication among friends, family and acquaintances, many public accounts are owned by organizations, companies or individuals for mass communication.

The campaign will crack down on those spreading rumors and information relating to violence, terrorism and pornography, as well as those using instant messaging for fraud.

"We will firmly fight against infiltration from hostile forces at home and abroad," the statement said.

The SIIO, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and Ministry of Public Security are in charge of the campaign, which will hold service providers responsible if they do not fulfill their duty.

The authorities also encourage the public to provide tip-offs through emails, phone calls or the website net.china.com.cn, the statement added.

Seven instant messaging companies, including WeChat, Momo, Mi Talk and Yixin, have agreed to cooperate with the authorities and launch internal inspection, said a statement issued after a meeting among the three government departments and service providers.

The seven companies also announced an initiative calling the industry to fulfill their social responsibilities.

They called on all instant messaging companies to abide by law and stop providing the means to spread vile information.

Instant messaging companies should work with the government to fight prostitution, fraud and blackmarket on their applications, the announcement said.

They should also introduce practice to identify and clear rumors on their applications, it added.

Source: Xinhua

Asian Shares Edge Up, Taking Lead From U.S.

       The WSJ reports,Asian stocks edged higher on Wednesday, taking a positive lead from the U.S., whileMitsui Fudosan  sank in Tokyo after announcing a share offering.

The region moved higher after stocks in the U.S. hit a new high overnight, with the S&P 500 closing at its second straight record as the market came back online following Monday's public holiday.

The gains in Asia however were modest, as markets waited for bigger catalysts. The next major data point for the region will be China's official manufacturing purchasing managers' index, due over the weekend, where investors will be looking to see if it can match the pickup seen in HSBC's  preliminary measure last week.

Australia's S&P ASX 200 was up 0.2% as Sydney hit a four-week high, South Korea's Kospi added 0.4%, and Singapore's Straits Times Index was up less than 0.1%.

"From an equity strategy perspective ultralow volatility and ultralow trading volumes concern me tactically," said Bell Potter's managing director Charlie Aitken in Sydney. "That suggests to me the foundation of equity markets at these index levels are not as sturdy as prices would suggest."

In China, Hong Kong's Hang Seng  Index rose by 0.1% and the Shanghai Composite was also 0.1% higher.

In Japan, the Nikkei Share Average was 0.3% higher, on track for its fifth consecutive gain, as the yen was steady against the dollar--last trading at Yen101.94 to the dollar.

WSJ: Opinión: Atentado contra el milagro chileno La presidenta Michelle Bachelet quiere aumentar el impuesto a las empresas de 20% a 35%

Eduardo Aninat, ex ministro de Hacienda de Chile no es un fanático de las políticas económicas de la oferta. Su curriculum vitae incluye cinco años en el gobierno de centroizquierda del presidente demócrata cristiano Eduardo Frei (1994-2000) y luego un período como subdirector gerente del Fondo Monetario Internacional. Sin embargo, el ex funcionario está preocupado de que el plan del gobierno de la recién asumida Michelle Bachelet para elevar drásticamente los impuestos sobre el capital perjudique el crecimiento y el desarrollo de Chile.

Aninat dice que Bachelet debería instruir a su equipo para que tenga una "discusión a fondo" sobre el asunto. No obstante, el gobierno y su coalición Nueva Mayoría, que controla las dos cámaras del Congreso, dicen que de ninguna manera. Ellos ganaron las elecciones. Ellos dictarán la ley.

 Ahora, Bachelet y sus compinches en el Congreso están enviando señales de un cambio en las reglas de juego que sugiere un regreso a la polarización política de comienzos de los años 70. Cuesta evitar la conclusión de que ven sus mayorías legislativas como la oportunidad de finalmente embutir el sueño utópico del presidente Salvador Allende en la garganta colectiva de Chile.

El senador Jaime Quintana, vocero de la Nueva Mayoría en la cámara alta, dijo prácticamente eso en marzo, cuando la oposición se quejó de que la coalición gobernante estaba pasando la "aplanadora" en el Congreso. "Nosotros no vamos a pasar una aplanadora", dijo Quintana. "Vamos a poner aquí una retroexcavadora, porque hay que destruir los cimientos anquilosados del modelo neoliberal de la dictadura".

Bachelet ganó la segunda vuelta electoral con más de 60% de los votos y sus aliados de la izquierda creen que tiene un mandato para desmantelar la economía de mercado. Sin embargo, incluso con un mayoría de 67 a 49 escaños en la cámara baja y de 19 a 16 en el Senado, no será fácil. La mandataria no alcanza a tener las mayorías absolutas en el Congreso que necesita para reformar la Constitución y poner al Estado en el centro de la economía.

Aun así, podría sacudir el mercado. La reforma tributaria que ha enviado al Congreso eleva la tasa impositiva de las empresas de 20% a 35%. Tal vez aún más perjudicial, elimina el Fondo de Utilidades Tributarias (FUT), que permite a las empresas retrasar el pago de impuestos sobre las ganancias si éstas son reinvertidas en lugar de retiradas. El FUT ha suministrado buena parte del capital que alimentó el rápido crecimiento de Chile en las últimas tres décadas.

WSJ: Currency Chaos in Venezuela Portends Write-Downs

        The WSJ reports,"with the highest inflation rate in the Americas and at least five currency devaluations in the past decade, the South American country is a corporate guessing game.    

In just over a year, Venezuela has concocted a system of three exchange rates, fueling a black market for greenbacks.

While many multinational companies continue to cling to more-favorable exchange rates for accounting purposes, those days may be numbered.

“We’re looking at enormous losses coming for businesses. …This is only the beginning,” warned Ángel García Banchs, a director at Caracas consulting firm Econométrica. “The only thing that can resolve this problem is a complete overhaul of the economic model.”

Venezuela’s prices on everything from butter to flat-screen TVs are set without warning by the government, which also caps corporate profits at 30%. Any profits evaporate quickly, however, because inflation is almost double that.

And expanded price controls imposed by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who succeeded late leftist firebrand Hugo Chávez in April 2013, have exacerbated shortages of basic items such as corn flour, car batteries and toilet paper, triggering violent street protests since early February.

The country’s foreign-exchange system puts companies on an uneven playing field, depending on their business. At the government’s official rate for companies that import essential goods, such as food and medicine, a U.S. dollar costs 6.3 bolivars. Companies invited by the government to participate in a middle-tier rate system can effectively buy a dollar for 10 bolivars. For companies in the next and newest tier, 50 bolivars fetch a dollar, leaving them to ponder the true value of their Venezuelan factories and inventories.

For anyone unable to get dollars through official channels, the black-market rate is roughly 70 bolivars. The U.S. currency is vital to Venezuela, which imports as much as 80% of what it consumes; 96% of its exports are petroleum products".

Some business deals aren’t getting done because there aren’t enough dollars to pay suppliers. Venezuela’s top industry chamber, Conindustria, estimates that the government owes its members $10 billion.

Auto makers have been especially hard hit because they lack the dollars to pay their suppliers. Fuel Systems Solutions Inc., a New York-based producer of natural-gas fuel systems for cars, didn’t sell a single part in Venezuela between October and April because car makers have been strapped for dollars, said Pietro Bersani, the company’s chief financial officer.

Ford Motor Co., which temporarily stopped local production of its Fiesta and other vehicles, moved to the mid-tier exchange rate in this year’s first quarter and booked a $310 million charge. Ford said it concluded it would need this exchange to access dollars in the future. The company declined to say if it would adopt the most recent exchange rate.

“We have received a commitment from the Venezuela government to help resolve the issues and to get our production up and running by the start of next month,” Ford said in a statement.

General Motors Co. wrote off $400 million in the first quarter, and said every 10% devaluation of the bolivar from the mid-tier rate would force another $100 million write-down. Chrysler Group LLC wrote off $129 million in the quarter, and warned “there may be significant changes to the exchange rate in future quarters.”

At the same time, businesses stuck with a lot of bolivars must get creative.MercadoLibre Inc, an online marketplace based in Buenos Aires, is investing its Venezuelan profits in commercial real estate to hedge against inflation, said Pedro Arnt, the company’s CFO.

Mr. Bersani, of Fuel Systems, doesn’t expect “clarity or something close to clarity” on the fate of the bolivar anytime soon. Certain central-bank posts need to be filled, and the government needs to establish a permanent, workable currency policy, but he said he is “not so pessimistic” that a solution ultimately can be found.

Others aren’t so sure. Sick of the uncertainty, some foreign airlines are pulling out of the country altogether. Air Canada said in March that it would stop flying to Venezuela, and Italy’s Alitalia plans to follow suit next month.

Geopolitics a Multipolar World(Desire)? : Russia Courtship Exposes Fragile U.S.-China Ties

          The WSJ reports,"the year after President Richard Nixon's historic 1972 "opening to China," the Philadelphia Orchestra arrived in Beijing in his footsteps.

     Nixon had played the China card, shifting the balance against the Soviet Union in the Cold War. The first American orchestra to visit Communist-ruled China, along with "ping-pong diplomacy"—exchanges of table tennis players—began the people-to-people contacts that underpinned the strategic goals of the new U.S.-China relationship.

 The geopolitical foundations of the relationship forged during the Nixon era are crumbling.

This turn of history was dramatically illustrated last Wednesday when, as the Philadelphia Orchestra was preparing for its opening night at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, were sealing a $400 billion contract in Shanghai to supply Russian gas.

It was one of the largest commercial agreements of all time. But as they threw back thimble-sized glasses of white liquor to celebrate their outsized deal, it was clear that the two leaders were playing a strategic card against America, too.

Both leaders are powerful and charismatic. Both bridle at the U.S.-dominated global order, and profess a desire to create a "multipolar" world. Mr. Putin, having been spurned by the West, is looking east to China. Mr. Xi is only too happy to receive his advances".

To be sure, their collaboration has limits. Behind displays of Sino-Russian solidarity lurks a deep mutual suspicion.

Yet the scene in Shanghai underscored a profound shift in China's foreign policy as it challenges the legacy of the Cold War-era".

The China that Nixon visited under Mao Zedong was content for America to dominate in Asia, a region it had lorded over for several millenniums. It had little choice. Back then, China was poor and weak. And it was desperate for the benefits that America had to offer, from capital and technology to management know-how.

Now China is rich—by some measures it has already overtaken America as the world's largest economy. And, at long last, it's strong enough to dispute America's primacy in Asia.

That's the background to a recent string of assertive Chinese moves in Asia, from setting up an Air Defense Identification Zone in November last year over the East China Sea, including islands it disputes with Japan, to parking an oil rig in disputed waters off Vietnam last month.

China is bent on challenging the Cold War architecture that America built in Asia to assure its hegemony—one that Mao's China reluctantly accepted in return for Nixon's visit that led to diplomatic relations.

It is doing this in several ways: By investing in a powerful military that's now capable of thwarting U.S. armed forces in Asia to some extent; by seeking to undermine the network of U.S. alliances in the region, most crucially the one with Japan, through aggressive tactics that sow doubts about whether America really is ready to risk war to stand up for its friends; and by forging new alignments of its own, including one with Mr. Putin's Russia.

How strong are the people to people ties. Granted that there is a symbiotic sino-american relationship, China is a US$ 300 billion market for U.S. companies,China is the largets foreign holder of U.S. debt. More than a quarter of foreign students are chinese.

China's desire for U.S. technology is undiminished. Nor can it continue its global rise without America's open markets.

"Yet nationalism is a powerful force. And it can't be taken for granted that people-to-people ties are strong enough, on their own, to hold the relationship together.

China's furious reaction last week to the indictment by the U.S. Justice Department of five Chinese military officers, alleging they hacked U.S. companies' computers to steal trade secrets, is an example of how quickly the commercial relationship can go awry now that the strategic relationship has become so unmoored and mutual trust is failing".

Abe's Strategy: Rearrange Region's Power Balance

       The WSJ reports,"Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe laid out an assertive foreign policy agenda, saying he hoped to accelerate maritime aid to Vietnam amid its territorial standoff with China and host Vladimir Putin this year despite the Russian president's isolation from the West.

Beijing's "unilateral drilling activities" for oil in waters claimed also by Hanoi have led to "heightening of tensions," Mr. Abe told The Wall Street Journal in an interview Friday. "We will never tolerate the change of status quo by force or coercion," added the Japanese leader, who has assiduously courted Southeast Asian leaders during the past year and offered himself as a counterweight to China's muscle-flexing.

As part of his broader strategy to rearrange the region's power balance, Mr. Abe also signaled a desire to keep alive his diplomatic overtures to Russia. He condemned Russia's annexation of portions of Ukraine and noted that Japan has imposed sanctions in coordination with the U.S. and Europe. But he made clear that he also hoped to maintain the dialogue he has intensified through five summit meetings with Mr. Putin, more than Mr. Abe has had with any other head of state.

"Regarding the visit to Japan by President Putin, I agreed with the president that we should carry it out in autumn of this year," Mr. Abe said. The two leaders have agreed to accelerate talks over a long-elusive peace treaty from World War II. Mr. Abe hopes to win return of Japanese islands seized at the end of the war, get further access to Russian energy and win a new partner in his bid to contain China.

Mr. Putin was less welcoming to Japan, however, telling foreign journalists Saturday that Tokyo's sanctions against Russia surprised him and left him unsure whether Japan was ready for talks.

Mr. Abe's remarks came a day before tensions flared anew in Japan's dispute with China over a small group of islands in the East China Sea as well as the surrounding airspace. Twice on Saturday, Chinese fighter jets flew perilously close to Japanese reconnaissance craft, leading both governments to file protests. Japan said China's actions were "meant to intimidate," while China said Japan had "carried out dangerous actions, in serious violation of international laws."

The weekend exchange underscored a theme of Mr. Abe's administration—that the region around Japan is increasingly dangerous, and that Tokyo has no choice but to embrace a more muscular foreign policy in response. Since taking office in December 2012, Mr. Abe, 59 years old, has tried to remake the image of a country long defined by passive diplomacy and its role as a junior ally to the U.S.

As part of that campaign, Mr. Abe on Friday will deliver the keynote speech to the annual Shangri-La Dialogue security conference in Singapore, the first Japanese prime minister to do so.

But Mr. Abe has struggled at times to sell his agenda. In mid-May he announced plans to move forward with a proposal to reinterpret Japan's postwar pacifist constitution in a way that would loosen some of the tight restrictions on Japan's military. His goal is to make Japan a more equal partner with the U.S. in policing Asia, a change the American military has encouraged as China boosts its defense spending while the Pentagon faces cutbacks.

"It's difficult for the general public to understand. And there is strong opposition," Mr. Abe acknowledged.

Ecuador signs permits for oil drilling in Amazon's Yasuni national park

Drilling for oil in a part of the Amazon rainforest considered one of the most biodiverse hotspots on the planet is to go ahead less than a year after Ecuador's president lifted a moratorium on oil drilling there.

Last August, Rafeal Correa scrapped a pioneering scheme, the Yasuni Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) initiative, to keep oil in the ground under a corner of the Yasuni national park in return for donations from the international community.

He said only $13m (£8m) of the $3.6bn goal had been given, and that "the world has failed us", giving the green light to drilling.

On Thursday, environment minister, Lorena Tapia, said permits for drilling had been signed for the 6,500-square-mile reserve, known as block 43, and oil production might begin as soon as 2016.

The permits allow Petroamazonas, a subsidary of the state oil company, to begin construction of access roads and camps to prepare for drilling.

Esperanza Martinez, an environmental activist in Ecuador, was quoted in a leading national daily as saying Petroamazonas had a bad record on oil spills and it could not be trusted to drill safely in the Yasuni-ITT.

Earlier this month, Ecuador's government rejected a petition calling for abandoning plans for drilling in the area, saying the organisers had failed to get enough signatures to trigger a national referendum.

The petition's backers, YASunidos, accused the government of fraud after only 359,762 signatures of around 850,000 submitted were deemed genuine – the threshold for forcing a referendum is 583,323.

The ITT block of the Yasuni park, where the drilling will go ahead, is home to two uncontacted tribes. It is a Unesco site, and one hectare of the area is home to a richer mix of trees, birds, amphibians, and reptiles than the US and Canada put together.

Oil drilling has been taking place in the wider Yasuni national park for decades, dating back to Shell in the 1940s. In 2012, access roads had already been built in blocks neighbouring Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini.

In February, the Guardian revealed that documents showed the Ecuadorean government had been negotiating a $1bn deal with a Chinese bank to drill for oil in the area, at the same time as seeking donations for the Yasuni-ITT initiative. The Ecuadorean ambassador to the UK, Juan Falconi Puig, rejected the claim as "baseless" and claimed the document was "fraudulent."

Source: theguardian

WSJ:Argentina, El dólar blue sube diez centavos y se vende a $ 11,60

  La cotización del dólar blue subió diez centavos esta mañana, con respecto al cierre de ayer. En las primeras horas, en el mercado paralelo la moneda se conseguía a $ 11,60 para la venta y a $ 11,50 para la compra.

En tanto, el dólar oficial abre sin variaciones con respecto al cierre de ayer. En las principales casas de cambio, la moneda extranjera cotiza a $ 8,08 para la venta y a $ 7,99 para la compra.

Por su parte, el euro oficial cotiza a $ 11,30 para la punta vendedora y a $ 10,80 para la compradora.

WSJ: Ecuador ultima un acuerdo de US$7.000 millones con China para financiar refinería

Después de tres años de negociaciones, el Gobierno de Ecuador está preparado para firmar un acuerdo con China valorado en US$7.000 millones para financiar una nueva refinería de crudo conocida como la Refinería del Pacífico, según anunció una fuente cercana al asunto.

La refinería de US$10.000 millones procesaría 200.000 barriles de crudo al día.

El 30% de los fondos que se necesitan procederían de los socios del proyecto y el 70% restante sería financiado por un grupo de bancos chinos liderados porIndustrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. 

Una fuente cercana a las negociaciones, que solicitó el anonimato, dijo el viernes que el Gobierno de Quito firmará el acuerdo de financiación, cuyo primer tramo consistiría en unos US$2.500 millones y se desembolsaría pronto.

La fuente dijo que una delegación de alto nivel de China ha estado cerrando los detalles en Quito.

Otra fuente cercana a las negociaciones dijo que los restantes US$4.500 millones del préstamo se desembolsarían en un segundo tramo, probablemente entre 2015 y 2016.

Fuente: EFE Dow Jones

Ukraine's Prime Minister hopes Gazprom and Natftogaz will sign a gas agreement

Source: Dow Jones Newswire

S&P 500 Extends Record as Durable-Goods Orders Increase

U.S. stocks advanced, lifting the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to a new intraday high, after durable goods orders unexpectedly rose and JBS SA offered to buy Hillshire Brands Co. for $6.4 billion.

Hillshire jumped 22 percent as JBS’s Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. unit made an unsolicited bid for the maker of Jimmy Dean sausages and Ball Park hot dogs. FirstEnergy Corp., NRG Energy Inc. and Exelon Corp. added more than 4 percent to help lead gains in the S&P 500. (SPX) Bank of America Corp. climbed 3.7 percent after resubmitting its capital plan to the Federal Reserve. Small-cap stocksand technology companies extended a recovery from a two-month selloff.

The S&P 500 rallied for a fourth day, increasing 0.5 percent to 1,909.17 at 1:16 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 59 points, or 0.4 percent, to 16,665.27. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.9 percent and the Russell 2000 Index (RTY) jumped 1.1 percent.

Source: Bloomberg

Gold set for lowest close in more than 3 months. Analysts see technical levels broken

 Gold prices dropped more than 1% Tuesday, ready for their lowest close in more than three months, with Ukraine’s election results, technical selling and equity gains all viewed as weighing on the precious metal.

Gold for June delivery  was down $24.30, or 1.9%, to $1,267.40 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Tracking the most-active contracts, prices haven’t closed at a level this low since Feb. 7, according to FactSet data.

July silver  lost 35 cents, or 1.8%, to $19.075 an ounce.

The “bottom has fallen out from under gold” as “Ukraine concerns (and political risk premiums) fade following last weekend’s decisive election result,” said Colin Cieszynski, senior analyst at CMC Markets, in emailed comments on Tuesday.

Gold was testing “$1,275 channel support,” which could indicate if it is ready to move lower or bounce back, he said.

Source: Marketwatch

Gold Slumps in NY: China's imports of gold from main conduit Hong Kong fell to a 14-month low in April

 China's imports of gold from main conduit Hong Kong fell to a 14-month low in April as importing banks were adequately stocked amid softer demand and a weaker yuan currency.

The second straight monthly drop is a bad sign for gold prices as persistent weakness in the top importer of the metal could hurt prices.

China has been a big support factor for prices recently, amid stimulus withdrawal in the United States and weak demand from No. 2 buyer India.

Net gold flows into China from Hong Kong fell to 67.040 tonnes in April from 85.128 tonnes in March, data e-mailed to Reuters by the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department shows. That is the lowest since February last year.

Total gold imports from Hong Kong slipped to 80.817 tonnes last month from 105.855 tonnes in March.

"Banks have adequate stocks from imports earlier in the year, and in some cases, even last year, that they are waiting to dispose of," said a gold trader in Shanghai. "Any new imports will have to wait until they clear the backlog."

Chinese banks imported a record 1,158.162 tonnes of gold from Hong Kong last year, when gold prices fell for the first time in 13 years.

Demand has now cooled from peak levels. That, combined with a weaker yuan, has driven Chinese gold prices to a discount to the global benchmark.

The Chinese currency has lost 3 percent against the dollar this year, wiping out all its 2013 gains to become one of the worst emerging market performers. China's central bank engineered a sharp fall in the yuan this year to shake out speculative money.
Chinese gold prices were at a discount to the global benchmark for most of March and April as a weaker yuan curbed some buying interest.

The discounts were also preventing banks from getting rid o their stock as it would not be profitable to do so.

"Premiums are still below the local market expectations. Markets expect premiums to stabilize and once that happens we could start seeing stronger imports from June," the Shanghai trader said.

Chinese prices are now at a premium of about $3 an ounce to global prices.

A banking source had earlier told Reuters the cost of importing and delivering gold into China was between $2.50 and $3 an ounce, a figure that premiums would have to exceed before banks resume buying aggressively. 

Source: Reuters

Iron Ore Drops as Global Glut Overshadows China’s Easing Signals

Iron ore declined as a widening seaborne glut overshadowed prospects that policy makers inChina will take more steps to bolster economic growth in the world’s biggest user.

Ore with 62 percent content delivered to the Chinese port of Tianjin fell 0.5 percent to $98.10 a dry ton today, according to The Steel Index Ltd. The commodity used to make steel has dropped 27 percent this year.

Premier Li Keqiang said the downturn pressure in China’s economy is “relatively large” and the nation will adjust policy to support the economy, according to a statement on the government’s website on May 23. China’s economy that creates demand for 69 percent of the world’s seaborne ore will grow 7.3 percent this year, the lowest since 1990, a Bloomberg survey showed. Global supplies are set to exceed demand by 175 million tons next year as exports from Australia and Brazil increase, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. estimates.

“Supply, rather than demand, is probably the key driver for iron ore prices at the moment,” said Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney. “The early stages of stimulus or easing cycles tend to be bearish phases for markets including commodities.”

Source:  Bloomberg

Iraq's southern oil exports head for record in May

 Oil exports from Iraq's southern terminals are on track for a record high in May, according to loading data and industry sources, reflecting its efforts to accelerate supply growth in 2014 after a slowdown last year.

But shipments of Kirkuk crude from northern Iraq have stayed offline since a bomb blast halted the oil flow along the pipeline on March 2, industry sources said, keeping total Iraqi exports below their potential.

Exports from Iraq's southern terminals have averaged 2.60 million barrels per day (bpd) in the first 27 days of May, according to shipping data tracked by Reuters. Two industry sources, who also monitor the exports, had a similar estimate.

If that is sustained for the rest of May, southern exports this month would top April's level of 2.51 million bpd, the highest since 2003.

Repairs are underway on the northern pipeline, a step towards boosting exports even higher, but traders do not expect a rapid return of Kirkuk to the market.

"I am a bit cautious," a trader of Iraqi crude said, referring to Kirkuk. "It does not look like things are going smoothly there."

Iraq has expanded its southern export capacity, easing bottlenecks that had kept a lid on shipments, and is aiming to lift exports to 3.4 million bpd in 2014, including 400,000 bpd from the autonomous Kurdish region.

Helping lift southern output, Russia's Lukoil started commercial production from a new oilfield, West Qurna-2, in March. Its output is eventually expected to reach 1.2 million bpd, 10 times higher than the initial rate.

Without exports from northern Kirkuk fields via pipeline to Turkey, however, Iraq's overall shipments are still set to be below February's rate of 2.8 million bpd, which Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussain al-Shahristani had described as a record high.

There are signs that northern flows may resume in the next few weeks.

An Iraqi oil official said last week that engineers had reached some damaged sections of the northern pipeline, which was attacked by an al Qaeda-offshoot cell and that repairs could be finished in 10 to 15 days from May 20 if all went well.

Kurdistan last week started loading oil from its new pipeline for shipment from Ceyhan, defying the central government. The first shipment of 1 million barrels may go to Italy or Germany, Turkey's energy minister said. 

Source: Reuters

Ukraine raises stakes in Russia dispute with stolen gas claim

Ukraine raised the stakes in a dispute with Russia over gas supplies on Tuesday, saying Russian state-controlled company Gazprom owed Kiev natural gas worth around $1 billion which it had "stolen" when Moscow annexed Crimea.

Russia has warned it will reduce gas supplies to Ukraine on June 3 if Kiev fails to pay in advance for next month's deliveries, causing concerns that onward supplies to Europe could be threatened.

With newfound confidence inspired by the election of a Ukrainian president at the weekend, Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said gas talks with Russia could not progress until he heard Moscow's response on giving back the 2.2 billion cubic metres of gas which he said was taken when the country's Black Sea region was annexed by Russia in March.

The dispute has strained ties between the two neighbours since Moscow almost doubled the price for its deliveries to Ukraine after protesters toppled a pro-Russia Ukrainian president.

It has also renewed concern in the European Union that there could be disruptions to Russian supplies delivered through pipelines that cross Ukraine.

"We want to hear a response from Russia ... on the question of returning to Ukraine 2.2 billion cubic metres of gas which Russia stole through Chernomornaftogaz on the territory of

(Crimea)," Yatseniuk told a televised session of his cabinet.

He did not explain the source of that figure but Kiev had referred earlier to a similar figure held in storage in Crimea.

Yatseniuk also said if there was no agreement between the two sides by May 29, Ukraine would next meet Gazprom at the Stockholm arbitration court, which would try to resolve the dispute.

He reiterated that Kiev would pay off its debts when there was an agreement on price.

Asked about the accusation that Moscow had stolen gas, Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov said: "We have no idea what he means."

He added that as far as Moscow was concerned, both sides had come up with a plan of action at EU-brokered talks in Berlin: Ukraine would pay Russia $2 billion of its debts by the end of the week, and $500 million by June 7 for May deliveries.

"This position seemed to be the final decision of the three-way meeting," he said.


'CIVILISED COMPROMISE'

Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller told Rossiya-24 television late on Monday that the company was ready to provide a discounted gas price for Ukraine but only after Kiev paid at least part of its debt.

Moscow says Ukraine's gas debt stands at $3.5 billion and will switch to pre-payment for June, promising to deliver as much gas as it was paid for.

On Monday, the European Union's energy commissioner, Guenther Oettinger, said Russia and Ukraine had made progress on price at talks in Berlin and that both were considering his proposal for Ukraine to pay $2 billion of its debts by Thursday, which could pave the way for talks on Friday.

But Ukraine's state gas company Naftogaz said on Tuesday no real progress was made with Gazprom, accusing Moscow of sticking to an "unconstructive" position.

"Naftogaz ... regrets the lack of real progress in negotiations with Gazprom," it said.

Naftogaz said it was ready to pay bills if "a civilised compromise" was found to ensure gas flows to Ukraine.

Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuri Prodan said on Monday there was no final agreement after the Berlin talks and he would not confirm that Ukraine had agreed to pay $2 billion on Thursday. He said the two sides have until Wednesday night to decide.

Ukraine wants to change a 2009 contract that locked Kiev into buying a set volume of gas, whether it needs it or not, at $485 per 1,000 cubic metres - the highest price paid by any client in Europe.

Moscow dropped the price to $268.50 after Ukraine's then-President Viktor Yanukovich turned his back on a trade and association agreement with the European Union last year, but reinstated the original price after he was ousted in February.

Ukraine seeks a price of $268.50 per 1,000 cubic metres while Russia still wants $485. Oettinger is trying to get the two sides to agree in the middle.

Source: Reuters

Libya oil guards protest at Hariga port, disrupt operations

A brigade from Libya's Petroleum Facilities Guard has been protesting at the country's Hariga port to demand salary payments and disrupting operations there, an official from state-run oil company AGOCO said on Tuesday.

The official said the protest was interrupting work at the port, where full storage tanks have forced a stoppage of production at Sarir oilfield and a reduction at Messla oilfield.

"The production of Sarir oilfield is zero because it has been closed as storage at Hariga oil port is full," a spokesman for state-run oil firm AGOCO said.

One crude tanker, Alexia, has already been waiting to load at Hariga port since Thursday last week while another, the Phoenix Beacon, was expected to arrive later on Tuesday to load crude, Reuters AIS Live showed and trading sources said.

The Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG) at Hariga has been allied with Ibrahim Jathran, a former rebel commander who defected from the PFG to take over four oil ports last summer to demand more autonomy for his region.

Jathran had agreed to lift his blockade steadily under a deal with the government. But he has since said he does not recognise a new government appointed by parliament this month, suggesting the oil deal maybe jeopardised.

A spokesman for Jathran declined to comment on the Hariga port protest and would not confirm his movement was involved in any action there.

The port shutout by Jathran's armed fighters and other protests have cut Libya's output to 160,000 barrels per day from 1.4 million bpd the OPEC country was producing before the strikes and blockades began.

Source:  Reuters

The New York Times: Lloyds Banking Group will sell 25% of its TSB Banking Group

 The Lloyds Banking Group said on Tuesday that it would proceed with an initial public offering of its TSB Banking Group unit on the London Stock Exchange next month.

Lloyds, which is partly owned by the British government, must divest itself of the TSB network of 631 branches by the end of 2015 under the terms of its government bailout during the financial crisis.

The bank intends to initially sell about 25 percent of TSB’s shares, including an incentive for retail investors to buy stock, and will sell its remaining stake in the unit by the end of 2015.

The forced sale of TSB has not been without its challenges. Lloyds has spent roughly 1.6 billion pounds, or about $2.7 billion, to carve out the business.

European competition authorities, which required Lloyds to divest itself of the branch network as part of its £17 billion bailout, see the breakup as a way to increase consumer choice in the British banking sector.

Analysts have recently questioned whether Lloyds would be able to achieve a valuation equal to TSB’s perceived book value, given what appears to be a recent cooling in the London I.P.O. market.