Minmetals Group Buys Glencore’s Peru Mine for $5.85 Billion indicating renewed confidence in Copper.

* Sold to a consortium of bidders led by HK-listed MMG Ltd

* Deal for $5.85 bln in cash

* Glencore says proceeds will materially de-leverage balance sheet

Glencore Xstrata has sold its interest in the Las Bambas copper mine in Peru to a Chinese consortium in a $6 billion cash deal, making it one of China's largest mining acquisitions in recent years.

The commodities trader said on Sunday it had sold its interest to a consortium led by Hong Kong-listed MMG Ltd , the offshore arm of China Minmetals Corp.

Hong Kong-based Guoxin International Investment Corp Ltd and China's Citic Metal Co Ltd are the other partners in the consortium.

Minmetals had been reported to be the preferred bidder for the Peruvian copper mine.

Glencore agreed to sell Las Bambas to secure approval from China's competition authorities for its takeover of Anglo-Swiss miner Xstrata as Beijing feared the merged group would have too much power over the copper market.

A Chinese buyer had been considered a virtual certainty since Las Bambas was put on the block, given the deep pockets of China's state-owned enterprises and China's hunger for copper - it is already the world's top consumer of the metal.

Las Bambas, one of the largest mines in Xstrata's project portfolio, is due to begin production in 2015. It is expected to produce more than 450,000 tonnes of copper a year in its first five years and 300,000 tonnes a year thereafter.

Glencore will receive about $5.85 billion in cash upon completion of the deal. In addition, all capital expenditure and development costs since the beginning of the year until the closure of the deal will also be payable by the consortium.

Capital expenditure and other costs incurred since the start of the year were about $400 million as of March 31.

Glencore said proceeds from the sale will "immediately and materially" deleverage its balance sheet.

The deal, which is expected to close prior to the end of the third quarter, is subject to approval from China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) as well as approval from MMG's shareholders.

China Minmetals Non-Ferrous Metals Co Ltd, which holds about 74 percent of MMG, has agreed to vote in favour of the deal, Glencore said.

Glencore said it would continue to look for opportunities to reinvest capital and any surplus capital would be returned to shareholders.

Gold Jumps To 3-Week Highs, EURO Fades As Tensions Rise In Ukraine

Early weakness in US equity futures was rescued when Asia opened and JPY was mysteriously bid but it's fading back now as the UN session escalates into he-YouTube'd-she-YouTube'd. The bigger moves on the night so far are gold (which jumped back over $1325 and 3-week highs) and EUR which fell around 40 pips to 1.3850. We suspect as Ukraine's red-line deadline draws near the bid for safe-havens may accelerate somewhat.

Commodity trading hours set to get a ‘break’ : FMC

Commodity derivative trading hours, on platforms such as MCX and NCDEX, may soon go in for a break.

“We are planning to allow an hour or half-an-hour break for commodity trading as the trading hours are long,” Ramesh Abhishek, Chairman, Forward Markets Commission (FMC), toldBusiness Line. FMC regulates futures trading in commodities.

Currently, commodity trading on various exchanges can be done between 10 a.m. and 11.30 p.m. However, for stock spot and futures trading, the timing is 9.15 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. with 15 minutes extra time before the start of trade for the pre-trading session. 

Commodity exchanges also provide trading on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., but only for agri products. Stock exchanges are not open on Saturdays.Abhishek said a final decision on the break would be taken after consulting the stakeholders. In fact, the exchange officials held their first meeting with stakeholders on Friday. More meetings are expected in the coming days. It may be noted that currently there is no break in futures and spot trading of equities.

There is a feeling that breaks will not just help traders, but will also have a cooling effect on the market, especially when there is volatility. The concept of a break is being discussed at a time when the regulator is also working on revising the daily price limits for various commodities.

It has floated a discussion paper and sought comments from the public till April 21. Abhishek said based on the suggestions received, a decision would be taken soon.

Currently, the limit for agri-commodities is restricted to 4 per cent against 9 per cent for non agri-commodities. Agri-commodities include wheat, cotton, jeera, sugar and turmeric, while non-agri-commodities include gold, silver, steel and crude. The regulator has proposed that for agri-commodities, in which evening trade is permitted, the daily price limit could be the same as applicable to non-agri-commodity contracts.

It is also proposed that the initial limit for agri-commodities be fixed at 4 per cent. If this limit gets breached, there will be a cooling off period of 15 minutes and the limit will be relaxed once by 2 per cent.

Rupee Devaluation Against Dollar & Indian Prime Minister.

El Nino may spoil bull party

El Nino, which may affect India’s South-West Monsoon and result in drought, could derail the bull party in the equities market, analysts and brokers fear.

This week, the Austrlian Bureau of Meteorology said there was more than 70 per cent chance of the El Nino occurring, while the US Climate Prediction Center said there is 50 per cent chance of the phenomenon, resulting from rise in the sea surface temperature in the Pacific Ocean, setting in later this year.

Next week, the India Meteorological Department will come out with its projections of this year’s monsoon and chances of El Nino setting in.

May cause strategy change

Global investment banker and institutional securities firm Jefferies said El Nino is one of the extremely few extraneous events that could cause the new Government to change the focus away from investment-inducing, pro-economic growth policies.

“Overall, we are not too concerned about El Nino currently despite rising risks.

“While the situation should be monitored, there is no reason to reduce our positive bias on the market both ahead of and after the election, at least for the next three months,” it said.

In the worst case, the weather could become a substantial factor around the Budget time in mid-July, Jefferies said.

According to Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, the real test for the investors will be impact of the three big ifs facing the country — the polls, the El Nino and the dollar.

BNP Paribas said El Nino-driven rainfall deficiency could enhance profitability of plantation companies but depress margins of home and personal care consumer companies.

Inflation, GDP concerns

Singapore-based brokerage DBS on Friday said inflation in India may jump to over 8.5 per cent and GDP growth may slip to 5 per cent in the current fiscal if the much-feared El Nino threat plays out this year.

Dipen Shah of Kotak Securities said: “We continue to maintain that, in the short term, markets will continue to be volatile at current levels with a positive bias. Focus will shift to growth, interest rates and valuations once the political event is out of the way.

“Valuations are above the long-term average and there is a possibility of sub-normal monsoons. These can act as headwinds for the markets in the medium term.”

Unaffected earlier

El Nino is likely to set in only after July, but there have been occasions when India had gone unaffected by the weather phenomenon.

Already, Australia and parts of South-East Asia are reeling under hot weather and prolonged dry period. On the other hand, central and north-western parts of India have received rains and hailstorm during February-March, resulting in better water storage level.

Currently, the level in the 85 major reservoirs is more than the average seen in the last 10 years.

Your Horoscope Says 'Sell'

Traders, watch the skies. The stars say that the Nasdaq Composite Index's worst decline since 2011 this week may be just the start of a stock-market rout.

In the third week of this month, Pluto, Uranus, Jupiter and Mars will fall into an arrangement astrologers call a Grand Cardinal Cross, which is when four of the planets oppose one another in the shape of a cross. According to Olga Morales, who runs Astrology for Gann Traders from Melbourne, Australia: "This tension creates tremendous instability on our earth."

Traders don't seem like the types to check their horoscopes before deciding whether to dump stocks, so before scoffing, hear this. In the early 1990s, I was invited to the treasury department of the newly established European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Halfway through my visit, a computer pinged in a corner of the room, and a trader leapt into action, buying this and selling that. A software program that combined technical analysis with astrology had identified a market opportunity.

I saw my first broker note yesterday pointing to the forthcoming planetary commotion, albeit with a healthy dose of skepticism. Astrology advocates, moreover, claim that the Fibonnaci series technical analysts rely on for buy or sell signals derive from what used to be called the movement of the spheres. The web is littered with sites offering books, training courses and newsletters that can help you use the planets to make money in financial markets, suggesting that somebody out there is trading on star movements.

Here's the twist about the imminent Grand Cardinal Cross. The last time this constellation visited the heavens seems to have been in 1932. Morales has been sending charts to her subscribers highlighting the market moves from that year: The Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 20 percent. So to some, the 2.45 percent decline seen so far this year is looking prescient.

"This clearly is good reason to consider getting a jump on the 'sell in May' crowd," says Henry Weingarten, who has run The Astrologers Fund Inc. since 1988. "If you believe the risk/reward of today's stock market is increasingly less favorable to bulls, and you dislike elevated risk, then either hedging, writing calls, or adding portfolio protection is cosmically prudent."

There's something else to watch in the heavens above and worry about in the trading rooms below: blood moons. This month features a total lunar eclipse of the full moon on April 15, and a solar eclipse of the new moon on April 29. Because of the way light bends around the earth before it reaches the moon, the moon can appear reddish in hue, hence the bit about blood, says Malcolm Bucholtz, author of the Astrological Trading blog.

Not all of the cosmic crowd are bearish. Ted Hammack of Sinewave Astrology notes that the coming arrangement doesn't include Saturn, which he calls "the big mover and shaker in mundane events." Saturn, it seems is "stationary this July at 16 degrees Scorpio" -- which means nothing to me, but to Hammack it says Saturn isn't making trouble and we're safe(ish).

"Hence I don't think the current Grand Cross will show up primarily in the global financial markets unless the geopolitical trends -- Russia in Ukraine, global earthquakes etc. -- get out of hand," Hammack says.

I will leave the final word, though, to Bucholtz of Astrological Trading: "You will know the height of stupidity has been reached when you hear Bloomberg and CNBC talking about blood red moons."

Article By Mark Gilbert

Warning: Stocks Will Collapse by 50% in 2014

It is only a matter of time before the stock market plunges by 50% or more, according to several reputable experts.

“We have no right to be surprised by a severe and imminent stock market crash,” explains Mark Spitznagel, a hedge fund manager who is notorious for his hugely profitable billion-dollar bet on the 2008 crisis. “In fact, we must absolutely expect it."

Unfortunately Spitznagel isn’t alone.

“We are in a gigantic financial asset bubble,” warns Swiss adviser and fund manager Marc Faber. “It could burst any day.” 

Faber doesn’t hesitate to put the blame squarely on President Obama’s big government policies and the Federal Reserve’s risky low-rate policies, which, he says, “penalize the income earners, the savers who save, your parents — why should your parents be forced to speculate in stocks and in real estate and everything under the sun?” 

Billion-dollar investor Warren Buffett is rumored to be preparing for a crash as well. The “Warren Buffett Indicator,” also known as the “Total-Market-Cap to GDP Ratio,” is breaching sell-alert status and a collapse may happen at any moment. 

So with an inevitable crash looming, what are Main Street investors to do?

One option is to sell all your stocks and stuff your money under the mattress, and another option is to risk everything and ride out the storm.

But according to Sean Hyman, founder of Absolute Profits, there is a third option.

“There are specific sectors of the market that are all but guaranteed to perform well during the next few months,” Hyman explains. “Getting out of stocks now could be costly.”

How can Hyman be so sure?

He has access to a secret Wall Street calendar that has beat the overall market by 250% since 1968. This calendar simply lists 19 investments (based on sectors of the market) and 38 dates to buy and sell them, and by doing so, one could turn $1,000 into as much as $300,000 in a 10-year time frame. 

In a 2012 interview on Bloomberg Television, Hyman correctly predicted that Best Buy would drop down to $11 a share and then it would rally back up to $40 a share over the next few months. The stock did exactly what Hyman predicted.

Then, during a Fox Business interview with Gerri Willis in early 2013, he forecast that the market would rally to new highs of 15,000 despite the massive sell-off that was haunting investors. The stock market almost immediately rebounded and hit Hyman’s targets.

“A lot of people think I am lucky,” Sean said. “But it has nothing to do with luck. It has everything to do with certain tools I use. Tools like the secret Wall Street calendar and my Crash Alert System.”

With more financial uncertainty that ever, thousands of people are flocking to Hyman for his guidance. He has over 114,000 subscribers to his monthly newsletter, and his investment videos have been seen millions of times.


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