Gold Silver Reports (GSR) – Russia’s gold reserves rose to 1,944 tons as of June 2018, up from less than 500 tons just a decade ago. The holdings, amounting to over 17 percent of Russia’s total foreign reserves, were shored up in part by offloading some $77 billion worth worth of its US Treasury bills, bonds and notes over the last six months or so.
Gold Silver Reports (GSR) – ‘A New History Starts Now’ as Leaders of Two Koreas Meet — Scenes of Moon and Kim joking and walking together marked a striking contrast to last year’s barrage of North Korean missile tests and its largest ever nuclear test that led to sweeping international sanctions and fears of a fresh conflict on the Korean peninsula.
Gold Silver Reports (GSR) – Russia’s Wheat Crop Under Threat From Miserable Start to Spring – Cold weather in central areas and the Volga valley delayed the resumption of winter wheat growth by about two to three weeks compared with last year, according to the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies, or IKAR. Lingering snow has also given farmers in the world’s top exporter less time to sow spring crops, potentially leading to smaller-than-expected plantings.
Gold Silver Reports (GSR) – Russia’s Surgut Awards Shell with 1.2 Million Tonnes of Urals Oil in Tender: Trade – According to market participants, the premium to the price formula paid by the winner was a touch above $0.30 a barrel, slightly below the price level achieved in the previous tender.
Gold Silver Reports (GSR) – OPEC Russia Talks Set to Keep Oil Cuts Even as Glut Vanishes – Almost 16 months of output curbs by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners have seen crude rally to a three-year high near $70 a barrel. That’s replenishing their coffers after the worst oil slump in a generation, encouraging the producers to extend their intervention even as Venezuela’s petro-economy implodes and Donald Trump threatens Iran with sanctions.
Gold Silver Reports (GSR) – How the U.S. and Allies Attacked Syria – As images of sick or dying children flooded global media all week, the U.S. guided-missile destroyer USS Winston Churchill churned toward the Mediterranean to join a flotilla of allied warships, including another U.S. destroyer, the USS Donald Cook.
Gold Silver Reports (GSR) – India Moves to Reduce its Reliance on Russia’s Defense Imports — India’s defense scientists have developed a new indigenous system that identifies missile targets to replace the Russian-developed seeker on all future BrahMos, Sudhir K. Mishra, the chief executive officer of BrahMos Aerospace said.