Gold Prices Rise On Trade Deal Uncertainty

Gold prices rose slightly on Monday as investors fretted about renewed trade tensions and a slowing Chinese economy.

Spot gold rose half a percent to $1,465.89 per ounce, while U.S. gold futures were up 0.3 percent at $1,466.55 per ounce.

New doubts emerged about the partial U.S-China trade deal after U.S. President Donald Trump denied agreeing to roll back tariffs on China.

Trump also said that talks with China had moved more slowly than he would have liked and that China very much wants to make a deal.

Inflation data from China brought slowdown fears to the fore. While China’s consumer price index grew at its fastest pace in about eight years, a measure of producer prices fell the most in more than three years in October, underscoring the problem of moderating demand.

Japan’s machinery orders fell for a third straight month in September, raising doubts over whether the recent strength in capital goods shipments would last.

Elsewhere, the U.K. dodged a recession despite seeing the biggest year-on-year slowdown in nearly a decade.

Meanwhile, chaos erupted across Hong Kong a day after police opened fire to break up demonstrations that are entering their sixth month.

Oil Prices Fall On Trade Deal Concerns

Oil prices fell more than 1 percent on Monday amid worries about oversupply and slowing global growth. Uncertainty over U.S.-China trade deal also weighed on the commodity.

Benchmark Brent crude dropped 1.1 percent to $61.83 a barrel, after climbing 1.3 percent last week. U.S. crude futures were down 1.3 percent at 56.49 per barrel, after having risen nearly 2 percent last week.

Inflation data from China brought slowdown fears to the fore. While China’s consumer price index grew at its fastest pace in about eight years, a measure of producer prices fell the most in more than three years in October, underscoring the problem of moderating demand.

Japan’s machinery orders fell for a third straight month in September, raising doubts over whether the recent strength in capital goods shipments would last.

Elsewhere, the U.K. dodged a recession despite seeing the biggest year-on-year slowdown in nearly a decade.

On the trade front, new doubts emerged about the partial U.S-China trade deal after U.S. President Donald Trump denied agreeing to roll back tariffs on China.

Trump also said that talks with China had moved more slowly than he would have liked and that China very much wants to make a deal.

US: Maryland’s Mallows Bay becomes wartime shipwreck sanctuary

Protecting a time capsule, the world’s largest collection of wartime shipwrecks is labelled a sanctuary by the US.

In the United States, part of a river containing the world’s largest collection of World War I shipwrecks has been granted special protection.

Conservationists working in Mallows Bay in the state of Maryland say they have found another use for what they call the “ghost fleet”.

Al Jazeera’s Heidi Zhou-Castro reports from Mallows Bay, Maryland.

FDA Rejects Lipocine’s TLANDO Yet Again

The FDA has turned down Lipocine Inc.’s (LPCN) TLANDO, an oral testosterone product candidate for testosterone replacement therapy in adult males for hypogonadism, yet again.

The regulatory agency has cited the failure of the efficacy trial to meet the three secondary endpoints for maximal testosterone concentrations (“Cmax”) as the reason for denying approval to TLANDO.

Mahesh Patel, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lipocine, said, ” We are disappointed by the FDA’s decision and intend to request a meeting with the FDA as soon as possible to discuss a potential path forward for the approval of TLANDO.”

The FDA had turned down TLANDO in June 2016, citing deficiencies related to the dosing algorithm for the proposed label, and in May 2018 too, saying that the product could not be approved in its current form.

This is for the third time that TLANDO has failed to secure the FDA nod.

LPCN closed Friday’s trading at $2.73, down 2.50%. In pre-market trading on Monday, the stock is down 34.07% to $1.80.

SunPower’s stock rallies after plan to separately into 2 publicly traded companies

Shares of SunPower Corp. SPWR, -1.18% surged 5.1% in premarket trading Monday, after the solar power company, which is owned by France-based oil company Total S.A. TOT, -0.16%, announced plans to separate into two independent publicly traded companies. After the separation, SunPower will focus on solar systems and storage and energy services, while Maxeon Solar Technologies will be headquartered in Singapore and will focus on bringing its solar panel technology to high-volume scale. As part of the separation, China-based Tianjin Zhonghuan Semiconductor Co. Ltd. 002129, -1.25% will make a $298 million equity investment in Maxeon for a 28.85% stake in Maxeon post-separation. SunPower’s stock has tumbled 41.5% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 SPX, +0.26% has gained 6.0%.

US nuclear reactor shut down after officials discover leak

Three Mile Island, site of America’s worst nuclear power accident, shuts down

The 1979 partial meltdown badly damaged public support for nuclear energy; Jacqui Heinrich reports.

JENKINSVILLE, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina energy company has shut down one of its nuclear reactors after officials discovered a small leak in the coolant system.

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Dominion Energy spokeswoman Rhonda O’Banion told The State on Saturday that the V.C. Summer reactor in Fairfield County is temporarily out of commission as the water leak, possibly from a valve, is addressed. The company says the liquid has not escaped beyond the reactor’s containment building, and there’s no danger to the public.

Dominion spokesman Ken Holt said the company notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but wasn’t required to make any other public notice. He said the plant went offline Thursday.

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