LME's warehousing operations "have been dogged by controversy since big banks and trading houses including Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase bought warehousing operations."

The stock hit a high of $50 in May 2008 and came close again in April 2011, but at $170 billion, the Melbourne-based company is now valued at some $80 billion less that at its peak.

After adjusting for seasonality, the reading shows that the manufacturing sector is actually improving, thanks to the slew of stimulus measures implemented by the Chinese government.

"The cult of equity may be dying, but the cult of inflation may only have just begun."

The company is sticking to plans to spend $680 million this year including ramping up production at its Noche Buena mine. The firm has five operating mines and this year forecasts 41 million ounces of silver produced and 460,000 ounces of gold.

Barrick announced last week  a 50-60% cost blow-out for the copper-gold-silver  project straddling the Chile–Argentina border which could end up with a final bill of as much as $8 billion with $3 billion already spent.

The Chicago Tribune reports that Midwest Generation is facing bankruptcy as it being squeezed by low natural gas prices and costly upgrades to its six coal-fired electric generating plants in Illinois:

With 91% of outstanding deposited, the Maple Group has taken control of the TMX Group. The deal has taken over a year to complete and is worth $3.8 billion.

Inter Pipeline Fund ("Inter Pipeline") (TSX:IPL.UN) announced today that it has entered into a binding Shipper Support Agreement to provide bitumen blend and diluent transportation services to three major oil sands projects owned by the FCCL Partnership ("FCCL"), a business venture between Cenovus Energy and ConocoPhillips.