The Traderszone Network

Russia’s central bank has sought to reassure investors by detailing plans to aggressively add to its reserve holdings.

U.S. job growth was likely solid in May and wages probably picked up a bit, suggesting sufficient momentum in the economy for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates later this year. The unemployment rate is expected to hold steady near a seven-year low of 5.4 percent. “While economic growth is not as strong as we would like it to be, we have seen some good economic data points,” said Karyn Cavanaugh, senior market strategist at Voya Investment Management in New York.

In a January earnings call with investors, Apple Inc (AAPL.O) Chief Executive Tim Cook made a confident prediction: “2015 will be the year of Apple Pay,” he said. “We’ve spoken to all of the top 100 merchants in the U.S., and about half will accept Apple Pay this year, with many more the following year,” a company spokesperson recently told Reuters. The service is one of Apple’s biggest bets, a chance to tie customers more tightly to its phones and its new smart watch, as well as to take a tiny bite from every retail transaction.

Amazon.com Inc is in a race against Google Inc to store data on human DNA, seeking both bragging rights in helping scientists make new medical discoveries and market share in a business that may be worth $1 billion a year by 2018. The cloud companies are going beyond storage to offer analytical functions that let scientists make sense of DNA data.

Bigger isn’t better for the world’s gold miners, who are increasingly making “bite-sized” developments that carry less risk of budget disasters and fewer of the political and environmental disputes that have derailed mega-mines in recent years. Newmont Mining (NEM.N) is a prime example of how companies are responding to bleak industry conditions by building mines on a smaller scale than in the past, with the price of gold down almost 40 percent from its peak in 2011 and banks avoiding the sector.

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The Delta Master Executive Council (MEC), a unit of the Air Line Pilots Association, will review the agreement for seven days before deciding whether to approve it and submit it to Delta’s entire pilot base for a vote, the letter said. “This agreement represents the culmination of tremendous effort on your behalf,” Delta MEC Chairman Mike Donatelli said in the letter, noting that preparation and talks for the new deal had taken a year.

Hillary Clinton, Angela Merkel and Janet Yellen: women close to retirement age still changing the world. Of course, they are outliers in many ways.