However China's foreign trade is expected to remain stable in 2019 as the sector exerts more growth potential amid external challenges, according to a foreign trade report released by the Ministry of Commerce, the country's official news agency Xinhua reported yesterday.

The S&P500, FTSE100 and TSX Composite Index closed lower on Friday, as did Brazil's Bovespa although that index has shown a gain of more than 20% for the year so far, while the other indices have weakened.

Still in Brazil, Vale (BZ: VALE3) has provided a one-year return of almost 45% according to Bloomberg, with the wire service reporting the miner's US$500 purchase of technology firm New Steel last week bolsters Vale's case for acquiring BHP's share of the pair's shuttered Samarco joint venture.

In Australia, Mineral Resources (ASX: MIN) was a standout on the benchmark S&P/ASX200 today, up more than 9% at the time of writing.

It had announced it had executed the agreement for the US$1.15 billion sale of 50% of Wodgina and to form a joint venture over the lithium project with global specialty metals giant Albemarle (NYSE: ALB). 

In Toronto, junior Japan Gold gained more than 34% or C5.5c as it repriced stock options to 16c - it had also surged earlier last week on news of Goldcorp backing.  

Finally, the gold price was worth about US$1,237 an ounce on the spot market, several dollars lower than late last week.