This merger represents a significant milestone in the business community, bringing together two like-minded organizations to serve better the needs and interests of Surrey and White Rock businesses. The Surrey & White Rock Board of Trade will leverage both organizations’ strengths, resources, and investments to provide its members with enhanced support, advocacy, and networking opportunities.

“This merger is a test of members’ commitment to the collective vision and dismembers,” said Bill Brooks, Board Chair of the South Surrey & White Rock Chamber of Commerce. Together, we will be a stronger voice for businesses, driving positive change and opportunities for growth.”

“We are thrilled to announce the successful approval of the merger between the South Surrey & White Rock Chamber of Commerce and the Surrey Board of Trade,” said Rory Morgan, Board Chair of the Surrey Board of Trade. “This decision reflects our shared commitment to fostering economic growth, innovation, and prosperity in our communities.”

The Surrey & White Rock Board of Trade will build on the legacy of both organizations while introducing new initiatives and programs to meet the evolving needs of businesses in the region. Members will still enjoy their current benefits and events but have expanded networking opportunities, advocacy efforts, educational resources, and access to a broader network of business leaders and decision-makers.

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MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Spot gold steadied on Tuesday after falling for three days, but looked at risk of further weakness as the dollar edged up on comments by a Federal Reserve official that the next U.S. rate rise could come as soon as next month.

The United States may be in line for an interest rate hike as soon as April, Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart said on Monday, another sign that policymakers are comfortable allowing U.S. monetary policy to diverge from other major economies.

Prospects for higher interest rates were already helping the dollar revive from five-months lows touched last week. A stronger dollar makes gold more expensive for investors paying with other currencies.

“There’s a little bit of fatigue in there as well with the strong rally we’ve seen in the past few weeks, so it feels like a bit of profit taking going on sparked by the Fed comments,” said strategist Daniel Hynes of ANZ in Sydney.

Spot gold was trading up 0.1 percent at $1,244.90 an ounce by 0138 GMT. Prices hit the weakest in three sessions at $1,240.30 an ounce on Monday.

U.S. gold was up 0.1 percent at $1,244.80 an ounce.

U.S. home resales fell sharply in February in a potentially troubling sign for America’s economy, which has otherwise looked resilient to the global economic slowdown.

Mali has upgraded its estimated below-ground gold reserves by a third to 800 tonnes, enough to maintain current levels of output for the next 15 years, said the West African nation’s mines minister.

Asian stocks wobbled on Tuesday as the hawkish comments from Fed officials stoked uncertainty about policymakers’ intentions less than a week after Fed Chair Janet Yellen had set out a more cautious path to rate increases this year.

China imported 180,131 kilograms of silver in February, down by 7.4 percent from the same month a year ago, after a jump in imports in January. For the first two months of the year, China’s silver imports jumped 24 percent to 509,085 kgs from a year earlier.

Palladium imports tripled in February to 3,157 kgs, while platinum imports rose by 27 percent to 3,622 kgs.

Platinum at $974.74 an ounce was down half a percent while palladium held 0.3 percent firmer at $598.50.

Silver had edged down by 0.1 percent at $15.811 an ounce.

(Reporting by Melanie Burton; Editing by Joseph Radford and Richard Pullin)

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SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Gold bounced back on Monday, inching closer to last week’s 13-month high as the dollar remained under pressure ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s policy meeting.

The U.S. dollar was at one-month lows against a basket of major currencies with the Fed seen almost certain to stand pat at this week’s policy review.

Spot gold had risen 0.5 percent to $1,254.70 an ounce by 0212 GMT, while U.S. gold eased 0.3 percent to $1,256 an ounce.

The main focus is the U.S. central bank’s policy meeting on March 15-16, after it lifted rates for the first time in nearly a decade in December.

Investors in the precious metals market are also looking at a Bank of Japan meet.

The BOJ’s policy board is set to discuss this week whether to exempt $90 billion in short-term funds from its newly imposed negative interest rate, people familiar with the matter said, after the securities industry warned that investment money would be driven into bank deposits.

“We have two central bank meetings this week as the BOJ commence a two-day meeting today and the FOMC announce their interest rate decision on Wednesday,” said MKS Group trader Sam Laughlin.

Support at $1,235 should keep the metal buoyant leading into the Fed announcement, while $1,275-$1,280 will likely cap any moves higher, the trader said.

After rolling out bold measures to boost the euro zone economies, including increased asset-buying and a deeper cut to deposit rates, ECB President Mario Draghi on Thursday signalled there would be no further rate cuts.

The relatively weak dollar and a repricing of expectations for U.S. interest rate rises have helped gold rebound by more than 18 percent this year.

Bullion regained its role as a shelter for risk-averse investors, in the face of tumbling equities and fears of a global economic slowdown.

Hedge funds and money managers increased their bullish position in COMEX gold to the highest in 13 months in the week to March 8, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data showed on Friday, as safe-haven buying lifted prices to the highest since February 2015.

Physical gold demand slowed in top consumer China last week, while a strike by jewellers protesting against the imposition of a tax curbed demand in No. 2 market India.

(Reporting by Naveen Thukral; Editing by Richard Pullin and Joseph Radford)

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