De Beers cuts dividend, showing lag in diamonds

The world's largest diamond producer, De Beers Consolidated Mines, halved the interim dividend for this year in a move reflecting the continued depressed state of world diamond sales.

Last year the company had cut its final dividend for the first time by half to 22 cents (US). Tuesday's cut took the interim dividend to 11 cents.

Gold, too, surprised investors Tuesday. Further US interest rate drops spurred investors away from the dollar and into gold, pushing gold prices to their highest level this year - over $400 an ounce.