Newmont leads in volume

U.S. stock markets fell over the period Dec. 29-Jan. 4. The S&P 500 index was down 25 points, or 2%, to close at 1,188.05 points, whereas the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 2%, or 223.76 points, to close at 10,630.78 points. The price of gold fell 3.7% to close at $427.75 in the afternoon of Jan. 4 in London.

Two stocks traded more than 10 million shares apiece.

Leading the way was Newmont Mining, which saw its share price fall $3.12, to close at $41.57 on a volume of 20.9 million shares. Newmont has admitted it released, over five years, 17 tons of mercury waste into the air and 16 tons into the water near Sulawesi Island, Indonesia. The major insists emissions were well within environmental-protection standards. Five Newmont executives are set to be tried on pollution-related charges this year.

Alcoa traded 19.2 million shares and fell $1.25 to close at $30.43. On Dec. 31, the Russian Antimonopoly Committee ruled Alcoa can buy RUSAL’s controlling interest in two Russian aluminum fabrication facilities, in Samara and Belava Kalitva.

Golden Phoenix Minerals traded 4.4 million shares and rose 25%, to 20, following an announcement it was restructuring its management and would concentrate on advancing its Ashdown molybdenum project in Nevada.

El Capitan Precious Metals rose 16% to 58 on a volume of 857,000 shares. In mid-December 2004, the company contracted AuRic Metallurgical Labs to develop a process to recover precious metals from iron ore at its 40%-owned El Capitan mine in New Mexico.