U.S. Markets February 13 – 16

A good week for the United States stock markets was an even better week for the mining stocks. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was up 1.5% at 1,455.54 points, while the Philadelphia Gold and Silver Index rose 2.2% to 143.12.

But it was the base metal producers leading the market, with several touching new 52-week highs in trading during the period. Southern Copper was one of those, hitting US$69.70 before finishing US$4.61 higher at US$68.02. Companhia Vale do Rio Doce was up US$2.92 at US$35.90, with a side trip to US$36.68, and Anglo American rose US$1.06 to US$24.89, touching a 52-week high of US$25.24.

We Said It’s Rational, Not Efficient Dept.: Phelps Dodge closed at US$124.00, still US$2.57 below the implied price of the offer from Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold. One of a very few explanations for the gap — that Freeport might be the target of a takeover offer from one of the werewolves, derailing the bid for PD — now looks unlikely.

The golds were strong, though not as strong as the base metal equities. But AngloGold Ashanti missed out on the fun, falling US48 to US$47.25. AngloGold posted a loss of US$80 million for the year, on US$3.1 billion in revenue, and a loss of US$103 million for the final quarter of 2006, on US$818 million in revenue. Taking out derivatives and other financial-instrument losses, AngloGold made US$413 million on the year, but the headline loss — and a US$2.9-billion negative value on the AngloGold hedge book — may have weighed on the market.

The other large golds made gains, though. Newmont Mining was up US92 at US$46.26, Gold Fields was US39 better at US$17.49, and Harmony Gold Mining added US33 to close at US$13.49. Down in the mid-tiers there were also some nice gains, with Minas Buenaventura jumping US$1.04 to close at US$29.76 and Hecla Mining rising US12 to US$7.30.

Coeur d’Alene Mines was among the more active precious metal stocks, with 29.3 million shares traded. It rose US27 to US$4.54. Coeur said it had assurances from the Bolivian government that the San Bartolome project was not a target for the government’s nationalization program.

U.S. greatest percentage change

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE		CHANGE
Liberty Star*	LBTS	2080	0.99	0.63	0.945	+	47.6
Cumberland Rs*	CLG	3931	7.54	5.81	7.35	+	24.5
Geocom Res*	GOCM	83	0.28	0.235	0.27	+	22.7
Fischer-W Gld*	FWGO	241	0.078	0.065	0.078	+	20.0
Queenstake Rs*	QEE	3602	0.19	0.16	0.19	+	18.7
Uranerz Energ*	URZ	2319	4.29	3.61	4.29	+	18.1
Contintl Mnls*	KMKCF	698	1.80	1.52	1.74	+	15.2
Northern Orio*	NTO	4157	4.15	3.60	4.10	+	14.8
Miramar Mng*	MNG	3497	4.79	3.88	4.77	+	14.3
Apollo Gold*	AGT	4665	0.69	0.60	0.69	+	13.1
Equitable Mng*	EQBM	8488	0.008	0.005	0.007	–	22.2
Shoshone Silv*	SHSH	117	0.30	0.237	0.245	–	19.6
NT Holding*	NTHH	14	0.16	0.15	0.15	–	16.6
Konigsberg*	KGBC	62	0.22	0.175	0.175	–	16.6
Sao Luis Mng*	SAOL	1613	0.60	0.39	0.41	–	12.7
Tara Gold*	TRGD	1634	1.23	1.05	1.08	–	11.4
Radius Gold*	RDUFF	382	0.52	0.45	0.45	–	10.0
Cusac Gold Mn*	CUSIF	479	0.22	0.20	0.20	–	9.0
Bullion Rvr G*	BLRV	542	0.84	0.76	0.80	–	6.9
Halo Res*	HLOSF	22	0.40	0.383	0.40	–	6.7

U.S. greatest value change

		VOLUME	CLOSE		CHANGE
Potash C Sask*	POT	3901155	160.73	+	10.61
Rio Tinto*	RTP	1691441	220.80	+	10.37
Soc Quim&M Ch*	SQM	85271	139.40	+	7.35
Teck Comin B*	TCK	1356745	75.64	+	5.31
Southern Peru*	PCU	8339940	68.02	+	4.61
Freeport McMo*	FCX	30660745	57.56	+	4.31
Cleveland-Cli*	CLF	2475552	55.82	+	3.09
CVRD*	RIO	36184773	35.90	+	2.92
Mosaic*	MOS	12839620	25.23	+	2.87
Alcan*	AL	9105284	54.76	+	2.57
Aber Diamond*	ABER	112045	38.04	–	1.78
AngloGold Ash*	AU	4325563	47.25	–	0.48
Gold Reserve*	GRZ	473782	5.11	–	0.27
Banro Res*	BAA	56300	11.33	–	0.27
Tara Gold*	TRGD	1634077	1.08	–	0.14
Mesabi Trust*	MSB	172000	22.47	–	0.14
Fording C C T*	FDG	3528992	23.00	–	0.14
Agnico-Eagle*	AEM	9267670	39.95	–	0.14
Foundatn Coal*	FCL	4689995	31.16	–	0.12
NovaGold Res*	NG	947479	16.50	–	0.12

U.S. most active issues

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE		CHANGE
Alcoa*	AA	73003	36.05	34.04	34.78	+	1.88
CVRD*	RIO	36185	36.68	33.30	35.90	+	2.92
Freeport McMo*	FCX	30661	58.60	54.02	57.56	+	4.31
Goldcorp*	GG	29321	29.49	28.18	28.21	+	0.12
Coeur d Alene*	CDE	29281	4.64	4.26	4.54	+	0.27
Phelps Dodge*	PD	22486	124.93	122.30	124.00	+	2.50
Newmont Mng*	NEM	19958	46.562	45.53	46.26	+	0.92
StreetTr Gold*	GLD	19188	66.66	65.55	66.36	+	0.69
Barrick Gold*	ABX	18124	31.847	30.62	31.29	+	0.98
Golden Eagle*	MYNG	16017	0.015	0.013	0.014	+	0.001

]] >[printicon align="left"]