U.S. MARKETS -June 21-25

British economist John Maynard Keynes’ adage that “markets can remain irrational a lot longer than you and I can remain solvent,” was borne out in U.S. equities trading during the week of June 21-25. The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled 306.83 points or 2.94% to 10,143.81, while the S&P 500 index lost 3.65% or 40.75 points to finish at 1,076.76. The Nasdaq bottomed at 2,223.48, down 3.74% or 86.32 points.

With gold closing on June 25 at US$1,255.70 per oz. in New York, many gold companies continued to prosper.

Africa-focused Randgold Resources topped the charts with an advance of US$3.19 per share to US$98.17 on no news, while Papua New Guinea-focused Lihir Gold was up US$1.16 to US$39.24 per share. In late May, Lihir agreed to merge with Newcrest Mining in a deal valuing it at A$9.5 billion (US$8.3 million). Lihir’s merger with Australia’s top gold producer will be completed in September, and will create a gold company with operations in five countries. On June 28, Lihir announced it would delist its shares from the Toronto Stock Exchange on July 12 due to the low turnover of its shares and the small level of Lihir share ownership in Canada.

Royal Gold was down US$3.99 to US$49.80 per share on news that it was offering 5.98 million shares at US$48.50 apiece for total proceeds of US$276.4 million to pay for general corporate purposes, including repaying debt and funding acquisitions of additional royalty interests. Agnico-Eagle Mines tumbled US$2.08 per share to US$62.70, despite the fanfare of an official opening ceremony at its new Meadowbank gold mine in Canada’s Nunavut. The open-pit mine, with gold reserves of 3.6 million oz. grading an average of 3.5 grams gold per tonne, is expected to produce 300,000 oz. gold before the end of this year.

Peabody Energy posted the second-highest gain for the week, after Randgold, with an advance of US$2.29 per share to US$43.55. On June 18, the world’s largest private-sector coal company announced that it had completed a new five-year senior unsecured credit facility to replace its existing facility, which was scheduled to mature in September 2011. The new facility includes a US$1.5-billion revolver and US$500-million term loan.

U.S. most active issues
	VOLUME		WEEK
	(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Alcoa* AA	179587	12.12	11.01	11.23	+ 0.12
Freeport McMo* FCX	75959	69.99	62.90	66.57	+ 0.67
Newmont Mng* NEM	46602	62.11	58.43	61.67	+ 0.42
Barrick Gold* ABX	43802	46.88	43.91	46.33	-0.05
Golden Star* GSS	41106	4.63	4.14	4.63	+ 0.22
Peabody Enrgy* BTU	36994	44.33	40.54	43.55	+ 2.29
Hecla Mining* HL	35847	5.99	5.40	5.78	-0.11
Cliffs Nat Rs* CLF	31471	60.27	53.78	56.37	+ 0.15
Vale* VALE	30310	28.24	26.62	27.35	+ 0.47
Goldcorp* GG	27523	45.96	43.25	45.42	-0.44

U.S. greatest percentage change
		VOLUME		WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Tornado Gold*	TOGI	462	0.02	0.01	0.02	+ 100.0
El Capitan Pr*	ECPN	2100	0.59	0.32	0.46	+ 39.3
America West*	AWSR	70	0.13	0.11	0.10	+ 25.0
Grandview Gld*	GVGDF	27	0.07	0.06	0.07	+ 16.6
US Gold*	UXG	1348	5.35	4.53	5.28	+ 9.5
Crosshair E&M*	CXZ	256	0.12	0.11	0.12	+ 9.0
China Shen Zh*	SHZ	57	1.00	0.85	0.92	+ 8.2
Shoshone Silv*	SHSH	201	0.15	0.10	0.15	+ 7.1
Minefinders*	MFN	2460	9.64	8.86	9.29	+ 6.2
Peabody Enrgy*	BTU	36994	44.33	40.54	43.55	+ 5.5
Elray Res*	ELRA	71	0.07	0.05	0.07	-36.3
Apolo Gold*	APLL	375	0.02	0.02	0.02	-33.3
Uranium Res*	URRE	6706	0.68	0.40	0.45	-25.0
PlatinumGpM*	PLG	181	2.21	1.76	1.81	-14.2
Midway Gold*	MDW	77	0.57	0.48	0.50	-13.7
Argentex Mng*	AGXM	632	0.75	0.63	0.65	-13.3
Quaterra Res*	QMM	101	1.50	1.27	1.27	-13.0
Patriot Coal*	PCX	9089	16.90	13.25	13.89	-12.6
Lake Vict Mng*	LVCA	105	0.40	0.28	0.28	-12.5
Canarc Res*	CRCUF	88	0.09	0.07	0.07	-12.5

U.S. greatest value change
WEEK
		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
Randgold Res*	GOLD	4736586	98.17	+ 3.19
Peabody Enrgy*	BTU	36993543	43.55	+ 2.29
Lihir Gold*	LIHR	744972	39.24	+ 1.16
Buenaventura*	BVN	4749456	40.41	+ 0.92
Freeport McMo*	FCX	75958540	66.57	+ 0.67
Allied Nevada*	ANV	1105500	22.38	+ 0.55
Minefinders*	MFN	2460123	9.29	+ 0.55
Vale*	VALE	30310200	27.35	+ 0.47
US Gold*	UXG	1347600	5.28	+ 0.46
Newmont Mng*	NEM	46602094	61.67	+ 0.42
Potash C Sask*	POT	14972971	95.21	-4.15
Royal Gold*	RGLD	10532472	49.80	-3.99
Compass Mnls*	CMP	584800	75.70	-2.55
Agnico-Eagle*	AEM	11591862	62.70	-2.08
Patriot Coal*	PCX	9088700	13.89	-2.01
OM Group*	OMG	1047648	26.22	-1.95
Agrium*	AGU	1558900	50.46	-1.79
Consol Energy*	CNX	21285462	37.37	-1.74
Cabot Corp*	CBT	2656181	26.47	-1.68
Intrepid Pots*	IPI	1627800	21.01	-1.41