U.S. equities lose ground after Japanese disaster

It was a dark week for U.S. equities as Japan struggled to contain fires, explosions and radiation leaks at its crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 185.88 points or 1.54% to 11,858.52, while the S&P 500 index lost 25.08 points or 1.92% to finish at 1,279.20. The Philadelphia Gold and Silver index dropped 2.51 points or 1.2% to 204.30, while the gold price edged up 10¢ to US$1,419.70 per oz. Just three companies reached new 52-week highs: Consol Energy, Natural Resources Partners, and Peabody Energy, while one, Kinross Gold, fell to a new 52-week low.

Fears about the future of nuclear power lifted shares of coal producers. Peabody Energy, Alliance Resource Partners and Consol Energy topped the list of value gains. Peabody advanced US$7.07 to US$70.21 per share, Alliance Resource Partners jumped US$6.39 to US$79.68, and Consol Energy added US$5.32 to US$53.93. Alpha Natural Resources and Massey Energy also benefited from worries about the safety of nuclear energy, gaining US$4.19 to US$55.28 and US$2.56 to US$62.13, respectively. Arch Coal was up US$1.99 to US$34.47 while Patriot Coal gained US$1.84 to US$24.43. Teck advanced US$1.77 to US$54.22, despite issuing revised coal sales guidance for the first quarter of 2011. Teck reported on Mar. 14 that unusually difficult winter weather conditions had caused higher than normal rail delays due to avalanches, as well as an unusual number of locomotive power failures and train length restrictions. Teck now expects coal sales in the first quarter to be in the range of 4.6 – 4.9 million tonnes, down from an average of 5.3 million tonnes in the first quarter of each of the last six years. 

Uranium stocks continued their downward trajectory. Cameco Corporation led the way with a drop of US$7.98 or 21.3% to US$29.40 per share. Ur-Energy lost 32.2% to close at US$1.70 while Uranerz Energy tumbled 21.5% to US$3.10.

On the gold front, Allied Nevada added US$2.07 to close the trading week at US$32.90 per share, on now news. In late February it reported net income of US$6.6 million (US$0.07 per share) in the fourth quarter of 2010 and US$34.1 million (US$0.41 per share) for all of 2010, year, with net income of US$17.8 million (US$0.24 per share) and US$8.5 million (US$0.13 per share) for the same periods in 2009. Net income in 2010 included a tax benefit of US$7.1 million.