Bulls back on Wall Street
A 265-point jump in the Dow Jones Industrial Average on the first trading day of 2003 put investors in the mood for gains, and the U.S. markets in general had a stellar week. The Dow was up 407.74 poi…
Freeport-McMoRan Inc
Golds rise against tide
Rising gold shares were set off in contrast to most other market sectors after a poor three trading days on the U.S. exchanges, Dec. 23-27. The Dow, declining 207.54 points to 8,303.78, and the S&P 50…
BHP Billiton drops Ekati brand
London-based BHP Billiton has dropped its Ekati diamond brand in favour of Aurias, a brand already known in markets outside North America.The company previously sold diamonds under the Ekati brand nam…
Gold touches US$355 per oz.
Gold bugs were particularly exultant during the report period ended Dec. 20 as the yellow metal surged to US$355 per oz. on Dec. 19. during intra-day, European trading.However, any belief in gold is s…
Golds show life signs
U.S. markets moved sideways over the reporting period Dec. 11-17, but the mining stocks, particularly the golds, ran up substantially. The Dow, which fell 38.87 points to 8,535.39, was down slightly, …
WMC gains titanium asset
The biggest deal of the report period was WMC Resources’ US$87.5-million acquisition from South Africa’s Southern Mining of the world’s largest undeveloped titanium mineral-sands deposit: Corridor San…
Phelps Dodge, Cabot under investigation
The biggest story over the period was the revelation that Phelps Dodge and Cabot are being jointly investigated by American and European antitrust authorities for alleged price-fixing in the carbon bl…
Grasberg delivers the goods in third quarter
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (FCX-N) is bouncing back from a disappointing first half, thanks to strong operating performance at the massive Grasberg copper-gold mine in Indonesia.The improvement re…
Precious metals miners shine
While gold prices ended the report period virtually unchanged at around US$317 per oz., gold bugs drew encouragement that most of the gold miners showed uncharacteristic strength and added to the prev…
OM in freefall
After dropping from US$40 to US$30 in the previous week, the shares of cobalt refiner OM Group collapsed further during the report period, falling 71% on Oct. 29 to US$8.95 and closing at US$7.49 on t…
Markets stage stunning rally
The period ending Oct. 15 saw a dramatic surge in the broad U.S. markets, with both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 index surging more than 10% to 8,255.68 and 881.27 points, respecti…
Golds slump in weak market
Dow 36,000 receded further into the distance over the report period Oct. 1-8, with the bellwether U.S. stock index plunging 437.30 points to finish at 7,501.49. But the gold stocks, which have been fe…