Copper the only bright spot

U.S. stock markets rose steadily through the first four days of the reporting period July 12-18, but the gains were almost wiped out on the final day of the period. The S&P 500 index was up 1.69 points to 1,221.13.

It was not a good time for the golds, with bullion prices testing support levels in the US$420-per-oz. range and lower. The big gold producers all fell: Newmont was down US$1.78 at US$36.88, AngloGold Ashanti US75 at US$35.53, Gold Fields US67 at US$10.98, and Harmony Gold Mining US69 at US$8.19. The South Africans didn’t get much relief on the exchange-rate front, either, as the rand fell only a quarter-cent, to US15.

Mid-tier gold producers were looking at comparable price drops, with Minas Buenaventura off US$1.34 at US$22.01, Randgold Resources sliding US$1.09 to US$13.09, and Lihir Gold shedding US60 to finish at US$18.15.

The slowly weakening silver price, now down to US$6.945 per oz., took its toll on the white metal’s producers. Coeur d’Alene Mines was down US37 to US$3.36, Hecla Mining fell US52 to US$3.97, and development play Apex Silver was off US$1.22 at US$13.23.

Analyzing the results among the base metal stocks was a fairly simple game of spot-the-copper-producers, as the red metal rose to US$3,650 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange and US$1.5665 per lb. on the Comex in the wake of labour troubles at Grupo Mexico’s Asarco operations in the southwestern U.S. Phelps Dodge was up US$1.69 at US$101.19 while the functioning half of Grupo Mexico, Southern Peru Copper, was up US$1.21 to US$47.74.

Outside that group, share prices were mostly lower, including the Big Four. Anglo American fell back US26 to US$23.30, Rio Tinto slid US$3.63 to US$124.38, CVRD dropped US61 to US$31.06 and BHP Billiton gave up US45 to close at US$27.77.