Gold stocks down as bullion rises

This was a week of mainly sideways motion in the U.S. equity markets, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 69.78 points to 9,923.42, as the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 6.44 points to 1,060.18.

For most of the trading period, the gold equities didn’t share in the bullion market’s good times; gold was up US$7.20 per oz. between Dec. 2 and Dec. 9, but stocks in the gold producers fell all around.

AngloGold was off US$2.09 at US$47.35, Ashanti Goldfields slipped US66 to US$13.39, Gold Fields drooped US78 to US$13.02, and the bellwether of the Big Board golds, Newmont Mining, fell back US$2.18 to US$47.77. Among the mid-tier producers, Randgold was US71 lower at US$27.30 and Harmony Gold Mining, US73 lower at US$15.05.

The big copper producers continue to get a boost from improving prices for the red metal. London copper prices are moving close to the US$1-per-lb. benchmark and have risen over 60% since their lows in late 2001. Worries about Chilean supply, piqued by the strike at Codelco‘s Andina mine, pushed up copper prices.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold was up US57 to US$45.72 as it resumed mining at the Grasberg copper-gold mine in Irian Jaya, Indonesia. A mudslide into the Grasberg open pit in October killed eight mine employees. Phelps Dodge closed out the trading period at US$68.98, up US$3.47 from a week ago and at a four-and-a-half-year high.

Among the other producers, Rio Tinto was up US$5.80 at US$105, BHP Billiton was up US62 at US$17.34, and WMC Resources rose 59 to US$15.04. Only Anglo American fell back, sliding US37 to US$21.68.