U.S. MARKETS -June 28-July 2

It was a slaughter for U.S. equities in the June 28-July 2 trading week as anxiety mounted about the likelihood of a double-dip recession. Further signs that economic recovery may have peaked came on July 2 with news that the U.S. economy lost 125,000 jobs in June, the biggest decline since October.

The Dow Jones industrial average sank 457.33 points or 4.51% to close at 9,686.48, while the S&P 500 index plummeted 5.03%, losing 54.18 points to finish at 1,022.58. The Nasdaq dropped 131.69 points or 5.92% to 2,091.79. Even gold failed to impress with the Philadelphia Gold and Silver index down 8.3% or 15.36 points at 169.76. The gold price slid from US$1,238.60 per oz. on June 28 to US$1,211.30 per oz. on July 2.

Demonstrating the broad reach of the downturn, the top three losses came from companies in very different sectors: potash, iron ore, coal, copper and gold. Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan fell US$9.80 per share to close at US$85.41 and Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold lost US$8.03 to close at US$58.54 apiece. Cliffs Natural Resources sank US$9.48 to finish at US$46.89 a share. Poor market sentiment outweighed the good news Cliffs received on July 2, when Spider Resources entered into a support agreement for its all-cash takeover offer at 19¢ per share. (KWG Resources failed to match Cliffs’ bid and Spider has paid KWG a termination fee of $2.3 million.) Cliffs’ offer is a 138% premium over Spider’s closing share price on the TSX Venture Exchange on May 21 and values Spider at $125 million.

Losses were also large for Seabridge Gold, which slid US$5.96 to close at US$28.84 a share. The company has two major projects: the KSM property near Stewart, B.C., and the Courageous Lake gold project in Canada’s Northwest Territories. Seabridge started drilling at Courageous Lake on June 16 to upgrade inferred resources to the measured and indicated category. On the positive side of the ledger, Commerce Group, which for the past 40 years has been exploring for precious metals in El Salvador, jumped 40% to US7¢ per share on no news, while Mountain Province Diamonds topped the week’s list of value gains with an advance of US6¢ to US$2.52, also on no news.

U.S. most active issues
	VOLUME		WEEK
	(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Alcoa* AA	133091	11.27	9.81	10.00	-1.23
Freeport McMo* FCX	70041	66.33	56.71	58.54	-8.03
Newmont Mng* NEM	55690	62.62	58.03	58.76	-2.91
Barrick Gold* ABX	51231	47.25	42.40	43.24	-3.09
Hecla Mining* HL	42460	5.87	4.88	4.92	-0.86
Vale* VALE	37082	27.47	23.87	24.79	-2.56
Cliffs Nat Rs* CLF	36505	56.38	44.91	46.89	-9.48
Goldcorp* GG	33727	46.28	40.89	41.40	-4.02
Silver Wheatn* SLW	31335	21.89	18.39	18.65	-2.71
Teck B* TCK	29462	33.83	28.37	29.55	-4.37

U.S. greatest percentage change
		VOLUME		WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Commerce Grp*	CGCO	18	0.07	0.04	0.07	+ 40.0
Caledonia Mng*	CALVF	550	0.06	0.05	0.06	+ 20.0
Starfield Res*	SRFDF	108	0.10	0.05	0.09	+ 12.5
El Capitan Pr*	ECPN	932	0.52	0.39	0.49	+ 8.8
US Antimony*	UAMY	28	0.45	0.41	0.45	+ 7.1
Mountain Prov*	MDM	53	2.70	2.39	2.52	+ 2.4
Constittn Mng*	CMIN	2408	0.75	0.68	0.75	+ 1.3
Legend Intl H*	LGDI	639	0.90	0.80	0.84	+ 1.2
Apolo Gold*	APLL	3361	0.02	0.01	0.02	-33.3
Grandview Gld*	GVGDF	273	0.06	0.05	0.05	-28.5
Silver Dragon*	SDRG	1148	0.23	0.17	0.18	-28.0
Am Engy Field*	AEFI	90	0.60	0.42	0.45	-27.4
Shoshone Silv*	SHSH	37	0.15	0.11	0.12	-25.0
Linux Gold*	LNXGF	706	0.05	0.02	0.03	-25.0
Taseko Mines*	TGB	16707	4.99	3.57	3.92	-20.4
Tombstone Exp*	TMBXF	410	0.10	0.06	0.08	-20.0
Anooraq Res*	ANO	861	1.19	0.92	0.97	-19.1
Patriot Coal*	PCX	6249	13.95	10.90	11.30	-18.6

U.S. greatest value change
WEEK
		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
Mountain Prov*	MDM	52800	2.52	+ 0.06
El Capitan Pr*	ECPN	931737	0.49	+ 0.04
US Antimony*	UAMY	28180	0.45	+ 0.03
Commerce Grp*	CGCO	18250	0.07	+ 0.02
Caledonia Mng*	CALVF	550085	0.06	+ 0.01
Constittn Mng*	CMIN	2408232	0.75	+ 0.01
Legend Intl H*	LGDI	638560	0.84	+ 0.01
Starfield Res*	SRFDF	107500	0.09	+ 0.01
Potash C Sask*	POT	23764928	85.41	-9.80
Cliffs Nat Rs*	CLF	36505294	46.89	-9.48
Freeport McMo*	FCX	70040693	58.54	-8.03
Seabridge Gld*	SA	1936651	28.84	-5.96
BHP Billi-BHP*	BHP	25180873	62.71	-5.28
Agnico-Eagle*	AEM	10594421	57.50	-5.20
Massey Ene rgy*	MEE	19611379	26.31	-5.15
Randgold Res*	GOLD	4910908	93.13	-5.04
BHP Billi-BBL*	BBL	25006333	52.15	-4.67
Peabody Enrgy*	BTU	28441543	38.99	-4.56