U.S. Markets -March 2-8

As more than 20,000 delegates from over 100 countries attended the 78th Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada conference in Toronto this week, a question looming large on many peoples’ minds was: How strong is the current economic rebound and how long will it last? No doubt they also wondered whether the best of the stock market rally is over. During the March 2-8 period, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 146.54 points or 1.41% to close at 10,552.52, while the S&P 500 index climbed 20.19 points or 1.81% to finish at 1,138.50. The Nasdaq Composite increased 51.42 points or 2.26% to 2,332.21.

Large diversified miners and energy stocks were the biggest gainers during the period. Rio Tinto topped the value list with an advance of US$13.84 per share to close at US$224.50, following news on March 1 that it had completed divestments of US$10 billion, with more than US$7 billion of that having been completed since the beginning of 2009, predominantly for cash. Divestments passed the US$10-billion mark with Rio Tinto’s sale of its Alcan Packaging Food Americas division to Bemis Company for US$1.2 billion. Rio Tinto also announced that it had agreed to acquire 15 million shares in Ivanhoe Mines at a subscription price of $16.31 per share, increasing its ownership in Ivanhoe by 2.7% to 22.4%.

BHP Billiton took second spot with an advance of US$5.07 per share to US$79.31. BHP announced on March 8 that it had reached terms for a significant portion of its hard coking coal volumes for 2010, “based on a structural change to shorter term market based pricing for the contract period.” The company reached agreement with customers throughout Europe, China, India and Japan.

On the energy front, Massey Energy climbed US$4.24 to US$48.78, while Patriot Coal was up US$3.05 per share to US$21.13 apiece. Patriot announced annual revenues for 2009 of US$2 billion, up a year-on-year 24%, while EBITDA reached US$110.7 million, up 150% over 2008. Patriot Coal produces and markets coal in the eastern U.S., with 14 mining complexes in Appalachia and the Illinois basin.

U.S. most active issues
	VOLUME		WEEK
	(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Alcoa* AA	167704	14.02	13.22	13.78	+ 0.47
Goldspring* GSPG	106187	0.01	0.01	0.01	0.00
Freeport McMo*FCX	74998	81.65	76.25	80.62	+ 4.17
Barrick Gold* ABX	52159	40.80	38.71	39.68	+ 1.23
Hecla Mining* HL	45276	5.75	5.34	5.63	+ 0.30
Goldcorp* GG	42655	40.98	38.58	40.13	+ 1.71
Newmont Mng* NEM	42345	52.57	50.31	51.06	+ 0.78
Silver Wheatn* SLW	34631	15.89	14.95	15.45	+ 0.19
Cliffs Nat Rs* CLF	31443	61.50	56.46	60.17	+ 1.09
Arch Coal* ACI	30184	24.61	22.77	24.56	+ 1.87

U.S. greatest percentage change
		VOLUME		WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
General Moly*	GMO	17800	4.16	2.51	3.68	+ 47.2
Puda Coal*	PUDA	731	10.76	7.24	9.57	+ 36.1
Commerce Grp*	CGCO	41	0.08	0.05	0.08	+ 33.3
Alberta Star *	ASXSF	645	0.17	0.12	0.16	+ 33.3
Anooraq Res*	ANO	4821	1.55	1.20	1.53	+ 25.4
Starfield Res*	SRFDF	202	0.10	0.08	0.10	+ 25.0
China Shen Zh*	SHZ	204	1.60	1.00	1.34	+ 24.0
Minera Andes*	MNEAF	2567	0.88	0.72	0.88	+ 22.2
NWT Uranium*	NWURF	125	0.19	0.16	0.18	+ 20.0
Caledonia Mng*	CALVF	504	0.07	0.05	0.06	+ 20.0
Fischer-W Gld*	FWGO	27	0.07	0.05	0.05	-28.5
Affinity Gold*	AFYG	716	1.11	0.76	0.82	-26.1
Patriot Gold*	PGOL	122	0.41	0.29	0.30	-23.0
Xtra-Gold Res*	XTGR	214	1.28	0.98	1.05	-16.0
Gold Reserve*	GRZ	1108	1.19	0.99	1.01	-15.1
America West*	AWSR	219	0.17	0.15	0.15	-11.7
PolyMet Mng*	PLM	7386	2.50	1.87	2.17	-10.7
Radius Gold*	RDUFF	43	0.38	0.34	0.34	-8.1
Argentex Mng*	AGXM	375	0.81	0.73	0.74	-7.5
Samex Mng*	SMXMF	329	0.32	0.28	0.29	-6.4

U.S. greatest value change
WEEK
		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
Rio Tinto*	RTP	4184372	224.50	+ 13.84
BHP Billi-BHP*	BHP	22357160	79.31	+ 5.07
BHP Billi-BBL*	BBL	10023522	67.32	+ 4.96
Potash C Sask*	POT	25210325	117.91	+ 4.96
Massey Energy*	MEE	24087614	48.78	+ 4.24
Freeport McMo*	FCX	74998028	80.62	+ 4.17
Patriot Coal*	PCX	10680700	21.13	+ 3.05
Puda Coal*	PUDA	731200	9.57	+ 2.54
ASA (Bermuda)*	ASA	122467	75.07	+ 2.51
Compass Mnls*	CMP	547900	77.84	+ 2.29
Seabridge Gld*	SA	2935495	22.40	-1.28
Ivanhoe Mines*	IVN	8270148	15.58	-0.81
Yamana Gold*	AUY	12041300	10.17	– 0.57
Intrepid Pots*	IPI	1574700	28.11	-0.40
North Am En P*	NOA	153700	10.03	-0.37
Minefinders*	MFN	2967841	9.81	-0.32
Cameco Corp*	CCJ	12378262	27.50	-0.32
Affinity Gold*	AFYG	715804	0.82	-0.29
PolyMet Mng*	PLM	7385620	2.17	-0.26
Harry Winston*	HWD	168600	10.18	-0.20