U. S. MARKETS – NOVEMBER 11-17

Indexes were down across the board during the Nov. 11-17 trading session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 5.1% or 420.38 points to 8,273.58, while the S&P 500 Index dropped 48.2 points, or 5.7%, to close the session at 850.75. The Nasdaq lost 6.7% or 98.85 points to end at 1,482.05.

Even gold indices were down. The Amex Gold Bugs Index slid 16.44 points, or 9.1%, to 180.55 points, while the Philadelphia Gold and Silver Index slid 9.6%, or 7.32 points, to close the session at 76.3. Barrick Gold was down US$3.83 to US$21.15 per share, while Goldcorp fell US$3.30 to US$19.66, and Kinross Gold lost US$1.43 to close the session at US$12.17.

But the big news was Apex Silver Mines’ announcement that it was selling its stake in the massive San Cristobal zinc and silver mine in Bolivia to Sumitomo of Japan for US$22.5 million. Apex’s shares crashed 50.3% over the trading session to 71 apiece.

Shares of diversified miner Teck, meanwhile, were also pummelled. Teck Class B shares closed the trading session at US$5.32 apiece, down US$3.86. It wasn’t that long ago — Sept. 1 — that Teck was trading at US$41.57 per share. The mining giant’s stock has tanked on fears that it won’t be able to pay off a $5.8-billion bridge loan to finance its $14-million acquisition in July of Fording Canadian Coal Trust.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold lost US$4.32 to close at US$23.14 after more bad news on molybdenum prices. On Nov. 10, the Arizona-based company said that the sharp downturn in metal prices means it will cut production at its Henderson underground molybdenum mine and defer the restart of its Climax molybdenum mine, both in Colorado.

Molybdenum prices averaged US$30 per lb. in 2007 and US$33 per lb. in the nine months to Sept 30. But at presstime, the metal was trading at about US$9.50 per lb.

Finally, and unlike the previous Nov. 4-10 trading session when fertilizer makers recovered some of their losses, their shares fell this time around. Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan plummeted US$12.48 per share to close at US$69.15, while Mosaic Co. was off US$4.99 to US$31.57 apiece.

U. S. most active issues
	VOLUME	WEEK
	(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Vale* RIO	176940	13.00	10.55	11.32	-1.70
Alcoa* AA	121023	11.83	9.50	9.67	-2.11
Freeport McMo*FCX	112588	26.50	21.50	23.14	-4.32
PotashCSask*POT	87811	81.81	67.12	69.15	-12.48
Goldcorp* GG	72228	23.72	17.73	19.66	-3.30
Barrick Gold* ABX	67545	24.54	19.11	21.15	-3.83
Kinross Gold* KGC	66391	14.19	10.61	12.17	-1.43
Peabody Enrgy* BTU	50958	30.50	25.00	26.14	-5.57
Mosaic* MOS	50219	35.78	29.06	31.57	-4.99
Teck B* TCK	45973	9.10	4.67	5.32	-3.86

U. S. greatest percentage change
		VOLUME	WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Silver Res*	SLVV	186	0.18	0.10	0.18	+125.0
Zoro Mng*	ZORO	37	0.06	0.04	0.06	+100.0
Uranium Star*	URST	863	0.10	0.05	0.09	+ 80.0
Beeston Ent*	BESE	709	0.05	0.02	0.05	+ 66.6
Madison Minls*	MMRSF	36	0.14	0.05	0.09	+ 50.0
PlatinumGpM*	PLG	31	1.10	0.73	1.10	+ 39.2
Industrl Mnls*	IDSM	191	0.04	0.03	0.04	+ 33.3
Tanz Roy Exp*	TRE	915	2.55	2.01	2.55	+ 12.8
Pac Rim Minin*	PMU	922	0.11	0.08	0.09	+ 12.5
Geovic Mng*	GVCM	1136	0.74	0.59	0.74	+ 12.1
Colombia Gldf*	CGDF	8868	0.04	0.01	0.01	-75.0
Tornado Gold*	TOGI	62	0.02	0.01	0.01	-66.6
Starfield Res*	SRFDF	384	0.19	0.12	0.12	-52.0
APEX Silver*	SIL	8693	1.18	0.45	0.71	-50.3
Apolo Gold*	APLL	682	0.02	0.01	0.01	-50.0
Global Gold*	GBGD	246	0.30	0.15	0.15	-50.0
Golden Phoen*	GPXM	5518	0.02	0.01	0.01	-50.0
Claude Res*	CGR	1270	0.29	0.12	0.15	-44.4
Alumina Inc*	AWC	1682	5.59	3.19	3.31	-44.1
Cornerstone C*	CTNXF	193	0.05	0.03	0.04	-42.8

U. S. greatest value change
WEEK
		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
MDU Res*	MDU	7826724	19.28	+ 0.60
Westmoreland*	WLB	251374	8.39	+ 0.59
PlatinumGpM*	PLG	31200	1.10	+ 0.31
Tanz Roy Exp*	TRE	914972	2.55	+ 0.29
Silver Res*	SLVV	186109	0.18	+ 0.10
Intl Tower Hi*	THM	118465	1.35	+ 0.10
Geovic Mng*	GVCM	1136492	0.74	+ 0.08
Allied Nevada*	ANV	127000	2.59	+ 0.04
Uranium Star*	URST	863410	0.09	+ 0.04
Madison Minls*	MMRSF	35850	0.09	+ 0.03
Rio Tinto*	RTP	3041384	146.75	-25.49
Potash C Sask*	POT	87811302	69.15	-12.48
BHP Billi-BHP*	BHP	32365818	31.65	-8.04
BHP Billi-BBL*	BBL	6273975	26.38	-8.01
OM Group*	OMG	4698098	15.71	-7.19
Agrium*	AGU	4969400	31.01	-6.52
Cleveland-Cli*	CLF	30996592	19.65	-6.29
Peabody Enrgy*	BTU	50958129	26.14	-5.57
Mosaic*	MOS	50219010	31.57	-4.99
Randgold Res*	GOLD	5489605	27.85	-4.52