US markets have tough week

If the U.S. equity markets were indeed beginning a bullish phase, then the trading period June 18-24 was another slide down the wall of worry. The Dow Jones industrial average gave back 213.17 points, or 2.3% of value, to finish at 9,109.85, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index was knocked back 28.21 points to 983.45.

All that happened in the same week that the gold price slumped US$13, so there was no safe haven in the golds either. Among the big gold miners, Newmont Mining slid US$2.03 to close at US$31.81, AngloGold backed off US$2.43 to US$30.67, and Gold Fields tumbled US$1.20 to US$11.75.

The smaller gold miners did a little better, but not much. Homebrew Hecla Mining fell US27 to finish at US$3.99, and import Randgold Resources lost US$1.20 to close at US$16.87. Harmony Gold Mining was down US98 at $13.64, while cross-basin rival Durban Roodepoort Deep fell US30 to US$2.45.

The big news among white-goods producers was the completion of Norilsk Nickel’s acquisition of a controlling block in Stillwater Mining. Uncertainty over the deal having cleared, Stillwater jumped US44 to US$5.42. Strength in the platinum and palladium bullion markets didn’t help Anglo American Platinum, which was yanked back US$1.45 to US$34.58 in thin trading.

Base metal producers fell on fears of a weaker U.S. economy; Phelps Dodge was US$2.89 lower at US$36.65, while Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold fell back US89 to US$24.09. Even renewed takeover rumours didn’t help WMC, which was US46 lower at US$11.24.

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