U.S. markets end in positive territory, Mar. 11-15

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended a 10-day winning streak but still managed to eke out a 0.81% gain for the week to close at 14,514.11. The S&P 500 index climbed 0.61% to finish at 1,560.70. News of growth in U.S. manufacturing and retail sales was counter-balanced by a drop on Mar. 15 in the shares of JPMorgan Chase, a component of the Dow and S&P. The bank’s shares fell after the U.S. Federal Reserve ordered it to improve the way it sets capital payments to shareholders and a Senate report claimed the bank had “ignored risks, misled investors, fought with regulators and tried to work around rules as it deal with mushrooming issues in a derivatives portfolio,” according to Reuters.  The Philadelphia Gold and Silver index rose 0.86% to 134.46.

Some of the biggest value changes of the Mar. 11-15 trading week were on the negative side of the ledger, among them Agrium, which plunged US$3.13 to US$102.75 per share. The fertilizer giant reported on Mar. 15 that one of its shareholders, British Columbia Investment Management, will vote for Agrium’s candidates for the board and not those recommended by Jana Partners, a New York-based hedge fund that launched a proxy fight for control of the company nine months ago.  

Shares of Cliffs Natural Resources fell US$2.64 to US$22.09 after it announced that it would cut costs by idling its Wabush Point Noire iron ore pellet plant in Quebec by the end of the second quarter, while Vale fell US$1.08 to US$17.55 per share due to a brewing battle the Brazilian company faces in Argentina. The country’s labor minister ordered Vale to retain at least 6,500 workers at its Rio Colorado fertilizer project after the company stopped operations there because it did not receive the tax concessions it requested, Reuters reported. The news agency said Vale requested the tax breaks “to help ease soaring costs it attributes to Argentina’s rampant inflation and controlled exchange rate.”

Lower prices for rare earths and higher costs contributed to a fourth-quarter loss for Molycorp of US$359.6 million, or US$2.91 per share, which included a goodwill impairment charge of US$258.3 million related to its US$1.3 billion acquisition of rare earth processor Neo Material Technologies. The company said it will cut jobs to trim US$7-10 million in costs but declined to say how many workers will be affected. Molycorp ended the week down 30¢ at US$6.19 per share.