U.S. Markets, March 18-22

U.S. markets were recovering at press time after a sluggish period. Troubled Cyprus alarmed investors, with the week ending on fears that contagion would ensue if the country wasn’t bailed out by the European Union.

Such worries had the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 2 points to 14,512.03 points, and the S&P 500 down 4 points to 1,556.89. But the Nasdaq made gains, and the index was up 30 points to 3,245 points.

The Federal Reserve released a monetary policy statement during the period, saying that its monetary easing would continue through bond buying and that the program would only end if there was a sustained recovery in the labour market.

Stronger economic data from the U.S. had some believing the Fed would stop buying bonds sooner, which led investors to buy the U.S. dollar and sell-off gold. The idea that loose monetary policies that fuelled gold’s strong run over the last four years could be coming to a close caused a slump in the gold price leading into the Fed’s statements, but prices rallied somewhat afterwards.

The yellow metal’s rising price returned some of the lustre to the companies that mine it, with Randgold Resources, Royal Gold, Newmont Mining, Agnico-Eagle Mines and Goldcorp among the highest gainers by value within the mining sector.

The senior diversified miners didn’t fare as well, and BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Teck Resources and Cliffs Natural Resources were among the biggest losers by value.

Shares of Alcoa were also off, after UBS released negative research. The bank dropped its earnings-per-share estimates after Macquarie already downgraded shares of Alcoa to “underperform” from a “neutral” rating. The aluminum giant’s shares were off 18¢ to $8.45 for the period. In its latest financial results released on Jan. 8, the company met the consensus estimate of US6¢ earnings per share for the quarter, on revenue of US$5.9 billion.

U.S. most active issues

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		Volume
Company	Symbol	(000s)	High	Low	Close	Change
Alcoa*	AA	70182	8.65	8.42	8.45	–	0.18
Freeport McMo*	FCX	61933	33.66	32.65	33	–	0.8
Cliffs Nat Rs*	CLF	61068	22.13	20.06	20.76	–	1.33
Arch Coal*	ACI	46514	6.03	5.33	5.39	–	0.45
Alpha Nat Res*	ANR	44441	9.05	8.12	8.25	–	0.4
Barrick Gold*	ABX	39650	29.84	28.67	29.38	+	0.76
Peabody Enrgy*	BTU	38323	22.69	20.67	20.97	–	0.87
Kinross Gold*	KGC	34122	8.17	7.88	8.13	+	0.3
Hecla Mining*	HL	34006	4.32	3.92	4.05	–	0.18
Newmont Mng*	NEM	28533	41.84	39.8	41.61	+	1.93

U.S. greatest percentage change

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		Volume
Company	Symbol	(000s)	High	Low	Close	Change
Cardero Res*	CDY	440	0.36	0.23	0.29	+	18.3
Claude Res*	CGR	2956	0.49	0.39	0.47	+	17.6
Atlatsa Res*	ATL	490	0.22	0.18	0.21	+	13.8
Goldfield*	GV	5118	5.23	4.26	5.18	+	12.6
Intl Tower Hi*	THM	1080	1.67	1.42	1.62	+	11.3
Silvercorp Mt*	SVM	1501	4.12	3.69	3.98	+	9
Timberline Rs*	TLR	313	0.19	0.16	0.18	+	9
McEwen Mng*	MUX	8147	3.04	2.7	2.98	+	8.3
Yamana Gold*	AUY	7191	15.65	14.59	15.64	+	7.6
Timmins Gold*	TGD	451	2.95	2.65	2.93	+	6.5
Alderon Irn O*	AXX	349	1.8	1.28	1.3	–	21.2
General Moly*	GMO	2810	2.93	2.04	2.43	–	17
China Shen Zh*	SHZ	137	0.35	0.29	0.3	–	11.5
Quest Rare Mn*	QRM	368	0.72	0.6	0.63	–	9.2
Tasman Mtls*	TAS	262	1	0.86	0.87	–	9.2
US Energy*	USEG	527	1.71	1.56	1.58	–	8.6
Arch Coal*	ACI	46514	6.03	5.33	5.39	–	7.7
Molycorp*	MCP	27778	6.28	5.65	5.72	–	7.5
Mechel*	MTL	2660	5.66	5.2	5.27	–	7.3
Allied Nevada*	ANV	943	18.82	16.86	17.16	–	6.2

U.S. greatest value change

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Company	Symbol	Change	Close	Change
Randgold Res*	GOLD	2599254	85.72	+	3.35
Royal Gold*	RGLD	3107088	70.37	+	3.21
Newmont Mng*	NEM	28533444	41.61	+	1.93
Agnico-Eagle*	AEM	6056464	41.04	+	1.35
Goldcorp*	GG	26864073	33.56	+	1.12
Yamana Gold*	AUY	7190980	15.64	+	1.11
Silver Wheatn*	SLW	21339769	31.23	+	0.83
Buenaventura*	BVN	5161345	25.89	+	0.83
Barrick Gold*	ABX	39650433	29.38	+	0.76
ASA (Bermuda)*	ASA	308144	19.43	+	0.6
BHP Billi-BHP*	BHP	13892459	69.64	–	3.32
BHP Billi-BBL*	BBL	3052335	59.21	–	3.27
Mosaic*	MOS	14238482	59.71	–	2.98
Rio Tinto*	RIO	3552242	47.45	–	2.53
Agrium*	AGU	737729	100.57	–	2.18
Teck Res B*	TCK	16208756	28.12	–	1.86
Cabot Corp*	CBT	2557267	34.16	–	1.4
Potash C Sask*	POT	13780494	39.55	–	1.34
Cliffs Nat Rs*	CLF	61067681	20.76	–	1.33
Allied Nevada*	ANV	942758	17.16	–	1.15