U.S. Markets November 20-26

It was another tough stretch for U.S. equity markets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 215 points, to 12,743.44, over the reporting period Nov. 20-26, falling past the lows it touched in August. Its 1.7% slide was closely matched by the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, which was down 1.8% in the same period.

Gold broke US$800 per oz. and stayed there, finishing the period at US$830, up US$51.15 on the five trading days in London. That pulled the gold stocks higher, with the Philadelphia Gold and Silver Index rising 5.23 points or 3.2% to 169.51 and the Amex Gold Bugs Index rising 17.75 points (4.5%) to 415.97.

Among the mining issues on U.S. exchanges, the declining stocks only just outnumbered advancing ones, 98 to 79. In general, the bluer the chip, the better it did during the period; most of the declining stocks were juniors on the NASDAQ or Amex.

The big gold producers mostly held to that pattern: Newmont Mining was up US$1.87 to US$50.44, while AngloGold Ashanti gained US$1.36 to close at US$44.04. Gold Fields was off US17 at US$16.92 and Harmony Gold Mining backed up US32 to US$9.74.

Hecla Mining was a strong performer in the mid-tiers, rising US77 to US$11.88 after trading as high as US$12.57, a 52-week high. Minas Buenaventura picked up US$2.07 to finish at US$54.46, and Coeur d’Alene Mines was US36 higher at US$4.29.

Base metal producers were more affected by the general economic picture, especially the copper-sensitive stocks. Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold slipped US$3.20 to US$89.30, while Southern Copper was down US$1.02 at US$101 and Companhia Vale do Rio Doce was cut US$2.64 to US$31.

Rio Tinto fired back a defensive shot at BHP Billiton’s proposal for merger talks, saying it could deliver better growth to its shareholders on its own. Rumours of a Chinese consortium moving on Rio pumped the stock briefly, but Rio finished only US$9.34 higher at US$425.39; BHP, which has seen about US$30 billion in market capitalization disappear since it called for merger talks, was up US13 at US$70.97.

U.S. greatest percentage change

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE		CHANGE
NT Holding*	NTHH	25	0.07	0.06	0.07	+	75.0
Birch Mountn*	BMD	2402	0.92	0.541	0.79	+	31.2
Idaho Gen Mn*	GMO	5797	11.29	9.36	10.57	+	24.9
Capital Gold*	CGLD	1673	0.79	0.635	0.78	+	20.0
Contintl Mnls*	KMKCF	478	1.82	1.53	1.79	+	19.3
Homeland Pr M*	HPMEF	18	0.23	0.15	0.15	+	15.3
Shoshone Silv*	SHSH	121	0.33	0.27	0.30	+	11.1
Tanz Roy Exp*	TRE	1765	6.49	5.69	6.27	+	10.1
Massey Energy*	MEE	5340	32.39	28.46	31.43	+	9.8
Silver Dragon*	SDRG	503	0.90	0.74	0.89	+	9.8
Commerce Grp*	CGCO	546	0.16	0.05	0.075	–	53.4
NovaGold Res*	NG	22594	20.27	9.11	9.48	–	48.1
World Vent*	WVNTF	38	0.13	0.09	0.09	–	40.0
Sparrowtech R*	SPMC	837	0.048	0.02	0.031	–	38.0
HE-5 Res*	HRRN	761	0.035	0.025	0.025	–	37.5
Pac Gold*	PCFG	4077	0.08	0.04	0.063	–	30.0
Strata O&G*	SOIGF	677	1.20	0.84	0.89	–	23.9
Geocom Res*	GOCM	25	0.203	0.165	0.165	–	17.9
Kimber Res*	KBX	731	1.12	0.75	0.76	–	17.3
Uranium Star*	URST	315	0.30	0.25	0.25	–	16.6

U.S. greatest value change

		VOLUME	CLOSE		CHANGE
Rio Tinto*	RTP	2544336	425.39	+	9.34
Cleveland-Cli*	CLF	6608300	80.44	+	5.91
Yanzhou Coal*	YZC	461217	86.62	+	5.62
CONSOL Energy*	CNX	9534265	55.00	+	4.82
StreetTr Gold*	GLD	31919400	81.30	+	4.06
Foundatn Coal*	FCL	3395870	42.97	+	3.53
Goldcorp*	GG	27466327	33.48	+	2.85
Massey Energy*	MEE	5340110	31.43	+	2.81
Barrick Gold*	ABX	28531685	41.71	+	2.79
Mosaic*	MOS	10462059	61.98	+	2.64
NovaGold Res*	NG	22594286	9.48	–	8.81
Teck Comin B*	TCK	7240532	36.00	–	3.92
Soc Quim&M Ch*	SQM	272300	159.30	–	3.61
Freeport McMo*	FCX	52599049	89.30	–	3.20
CVRD*	RIO	105292399	31.00	–	2.64
Seabridge Gld*	SA	1546028	27.17	–	1.86
Alumina Inc*	AWC	383920	21.98	–	1.70
Southern Copp*	PCU	8938923	101.00	–	1.02
North Am En P*	NOA	163200	12.97	–	0.99
Westmoreland*	WLB	128600	17.20	–	0.89

U.S. most active issues

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE		CHANGE
CVRD*	RIO	105292	34.94	30.10	31.00	–	2.64
Freeport McMo*	FCX	52599	94.98	87.26	89.30	–	3.20
Alcoa*	AA	36917	36.10	34.56	34.88	–	0.19
Coeur d Alene*	CDE	33243	4.43	3.91	4.29	+	0.36
StreetTr Gold*	GLD	31919	82.25	77.30	81.30	+	4.06
Barrick Gold*	ABX	28532	43.46	39.50	41.71	+	2.79
Goldcorp*	GG	27466	34.75	31.35	33.48	+	2.85
Newmont Mng*	NEM	26762	52.55	49.48	50.44	+	1.87
NovaGold Res*	NG	22594	20.27	9.11	9.48	–	8.81
BHP Billi-BHP*	BHP	21747	73.45	68.80	70.97	+	0.13