United States equity markets got their wish on Sept. 18, when the Federal Reserve Bank cut its interest rate by half a point, to 4.75%. Stocks, which had already been going up in anticipation of a rate cut to ease worries of a credit crunch, went skyward on the announcement, with gains that were mostly sustained through the rest of the reporting period, Sept. 18-24. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.7%, to finish at 13,759.06, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index finished at 1,517.73, up 2.8%.
The rate cut — and consequent sale of U.S. dollars — was good for the gold price, which was fixed as high as US$737 on Sept. 21. It finished the period at US$730 per oz., up US$11. That was a cue for the gold equities to shoot up, which took the Philadelphia Gold and Silver Index to 170.59, up 12.24 points or 7.7%, and the Amex Gold Bugs Index to 395.42, up 30.01 points, or 8.2%.
Even so, the gold stocks moved broadly upward with relatively few standouts. Newmont Mining finally shook off some of the pessimism, rising US$2.05 to US$48.26, with a stop at a 52-week high of US$48.42. AngloGold Ashanti was US87 higher at US$46.90, and Gold Fields added US72 to close at US$18.05. The only other gold producer to touch a new high was Minas Buenaventura, which was US$4.67 better at US$46.29.
Over in the base metals, there were plenty of gainers. BHP Billiton added US$10.56 to close at US$75.94 thanks to speculation on a new resource figure from the Olympic Dam copper-uranium-gold deposit in South Australia. The miner did not disappoint, with a new resource estimate in its annual figures of 4.4 billion tonnes grading 0.94% copper, 0.03% U3O8, and 0.3 gram gold per tonne, measured and indicated, plus 3.3 billion tonnes grading 0.78% copper, 0.03% U3O8, and 0.3 gram gold inferred. The resource increase was not, as reported breathlessly in the business press, a discovery, but came from a remodelling of the deposit on lower cutoff grades, to reflect improved metal prices, and incremental changes to the resource envelope. The reserve at Olympic Dam, 399 million tonnes at 1.87% copper, 0.06% U3O8, and 0.7 gram gold per tonne, was not significantly changed.
U.S. most active issues
| VOLUME(000s) | HIGH | LOW | CLOSE | CHANGE | ||
| CVRD* | RIO | 96232 | 31.82 | 27.49 | 31.76 | +4.80 |
| Alcoa* | AA | 53374 | 38.17 | 35.25 | 37.01 | +1.78 |
| Freeport McMo* | FCX | 52292 | 110.60 | 96.55 | 107.71 | +8.57 |
| Newmont Mng* | NEM | 43158 | 48.42 | 44.60 | 48.26 | +2.05 |
| Coeur d Alene* | CDE | 42803 | 3.98 | 3.31 | 3.87 | +0.32 |
| StreetTr Gold* | GLD | 41591 | 73.00 | 70.40 | 72.28 | +0.02 |
| Goldcorp* | GG | 39981 | 30.68 | 27.69 | 30.01 | +0.84 |
| Barrick Gold* | ABX | 32266 | 40.94 | 36.86 | 39.90 | +0.23 |
| Kinross Gold* | KGC | 25133 | 15.50 | 13.61 | 15.03 | +0.36 |
| Golden Star* | GSS | 24216 | 4.29 | 3.25 | 4.02 | +0.04 |
U.S. greatest percentage change
| VOLUME(000s) | HIGH | LOW | CLOSE | CHANGE | ||
| Geocom Res* | GOCM | 104 | 0.26 | 0.191 | 0.26 | +43.6 |
| Fischer-W Gld* | FWGO | 244 | 0.07 | 0.04 | 0.07 | +40.0 |
| HE-5 Res* | HRRN | 44 | 0.30 | 0.18 | 0.22 | +37.5 |
| Crosshair E&M* | CXZ | 357 | 2.00 | 1.42 | 1.90 | +33.8 |
| Pine Valley M* | PVMCF | 682 | 0.035 | 0.023 | 0.03 | +30.4 |
| Halo Res* | HLOSF | 61 | 0.584 | 0.45 | 0.584 | +27.5 |
| Pac Gold* | PCFG | 1012 | 0.15 | 0.115 | 0.136 | +23.6 |
| Starfield Res* | SRFDF | 728 | 1.64 | 1.22 | 1.61 | +23.0 |
| Idaho Gen Mn* | GMO | 2023 | 7.00 | 5.41 | 6.90 | +20.8 |
| Metalline Mng* | MMG | 154 | 3.11 | 2.44 | 3.04 | +20.1 |
| Brookmount Ex* | BMXI | 26 | 0.044 | 0.025 | 0.025 | -43.1 |
| Birch Mountn* | BMD | 3921 | 1.77 | 1.38 | 1.38 | -24.1 |
| Bullion Rvr G* | BLRV | 699 | 0.345 | 0.25 | 0.275 | -20.0 |
| Patriot Gold* | PGOL | 28 | 0.12 | 0.089 | 0.089 | -19.0 |
| Sparrowtech R* | SPMC | 1908 | 0.06 | 0.04 | 0.049 | -18.3 |
| Northgate Mnl* | NXG | 19290 | 2.95 | 2.65 | 2.82 | -15.3 |
| Minco Gold* | MGH | 366 | 0.86 | 0.66 | 0.72 | -14.2 |
| Gold Reserve* | GRZ | 1460 | 4.49 | 3.97 | 3.97 | -12.1 |
| Sao Luis Mng* | SAOL | 177 | 0.34 | 0.28 | 0.30 | -11.7 |
| Trend Mng* | TRDM | 933 | 0.04 | 0.033 | 0.039 | -11.3 |
U.S. greatest value change
| VOLUME | CLOSE | CHANGE | ||
| Rio Tinto* | RTP | 2306506 | 342.84 | +39.66 |
| Yanzhou Coal* | YZC | 446200 | 107.18 | +16.68 |
| Soc Quim&M Ch* | SQM | 244700 | 165.03 | +14.87 |
| Southern Copp* | PCU | 8716078 | 123.64 | +12.19 |
| BHP Billi-BHP* | BHP | 22477563 | 75.94 | +10.56 |
| BHP Billi-BBL* | BBL | 1264409 | 70.42 | +10.42 |
| Freeport McMo* | FCX | 52292352 | 107.71 | +8.57 |
| Potash C Sask* | POT | 16204000 | 100.69 | +6.92 |
| Cleveland-Cli* | CLF | 5832853 | 84.55 | +5.93 |
| CVRD* | RIO | 96231686 | 31.76 | +4.80 |
| Seabridge Gld* | SA | 2128200 | 30.36 | -1.73 |
| Agnico-Eagle* | AEM | 9964672 | 49.01 | -0.74 |
| Gold Reserve* | GRZ | 1459800 | 3.97 | -0.55 |
| Northgate Mnl* | NXG | 19289610 | 2.82 | -0.51 |
| Birch Mountn* | BMD | 3921300 | 1.38 | -0.44 |
| DRDGOLD* | DROOY | 1621611 | 7.89 | -0.42 |
| Foundatn Coal* | FCL | 2385700 | 38.31 | -0.37 |
| NovaGold Res* | NG | 2413400 | 16.10 | -0.35 |
| Massey Energy* | MEE | 4959900 | 22.24 | -0.30 |
| Vista Gold* | VGZ | 1346500 | 4.51 | -0.30 |
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