Wall Street was a sea of red, Sept. 19-23

It was a disastrous week on Wall Street as mounting fears about the possibility of a double-dip recession pummeled U.S. equities. Continued anxiety over debt in Europe and sobering comments from the U.S. Federal Reserve contributed to the anxiety. On Wednesday the central bank warned of significant headwinds to the already fragile U.S. economy and said it would sell US$400 billion of short-term Treasury bonds to buy the same amount of longer-term U.S. government debt

The Dow Jones Industrial Index plummeted 6.4% or 737.61 points to 10,771.48 during the Sept. 19-23 trading week, while the S&P 500 index lost 6.5% or 79.58 points to finish   at 1,136.43. The New York spot price for gold sank US$155.30 finishing the Sept. 19-23 trading week at US$1657.20 per oz., and the Philadelphia Gold and Silver index dropped 13.2% or 28.64 points to 188.92.

America West Resources and Anooraq Resources were the only stocks that ended the week in positive territory, advancing 8¢ to 80¢ per share or 11.1% and 1¢ to 60¢ per share or 1.6%, respectively. America West operates the Horizon coal mine in Carbon County, Utah and advanced on no news. Anooraq announced that it had concluded a two-year wage agreement between Bokoni Platinum Mines and the Togetherness Amalgamated Workers’ Union of South Africa, the National Union of Mineworkers, and the United Association of South Africa. It also updated shareholders on its ongoing strategic review with Anglo Platinum of the Bokoni Group.

On the negative side of the ledger Cliffs Natural Resources shed US$20.10 per share to close the week at US$57.84 on no news. Walter Energy tumbled US$17.69 to US$64.50 after it revealed that its second-half sales will be “similar” to the 5.2 million tonnes it recorded for the first half. Its earlier forecast for sales in the second half of the year was 5.9 million tonnes. It blamed a combination of record rainfall in British Columbia in the second quarter and “difficult” geology at its Mine No. 7 in Alabama.

Shares of Alpha Natural Resources also tanked after it notified shareholders that its full-year production will be 102.5 million tons to 109.5 million tons, compared with its earlier forecast of 104 million to 112 million tons. Alpha attributed its lower forecast to  reduced metallurgical export shipments to Asia due to unexpectedly curtailed customer activity levels; a force majeure notice from an export metallurgical customer; lower than expected production from the Emerald longwall mine; and lower than expected production volumes from certain legacy Massey mines in Central Appalachia.