MINING MARKETS & INVESTMENT NEWS – U.S. MARKETS — Dow shakes off downward trend

After five straight days of losses, the Dow Jones industrial average turned things around with a gain of 126 points on Dec. 15, the last day of our report period. However, the average was still off 204.68 points at 8,823.30.

While copper producers continued to suffer from the strain caused by weak prices, the story of the week was the announced merger between Vancouver’s Placer Dome and American Stock Exchange-listed Getchell Gold. In a deal worth US$1.1 billion, Placer offered to trade 2.45 of its shares for each outstanding Getchell share. Getchell’s shares, priced at US$16.19 before the proposal, are worth US$34.45 in the offer. The shares vaulted $13.44 to close at US$29.69, with 4.8 million units trading hands. New York-listed Placer shares lost US$1.50 to close at US$12.44 on even heavier trading.

The falling price of copper pushed shares of NYSE-listed Phelps Dodge down $1.63 to US$52.25; Class A and B shares of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold lost 94 cents and $1.06, respectively, to close at US$10.31 and US$10.88; Asarco dropped 94 cents to finish the week at US$16; Broken Hill Proprietary slid 62 cents to US$14; and Cyprus Amax Minerals was off 25 cents to US$10. Spot prices for copper slipped to US65 cents per lb. during the week, their lowest level in 11 years.

Meanwhile, gold issues were up. Anglogold climbed 56 cents to US$20.12; Battle Mountain Gold gained 19 cents to close at US$4.38 on heavy trading; Newmont Mining was up 25 cents to US$18.44; platinum-palladium producer Stillwater Mining rose 37 cents to US$36.62; and silver producer Sunshine Mining & Refining lost 17% of its value, falling 12 cents to 50 cents per share.