Metals bounce back

Despite a tough weekend, U.S. equity markets were little-changed over the report period Oct. 20-26. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 9.14 points at 9,888.48 and the S&P 500 rose 7.86 points to 1,111.09.

The mining stocks, coming off a sharp decline the previous week, left the broader market way behind. The falling U.S. dollar (which was down 2% against the euro and 1.6% against the yen over the period) gave metal prices a boost, which in turn brought money into the mining equities.

The big news in metal markets was a 16-year high in the gold price, which was fixed at US$429.15 on Oct. 25. That put plenty of juice into the gold stocks, as Newmont Mining advanced US$3 to US$47.79 and AngloGold Ashanti rose US$1.71 to US$38.90. Takeover target Gold Fields was up US43 at US$14.73, while bidder Harmony Gold was US$1.02 better at US$12.55.

Smaller producers also put up good numbers: Minas Buenaventura added US$1.52 to finish at US$25.75, Randgold Resources picked up US$1.19 to close at US$11.20, and Lihir Gold finished at US$18.60, up US$1.62 on the week.

The base metals sector was led by Phelps Dodge, which rose US$7.04 to US$88.10 after being battered the previous period by plunging copper prices. Other copper-sensitive stocks also bounced back: Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold was US$2.14 better at US$37.04, Southern Peru Copper rose US55 to US$45.09, and BHP Billiton was US$1.12 higher at US$21.02.