US equity markets quiet, July 26-30

The week of July 26-30 was a fairly moderate one for U.S. equities. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.4% or 41.32 points to close at 10,465.94, while the S&P 500 index lost 0.1% or 1.06 points to finish at 1,101.60. The Nasdaq Composite index fell 14.77 points or 0.65% to 2,254.70. The price of gold edged down US$8.30 per oz. to finish at US$1,181.40 per oz., while the Philadelphia Gold and Silver index slipped 3.7 points or 2.13% to finish at 169.72.

The second-highest second-quarter earnings results in the history of Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan drove up the Saskatoon-based company’s share price by US$6.49 to US$104.87 per share. The potash producer recorded second-quarter earnings of $1.55 per share, or US$472 million, more than double the 61¢ per share or US$186.2 million it earned in the same period of 2009. The company said its performance was due to “continuing recovery” in fertilizer demand and also had been “enhanced” by a US$69.6 million special dividend (about 17¢ per share) from an investment in Israel Chemicals.

Record coal sales and quarterly revenues advanced the share price of Alliance Resource Partners by US$4.86 per share to US$52.23. Second-quarter revenues reached a record US$400.3 million, an increase of 31.7% over the same quarter of 2009. The coal producer also posted records for second-quarter EBITDA, which jumped 67.3% to US$129 million, and net income, which gained 106.1% to US$85.5 million.

Shares of Cabot Corporation gained US$2.50 to close at US$29.50 per share on the back of strong financial results for the third quarter of fiscal 2010. Net income attributable to the Boston-headquartered company reached US$47 million or US$0.72 per diluted share. Adjusted EPS reached US$0.95 per share, excluding US$0.23 per share of certain items principally related to charges from the closure of the company’s carbon black facility in Thane, India. The company’s products include tantalum and carbon blacks.

Finally, SinoCoking Coal and Coke Chemical Industries, which listed on Nasdaq in February and has mining rights to extract 300,000 tons of coal a year from mines in China’s Henan province, gained US$1.44 per share to finish at US$15.99. In March the company broke ground on a new coking plant in Henan. The company uses coal from its own mines and third-party mines to produce basic and value-added coal products for steel makers, power generators and other industrial users.