U.S. equities sustain rally during Sept. 20-24 trading week

Economic uncertainty along with worries about European debt levels, coupled with comments from the U.S. Federal Reserve that it was prepared to take action to help the recovery and lift inflation and a wider belief that central banks will prolong quantitative easing to stimulate growth, helped push up gold prices by US$18.50 per oz. during the Sept. 20-24 trading week. The spot price for the precious metal closed at US$1,297 per oz. in New York on Sept. 24, while the Philadelphia Gold and Silver index during the Sept. 20-24 period rose 5.4 points or 2.8% to 197.08. U.S. equities continued their September rally with the Dow Jones Industrial Average advancing 252.41 points or 2.4% to close the trading week at 10,860.26 points, and the S&P 500 index climbing 23.08 points or 2.1% to finish at 1,148.67. In the month to Sept. 24, the S&P 500 index has rallied 9.5%, its “biggest September gain since 1939,” Bloomberg reports.

Precious metals companies were the most actively traded U.S. equities during the week with 55.8 million shares of Kinross Gold changing hands and 53.7 million shares moving of Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold. The latter closed US$4.89 higher over the week at US$86.81 per share. And with silver prices gaining nearly 30% so far this year, shares of Silver Wheaton edged up US$1.58 to US$26.60 apiece on 44.3 million shares traded.

On the potash front, Compass Minerals posted the biggest gain with an advance of US$7.19 per share to close the trading week at US$79.49 per share. The Kansas City-based producer of salt, sulfate of potash specialty fertilizer and magnesium chloride, announced plans by its wholly owned subsidiary, Great Salt Lake Minerals Corp., to further expand its sulfate of potash (SOP) specialty fertilizer production capacity in Utah. (Great Salt Lake Minerals Corp. has been operating on the shores of the Great Salt Lake near Ogden, Utah since 1970.) The company said it planned to use new, patent-pending solar-pond technology to improve the efficiency of its existing pond system by 60% to produce roughly 220,000 additional tons of its SOP annually. Upon completion, the company’s total pond-based SOP capacity will be about 570,000 tons per year. Production will increase incrementally through 2015, with some new capacity available starting in 2012.

By contrast, continued speculation about the future ownership of Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan caused its shares to slide US$1.28 to US$146 per share.