U.S. equities post gains in Nov. 28-Dec. 2 trading

Equity markets in the United States rallied sharply in the wake of better-than-expected employment figures and more encouraging news from Europe. The U.S. unemployment rate in November dropped to a two-and-a-half year low or to 8.6%, down from 9.0% in October, while six major central banks agreed to provide cheaper dollar loans to European banks. In addition, the head of the European Central Bank said the bank is prepared to take more forceful steps to tackle the debt crisis if political leaders agree to tighter budget controls at the next summit on Dec. 9. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 7.01% to 12,019.42 and the S&P 500 index jumped 7.39% to 1,244.28. Nasdaq advanced 7.59% to 2,626.93 while the Philadelphia Gold and Silver index increased 7.84% to close at 202.28.

Most coal stocks got a lift from the news that the world’s central banks are coordinating their actions to boost liquidity to ease Europe’s sovereign debt crisis. Alpha Natural Resources was the third most actively traded stock, surging 28.1% to US$24.11, while Peabody Energy gained US$5.44 to US$38.22 and Patriot Coal rose 23.8% to US$10.04.  

News that BHP Billiton was reviewing its diamond business propelled the company’s shares up US$8.98 to close the trading week at US$75.30. The world’s largest miner by market cap said on Nov. 29 that it is deciding whether it should sell all or part of its diamond interests, which make up a non-core division of the company. BHP holds 80% of the Ekati diamond mine in the Northwest Territories and 51% of the Chidliak diamond project on Baffin Island.

Shares of Molycorp surged US$5.53 or 20.5% to US$32.51 following news that it had formed a joint venture with Daido Steel Co. and Mitsubishi Corp. to make and sell next-generation neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) permanent rare earth magnets. Molycorp will hold 30% of the new joint-venture with Daido and Mitsubishi holding 35.5% and 34.5%, respectively. The joint-venture will build an initial 500-tonne-per year manufacturing facility in Nakatsugawa, Japan with operations expected to start by January 2013.

Junior Habanero Resources surged 50% to 9¢ a share in the wake of news that it has increased its land position on the Grand-Vallee North aluminous clay prospect in Quebec, which borders Exploration Orbite’s deposit in the province. On Nov. 29, Exploration Orbite released a positive preliminary economic assessment on its planned commercial metallurgical grade alumina production plant.