U.S. markets, April 8 – 12

U.S. equity indexes rose four days in a row, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 posting new closing highs on April 11.

Stocks were driven higher by several bright spots in the economy. The U.S. Labor Department reported that the number of initial claims for unemployment benefits the previous week had dropped 42,000 to a seasonally adjusted 346,000 — the largest weekly drop since mid-November — while U.S. home foreclosure filings were down 23% in March. The indexes gave back some of their gains on Friday, however, as commodity prices fell and the price of gold crashed through US$1,500 per oz. to end the trading week at US$1,482.40 per oz. — its lowest level since July 2011. Despite the tumbling gold price, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the week 2.10% higher at 14,865.06, while the S&P 500 notched a 2.30% gain to 1,588.85 — the best weekly gain since the first week of the year.

Shares of Rio Tinto were up US$1.87 to US$47.59 despite news of the temporary closure of its Bingham Canyon copper mine in Utah after a slide on its northeastern pit wall. The Bingham Canyon mine accounted for 1.3% of global copper mine production in 2012, according to BMO Capital Markets.

BHP Billiton climbed US$1.81 to US$69.07 per share. The company announced selling its stake in the Ekati diamond mine — Canada’s first diamond mine, about 200 km south of the Arctic Circle — as well as its diamond marketing operations to Dominion Diamond (formerly Harry Winston Diamond Corp.) for US$533 million.

Allied Nevada climbed 5.7% to US$13.17 per share after management updated shareholders on the expansion project at its Hycroft mine in Nevada. The company confirmed that its capital-cost estimate for the project remains at US$1.2 billion, and that it has purchased or fixed contracts in place for US$720 million, or 58% of the total capital budget. The company believes the US$523 million remaining capital to be committed is enough to complete the project, with start-up on track for the first quarter of 2015.

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