The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 319.77 points, or 3%, during the holiday-shortened report period of June 30-July 6, closing just short of an all-time high at 11,135.12.
Britain’s July 6 auction of 25 tonnes of gold hammered the gold market. Gold had spent much of the week climbing, only to crash through to a new 20-year low of US$257.30 on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Unhedged Newmont Mining lost $1.18 as a result, closing at US$17.94 on the New York Stock Exchange. Meanwhile, South Africa’s Anglogold shed $1 to close at US$20.38, and Ghana’s Ashanti Goldfields lost 50 cents to finish the week at US$6.38. Homestake Mining dipped 37 cents to US$7.75.
Copper remained buoyant at 75 cents per lb. on the Comex, after both Phelps Dodge and Asarco vowed to cut production. Phelps Dodge, which plans to cut 150 million lbs., jumped $4.94 to US$63.94, whereas Asarco, which pledged cuts of 50 million lbs., advanced 87 cents to US$18.81.
Australia’s Broken Hill Proprietary, which sparked this round of cuts with closures of mines in Arizona and Nevada, added 87 cents to close at US$24.25.
Class A and B shares of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold gained 87 cents and $1.06 to close at US$16.62 and US$17.75, respectively. Rio Tinto, which holds a stake in production from Freeport’s Grasberg mine in Indonesia, rocketed $9 for the week to a 12-month high of US$73.75.
Silver miner Coeur d’Alene Mines did not benefit from announced cuts to its workforce, finishing the week down 37 cents to US$4.25.
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