U. S. MARKETS – April 21-27

U. S. MARKETS – April 21-27

The U. S. economy, now in its 16th month of recession, received a mixture of good and bad news during the April 21-27 trading period. On the bright side, the U. S. consumer confidence index advanced 12.3 points in April over March, the fourth-biggest gain in the survey’s 32-year history, while the consensus of world finance leaders at meetings in Washington over the April 25-26 weekend seemed to be that there is “a break in the clouds” of the financial storm. And progress in talks in the troubled sector could lead to deals with General Motors and Chrysler that would see the U. S. government and the United Auto Workers union as joint owners of the two companies. On the bad news front, U. S. regulators told Citigroup and Bank of America that stress tests indicate they may need to raise more capital, and the spectre of a worldwide swine flu pandemic threatened to derail recent stock market gains and any economic recovery.

Overall, however, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 55.4 points or 0.68% to close at 8,025. The S&P 500 index rose 7.43 points or 0.87% to 857.51. The Amex Gold Bugs index gained 28.98 points or 10.33% to 309.47 and the Philadelphia Gold and Silver index edged up 7.52 points or 6.48% to 123.61.

Softer base metal prices and demands by troubled Chinese steelmakers for price cuts of as much as 50% for annual contracts of iron ore didn’t seem to slow down Rio Tinto. The mining giant advanced US$25.85 to US$155.86 per share on no news.

Strong first-quarter results drove up Consol Energy by US$5.03 per share to US$29.60. The coal producer’s net income increased to US$195.8 million, or US$1.08 a share, up from US$75.1 million, or US41¢ per share, in the year-earlier period. Investors also liked Consol’s plans to cut output in order to help prop up prices.

News that Teck has restructured its debt to cut the amount it owes this year by US$4.4 billion, buoyed Canada’s biggest mining company.

The bulk of its payments are now due in 2011. Teck took on debt of US$9.18 billion to pay for its US$14-billion takeover of Fording Canadian Coal Trust last year. Teck climbed US$2.15 per share to US$9.56 during the reporting period.

U. S. most active issues
	VOLUME	WEEK
	(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Alcoa* AA	144008	9.28	8.10	8.79	+ 0.43
Vale* RIO	143343	16.61	14.58	15.72	+ 0.80
Freeport McMo*FCX	83823	42.73	38.00	39.68	+ 0.57
Teck B* TCK	57910	10.37	6.51	9.56	+ 2.15
Arch Coal* ACI	52735	15.63	12.86	13.02	-0.74
Barrick Gold* ABX	50615	30.87	27.67	30.18	+ 1.11
Golden Eagle* MYNG	49008	0.00	1.0E8	0.00	0.00
Goldcorp* GG	46616	29.80	26.71	28.75	+ 0.55
CoeurdAlene*CDE	45841	1.37	1.04	1.31	+0.26
Massey Energy* MEE	44252	13.95	10.58	13.01	+ 2.14

U. S. greatest percentage change
		VOLUME	WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Uranerz Energ*	URZ	2618	1.42	0.61	1.42	+100.0
Apolo Gold*	APLL	62	0.02	0.01	0.02	+100.0
Uranium Ener*	UEC	884	1.18	0.61	1.07	+ 62.1
Alberta Star *	ASXSF	768	0.20	0.10	0.16	+ 60.0
Ur-Energy*	URG	248	0.98	0.59	0.93	+ 57.6
Uranium Res*	URRE	3771	0.95	0.52	0.78	+ 50.0
Claude Res*	CGR	3476	0.75	0.52	0.70	+ 34.6
Patriot Gold*	PGOL	477	0.29	0.10	0.24	+ 33.3
Fischer-W Gld*	FWGO	172	0.04	0.03	0.04	+ 33.3
Thompson Crk*	TC	2317	6.32	4.53	6.21	+ 30.4
Firstgold*	FGOC	4489	0.17	0.06	0.09	-47.0
Madison Minls*	MMRSF	14	0.09	0.05	0.05	-44.4
AmMex Gold*	AMXG	15	0.02	0.02	0.02	-33.3
Beeston Ent*	BESE	2990	0.05	0.03	0.03	-25.0
Elray Res*	ELRA	348	0.50	0.25	0.40	-20.0
Shoshone Silv*	SHSH	44	0.10	0.08	0.08	-20.0
Uranium Star*	URST	2039	0.08	0.05	0.05	-16.6
New Jersey Mg*	NJMC	14	0.24	0.20	0.20	-13.0
Tombstone Exp*	TMBXF	2143	0.10	0.07	0.09	-10.0
Contintl Mnls*	KMKCF	277	0.65	0.45	0.45	-10.0

U. S. greatest value change
WEEK
	VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
Rio Tinto* RTP	5353738	155.86	+ 25.85
CONSOL Energy* CNX	27327867	29.60	+ 5.03
Intrepid Pots* IPI	1840400	24.21	+ 4.02
Cameco Corp* CCJ	14553731	20.72	+ 3.73
Randgold Res* GOLD	6004924	49.15	+ 3.37
Newmont Mng* NEM	36632400	41.68	+ 2.62
Alpha Nat Res* ANR	18606417	18.77	+ 2.53
ASA (Bermuda)* ASA	237247	52.25	+ 2.40
AngloGold Ash* AU	9343955	32.67	+ 2.36
Teck B* TCK	57909943	9.56	+ 2.15
Potash C Sask* POT	38199731	81.68	-1.72
Southern Copp* PCU	31879717	17.85	-1.25
Arch Coal* ACI	52734773	13.02	-0.74
Yanzhou Coal* YZC	3513609	9.11	-0.58
AlumCpChina* ACH	1877300	18.47	-0.54
Soc Quim&M Ch*SQM	4722858	29.82	-0.46
Seabridge Gld* SA	1194501	19.43	-0.39
Mosaic* MOS	31574093	38.97	-0.36
Mechel* MTL	4843400	5.84	-0.22
US Energy* USEG	220123	2.25	-0.21