U.S. MARKETS -May 11-17

U.S. equity markets took a bit of a beating in the May 11-17 reporting period with the Dow Jones industrial average index losing 1.14% or 122.43 points to close at 10,625.83 points, and the S&P 500 index falling 1.63% or 18.85 points to finish at 1,136.94.

On the precious metals front the Philadelphia Gold and Silver index dropped 4.29 points or 2.33% to 179.96. The spot price for gold fell 0.59% in New York from US$1,231.40 per oz. on May 11 to US$1,224.10 per oz. on May 17. Silver Wheaton shares jumped US$1.32 to US$20.52 per share following news the company is buying $20.7 million worth of shares in Ventana Gold through a private placement that will also give the silver streaming company the right of first refusal to silver from Ventana’s La Bodega project in Colombia. Silver Wheaton will be entitled to any silver streams from all of Ventana’s Colombian properties. Randgold Resources scored the biggest advance with a gain of US$5.87 per share to US$88.27 on no news. Earlier this month, the company started mining at its Togon project in the Cte d’Ivoire and started developing the second underground mine at its Loulo complex in Mali in line with a growth plan to boost attributable production to 1.2 million oz. gold in 2014.

Buenaventura, meanwhile, was still basking in the glow of a major new gold discovery in southern Peru. The Peruvian miner and its partner Gold Fields announced on May 12 that they had found a major gold-copper-silver deposit of 5.6 million eq. gold oz. at their Chucapaca project. Buenaventura rose US$3.18 to US$37.41 per share. Gold Fields rose US63¢ to US$13.59.

Cliffs Natural Resources was down US$8.12 per share to US$52.92. Cliffs said on May 11 that it will increase its quarterly cash dividend by 60% to US14¢ per share, explaining that rebounding demand for the raw materials in steel had improved its outlook for cash flow. Earlier in the month, a subsidiary of Cliffs Natural Resources,

Freewest Resources, released an initial resource estimate on the Big Daddy chromite deposit in northern Ontario, demonstrating that it is one of the largest and highest grade deposits of its type in the world. Freewest owns 50% of Big Daddy.

U.S. most active issues
	VOLUME		WEEK
	(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Alcoa* AA	192041	13.24	11.80	12.10	-0.49
Freeport McMo*FCX	96170	73.66	66.06	67.97	-4.53
Barrick Gold* ABX	76900	47.21	43.89	44.43	+ 0.52
Hecla Mining* HL	76151	6.47	5.88	5.95	+ 0.12
Newmont Mng* NEM	63973	59.57	56.12	57.04	+ 1.55
Goldcorp* GG	61720	47.41	44.06	44.75	+ 1.27
Cliffs Nat Rs* CLF	54364	59.81	50.56	52.92	-8.12
Silver Wheatn* SLW	52926	21.58	19.77	20.52	+ 1.32
Teck B* TCK	46465	38.00	30.44	32.10	-6.43
Gold Fields* GFI	42712	14.19	13.37	13.59	+ 0.63

U.S. greatest percentage change
		VOLUME		WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Aurelio Res*	AULO	881	0.02	0.01	0.02	+100.0
Habanero Res*	HBNRF	10	0.12	0.11	0.12	+ 50.0
Madison Minls*	MMRSF	52	0.13	0.09	0.13	+ 44.4
Cream Mnrls*	CRMXF	27	0.11	0.08	0.11	+ 22.2
Fischer-W Gld*	FWGO	68	0.06	0.05	0.06	+ 20.0
Caledonia Mng*	CALVF	611	0.07	0.06	0.06	+ 20.0
Lake Vict Mng*	LVCA	1381	0.56	0.46	0.55	+ 17.0
Patriot Gold*	PGOL	71	0.29	0.23	0.29	+ 16.0
El Capitan Pr*	ECPN	1013	0.39	0.30	0.38	+ 15.1
Bullion Monar*	BULM	722	0.82	0.73	0.80	+ 14.2
America West*	AWSR	673	0.25	0.13	0.13	-38.1
World Vent*	WVNTF	109	0.02	0.01	0.02	-33.3
Li3 Energy*	LIEG	1146	0.56	0.40	0.40	-28.5
Linux Gold*	LNXGF	386	0.06	0.05	0.05	-28.5
SinoCoking Cl*	SCOK	256	17.68	12.20	12.94	-22.3
Teck B*	TCK	46465	38.00	30.44	32.10	-16.6
Anooraq Res*	ANO	3612	1.47	1.16	1.20	-16.6
Tri-Valley*	TIV	594	1.32	0.99	1.10	-14.7
Patriot Coal*	PCX	4917	19.79	16.20	16.63	-14.6
Alpha Nat Res*	ANR	22803	44.41	37.36	38.17	-14.2

U.S. greatest value change
WEEK
		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
Randgold Res*	GOLD	7664190	88.27	+ 5.87
Buenaventura*	BVN	10755319	37.41	+ 3.18
Royal Gold*	RGLD	4512121	51.18	+ 1.59
Newmont Mng*	NEM	63972926	57.04	+ 1.55
Silver Wheatn*	SLW	52925521	20.52	+ 1.32
Goldcorp*	GG	61720483	44.75	+ 1.27
Seabridge Gld*	SA	3805727	33.56	+ 1.11
Puda Coal*	PUDA	263500	10.33	+ 1.08
Pan Am Silver*	PAAS	9010861	26.97	+ 1.07
Eldorado Gold*	EGO	9074600	17.22	+ 1.04
Cliffs Nat Rs*	CLF	54363769	52.92	-8.12
Teck B*	TCK	46464877	32.10	-6.43
Alpha Nat Res*	ANR	22802648	38.17	-6.35
Peabody Enrgy*	BTU	33396235	39.61	-4.92
BHP Billi-BHP*	BHP	29979988	65.57	-4.70
Freeport McMo*	FCX	96169525	67.97	-4.53
Rio Tinto*	RTP	19173107	45.63	-4.20
BHP Billi-BBL*	BBL	13933992	55.38	-3.95
SinoCoking Cl*	SCOK	256009	12.94	-3.73
Yanzhou Coal*	YZC	2444949	22.90	-3.03