NYSE posts mixed results for Aug. 7-11 as investors pause after strong rally this year 

U.S. markets rose and fell modestly during the week following a strong AI-led rally this year that prompted some investors to pull back even as economic growth and inflation performed better than expected.  

The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 215.78 points or 0.6% to 35,281.4 and the S&P 500 declined 13.98 points or 0.3% over the week to 4,478.03. The S&P 500 gained 18% this year through July. 

First Majestic Silver rose 5.3% to US$6.39 over the week, with investors attracted to a 0.51 US¢ dividend per share payable at month’s end to stockholders as of Aug. 16. The Mexico-focused miner reported Aug. 3 that output fell 17% in the second quarter compared with the previous three months, but that operating cash flow before non-cash working capital and  taxes rose 23% to US$26.9 million. 

Drill results reported last month to expand the past-producing San Dimas mine intersected 8.4 grams gold and 763 grams silver over 3.9 metres and 15 grams gold and 89 grams silver over 4.1 metres. Also in July, a drill program at Santa Elena to convert inferred to indicated resources at the Ermitaño vein included 4.3 grams gold and 127 grams silver over 13.3 metres. 

Wheaton Precious Metals gained 3% to US$46.25 after reporting second-quarter earnings on Aug. 10 delivered US$202 million in operating cash flow, US$141 million in net earnings and a quarterly dividend of US$0.15 per common share. The streaming company has a cash balance of $829 million, no debt and agreements on 19 operating mines and 13 development projects.

President and CEO Randy Smallwood attributed the results primarily to improvement in the expansion at the company’s largest asset, Vale’s Salobo copper mine in Brazil. Wheaton’s stream is three-quarters of the operation’s gold output. 

“We continued to see momentum on the corporate development front with the addition of a new gold stream on Lumina Gold‘s Cangrejos project and the expansion of our existing gold stream on Artemis Gold’s Blackwater project,” Smallwood said in a release. 

Although a strike has shut Newmont’s Penasquito gold-silver mine since early June, Wheaton achieved quarter-over-quarter gold equivalent output growth. The company is keeping its 2023 production guidance, which it now expects to show a slightly higher weighting towards gold, at 600,000 to 660,000 gold equivalent ounces. 

Gatos Silver was the largest percentage faller at 11.5% to US$4.32. On Aug. 8, it reported swinging into a second-quarter net loss of US$3.6 million compared with net income of $5.2 million a year earlier. Gatos attributed the loss to lower equity income from its joint venture with Japan’s Dowa Metals & Mining running the Cerro Los Gatos mine in Mexico.  

Still, revenue rose 2% compared with the year-earlier period to US$58.3 million and the company retired US$9 million in debt in July after the quarter ended with a US$35 injection from the joint venture, giving it US$36 million in cash on hand.