U.S. Markets April 17-23

Markets in the United States touched record levels during the reporting period April 17-23, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average hitting 12,983.92 points on April 23 and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index up 12.46 points to finish the period at 1,480.93.

The first-quarter earnings season was what gave the market so much strength, but that didn’t spill over into the mining sectors. Among mining stocks, declines led advances 117 to 48. The gold indexes gave up substantial ground, with both the Philadelphia Gold and Silver Index and the Amex Gold Bugs down more than 3%.

The large base metal producers mostly fell back; even though early in the period both Rio Tinto and Anglo American had touched 52-week highs, Rio finished US$5.12 lower at US$249.64 and Anglo US38 lower at US$27.22. Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold fell US75 to US$70.36, and BHP Billiton slid US$1.39 to US$49.71. Companhia Vale do Rio Doce was only US9 better at US$41.99.

The one big base metal producer to hang on to a substantial gain was Southern Copper, which added US$5.50 to finish at US$83.83. Copper prices were up US$139.50 to US$8,100 per tonne during the period, partly on rumblings of a labour strike at Southern Copper’s Ilo, Peru smelter.

The star in the golds was Minas Buenaventura, which rose US$1.02 to US$33.87 despite opening the week ex-dividend. Buenaventura is to announce first-quarter earnings on April 27, and has cleared off a substantial part of its hedge book. Other mid-tiers fell: Hecla Mining was down US15 at US$9.65, Coeur d’Alene Mines down US24 at US$4.03, and Randgold Resources down US$1.10 at US$25.14.

Both the heavyweight New York-listed golds lost ground, Newmont Mining falling US$1.10 to US$43.90 and AngloGold Ashanti US$2.42 to US$46.30. Newmont did get good news from the Indonesian courts, which threw out charges against the company’s Indonesian subsidiary and the subsidiary’s president Richard Ness, over claims of pollution by the now-closed Minahasa gold operation in Sulawesi.

U.S. greatest percentage change

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE		CHANGE
Patriot Gold*	PGOL	520	0.19	0.10	0.17	+	61.9
Puda Coal*	PUDC	10602	1.52	0.93	1.31	+	43.9
Starfield Res*	SRFDF	1850	0.306	0.232	0.303	+	34.6
Caledonia Mng*	CALVF	18475	0.203	0.142	0.20	+	33.3
Commerce Grp*	CGCO	27	0.13	0.11	0.13	+	13.0
Colombia Gldf*	CGDF	1809	1.32	1.14	1.32	+	10.9
Evolving Gold*	EVOGF	27	0.33	0.29	0.33	+	10.0
US Antimony*	UAMY	82	0.72	0.66	0.66	+	10.0
Anooraq Res*	ANO	8502	2.62	2.08	2.39	+	9.6
Pac Gold*	PCFG	421	0.18	0.165	0.18	+	9.0
Douglas Lk Ml*	DLKM	289	0.55	0.30	0.35	–	37.5
Brookmount Ex*	BMXI	59	0.13	0.09	0.105	–	25.0
Konigsberg*	KGBC	72	0.17	0.135	0.135	–	20.5
HuntMountain*	HNTM	30	0.51	0.42	0.42	–	16.0
Global Gold*	GBGD	49	0.90	0.80	0.89	–	15.2
IMA Expl*	IMR	257	0.81	0.72	0.721	–	13.3
NovaGold Res*	NG	22649	17.72	15.31	15.35	–	13.1
Mines Managem*	MGN	621	5.30	4.61	4.63	–	12.8
Trend Mng*	TRDM	628	0.135	0.105	0.11	–	12.0
Linux Gold*	LNXGF	1400	0.26	0.221	0.23	–	11.5

U.S. greatest value change

		VOLUME	CLOSE		CHANGE
Southern Copp*	PCU	9818879	83.83	+	5.50
OM Group*	OMG	5171250	53.36	+	4.16
Buenaventura*	BVN	3023285	33.87	+	1.02
Peabody Enrgy*	BTU	35083486	49.10	+	0.92
Westmoreland*	WLB	189400	23.19	+	0.75
Mesabi Trust*	MSB	458400	21.22	+	0.72
MDU Res*	MDU	4021500	30.82	+	0.50
Vista Gold*	VGZ	1678900	8.901	+	0.401
Puda Coal*	PUDC	10601720	1.31	+	0.40
Northern Dyn*	NAK	3049800	12.34	+	0.36
Rio Tinto*	RTP	1826950	249.64	–	5.12
Teck Comin B*	TCK	1564900	75.45	–	3.01
AngloGold Ash*	AU	5191990	46.30	–	2.42
NovaGold Res*	NG	22649119	15.35	–	2.32
Silver Std Re*	SSRI	3443078	37.80	–	2.24
Agnico-Eagle*	AEM	8559105	36.88	–	2.21
Gold Mnrs ETF*	GDX	3079540	41.09	–	1.79
CONSOL Energy*	CNX	12660204	42.58	–	1.75
Pan Am Silver*	PAAS	5576768	30.66	–	1.71
Alumina Inc*	AWC	462400	24.10	–	1.40

U.S. most active issues

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE		CHANGE
Freeport McMo*	FCX	51191	72.00	68.25	70.36	–	0.75
Coeur d Alene*	CDE	44203	4.28	4.00	4.03	–	0.24
CVRD*	RIO	40203	42.69	40.20	41.99	+	0.09
Goldcorp*	GG	37809	26.84	25.23	25.43	–	1.31
Peabody Enrgy*	BTU	35083	49.79	45.04	49.10	+	0.92
Alcoa*	AA	33677	35.00	33.69	34.15	–	0.79
Arch Coal*	ACI	32628	38.00	34.77	36.75	–	1.05
Newmont Mng*	NEM	31231	45.25	43.01	43.90	–	1.10
Barrick Gold*	ABX	26472	29.92	28.36	28.54	–	1.13
Crystallex In*	KRY	24177	4.00	3.65	3.76	–	0.41