US markets rise, Jan. 6-10: Nutrien, Consol Energy, Endeavour Silver

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.66% to 28,823.77 and the S&P 500 Index gained 0.94% to 3,265.35. Spot gold climbed US$9.80 per oz. to finish at US$1,562.10 per ounce.

Nutrien, the world’s largest provider of crop inputs and services, bought 100% of the equity of Brazilian agricultural retailer Agrosema Comercial Agricola. Agrosema has annual sales of US$60 million across 12 farm centres, with 200 employees servicing thousands of farm customers. Chuck Magro, Nutrien’s president and CEO, said the company expects “to continue to expand our operations in Brazil in the coming years, both through acquisition and expansion of product and service offerings.” Nutrien has two main operations in Brazil, with a central fertilizer blending facility in Itapetininga and six more facilities in the states of Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais. Nutrien also owns Agrichem, which produces specialty liquid fertilizers for the entire country. Shares of Nutrien ended at US$47.21, up US36¢.

Shares of Consol Energy fell US$2.92 per share to US$11.56. The company, which produces thermal and metallurgical coal, announced its first major step in the coal-to-products area with the US$3.5-million acquisition of a 25% equity stake in CFOAM Corp., a newly formed holding company based in the United States. CFOAM LLC makes high-performance carbon foam products from coal that are geared to the industrial, aerospace, military and commercial product markets. Consol’s president and CEO, Jimmy Brock, said the coal-to-products area “leverages certain attractive properties of coal but with significantly lower emissions and greater value uplift potential than conventional combustion applications.” Consol is providing a US$1.1-million term loan for working capital and invested another US$0.4 million to acquire a first lien CFOAM LLC note.

Endeavour Silver’s shares fell 9.3% to US$2.15. The company reported that operating issues at Guanacevi, Bolanitos, El Compas and El Cubo lowered production figures in 2019. Both silver and gold production decreased 27% year-on-year. CEO Bradford Cooke said Endeavour expects higher production at each operating mine in 2020, noting that the company  made “sweeping changes” to the mining operations in Q2 and Q3, and is “seeing production turning around.”