U.S. Markets trading June 5-11

Rising long-term bond yields spooked stock markets in the United States during the reporting period June 5-11, relieved only by a mild 2-day rally at the end. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was 2% lower, down 30.06 points at 1,509.12, over the five trading days, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average off 1.8%.

Among mining stocks on the U.S. markets, declining stocks led advancing ones 139 to 32, and the declines were spread across all the mining sectors.

Gold bullion prices fell US$20.80 per oz. over the period, settling at US$650.30 in the London afternoon fix on June 11; that brought the sellers out in force in the gold equity markets, and the gold indexes fell faster than the broader market. The Philadelphia Gold and Silver Index declined 3.9%, to 136.36 points, and the unhedged Amex Gold Bugs Index was down 4.6% at 326.73.

Gold Fields took the worst punishment among the largest gold miners, falling US$1.21 to US$16.14, and touching a 52-week low of US$15.63. AngloGold Ashanti was down US$2.54 at US$40.93, and Harmony Gold Mining US$1.09 at US$13.74, although a softening South African rand — down to US13.84 from US14.04 — should have cushioned that. Newmont Mining was down US$1.75 at US$39.66, and all the Canadian interlisted stocks were down. Minas Buenaventura touched a 52-week high of US$35.23 but still fell during the period, shedding US98 to US$33.48.

Coeur d’Alene Mines announced an extension of its due-diligence period to acquire Australian gold developer Bolnisi Gold (in a merger that would also include Canadian-domiciled Palmarejo Silver and Gold, listed on the TSX Venture Exchange). Coeur was down US9 at US$3.66, Bolnisi fell A10 at A$2.90, and Palmarejo was down 40 at $9.91.

Most active of the mining stocks was Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, which was down US$2.18 to US$44.85 on a volume of 50.4 million shares. Nickel prices, which the market is reading into CVRD’s value, were down 18% on the London metal exchange, to US$41,250 per tonne (US$18.71 per lb.).

Almost alone among the base metal miners, BHP Billiton rose US$1.50 to US$56.09.

U.S. greatest percentage change

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE		CHANGE
McKenzie Bay*	MKBY	2029	0.095	0.07	0.095	+	18.7
Pac Gold*	PCFG	1603	0.175	0.131	0.17	+	17.2
Cream Mnrls*	CRMXF	19	0.541	0.454	0.54	+	14.8
Shoshone Silv*	SHSH	69	0.33	0.29	0.33	+	13.7
Peru Copper*	CUP	11759	6.22	5.37	6.10	+	12.9
Augusta Res*	AZC	104	2.54	2.26	2.53	+	11.9
Corriente Rs*	ETQ	495	3.78	3.30	3.70	+	11.3
Fischer-W Gld*	FWGO	352	0.075	0.07	0.075	+	10.2
Sparrowtech R*	SPMC	1234	0.08	0.05	0.06	+	9.0
New Jersey Mg*	NJMC	180	0.75	0.62	0.70	+	7.6
IMA Expl*	IMR	3676	1.30	0.31	0.35	–	52.0
Uranium Star*	URST	1129	1.05	0.52	0.57	–	46.7
Patriot Gold*	PGOL	168	0.15	0.11	0.11	–	31.2
Brookmount Ex*	BMXI	37	0.082	0.07	0.07	–	30.0
El Capitan Pr*	ECPN	907	0.50	0.41	0.41	–	18.0
Golden Eagle*	MYNG	8023	0.028	0.023	0.023	–	17.8
Golden Phoen*	GPXM	4083	0.455	0.391	0.396	–	13.7
Mountain Prov*	MDM	193	5.30	4.43	4.53	–	13.2
DRDGOLD*	DROOY	8352	0.858	0.732	0.74	–	11.9
Endeavr Silvr*	EXK	385	5.36	4.55	4.71	–	11.8

U.S. greatest value change

		VOLUME	CLOSE		CHANGE
Yanzhou Coal*	YZC	472700	68.63	+	3.12
Teck Comin B*	TCK	2987500	44.19	+	1.69
BHP Billi-BHP*	BHP	17824627	56.09	+	1.50
BHP Billi-BBL*	BBL	2506373	52.26	+	1.49
Peru Copper*	CUP	11758638	6.10	+	0.70
Corriente Rs*	ETQ	495100	3.70	+	0.376
Augusta Res*	AZC	104100	2.53	+	0.27
Seabridge Gld*	SA	2670000	16.45	+	0.27
Allied Nevada*	ANV	274500	4.50	+	0.19
Ivanhoe Mines*	IVN	4032175	14.32	+	0.10
Rio Tinto*	RTP	2523250	282.72	–	12.34
Cleveland-Cli*	CLF	10000433	79.88	–	8.21
Soc Quim&M Ch*	SQM	140500	163.00	–	6.58
Peabody Enrgy*	BTU	24954202	50.70	–	4.03
OM Group*	OMG	2702940	58.80	–	3.76
CONSOL Energy*	CNX	10868890	46.18	–	3.38
Aber Diamond*	ABER	392327	40.96	–	3.16
Foundatn Coal*	FCL	3394302	41.93	–	3.15
Arch Coal*	ACI	14966634	37.86	–	3.09
Cameco Corp*	CCJ	15510854	51.95	–	2.70

U.S. most active issues

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE		CHANGE
CVRD*	RIO	50367	46.90	42.79	44.85	–	2.18
Freeport McMo*	FCX	48880	79.12	72.50	77.44	–	1.855
Alcoa*	AA	43818	40.90	38.25	39.30	–	1.69
Goldcorp*	GG	42763	24.88	23.17	24.16	–	0.31
Coeur d Alene*	CDE	34803	3.78	3.60	3.66	–	0.09
Barrick Gold*	ABX	34325	29.43	28.00	28.67	–	0.54
Newmont Mng*	NEM	32584	41.80	39.17	39.66	–	1.75
StreetTr Gold*	GLD	25634	66.70	63.74	64.70	–	1.84
Peabody Enrgy*	BTU	24954	54.73	49.55	50.70	–	4.03
Gold Fields*	GFI	19946	17.12	15 .63	16.14	–	1.21