US stock indices post marginal gains, Nov. 20-26

Data released ahead of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday on Nov. 26 showed that gross domestic product in the U.S. grew 2.1% in the third quarter — not the 1.5% reported in October — while single-family home sales in October rose 10.7%, and the number of Americans filing for initial unemployment benefits fell more than expected — down 12,000 to 260,000, and “close to levels last seen in the early seventies,” according to Reuters. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5% to 17,813.39, and the S&P 500 Index advanced 0.4% to 2,088.87. The Philadelphia Gold & Silver Index fell 1.20% to 45.96.

Alcoa’s shares climbed US65¢ to US$9.41 on the back of a three-and-a-half-year agreement with the State of New York to make its Massena West smelter more competitive. The company previously had announced that it would curtail the facility due to market conditions. The company says the incentive deal will help save hundreds of jobs and improve the cost position of the smelter, which has 130,000 tonnes of smelting capacity. Details of the agreement were not immediately available, but Alcoa says it will continue its other curtailments of uncompetitive smelting and refining capacity, which will lower the company’s smelting capacity by 373,000 tonnes, and improve the cost position of its upstream business. The company says it is on track to meet its thirty-eighth percentile target on the global aluminum cash cost curve in 2016.

Shares of BHP Billiton and Vale fell in the wake of the Nov. 5 tailings dam disaster at the Samarco iron-ore joint venture in Brazil. The nation’s federal and state governments confirmed their plans to sue the two companies on Nov. 27. The catastrophic breach killed at least 13 people and unleashed 60 million cubic metres of mine waste into the environment, contaminating the Rio Doce, Brazil’s second-largest river system.

In other news, Vale announced on Nov. 22 that its S11D — the largest iron ore project in the company’s history — will start up in next year’s second half. The US$14.4-billion project in Brazil’s Para state, will make 90 million tonnes of iron ore annually, when prices for the metal are US$43.50 per tonne, down 80% since 2011. Vale’s shares fell US16¢ to US$3.73, while BHP Billiton’s shares dropped US$1.59 to US$27.53.