US indexes gather pace during May 15-19 trading week

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 126.01 points or 0.4% to 33,426.63 and the S&P 500 added 67.9 points or 1.6 % over the week to 4,191.98.

Among the week’s top value gainers was Nutrien, which added US$2.06 per share to close at US$61.95. Earlier this month, the company reported disappointing first-quarter earnings and dialled down its guidance for the rest of the year on falling prices and lower sales volumes. The company’s net earnings for the third quarter were US$576 million, down 58% from US$1.4 billion a year earlier, and its sales for the quarter ended March were US$6.1 billion, down 20% from US$7.7 billion a year earlier. To meet increased global demand, Nutrien announced last June a plan to ramp up potash production by 40% compared with 2020 production levels  to 18 million tonnes by 2025. However, it will likely slow the ramp-up should softer market conditions prevail.

Lithium Americas closed 4% higher Friday at US$22.27 per share. The U.S. Interior Department has removed one of the last remaining obstacles to its Thacker Pass mine in Nevada by finding that nearly all of the site contains metal needed to make electric vehicle batteries. The opinion from the department’s solicitor comes amid a debate about whether more U.S. mines should be built to produce lithium and other green energy transition metals. The U.S. federal judge rejected activist groups’ claims that the Thacker Pass project would cause unnecessary harm to the environment. Lithium Americas recently started construction at Thacker Pass after receiving a notice to proceed from the Bureau of Land Management.

Barrick Gold was the week’s most active gold stock, with 84 million shares changing hands. The stock closed the session US$1.32 higher at US$17.86. The company said on May 3 that improvements at its Nevada and Dominican Republic operations in the second half of the year will keep it on track to achieve its 2023 guidance. Those improvements include the completion of major processing plant maintenance at the 61.5%-owned Nevada Gold Mines’ operations, the conversion of the Goldstrike autoclave to a carbon-in-leach process, better- performance at Turquoise Ridge following the commissioning of a third shaft late last year, and the steady ramp-up of throughput at Pueblo Viejo’s expanded plant. While lower than the prior period, March-quarter production was on plan, and free cash flow increased. BMO mining analyst Jackie Przybylowski wrote in a May 17 note Barrick is currently unique in offering long-term investors modest dividends and meaningful reinvestment in growth projects as it pursues the construction of tier-one operations.