On the Road Again!

Morning Miners!

It is 6:23 am and life is good. The ole Colonel will be packing up his truck in a bit for a road trip. The report will be off the air for a short while but I think I'm leaving you with fairly good news for local mining and the overall economy. Let's look in the rear view mirror at our recent events:

Quarterly Reports - Barrick (ABX), Newmont (NEM) and General Moly (GMO) all reported their performance for the first quarter of 2009 last week. The big boys are on solid ground with good balance sheets and new projects (e.g. Cortez Hills) in the works. I sold all my Barrick stock last Spring but came back for a nibble Friday - giddy-up go! Although General Moly is in pause mode, there are encouraging signs that the steel industry is coming off the bottom. Moly price and GMO stock performance are showing signs of life.

Broader Markets - As reported in the Wall Street Journal yesterday:

"The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 214 points and the S&P 500 surged 3.4% to retake the 900 level and turn positive for the year to date as data on construction spending and home sales bolstered the case that the economy bottomed out in the first quarter and may be beginning to stabilize." (WSJ, 5/4/2009)

Commodities - After a pause, Copper is on a tear again and Molybdenum has got another pop to $9.25. Gold prices are again above $900/oz but may sag some as more safe haven money rushes to the equity markets. I'll still keep my bet that we see $929 before the middle of this month - Yee-ha!

Currencies - Commodity sensitive currencies (e.g. our friends the "Aussie" and "Loonie") are taking the dollar to task lately:

"Economic data and continued gains for stock and commodity prices kept global risk appetites elevated, resulting in more losses for the dollar against a broad range of currencies.

Signs that Chinese industry is ramping up and may soon stoke global demand for commodities and other raw materials are 'an ongoing positive for commodity currencies and commodity prices,' currency strategists at Barclays Capital in New York said, and contributed to the outperformance Monday of currencies like the Australian [Aussie] and Canadian [Loonie] dollars." (WSJ, 5/5/09)


Enough talk, let's walk the walk:

Oil is steady in early trading at $54.45(June contract). The dollar ("Dixie" or .DXY) is up 0.16% at 83.80. The commodity index (.CRB) is down 0.02% to 232.34.

Gold is up $11.3 to $913.5 (June contract); Silver is up $.392 to $13.505; Copper is is down slightly $.0270 to $2.1170 (July contract); Molybdenum pops up to $9.25!

The DOW is up 22 points to 8,449.20; the S&P 500, down 1.11 points to 906.13. Miners are mostly good today:

Barrick (ABX) $31.59 up 2.27%
Newmont (NEM) $41.30 up 0.85%
General Moly (GMO) $1.70 up 1.80%
Freeport McMoran (FCX) $48.58 down 0.49% (a bellwether mining stock spanning gold, copper & molybdenum)

Steel stocks are mixed(a "tell" for General Moly):

Nucor (NUE) $44.65 down 0.51% - domestic steel manufacturing
ArcelorMittal (MT) $28.329 up 1.43% - global steel producer

Cheers,

Colonel Possum