El Niño and Uncle Ben Again

Morning Miners!

It is 5:46 AM and the weather has me puzzled. Not today's but maybe January or so. A moderate to heavy El Niño is possible and that could mean a lot of moisture after New Years as warmer Pacific waters push their way up the West Coast. Since weather is so important to farming and ranching in our area and can affect mining too, I've included a link to the NOAA El Niño site in our Local Weather & Climate Section in the right column of this blog:

NOAA El Niño Updates


Anytime you have record droughts in India, August hurricanes in Nova Scotia and none in the Gulf (at least yet) you know something is going to be different than the last several years. Patch that roof now, buckaroos. Snow blowers are cheap in August.


As reported in the Wall Street Journal today, President Barack Obama announced that he is nominating Ben Bernanke for another term at the helm of the Federal Reserve, hailing Mr. Bernanke's "calm and wisdom" in the face of the economic crisis.

This has been a cliff hanger for some and most economists agree this was the proper thing to do. The Colonel is also a believer in the ole "don't change horses in midstream" saw. Uncle Ben will either be praised or condemned by history and a lot depends on the timely withdrawal of all the liquidity that has been hose piped into the economy lately. One thing for sure is that we will all be experts on the wisdom of this renomination in about twelve months. Ironically, the Federal Reserve's actions have probably contributed to the stability of near term gold prices. Investor's fear of hyperinflation down the road at odds with their desire to sell gold and jump back into the stock market has kept gold in a tight range which is not all bad.

Enough talk, let's walk the walk:

All lights are green on the Eureka Outlook Dashboard (upper right, what is this?)

Oil is down $0.87 in early trading to $73.50 (October contract); Gold is up $6.70 to $950.4 (December contract, most active); Silver is up $0.145 to $14.340 (September contract); Copper is down $0.0290 to $2.8860 (September contract); Molybdenum holds steady-eddy at $18.00

The DOW is up 52.38 points to 9561.66; the S&P 500, up 5.21 points to 1030.78. The miners are mixed:

Barrick (ABX) $34.50 up 0.35%
Newmont (NEM) $40.49 up 1.38%
General Moly (Eureka Moly, LLC) (GMO) $2.73 up 2.25%
Freeport McMoran (FCX) $64.35 down 1.67% (a bellwether mining stock spanning gold, copper & molybdenum)

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

Nucor (NUE) $46.89 up 0.26% - domestic steel manufacturing
ArcelorMittal (MT) $36.92 up 0.35% - global steel producer
POSCO (PKX) $93.64 up 0.66%- South Korean integrated steel producer

The Eureka Miner's Grubstake Portfolio is up 0.43% to $1,111,592.03 (what is this?).

Cheers,

Colonel Possum

Photograph: Ben Bernake, AP (WSJ 08/25/2009)