Miners Tired or Just Resting?

Morning Miners!

It is 5:49AM, the coffee is hot and it is the dog days of summer. Not for everyone, well-heeled traders are romping with their millions in the Hamptons and much of Europe takes one month leaves in August. The markets thin out and second tier folks noodle equity and commodity prices up and down. That's probably an exaggeration but August is typically a lazy time for markets often ended by sheer moments of terror in September when the A-team returns.

We've come a long way since the terror of March with the S&P 500 rebounding an amazing 51%. Lately, however, things seem to be cooling off a bit with concerns about the pace of recovery and many waiting to see what Uncle Ben will do and say at the Fed meeting this week. Our favorite miners and metals are pretty much snoozing with the dogs except for the energetic molybdenum. Here's a comparison at yesterday's close of where we've come over the last 2-months:

S&P up 6.4%

Barrick up 1.0%
Newmont down 5.0%
General Moly up 1.0%
Freeport McMoran (a bellwether stock) up 6.0%

Gold up 0.4%
Silver down 0.4%
Copper down 1.6%
Molybdenum up 74%

I don't know about you but it seems kind of nice that things are a little boring, boring is stability and we need that before the next shot at the moon. Hang in there buckaroos, take that lazy dog for a walk. The Miners aren't tired, they're just resting.

Enough snoozing, let's walk the walk:

Oil is down $0.24 to $70.36 (September contract); Gold is up $2.3 to $949.2 (December contract, most active); Silver is down $0.030 to $14.325 (September contract); Copper is up $0.0140 to $2.7845 (September contract); Molybdenum is camping out at $18.25.

The DOW is down 97.11 points to 9240.84; the S&P 500, down 11.80 points to 995.30. The miners are playing hooky today:

Barrick (ABX) $33.87 down 1.14%
Newmont (NEM) $40.20 down 1.33%
General Moly (Eureka Moly, LLC) (GMO) $2.69 down 5.28%
Freeport McMoran (FCX) $61.43 down 1.52% (a bellwether mining stock spanning gold, copper & molybdenum)

Steel stocks are on holiday too, (a "tell" for General Moly):

Nucor (NUE) $46.36 down 1.57% - domestic steel manufacturing
ArcelorMittal (MT) $34.86 down 3.37% - global steel producer
POSCO (PKX) $97.19 down 1.83%- South Korean integrated steel producer

The Eureka Miner's Grubstake Portfolio is down 2.08% to $1,089,394.90

Cheers,

Colonel Possum