Darlin' of the Diggin's'

Morning Miners!

It is 5:50 AM and it is a beautiful day, at least for markets. Spot gold pushed past the key $1050 level on the London Exchange this morning and a surprise quarterly profit from aluminum giant Alcoa lifted markets around the world. There is a terrific article about metals on MineWeb today by Rhona O'Connell reporting from London. She has a wonderful wit noting that commodities have moved from investment pariah to the "darlin' of the diggin's'. She summarizes the latest findings on base metals from the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and what may be in store for the coming months and years. This is a must read for your break today:

Copper to post new records, but aluminium may have the greatest upside - RBS

I'm sure if the ole Colonel could hear Ms O'Connell say "aluminium" in that wonderfully Brit (and proper) way he wouldn't need another cup of coffee for the day.

Would you forgive me if I indulged in a few bragging rights? Predicting the price of gold is a fool's errand and I'm a happy fool today. On May 22 of this year, the Colonel predicted that gold would see $973 before the Fourth of July and $1050 before Christmas in my article The Colonel's New Gold Price Predictions. It turns out that if you predict gold prices, you attract a lot of attention in the blogoshere. This article became the second most popular for the Report attracting readers from such far away places as Hong Kong, Gibraltar, the United Emirates, Belgium and India.

The Report's most popular article, The Colonel's Gold & Silver Predictions for the Summer, nailed gold hitting $980 and silver reaching $15.80 before Labor Day. In all candor, I must admit to also saying gold would drop to $880 before Thanksgiving which, in light of the yeller metal's recent momentum, seems quite unlikely. Hmmm...the pressure is on buckaroos, I'd better take a break from all this blasted prognostication. One thing for sure is that metals are some of the best "darlins' of the diggin's" on our bumpy road to recovery.

Enough braggin', let's walk the walk:

CAUTION: 4-WD is OFF - the VIX or "fear index" drops below 25 for a second day. Smoother markets expected in the near term (what's this?)

Yellow light is ON for possible adverse regulation/legislation (mercury emissions)

Otherwise, all lights are green on the Eureka Outlook Dashboard (upper right, what's this?)

Oil is up $1.38 in early trading to $70.95 (November contract); Gold is up $6.3 to $1050.7(December contract, most active); Silver is up 0.250 to $17.750(December contract); Copper is up $0.0665 to $2.8620 (December contract); Molybdenum is steady at $13.6.

The DOW is up 67.71 points to 9793.29; the S&P 500, up 9.11 points to 1066.69. The miners are happy:

Barrick (ABX) $39.76 up 1.22%
Newmont (NEM) $46.82 up 0.52%
General Moly (Eureka Moly, LLC) (GMO) $3.19 up 1.92%
Freeport McMoran (FCX) $74.38 up 2.20% (a bellwether mining stock spanning gold, copper & molybdenum)

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

Nucor (NUE) $45.79 up 1.10% - domestic steel manufacturing
ArcelorMittal (MT) $37.90 up 4.19% - global steel producer
POSCO (PKX) $103.54 up 1.46% - South Korean integrated steel producer

The Eureka Miner's Grubstake Portfolio is is up 1.96% to $1,247,779.18 (what is this?).

Cheers,

Colonel Possum

Headline Photograph by Mariana Titus

Today's "Darlin' of the Diggin's" is an unknown young woman photographed at Blair Studio, Gatesville, Texas. William J. Blair took the photograph and had a studio in Gatesville, Texas from 1890-92 and again from 1896-1900.