Stormy Monday, Barrick & Gold Falling

Morning Miners!

It is 6:04 AM, the Colonel has the coffee brewing and you can stay in the break room all day if you'd like. There are more than Pacific storms passing through this Monday with Barrick and gold taking another leg down. Barrick has had a tough go of it lately with gold price and a mixed court decision on Cortez Hills weighing on its share price. At 5:08 AM (PST), Credit Suisse downgraded the gold miner to "neutral" from "outperform". Gold slipped another $25 from Friday's close on the COMEX to $1144 as the U.S. dollar enjoys a rally sparked by a positive jobs report for November (A Positive Surprise for Jobs, Gold Stumbles).

Now hold your horses, pardner! Gold was due for a correction and we're still far north of $1000/oz. Operations at Cortez Hills are continuing and Barrick has a team of Perry Masons to work through the legal issues. Here is an article from the Canadian Press to give the latest court ruling with some needed perspective:

Barrick Gold evaluating impact of a U.S. court ruling on its Cortez Hills mine in Nevada (Canadian Press, 12/4/2009)

Like the weather, this too shall pass. By the by, remember the Report has a quick link to the NOAA El Niño update as well as National Weather Service forecasts for Eureka. They are in the Local Weather & Climate section to your right, above the picture of the Eureka Courthouse.


Cheer up buckaroos, tis' the season to be jolly. If Barrick gets any cheaper, you might want to put a few shares in your Christmas stocking!

Enough talk, let's walk the walk:

4-WD is OFF - the VIX or "fear index" remains below 25; smooth road market conditions expected (what's this?)

Yellow light is ON for possible adverse regulation/legislation: Cortez Hills & mercury emissions

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

Oil is down $0.89 in early trading to $74.85 (January contract, most active); Gold is down $25.5 to $1144.0 (February contract, most active); Silver is down $0.390 to $18.130(March contract); Copper is up $0.0605 to $3.1770 (March contract); Molybdenum is dropped to $11.50.

The DOW is up 39.00 points to 10427.90; the S&P 500 is up 3.28 points to 1109.26. The miners are grumpy:

Barrick (ABX) $41.34 down 3.14%
Newmont (NEM) $51.48 down 1.10%
General Moly (Eureka Moly, LLC) (GMO) $2.22 down 2.63%
Freeport McMoran (FCX) $79.29 down 0.73% (a bellwether mining stock spanning gold, copper & molybdenum)

The Steels are up, (a "tell" for General Moly):

Nucor (NUE) $43.15 up 0.02% - domestic steel manufacturing
ArcelorMittal (MT) $40.02 up 0.15% - global steel producer
POSCO (PKX) $125.78 up 0.67% - South Korean integrated steel producer

The Eureka Miner's Grubstake Portfolio is is down 0.98% to $1,264,370.45 (what is this?).

Cheers,

Colonel Possum

Christmas bulb photograph by Mariana Titus (Eureka, 2006)