The Colonel Hits the Open Road

Morning Miners!

It is 6:42 AM, have a cup and let's check the NOAA weather radar. I plan to hit the open road after this snow storm and will be back on the air bright and early next Tuesday, 1/19/10. Late is never good especially with storms and this one has been a slowpoke getting here. It looks like we've got colors coming in from the south southwest:


The markets are pretty quite today so I think I'm leaving you in good shape. Oil has edged below $80, molybdenum has moved up to $15.25 and gold is fairly stable near the $1130 level. Gold has returned to where we did our price predictions earlier this month (Moly Inches Higher, The Colonel's Outlook for January):

The fair value of silver is $17.918 in a range of $17.064 to $18.771 (Today, $18.405)

The fair value of copper is $3.1105 in a range of $2.8862 to $3.3348 (Today, $3.3615)

The fair value of oil is $76.610 in a range of $69.98 to $83.24 (Today, $79.58)

Traders are expecting large increases in U.S. oil and fuel inventories which has taken some shine off the recent run up in oil. Moly has popped 22% this month and I wouldn't be surprised if it stays put for a while given recent concerns about China's growth and a down tick in nickel prices. Silver is looking at little toppy with respect to gold and copper is moving back towards its expected range after a shot at $3.50 failed.

The Colonel will call this a pretty stable market after a lot of giddy-up go for the last two weeks. Stable is good.

Enough watching paint dry, let's walk the walk:

4-WD is OFF - the VIX or "fear index" remains below 25; smoother road market conditions expected to continue (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 $1.21 in early trading to $79.58 (February contract, most active); Gold is flat at $1129.4 (February contract, most active); Silver is up $0.150 to $18.405 (March contract); Copper is up $0.0120 to $3.3615 (March contract); Molybdenum moves to $15.25

The DOW is up 8.63 points to 10635.88; the S&P 500 is downup 0.42 points to 1136.64. The miners are resting:

Barrick (ABX) $40.06 down 0.60%
Newmont (NEM) $48.40 down 0.25%
US Gold UXG) $2.56 down 0.39%
General Moly (Eureka Moly, LLC) (GMO) $2.76 up 2.22%
Thompson Creek (TC) $14.00 up 1.08%
Freeport McMoran (FCX) $88.61 up 0.58% (a bellwether mining stock spanning gold, copper & molybdenum)

The Steels are resting too, (a "tell" for General Moly & Thompson Creek):

ArcelorMittal (MT) $46.48 down 0.45% - global steel producer
POSCO (PKX) $134.18 down 0.86% - South Korean integrated steel producer

The Eureka Miner's Grubstake Portfolio is is up 0.24% to $1,359,232.35 (what is this?).

Cheers,

Colonel Possum

Headline Photograph by Mariana Titus