Elko Makes Fortune!

Morning Miners!

It is 6:07 AM, the coffee is hot and Loquita is sawing logs. The ole Colonel has a great article for you to read on your break today. Elko is featured in Fortune magazine as the American city that the recession missed:


Elko, Nevada: Where the recession never hit

There are a lot of levels for you to enjoy in this piece. First, much of what Fortune says about Elko could just as well apply to Eureka (except for the brothel part). In a recession, gold mining is not a bad business to be in and we've got lots of that in both counties. The article also covers tourism, casinos, ranching, housing, low unemployment and (of course) Sue's Fantasy Club. City manager Curtis Calder is quoted as saying:

"Elko is the best place in Nevada to be...and maybe in the whole country."

The ole Colonel will take exception to that boast, obviously there is no better town than Eureka. It is, however, nice for northeastern Nevada to get all this media attention lately. Earlier this month the Report covered a similarly supportive Gold Report interview with world renown geologist and investor, Brent Cook (What Makes Nevada the Premier Place to Be?).

A second enjoyable aspect of the Fortune article are the images by San Fransisco photographer, Christopher LaMarca (Redux Pictures). There is a photo gallery of 14 terrific pictures of Elko's folks and environs including today's headline image of White King. In addition to Curtis Calder some of those photographed you may know: Mayor Mike Franzoia, Elaine Spencer (Economic Diversification Authority), rancher Jimmy Elison with his sons Josh and Jared, local bikers "Biggin" and "ZZ", and Madame "Victoria".

Finally, I always gets a kick when an "East Coast" magazine features the wild West. Even though they picked the wrong best town, this Fortune article gets a Colonel Yee-ha!

Enough East Coast talk, let's walk the walk:

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

Oil is down $0.42 in early trading to $72.52 (October contract); Gold is down $3.72 to $941.1 (December contract, most active); Silver is down $0.005 to $13.870; Copper is down $0.0135 to $2.7470 (September contract); Molybdenum is steady-eddy at $18.25

The DOW is up 49.05 points to 9328.21; the S&P 500, up 9.08 points to 1005.54. The miners are mixed:

Barrick (ABX) $34.00 up 0.53%
Newmont (NEM) $39.81 down 0.33%
General Moly (Eureka Moly, LLC) (GMO) $2.57 down 0.85%
Freeport McMoran (FCX) $63.65 up 2.51% (a bellwether mining stock spanning gold, copper & molybdenum)

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

Nucor (NUE) $46.80 up 1.56% - domestic steel manufacturing
ArcelorMittal (MT) $35.32 up 0.26% - global steel producer
POSCO (PKX) $93.66 up 1.84%- South Korean integrated steel producer

The Eureka Miner's Grubstake Portfolio is up 0.70% to $1,081,845.56

Cheers,

Colonel Possum

Dashboard Lights for Eureka

Morning Miners!

It is 5:51 AM, grab a cup and let me introduce you to a new feature for the Report. If you'll look directly to your right there is a Eureka Outlook Dashboard with five indicator lights. Today we're all green. The five lights represent aspects of Eureka's near term future that we've talked about before (Back to Basics for Eureka's Outlook). Admittedly there is a mining emphasis here but some of these lights directly impact other important aspects of our local economy, namely ranching and farming. Let's list them again and then come up with some trip levels that would turn a green light to a warning color (yellow or red):

Commodity reflation intact
Stable credit and equity markets
Low inflation for the next 6-12 months
Positive trend for gold and molybdenum prices
Continued investor confidence in Barrick and General Moly

Our old friend copper is probably one of the best metals to gauge whether commodity reflation is alive and well. For example, domestic demand for copper will grow as our housing industry recovers. It's still a little early to call that but China's demand for copper and other raw materials has caused a surprising rise in prices in the global markets. If copper drops below $2.50 we've got a "yellow" light and any movement below $2.00 is a definite "red". There is also danger on the upside for certain commodities such as oil since they can put a hole in your wallet and drive production costs for our miners. We're near a tipping point with oil at $70. If we start heading for $80 this summer (i.e. reflation turning to inflation), the ole Colonel will turn on a check engine light. There is some room for debate here but you can be sure that if I turn on a light other than green, we'll talk about it that morning. You can be the judge of whether we pull the car to the side of the road or keep on cruising.


Credit and equity markets appear to be stabilizing after a bruising start this year. At the end of each month, the Report looks at national averages for consumer credit (home mortgage, car loans etc.) as well as savings rates (money markets, CDs). We always bring John Wayne along for these articles to keep the financial scalawags on their toes (The Duke Returns, Recession Heads for the Backdoor). If anything goes south in the between time, you can bet I'll throw up a color other than sage brush green.

The stock markets are beginning to be a little dicey after a healthy run up from March. I'm keeping the green light on as long as we stay in a range (i.e. S&P 500 trading above 970). If things start to drop out (S&P below 970), Katy bar the door! The Colonel prefers the S&P 500 to the Dow Jones simply because 500 of America's best companies is a more reliable gauge of economic health than 30.

Inflation is nothing to worry about for the near term (6-12 months). Whether all our money printing leads to hyper-inflation someday is another story and you can bet I've got my eye on both. The unadjusted Consumer Price Index (CPI) was just reported to be down 2.1% from last July so for now, we're solid green buckaroos.

Molybdenum has been a champ lately coming up steadily from a sub-$8 low in March to $18.25 presently. General Moly has a calculation on their Website that shows that once Mt. Hope is in production their operational cost estimate is $5.32 per pound assuming $80 oil. For good measure, I'd like to see moly stay above $16.50 for a green light (Moly Hits Magic Number, Dr. Doom Speaks to Miners). For gold I'm still a bull although there are some downward pressures arising which will be discussed in a future blog. For now let's say a green light stays on for any price above $920 (roughly the year-to-date average).

Investors have been kind to both Barrick (ABX) and General Moly (GMO) this spring and early summer although there have been some downturns in share price lately. For green lights, I think we need to keep ABX above $30 and GMO above $2. The Eureka Grubstake Portfolio is a good barometer for overall investor confidence in the commodity space since it represents 12 companies that directly or indirectly contribute to Eureka's future (The Eureka Miner's Million Dollar Grubstake). Let's keep the Portfolio in the black for a green light (i.e. greater than the original $1,000,000 investment).

All green pardner, any color changers? Let's walk the walk:

Oil is up $1.31 in early trading to $72.40 (October contract); Gold is up $5.2 to $944.4 (December contract, most active); Silver is down $0.220 to $13.740; Copper is down $0.0760 to $2.6855 (September contract); Molybdenum holds at $18.25

The DOW is down 9.90 points to 9208.04; the S&P 500, down 1.47 points to 988.20. The miners are mixed:

Barrick (ABX) $33.56 down 0.30%
Newmont (NEM) $39.12 down 0.28%
General Moly (Eureka Moly, LLC) (GMO) $2.52 down 0.40%
Freeport McMoran (FCX) $60.55 up 0.13% (a bellwether mining stock spanning gold, copper & molybdenum)

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

Nucor (NUE) $45.30 down 1.26% - domestic steel manufacturing
ArcelorMittal (MT) $34.83 down 0.09% - global steel producer
POSCO (PKX) $91.42 down 0.274%- South Korean integrated steel producer

The Eureka Miner's Grubstake Portfolio is down 0.05% to $1,062,797.37

Cheers,

Colonel Possum

Not So Hotsi in Potsi, Cap-And-Trade Stumbles

Morning Miners!

It is 5:48AM, grab a cup and give the ole Colonel a hand. I've got just one more group of bullet holes to patch up after yesterday's market shoot-out and things look to be a lot calmer today. There is one mining story on the wire that is just too good to pass up. An ex-coca farmer might be a speed bump on America's road to affordable electric cars.

The world’s largest reserves of lithium, a metal needed to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles, exist in the Uyni Salt Flats in Bolivia's Andean province of Potsi. Bolvia's president and ex-coca farmer, Evo Morales, is good friends with Hugo Chávez and supporter of his so-called "Bolivarian Revolution". One feature of this movement is a propensity to nationalize everything that makes money. In 2006, Evo Morales issued a decree nationalizing the country’s oil and gas reserves. He ordered the military to occupy Bolivia's gas fields and gave foreign investors a six-month deadline to comply with demands or leave. This is a real incentive for a mining company to throw $800 million into a Lithium project wouldn't you say? I have no evidence of this but it's a good bet the Chinese will fill this vacuum given their latest shopping spree in Latin America for natural resources. We'd better keep our eyes open or we'll be importing batteries and electric vehicle technology from China to offset our dependence on Venezuelan and other bad guy's oil! You can checkout the whole article from the South America Policy Examiner:

Bolivia Needs 4 Percent of its GDP in Investments to Explore Lithium Deposits


Cap-and-trade stumbled down under as the Australian Senate defeated that country's version by a vote of 42-30. Interestingly there is some debate about the chief cause of the defeat. The BBC reported that "opposition senators...feared the legislation would harm the country's mining sector." There are other reports that claim the bill died because there is now serious disagreement in Australia on the very existence of human-caused global warming. So it goes, the ole Colonel will keep his eye on our own version of cap-n-trade as it bobbles along through Congress (last report, Moly Down Under, Cap-and-Trade Update).


Here's a last little tidbit to follow up from yesterday's discussion on where money seeks reward (Shoot-Out at the O.K. Corral). The Colonel failed to mention the re-emergence of the "carry-trade", a neat hat trick which involves borrowing money in countries such as Japan where interest rates are low, then investing it where rates are higher and pocketing the difference. After thriving during the bubble years, the trade all but disappeared as big currency swings led to heavy losses amid the financial crisis. As the carry-trade gathers steam, it is likely to have an effect on currencies, weighing on the ones in which traders borrow and pushing up those in which they choose to invest. Guess what? This time around the U.S. has interest rates near zero and commodity-sensitive countries like Brazil and Australia (where interest rates are higher) are in line to benefit. The Australian "Aussie", which we periodically track in the Report, has risen 29% against the U.S. currency since February. Just one more monkey on our dear ole greenback!

Pretty quiet in the O.K. corral today buckaroos, let's walk the walk:

Oil is up $0.71 to $67.46 (September contract); Gold is up $4.2 to $940.0 (December contract, most active); Silver is up $0.020 to $13.995; Copper is down $0.0200 to $2.75.05 (September contract); Molybdenum still holds at $18.25

The DOW is up 52.07 points to 9187.41; the S&P 500, up 5.26 points to 984.99. The miners are on their feet:

Barrick (ABX) $33.47 up 1.61%
Newmont (NEM) $39.03 up 0.67%
General Moly (Eureka Moly, LLC) (GMO) $2.46 up 2.92%
Freeport McMoran (FCX) $59.57 up 0.35% (a bellwether mining stock spanning gold, copper & molybdenum)

Steel stocks have some steel, (a "tell" for General Moly):

Nucor (NUE) $45.30 up 1.62% - domestic steel manufacturing
ArcelorMittal (MT) $34.29 up 2.14% - global steel producer
POSCO (PKX) $91.50 up 0.83%- South Korean integrated steel producer

The Eureka Miner's Grubstake Portfolio is up 1.06% to $1,053,457.11

Cheers,

Colonel Possum

Shoot-Out at the O.K. Corral

Morning Miners!

It is 6:45 AM, my coffee is on the floor and bullets are whizzing through the windows. It took a while to reach the keyboard but the "incoming" has kept the Colonel down. We've got a broad global sell off buckaroos and that keeps life interesting. Commodities including gold and oil are taking a thumping and markets from China to Europe are down 2 to 3% (checkout the bottom of this blog for real time global market updates). The Eureka Miner's Grubstake Portfolio fell more than 5% losing the readers over $50,000 in early morning trading.

Am I worried? Hell no, pardner! We've been looking for a correction for sometime. Coming up some 50% from our March lows, it is time for a little reality to return to the markets. Here's how I see it. There are few places for money to go to find a decent return nowadays. As you may have noticed money markets and 1-year certificates of deposit (CDs) offer sub-1% returns. Corporate bond rates have fallen from their highs and Treasurys are pretty dismal (10-year, 3.5%). This has caused investors to pour money back into commodities and stocks. A good example is the recent rise in oil prices; there are no fundamentals that support $70 oil with inventories sloshing around in anchored in ships and brimming in storage tanks around the world. Stock prices have got a little heady too as folks ignore bad news and pile in on any positive indications that the recovery is underway.

So is there any good news? Of course, the broad consensus from economists is that the recession is nearly ended or behind us already. We won't know for sometime and few of us will feel like things are better until job growth turns positive which is months away. The markets may overreact in the down direction but central banks, by keeping interest rates low, have set a floor for how low things can go. The truth is that money will return to the riskier asset classes (commodities and equities, see note below) as long as they are the only place for significant reward.

The ole Colonel nibbled at a few stocks this morning on the dip in energy and waste management (ECA & WM). If gold gets down near $920 it might be a good time buy a chunk and watch for Barrick (ABX) in the low $30 range and Caterpillar (CAT) below $40. If General Moly sags below $2, I'm backing up the truck!

Don't worry, be happy. Don't expect things to drop too low or soar too high for some time to come.

I hear some more shooting over by the corral, let's walk the walk:

Oil is down $2.03 to $65.48 (September contract); Gold is down $14.3 to $934.4 (December contract, most active); Silver is down $0.667 to $14.055; Copper is down $0.0735 to $2.7625 (September contract); Molybdenum bravely holds at $18.25

The DOW is down 187.80 points to 9128.46; the S&P 500, down 23.28 points to 980.81. The miners looking for cover:

Barrick (ABX) $32.61 down 3.86%
Newmont (NEM) $39.27 down 3.35%
General Moly (Eureka Moly, LLC) (GMO) $2.36 down 12.27%
Freeport McMoran (FCX) $59.67 down 6.25% (a bellwether mining stock spanning gold, copper & molybdenum)

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

Nucor (NUE) $44.27 down 5.32% - domestic steel manufacturing
ArcelorMittal (MT) $33.51 down 5.58% - global steel producer
POSCO (PKX) $90.85 down 5.24%- South Korean integrated steel producer

The Eureka Miner's Grubstake Portfolio is down 5.41% to $1,039,249.66 losing $59,437.44 so far today!

Cheers,

Colonel Possum

Note: Commodities are traditionally not considered an "asset class" like stocks and bonds. In the last several years, however, institutions and individuals have poured money into commodities as if they were an investment asset. Even China has stockpiled raw materials like copper this year to hedge against their vast dollar reserves. If the dollar declines, commodity prices rise and the stocks they hold grow in value. From the Colonel's point of view; if it walks like a duck, squawks like a duck it probably is a duck (possibly a hanging duck in China).

Moly Down Under, Cap-and-Trade Update

Morning Miners!

It is 5:56 AM, let me pour you a hot cup of TGIF coffee! Australian Marengo Mining Ltd. is undertaking a massive copper/molybdenum project in Papau New Guinea. It is expected to be in production by 2013 if all goes well. Reading about this effort made me fell even better about our Mt. Hope project. The Yandera porphyry copper-molybdenum venture is the typical way that moly is mined in the world, as a byproduct of copper mining. Mt. Hope is unique in offering a pure play for the valuable steel strengthening metal.

When the term "massive" is applied to Yandera it refers more to the copper potential than the moly byproduct. Let's look at the numbers:

Mt. Hope - In the first five years of production, General Moly estimates 40 million pounds of molybdenum will be mined annually at approximately 0.103 % moly. The present plan is for the open pit mineralization to be mined in the first 20 years with lower grade mineralization being mined and processed in the succeeding 30 years.

Yandera - Marengo estimates a total potential for 82 million pounds of molybdenum over a ten year life at 0.0135% moly.

So what we have in our backyard is a nearly 8 times higher grade of moly than the Yandera find down under. In two years Eureka Moly can pack out ten years of Yandera production with another 18 to 28 years left for Mt. Hope. Yee-ha!

Tim Arnold should check the ole Colonel's calculations in case I made an early morning slip of the decimal. If I pass his test, the "massive" Yandera undertaking adds a new perspective to the terrific potential of the Mt. Hope project. Also, I bet a cold beer and WalMart are easier to find here than in the steamy jungles of Papau.


Switching gears, there is an interesting article on cap-and-trade versus carbon tax in the Wall Street Journal. This is an issue that our own Natural Resource Advisory Commission has looked at because of its potential impact on miners, ranchers and farmers. Presently legislation using cap-and-trade to limit greenhouse gases is working its way through Congress and could become the law of the land. This is an approach that caps emissions of pollutants and then lets folks trade permits that allow them to pollute within those limits. The alternative concept is a direct tax on carbon emissions. Both attempt to curtail global greenhouse-gas emissions; the downside is the near term impact this may have on struggling domestic and world economies.

Thomas Crocker who came up with the cap-and-trade idea in the 1960s as a University of Wisconsin graduate student, is now having second thoughts about his idea applied on a global scale:

"I'm skeptical that cap-and-trade is the most effective way to go about regulating carbon," says Mr. Crocker, 73 years old, a retired economist in Centennial, Wyo. He says he prefers an outright tax on emissions because it would be easier to enforce and provide needed flexibility to deal with the problem. (WSJ, 08/13/09)

I encourage you to read further about the thoughts of John Crocker:

Cap-and-Trade's Unlikely Critics: Its Creators

Looks like a tough day for markets and miners, let's walk the walk:

Oil is down $2.05 to $68.47 (September contract); Gold is down $2.3 to $954.2(December contract, most active); Silver is down $0.252 to $14.735; Copper is up $0.0675 to $2.8465 (September contract); Molybdenum continues to hold at at $18.25

The DOW is down 160.75 points to 9237.44; the S&P 500, down 17.83 points to 995.10. The miners are down:

Barrick (ABX) $33.85 down 0.99%
Newmont (NEM) $40.75 down 1.74%
General Moly (Eureka Moly, LLC) (GMO) $2.69 down 3.58%
Freeport McMoran (FCX) $63.04 down 4.58% (a bellwether mining stock spanning gold, copper & molybdenum)

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

Nucor (NUE) $46.46 down 2.62% - domestic steel manufacturing
ArcelorMittal (MT) $35.14 down 2.66% - global steel producer
POSCO (PKX) $94.89 down 2.50%- South Korean integrated steel producer

The Eureka Miner's Grubstake Portfolio is down 2.37% to $1,094,749.90

Cheers,

Colonel Possum

Fed Lifts Maidenform, Silver Breaks $15

Morning Miners!

It is 5:50 AM and the ole Colonel noticed it is getting a little darker every morning. Someone hit the jake brake on summer buckaroos! The Fed boosted markets yesterday by not saying anything much different from their last official statement. Maidenform was a star performer jumping nearly 7%, go figure. I'll cheer anything that gives this recovery added support! Global markets reacted favorably too and I just watched silver break $15 on the London exchange.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal:

"U.S. Federal Reserve officials on Wednesday left official interest rates near zero but suggested the economy is on more stable ground. Information 'suggests that economic activity is leveling out,' the Fed statement said.

Still, officials said they would slow up their plans to buy up to $300 billion of Treasury securities in order to provide a smooth transition in those markets. The unconventional rescue program was widely expected to expire in September. Now, the Fed plans to continue purchases through October." (WSJ, 8/13/09)

Remember that a government buying Treasurys is a government printing money. It is good to see an end to this but troubling that we have to do it at all. Inflation down the road is the fear and you could see it in currency and precious metals. After the statement the dollar went up, gold went down then gold went up and the dollar tumbled. Inflation fears generally support gold and trash the dollar. It is too early to tell what the long term trend will be; if the Fed pulls excess liquidity out of the system in a timely fashion we may have a soft landing. If not? Keep some gold under your bunk pardner.


Ken Heebner, one of the savviest investors around, made an interesting point on CNBC yesterday. Keeping the U.S. credit rating intact is another key element for successful recovery. As we auction Treasurys to raise money there must be buyers or we're in trouble. So far so good, the auctions have exceeded expectations and foreigners are snapping up our debt left and right. Ken observed that the Middle East countries that supply the world oil are some of our biggest customers. Together they apparently exceed Treasury purchases by the Chinese. Ken speculates that countries like Saudia Arabia still depend on us for protection at the end of the day and thereby are willing to lend when we're on the ropes.

While this is good from a recovery standpoint, the logic is frightening. We export national wealth to buy oil, oil-rich nations lend us our dollars back so we can send them back again at a later day, but this time with interest! I'd rather ponder how Maidenform supports our economy than unravel this international can of worms.

Enough global talk, let's walk the walk:

Oil is up $0.43 to $70.59 (September contract); Gold is up $3.8 to $956.3 (December contract, most active); Silver is up $0.240 to $14.825; Copper is up $0.0555 to $2.8790 (September contract); Molybdenum continues to hold at at $18.25

The DOW is down 11.64 points to 9349.97; the S&P 500, up 0.49 points to 1006.30. The miners are still happy:

Barrick (ABX) $34.28 up 2.02%
Newmont (NEM) $41.07 up 1.48%
General Moly (Eureka Moly, LLC) (GMO) $2.78 up 0.72%
Freeport McMoran (FCX) $64.81 up 2.91% (a bellwether mining stock spanning gold, copper & molybdenum)

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

Nucor (NUE) $46.87 up 0.54% - domestic steel manufacturing
ArcelorMittal (MT) $35.54 down 0.14% - global steel producer
POSCO (PKX) $96.62 down 0.01%- South Korean integrated steel producer

The Eureka Miner's Grubstake Portfolio is up 0.83% to $1,111,898.92

Cheers,

Colonel Possum

A Chinese Dragon Hungry for Miners?

Morning Miners!

It is 5:53 AM, the ole Colonel is on his second cup and there is a dragon at my door. Oh, it's just Loquita coming in from her morning pee. There was a dragon at the door of Canadian Royalties Inc. yesterday as China launched a hostile bid to takeover the distressed nickel miner. This chilling report comes from the Toronto's Globe and Mail:

China Makes Unexpected Grab for Canadian Miner

This might be a game changer in China's insatiable appetite for natural resources marking the first time they have attempted a hostile acquisition. Typically, China has sought a friendly agreement with management before taking the seat at a foreign mining company. Nickel is a key ingredient in steel production and China apparently went after the weakened miner to capture its Nunavik project which contains approximately 20 million tons of ore, grading about 1 per cent nickel and 1 per cent copper. Because of its small size, the bid would not require Ottawa's approval under the Investment Canada Act.

Ironically the takeover bid came as Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is in Beijing on a trade mission to encourage Chinese investment in Canadian companies. The other disturbing report on China and miners comes from the Wall Street Journal this morning:

BEIJING -- China formally arrested four executives of Rio Tinto Ltd. on suspicion of stealing commercial secrets, but backed away from more serious espionage accusations in a move that the Australian miner said demonstrated that its employees had done nothing wrong. Previously, the four faced accusations of stealing state secrets, a grave criminal offense that can result in a possible life sentence. (WSJ, 8/12/09).

Phew, a little dragon repellent at the doors of Eureka Moly might be a prudent precaution (just kidding...).

The other story that has my interest is the official statement from Uncle Ben's Federal Open Market Committee at roughly 11:15 AM (PDT)today. The key thing to watch is the dollar index or "Dixie" (DXY) which tracks the greenback against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies.


Mantras are OK for religions but not for investing. When you hear everyone talking about inevitability of the dollar's decline it may be time to swim upstream. Two weeks ago, the Colonel bought some UUP ("Oooper"), an exchange traded fund (ETF) that is bullish on the dollar. If the dollar goes up you make money; if it continues to go down, you get out of Dodge. The UUP ETF is a nice way to hedge a gold position because the dollar and gold typically move in opposite directions. Lately gold has lost some luster and the "Oooper" has enjoyed a bounce. If the "Dixie" breaks 80 today after the Fed announcement, "Oooper" is a good bet bukaroos:

"Many economists expect the Fed to allow its program of buying as much as $300 billion in Treasurys to expire when that amount is reached, likely sometime in September. While not equivalent to lifting interest rates, confirmation of the end of the program could be seen as a step toward a less accommodative monetary policy, and would likely be viewed as supportive for the dollar..." (WSJ, 8/10/09)

Enough fortune cookies, let's walk the walk:

Oil is up $1.26 to $70.71 (September contract); Gold is up $2.9 to $950.5 (December contract, most active); Silver (London spot) is $14.50 (see note); Copper is up $0.0365 to $2.7740 (September contract); Molybdenum is holding at $18.25 (The Colonel's commodity source is on the blink, no silver futures data this morning)

The DOW is up 123.33 points to 9364.78; the S&P 500, up 12.16 points to 1006.51. The miners are happy again:

Barrick (ABX) $33.83 up 0.59%
Newmont (NEM) $40.37 up 0.42%
General Moly (Eureka Moly, LLC) (GMO) $2.65 up 1.15%
Freeport McMoran (FCX) $62.22 up 0.55% (a bellwether mining stock spanning gold, copper & molybdenum)

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

Nucor (NUE) $46.20 up 0.57% - domestic steel manufacturing
ArcelorMittal (MT) $35.27 up 0.63% - global steel producer
POSCO (PKX) $95.72 down 1.32%- South Korean integrated steel producer

The Eureka Miner's Grubstake Portfolio is up 0.68% to $1,093,743.75

Cheers,

Colonel Possum