Gold, silver stock declines deepen (NA WARRIES)
By Mike Maynard, CBS MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 12:20 PM ET June 5, 2002
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Gold and silver stocks accelerated their sell-off by midday Wednesday, moving in tandem with precious metals futures prices.
It marked a striking contrast to Tuesday's action, in which a handful of mining stocks ran to 52-week intraday highs before turning broadly lower late in the session.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold for August delivery and July silver dropped by $6.80 and 1.9 cents an ounce, respectively, in recent action.
"It's profit-taking by the weak hands. They sell when there are signs of trouble," said Leonard Kaplan, president of Prospector Asset Management. "This type of a sell off is ridiculous. None of the fundamentals have really changed."
The U.S. dollar is still in a downtrend, off by 7 percent since February, he said. Producers aren't selling forward, inflation is higher than interest rates which makes for a negative real return, and trouble continues in the Middle East and between India and Pakistan - all of which bode well for gold, Kaplan said.
Gold inventories stood at 1.59 million ounces unchanged as of late Tuesday. Silver stocks were at 74 million ounces, also unchanged. Copper inventories were up 376 short tons to 337,748 short tons.
Wednesday's action was borne out by the three gauges used to track activity in gold equities, all of which were off by at least 3.4 percent.
The Amex Gold Bugs Index (HUI: news, chart, profile) sank to a reading of 138.69, down 8.07, while the Philadelphia Gold & Silver Index ($XAU: news, chart, profile) slipped 2.95 to stand at 82.65 and the CBOE Gold Index ($GOX: news, chart, profile) declined 2.93 to 66.98.
Among major gold miners, Newmont Mining (NEM: news, chart, profile) slipped more than 2 percent to $30.87; Agnico-Eagle Mines (AEM: news, chart, profile) gave back more than 5 percent to $16.25; Placer Dome (PDG: news, chart, profile) eased 0.5 percent to $13.52; Barrick Gold (ABX: news, chart, profile) was off more than 3 percent to $21.44; Goldcorp (GG: news, chart, profile) dropped to $10.70, down 8 percent; Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold (FCX: news, chart, profile) lost 2 percent to $19.50; Anglogold (AU: news, chart, profile) sank 5 percent to $31.70, and Gold Fields (GFI: news, chart, profile) retreated more than 7 percent to $13.03.
Silver-mining companies also gave back some of their recent gains, with Hecla Mining (HL: news, chart, profile) off more than 7 percent to $4.92; Coeur d'Alene Mines (CDE: news, chart, profile) down 10.5 percent to $1.87; Apex Silver Mines (SIL: news, chart, profile) off 3 percent to $16; Pan American Silver (PAAS: news, chart, profile) down 9 percent to $8.22, and Silver Standard Resources (SSRI: news, chart, profile) off 8 percent to $6.27.
Elsewhere, nickel producer Inco Ltd. (N: news, chart, profile) was unchanged at $23.45 and platinum and palladium producer Stillwater Mining (SWC: news, chart, profile) lost 2.2 percent to $16.13.
July platinum was down $5.50 to $547.50 an ounce while June palladium was unchanged at $354.30 an ounce.
Mike Maynard is a news editor for CBS MarketWatch.com in Washington. |
