Shares of Barrick Gold Corp rose 2.76% to C$24.55 Wednesday, in what proved to be an all-around positive trading session for the Canadian market, with the S&P/TSX Composite Index rising 1.15% to 25,569.84.
Source – Market Watch
Barrick is a sector leading gold and copper production. One of the biggest in the world and comes in at 2nd in gold mining.
“The miner this week threatened to suspend operations in Mali over deteriorating mine conditions. Jefferies analysts wrote in a note this week that closure of the mine would reduce Barrick’s earnings before interest, taxes, and amortization by 11% next year.”
“Mali, under interim President Assimi Goita, has increased pressure on western miners in a bid to raise its revenue share from gold mines. In the last two months, the junta has detained senior executives of western miners, including employees of these companies for alleged non-payment of mining taxes.” Source – https://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/economy/barrick-gold-seeks-arbitration-over-mali-gold-mine-dispute/ar-AA1w6s2W?ocid=socialshare
“Copper is like the second most important thing the Defense Department uses in order to make its weapons systems. And we’re in a situation now where worldwide there’s a glut of copper,” Navarro told Schmitt. “There’s a dumping of copper into our markets. And we’ve lost our ability to both smelt copper, which is taking the ore and getting the raw copper and refine it into the products we need. And it’s a serious thing.”
Source – Independent Journal Review
Chile, the world’s No. 1 copper producer, will boost its output of the red metal to 5.54 million metric tons in 2034, representing a 5.6% increase from 2023, state-run copper commission Cochilco said on Wednesday.
Source – Reuters
Spot gold was up 0.2% at $3,374.54 an ounce, as of 0505 GMT. U.S. gold futures eased 0.5% to $3,391.90.
“Gold has made a modest bounce as we await the next steps in the Israel-Iran conflict. If the U.S. does decide to get directly involved in the conflict this could raise the geopolitical stakes,” KCM Trade Chief Market Analyst Tim Waterer said.
“The Fed was not as dovish as some had hoped, and I’d argue Powell was a tad more hawkish than many would like. The U.S. dollar is likely at oversold levels, and that is likely to cap gains on gold over the next few weeks,” said Matt Simpson, a senior analyst at City Index.
Source – Reuters
Gold has outperformed the U.S. dollar and the S&P 500 by more than 6% across the 11 days when tariffs announcements dominated the news this year, according to J.P. Morgan.
Source – Seeking Alpha
Freeport McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) trades little changed Thursday as Jefferies upgrades shares to Buy from Hold with a $48 price target, raised from $40, just one month after downgrading due to risks in Indonesia, a cautious view on copper, and the company’s near-term lack of free cash flow.
If tariffs are implemented, Comex copper price premiums to the LME, which have been high already because of potential tariffs, likely will rise further, Jefferies analyst Christopher LaFemina says, noting Freeport (FCX) sells 1.35B lbs/year of copper at Comex prices and the current Comex premium to LME is ~$0.30/lb, and tariff-impacted imports would effectively set the Comex price since the U.S. cannot be self-sufficient in copper.
Source – Seeking Alpha
Jefferies – Jefferies Financial Group Inc. is an American multinational independent investment bank and financial services company headquartered in New York City.
