Update Goldcorp (GG)
After the market close yesterday, March 11, Goldcorp (GG) reported fourth quarter 2009 earnings of 25 cents a share (excluding one-time items). That was in line with the Wall Street consensus. Revenue climbed by 27.8% to $778 million. That was substantially above the $732 million Wall Street estimate.
For the quarter Goldcorp reported production of 601,300 ounces of gold.
The news was good enough so that investors can pardon CEO Chuck Jeannes if he sounded like he was crowing. “Achieving record gold production at the lowest cash costs of any major gold mining company while increasing gold reserves for a sixth consecutive year made 2009 a very successful year for Goldcorp,” he said in his company’s press release. “In addition, we brought one of our cornerstone mines, Penasquito, into operational production on time and on budget and repositioned another, the prolific Red Lake mine, for long term success. With Pueblo Viejo advancing on time toward first gold production in late 2011, the three major drivers of our five-year, 57% growth profile remain well on track. We also enhanced our outstanding project pipeline with the recent closing of two acquisitions that brought us the Camino Rojo project near Penasquito and the El Morro project in Chile.
Update Goldcorp (GG)
What you want in a gold stock is a company with rising reserves and falling costs. Goldcorp’s (GG) end of 2009 report on reserves shows that it’s still delivering rising reserves. We’ll see how the company is doing on costs when it reports after the market closes on March 11.
In 2009, the company said in February reserves grew by 5.3% to 48.8 million ounces from 46.3 million ounces at the end of 2008.
Buy Impala Platinum (IMPUY.PK)
I’m going to take advantage of the selloff in emerging market stocks and global commodities on fears that China’s government might be about to slow China’s economic growth to buy shares of Impala Platinum (IMPUY) for Jubak’s Picks. (The stock is already a member of my long-term Jubak Picks 50 portfolio.)
No surprise, the dollar lost market share to the euro in the last decade–but not as much as you might think
The U.S. dollar earned about a C+ in the decade from 1999 to 2009, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The dollar’s share of allocated global reserves had declined to 62% by the end of September 2009, according to the IMF. That was down from 71% at the end of 1999.
That’s not as bad as some currency experts and economists had feared, but the trend is certainly pointed in the wrong direction for the dollar’s future as the global reserve currency.
And if the survey has a bias, it’s probably to the upside. The IMF’s report includes 140 countries, but doesn’t name any of the participants and the data quite likely doesn’t include China. (Sort of like getting a high school report card that omits a grade for the class you most need to get into college.)
The winner over the last decade has been the euro. Its share of global reserves climbed to 26% in September 2009 from 18% at the end of 1999.
If there’s good news for the dollar in the report, it’s that it lost market share over the last decade to the euro.
Good news on jobs hurts Treasuries, oil, stocks; crushes gold
All it took was an unexpectedly strong unemployment report.
Following the Bureau of Labor Statistics release of numbers showing the economy lost just 11,000 jobs in November rather than the expected 125,000, the Dollar Index broke above its 2009 trend line and the Friday November 27 rebound high.
That was enough to negate an initial rally in commodities and stocks on the good news on the economy. Oil fell to $75.65, a drop of about 1%. Gold was crushed, falling to $1169 an ounce, down 4%. Prices for Treasuries with maturities of two years and greater also tumbled.
Why did good news on the economy turn into bad news for commodities, gold, Treasury bonds, and stocks?
