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Short Update

Posted by Peter Grandich at 9:26 AM on Friday, November 20th, 2009

With the U.S. Stock Market approaching my upside target of DJIA 10,500 – 11,000, I’ve now begun to look closely for a selling point. Given next week begins a seasonally strong period for the stock market, I may not be saying Ba Hum Bug until after Christmas. Stay tuned.

The U.S. Dollar is showing signs of a doable short- to intermediate-bottom but needs to get above 78 on the U.S. Dollar Index to confirm, IMHO. Such a move could lead to a significant bear market rally so we shall watch closely.

If and when such a dollar rally takes hold, one should not assume it’s curtains for gold (as much as the mortally wounded perma-gold bears are praying for). Gold has so many long-term bullish factors going for it which I hope to discuss as we move closer to year-end. For now, it continues to demonstrate an ability to self-correct intra-day and my target of $1,200 for this year still remains a strong possibility. As I’ve stated often, $1,000 gold has gone from being a ceiling to floor so those looking to buy on weakness should not expect to buy gold again  for three digits for quite some time.

This has to be one of the worst-written articles I’ve ever read. I point this out for a couple of reasons:

  • Look at the author’s past articles and you will find a big slant against “goldbugs.” This is not uncommon in financial journalism. Simon Constanable comes to mind as someone who can’t help himself but knock gold and those who believe in it. We all know several commentators on CNBC-TV have over the years “panned” gold whenever they can. BNN, a five star network in my book, also has some gold bear anchors. Frances Hurodelsk and Martin Cej can’t help themselves whenever they have a guest on gold. They always take the-cup-is-half-empty line. As I have said numerous times, gold will never be accepted by the masses as it flies in the face of owning financial assets, a factor most in the financial services industry and financial media need to do okay in order to prosper.
  • Gold bears always point back to $850 gold, an event that, by the way, was a one day affair (gold fell quickly back to under $700 so very few people bought at $850). What they fail to do is to point back to the tops in the asset they love and live off of – stocks. The author of the article I refer to fails to note how much worse the masses are who bought stocks at their all-time highs. At least gold is back above its high nominally. Good luck to those who wait for the NASDAQ to hit 5,000 to do the same.

Now here’s a journalist who deserves a medal! If it was up to me, he would get the “John Crudele” medal of honor.

PLEASE NOTE – You must assume my opinions remain the same from my last commentary on a market or stock until such time I publish an update.

In the case of Northern Dynasty Minerals, no change in opinion therefore no new update. However, here’s a copy of a comment on it by me for an upcoming article in a mining publication:

Northern Dynasty Minerals (NAK-NYSE/Alnet, NDM-TSX) – Since acquiring the Pebble Project in 2001, Northern Dynasty has delineated and advanced one of the world’s greatest stores of mineral wealth.

Located on American soil in southwest Alaska, the Pebble deposit is remarkable for both its size and composition. Current estimates indicate a total resource of 5.1 billion tonnes measured and indicated and 4.0 billion tonnes inferred, containing 72 billion lb copper, 94 million oz gold and 4.8 billion lb molybdenum. Quantities of silver, palladium and rhenium also occur in the deposit.

In 2007, a wholly-owned affiliate of Northern Dynasty entered a 50:50 partnership with a wholly-owned subsidiary of Anglo American plc to permit, construct and operate a modern, long-life mine at Pebble. Based on Anglo American’s staged investment of $1.425 to $1.5 billion, both companies share equal ownership, board representation and rights in the Alaska-based Pebble Limited Partnership.

Under the leadership of the Pebble Partnership, the Pebble Project is on a path to development. Key project strengths include:

  • a known mineral resource with the tonnes, grade, metallurgy and geometry to support a modern, long-life mine;
  • favorable terrain — low elevation;
  • a stable and predictable regulatory environment;
  • ready human and financial resources; and,
  • broad public support for responsible resource development in Alaska.

Theirs is a rather loud anti-pebble crowd that has clearly spooked some investors into believing the project will not be able to even make it to the formal permitting application stage and receive due process of law. While one can never say this crowd can’t win, I remain confident because so far government regulators haven’t shown to be anything but fair and I trust they will allow the process itself to determine whether Pebble can go forward into mine development.

End of update

Client Update

Posted by Peter Grandich at 6:25 PM on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

Formation’s financing news seems to have caused a knee jerk sell-off reaction, I’d guess primarily by retail investors who may not fully understand what Formation has accomplished here – much like the same reaction to Monday’s news announcing the name change and share consolidation.

A little on the consolidation announced Monday.  Bottom line, it needed to be done in order for them to move forward on their mine financing.  In Formation Metals’ case, a share consolidation is a positive move done to open financing doors and put the company more in line with its mid-tier base metal producer colleagues.   It is more attractive to mine financiers to finance a company with 34 million shares out trading closer to $2.00, than one with 240 million shares out trading under 30 cents.   I applaud their decision.  Their new consolidated share price is expected to start trading on Friday morning, based on seven times the value of Thursday’s closing price.  Their symbol remains the same; FCO.TSX

Now the financing news.  A few major points I read into this:  1)  To start, basically this is a 70:30 debt to equity financing.  This is a favorable ratio in today’s market where many financiers appreciate the fact that resource stock prices are depressed and want as many shares as they can get their hands on.   2) they have structured the financing so that after two years, when they expect to be in production and generating cash flow, they can at their election, re-finance their debt under what is expected to be more favorable terms.  Management was insightful on this one.  The news release, however, is unclear on this point, and does not drive home this critical fact.  3)  At the end of the day it looks like they will still be diluted by close to 100%, which at first glance seems excessive.  However, this could generate on the order of  $275 million dollars that would come with the equity issuance, depending on what the shares and warrants will be priced at, and of course, help facilitate a revenue generating mine. They are not giving them away!  Considering that their current market capitalization is around $60 million, to issue 100% additional shares to generate $275 million puts things in better perspective. 4)  Lastly, the equity portion of this financing will not be set until the debt portion of the financing is completed, or in other words, until they have successfully raised $115 million for the cause.  I would expect that at that point their share price should reflect this  accomplishment and fewer shares may need to be issued to raise the remaining $45 million, which I also note, does not have any warrants attached to it.

I wonder what would have happened if they announced instead that a major mining company was going to fund the entire project for 50% of the cobalt mine.  I suspect the reaction would have been very positive.  Ironically, this is also equivalent to 100% dilution, (giving up 50% of your primary asset) yet in this case you would also give up 50% of all future earnings!  This is not the case here, yet the markets obviously expected something better.  I’m not sure what else management could have done but they are doing exactly what they said they would do – raise the money to build their mine.

I see than Jenning’s Capital Morning comment today still has a $1.20 target price.  That’s an $8.40 target post consolidation.  That at least is what one mining analyst is saying.  While some near term weakness pre/post consolidation is possible, I think the smart thing to do here is to look at 2010 and beyond knowing one owns the only pure cobalt mine in North America.

Follow-Up

Posted by Peter Grandich at 3:13 PM on Monday, November 9th, 2009

I would like to follow-up to both my challenge and market comments made earlier today.

First and foremost, I continue to believe the U.S. Stock Market has been in a “mini melt-up” stage, albeit interrupted by a very short correction. I’ve spoken about DJIA 10,500+ for months. Make no mistake about it, I’m no long-term bull nor ever want to be part of the group that’s leading us to this area: the “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” crowd on Wall Street. But, unlike the many bears who stayed bearish all this time, I was truly blessed to turn bullish (if that’s what one could call it) just one day from the bottom in March. My quest for 10,500+ since then has not been so I could be considered one of the card-carrying members of the “happy” crowd, but rather so we could get to a point where I could be comfortable turning aggressively bearish again. I continue to believe that point is somewhere between 10,500 and 11,000. I had thought we wouldn’t see that area until spring of 2010, but I don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth if we get there sooner. Stay tuned.

It wasn’t that long ago when gold approached $1,000 and the media did its usual “one-day wonder” coverage. As so often happens, the media covers the habitually wrong bears who tell the world for the umpteen time that gold has peaked or worse, is very overpriced, only to see gold pull back and the media leave the scene until the next big run up is at its best. Such is the case yet again as gold has risen $70 just in days after it was supposed to die and go to bubble heaven.

And almost on cue, some in the media wheeled out their perma-bears that not only have amnesia regarding their past wrong forecasts, but suffer that terrible “Fonzie” disease (the inability to say I was wrong). Listen, I’m the first to admit when I’m wrong and I didn’t issue my challenge simply because the other party has been wrong and I’ve been right. I issued my challenge because the party is arrogant, bombastic and quite frankly extremely nasty to the parties who he not only disagrees with, but have greatly outperformed him for years. Former NFL coach Tony Dungy says his mother told him when he wins say little and when he losses to say even less. The fact that the other party IMHO has been terribly wrong for quite some time or has even distorted the facts is not the main reason for my challenge. It’s his ultimate gall to those who dare disagree with him in the face of his horrible performance.

Speaking of gold, we’re due for some consolidation and the sooner the better. The one factor that could really cause us to melt up would be the U.S. Dollar Index breaking below 74 in the near term. I would much prefer some consolidation and correction now versus later, but where it comes isn’t that important since the price over the long term appears still heading much higher.

On the model portfolio front, Continental Minerals is having a much needed consolidation. I continue to look for any real further weakness in Evolving Gold to become even a more aggressive accumulator.

Taking tomorrow off to enjoy some Indian summer on the links.

Open Letter To Business News Network

Posted by Peter Grandich at 10:44 AM on Monday, November 9th, 2009

As one of the world’s premier financial networks who has clearly proven to be truly fair and balanced, I respectfully request you provide air time for me to debate Jon Nadler of Kitco regarding his claims made in this interview http://watch.bnn.ca/#clip232431 I believe the public comments made here and by Mr. Nadler for the last several years have been distorted, misleading and most importantly, have been proven wrong again and again and again.

The only two ground rules I request are:

  • BNN makes available past interviews of both of us on the air and our ability to show some of them and their results.
  • The moderator be either Kim Parlee or Howard Green.

I await your response.

Peter Grandich

Update

Posted by Peter Grandich at 8:15 AM on Monday, November 9th, 2009

U.S. Stock Market – As noted in my interview with George on Friday, the fact that the market didn’t sell off after the unemployment report was very bullish and my belief was the path of least resistance is up. While some technical charts were/are bearish, some sentiment indicators are very bullish.Individual investor polls of late showed widespread bearishness. I continue to believe the mini melt-up I’ve spoken about from a 1,000 DJIA points lower continues to unfold. I wait with bated breadth for DJIA 10,500 – 11,000.

Gold – What can I say that I haven’t said already? The J__ N_____ of the world continue to be wrong, wrong, wrong and are the best contrarian indicators money can’t buy. Sure, somewhere out there is consolidation and a correction but as I’ve constantly stated since just above $300, staying long and strong is the best course of action when it comes to gold. Despite one new record nominal high in gold after another, the mood around gold is subdue and the badly beaten up bears continue to be the main voices heard crying wolf to the media. Thankfully, we’ve saw through their empty and wrong views and have sang the following to every line in the sand top they’ve predicted at round number from $400 up to now.

U.S. Dollar – Despite historically low bullish sentiment indicators, terminally ill Uncle Sam can’t even muster up a technical bear market rally. Once again it’s getting slaughtered in the Forex markets. The long-term downtrend remains intact and a test of the low 70s appears in sight.

Special Note - I’ve been truly blessed to enjoy a sports fan dream of dreams by being around professional athletes. I’m always asked who’s your favorite? When it comes to pure fun, a million laughs and being around the biggest heart, one name comes to mind – ex-boxing great Gerry Cooney. You could put Gerry in a room with two groups who hate each other, lock the door and come back in two hours to hear them carrying Gerry around singing for he’s a jolly-good fellow. This is an excellent interview of Gerry.

Short Update

Posted by Peter Grandich at 9:04 AM on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

I updated model portfolio recommendations. Please note I extended the buy zone on Continental Minerals. The trading pattern continues to suggest heavy accumulation. We now have two business competitors who appear not to like each other and both apparently need what KMK has. I think a $3+ share price is what it would take to get management’s support of a friendly bid. Stay tuned!

The more I look at metal prices and Bisha, the more I love Nevsun Resources. Given what metal prices have done of late, I think $3 or under is relatively cheap for NSU shares. Great Basin Gold remains quite cheap given the big bump up in gold prices.

Friday’s employment number is almost certainly IMHO the key to what the U.S. stock market does for the balance of the year. Any real indication that unemployment is easing should give the “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” crowd the ammunition to resume it’s march towards DJIA 10,500+. On the other hand (I never like to hedge but it’s the right choice at the moment), a surprise bump up in unemployment should remove whatever hot air remains under the market and lead to a sharper decline. Friday is key!

The floor I spoke of in gold at four digits is now in. Numerous so-called experts, money managers, investors, etc., were either outright bearish, turned bearish or became weak kneed and looked for a correction when gold was around $1,000. They never got a chance to get back in and now the market has gotten away from them. The natural tendency is to try and talk the gold price back so you can justify not chasing to get back in but that has not been a worthy approach for years in gold. The bears have a gigantic problem. Sorry but I won’t lose any sleep over the anti-gold getting their just dessert.

The U.S. Dollar continues to be long on anticipation of a bear market rally but way short on delivering on it. Again, it needs to get above 78 on the U.S. Dollar Index before we change even our short-term outlook.

I still hope to see oil at $85+ in hopes of getting short again. Natural gas is ho-hum.

I continue to like shorting U.S. Treasuries 10 and 30-yr maturities.

Off to Toronto for BNN tomorrow then Montreal Investment Conference.

Good news for NY Jets fans. They can’t lose this Sunday. Wish I could say the same for NY Giants.

Yankees clinch World Series tonight!

Grandich on TruNews Radio

Posted by Peter Grandich at 5:28 PM on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

Listen – Starts around 12 minute mark

Silver Quest Resources – Superb Management and Strong Projects Potential

Posted by jojo at 10:32 PM on Monday, November 2nd, 2009

I am pleased to have been engaged by Silver Quest Resources. Silver Quest and it’s predecessors have a long history in the mining industry as one of the first junior mining companies to list on the Venture Exchange.  Silver Quest is an exploration company filling a niche in British Columbia, Yukon, and Ontario by advancing and developing silver and gold resources.  I like this company for three main reasons.  The company’s president, Randy Turner, is committed to the success of the company, as proven by his more than 15 years of involvement in various roles.  Second and third, I like the two main assets, the Capoose –Silver Trend property and the Davidson Property, both silver and gold properties with vast upside potential located in central BC.
Great Leadership
Mr. Randy Turner, the new President and CEO of Silver Quest, is a skilled and qualified professional geologist with over thirty-eight years of mineral exploration, business and financing experience to draw from.   Mr. Turner has spent the majority of his career working for Canadian mineral companies.  As president of Winspear Diamonds Inc., Mr. Turner guided the company from the discovery of the Snap Lake diamond deposit in northern Canada through its sale to De Beers Mining for C$305 million.
Prior to his position at Winspear, Mr. Turner was president of Trimin Resources Ltd. where he was involved in the development and sale of the McIlvenna Bay copper/zinc deposit in Saskatchewan.  Mr. Turner also spent many years working on property acquisitions and joint ventures for Esso Minerals in Canada and AGIP Mining in the US and Australia.  Mr. Turner’s knowledge, contacts and experience in the exploration industry are an invaluable asset to Silver Quest, and one of the reasons, I believe, that this company is truly one to watch as they have great potential knocking at their door.
BC Properties
Silver Quest’s main area of exploration is Central British Columbia, approximately 120 kilometres southwest of Vanderhoof.  The company’s three main assets, the Capoose-Silver Trend, the Davidson and the 3T’s properties are all located within this region.  Although I won’t go into too much detail at this time on the 3T’s property, it is worth mentioning that the property already has NI 43-101 inferred resources of 2,356,937 ounces of silver and 148,100 ounces of gold.  Management has also informed me that 3T’s should be the site of a winter drill program early in 2010 with the goal of expanding the known gold and silver resources.

silver_quest_11-02-09_1BC Property location map

Capoose – Silver Trend
The Capoose-Silver Trend property is the Company’s flagship project.  Silver Quest has put together a land package totalling over 14,000 ha surrounding a historical mineral resource of 32.66 million ounces of silver and 308,500 ounces of gold.  To-date, 112 drill holes have defined three mineralized zones which remain open in all directions and at depth.  Also of significant interest is a five kilometre long silver-gold-copper-lead-zinc soil geochemical anomaly with multiple high priority targets that are defined and drill ready, but currently untested.  The five kilometre long mineralized trend encompasses the historical resource and trends in a north-easterly direction.  At the south end of the Capoose-Silver Trend land holdings there are multiple mineralized showings that need to be further explored; these include the Fawn, Buck and Rut mineral occurrences.
Silver Quest’s recently completed drill program included 1,692 m spread across 13 diamond drill holes.  The focus of the program was to test the extensions of the south end of zones one and two, as well as to test the area between the two zones.  Silver Quest’s concept is that the current three zones are actually connected creating one large disseminated gold and silver deposit.  Last year’s program included drill hole D-08-91 which successfully connected zones one and two at their north ends and yielded 240 m of 45.5 g/t silver and 0.76 g/t gold.  Silver Quest has only received assay results from the first hole of this years program, D-09-100, which was drilled at the south end of zone one and appears to expand mineralization to the south.  Two areas of significant mineralization were intersected in this hole; an upper zone of 16 m grading 67.9 g/t silver and 0.26 g/t gold, and a lower zone of 30 m grading 23.1 g/t silver and 1.99 g/t gold, with a 9 m higher grade zone within the interval of 61.8 g/t silver and 4.72 g/t gold.  These results are extremely encouraging and I look forward to seeing further high-grade results from the remaining twelve drill holes completed this year.  I also anticipate an NI 43-101 resource calculation on the Capoose-Silver Trend property by the second quarter of 2010.

silver_quest_11-02-09_2Capoose-Silver Trend drill hole location map and estimated zones of mineralization

Davidson Property
Silver Quest holds 100% interest in the Davidson property, located 10 kilometres west of the Capoose-Silver Trend property.  The Davidson Property has been optioned to Richfield Ventures, which included Davidson in a larger land package called the” Blackwater Project”.  Richfield has completed 15 holes totalling more than 2,450 m this year.  The majority of these holes have been collared on Silver Quest’s Davidson property and have confirmed and expanded historical mineralization in three mineral zones.  Richfield believes the area may contain a bulk tonnage gold deposit.  The best hole to date on the Davidson property was a Silver Quest hole drilled in 2005, DAV-05-02, that assayed 3.4 g/t silver and 1.43 g/t gold over 140.5 m.  Richfield has recovered many intersections that have similar values of gold and silver over long intervals including BW 48 which returned 148 m of 5.0 g/t silver and 1.26 g/t gold.  Richfield is lead by a group of experienced and knowledgeable individuals.  The group is well financed and plans on completing the earn-in option on the Davidson property towards the middle of 2010.  It is expected that Silver Quest will retain a 40% interest in this property; a significant amount for the upside potential, but a reasonable amount to be able to fund their portion of further exploration while also being able to advance their flagship project, the Capoose-Silver Trend Project.  I look forward to the release of the results from the remaining four drill holes, and hope to see a resource calculation released prior to next summer.

silver_quest_11-02-09_3Drill hole location map from Richfield.  Davidson property is above the blue line

Additional Properties
In addition to the Company’s BC projects, Silver Quest has a package of early-stage projects located in the booming White Gold Area of the Yukon and the Thunder Bay Region of Ontario, creating an in-depth pipeline of projects for advancement.  At the top of the list is the Boulevard project recently optioned from Kiska Metals and Northgate Minerals.  A new gold discovery was made last year in the trenches on Boulevard.  The discovery trench, TRV0801 returned 7.04 grams per tonne (g/t) gold over 6.0 metres.  A second trench, TRBV0802 returned 6.43 g/t gold over 2.0 metres.  The Boulevard project has been soil sampled, trenched and drilled over the past three years.  Silver Quest completed an auger soil sampling program this year to better define the targets to be drill tested next season.

Bottom line
Silver Quest is a company in all the right geographical locations, building and defining resources with a pipeline of strong exploration properties to deliver upside potential. The quality of Silver Quest’s Projects, and the added value of an experienced management team and board, makes this worthy of consideration for most speculators portfolios.

Holy Taseko!

Posted by Peter Grandich at 4:02 PM on Monday, November 2nd, 2009

I was taken aback by the big bump up on mineral reserves at Taseko’s Prosperity deposit. Because Taseko was first in my model portfolio before becoming a client, I keep it in the portfolio and provide buy and sell thoughts. With this big bump up and the belief a party or parties is likely to become part of the Prosperity development (if and when they get the go ahead), I’m going to raise the buy area up to $2.85

Model Portfolio Updated. Comments on Some Clients.

Posted by Peter Grandich at 9:14 AM on Monday, November 2nd, 2009

It appears the long suffering gold bears have once again failed in yet another attempt to shake the market lower. While the media remains focus on receiving advice about the future from a few chronic bad forecasters from the past, gold appears like it has all but completed its latest consolidation and ready to challenge $1,100 before years-end. As I said all along – the surprises in gold should mostly be to the upside.

With this in mind, I updated the model portfolio this morning.

In regards to some clients of Grandich Publications:

Formation Capital (FCO-TSX) is so close to finalizing their mine developing package one could taste it. Stay tuned.

Sunridge Gold (SGC-TSX-V) management tells me they’re quite please with their on-going exploration program. The $.60 area appears to be a level those not yet believers can become one at an undervalued entry point.

Timmins Gold (TMM-TSX-V) is perhaps one of the most undervalued companies on my entire list.