The world’s second largest gold producer by market value, Goldcorp Inc (GG) is acquiring gold miner Canplats Resources Corp for about C$238 million ($229 million) to establish a network of satellite mines around its Penasquito gold project in Mexico. Each Canplats share would be exchanged for 0.074 of a common share of Goldcorp and an interest in a new exploration company. The offer values Canplats at about C$3.60 ($3.46) per share based upon the closing price of Goldcorp shares on Nov. 13. The offer represents a premium of about 41% over the C$2.55 million ($2.45 million) closing price of Canplats shares. The transaction is expected to close in January 2010. The Boards of Directors of both Goldcorp and Canplats have approved the deal. However, a two-thirds majority of Canplats outstanding shareholders are required to vote in favor of the offer for it to conclude. Canplats has ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 22, 2009 – Zacks.com releases the latest Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks featured in this week’s analysis include Barrick Gold (ABX), Eldorado (EGO), Goldcorp (GG), Freeport-McMoRan (FCX), Pan American Silver (PAAS), Market Vectors Gold Miners (GDX), S&P 500 SPDR (SPY) and Gold SPDR (GLD).

Zacks Industry Rank Analysis is written by Charles Rotblut, CFA, Senior Market Analyst for Zacks.com.

This week: Gold Miners’ Margin Problem

As gold sets new highs, it would only be natural to assume that profit forecasts for gold mining companies would be soaring too. Surprisingly, profit forecasts are not jumping.

Though some brokerage analysts have raised their full-year projections in recent weeks, the Zacks Consensus Estimate is not moving higher for most gold miners. Rather, it is essentially unchanged for Barrick Gold (ABX), Eldorado (EGO), Goldcorp (GG)

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With gold continuing to hit new highs, I appeared on the Fox Business Network to explain the drivers behind the recent gold moves and how I feel about certain emerging markets. I shared with hosts Liz Claman and David Asman why I believe gold could take a breather here soon before finishing the year strong. Gold could easily move up about 10 percent or move down 10 percent over the next 60 trading days. But historically, gold corrects in October and November, then you get your rally going back toward the end of the year. Watch the Full Interview By clicking the links in this article, you will be redirected to a third-party website. U.S. Global Investors does not endorse all information supplied by this website and is not responsible for its content. All opinions expressed and data provided are subject to change without notice. Some of these opinions may not be appropriate to ...

With gold continuing to hit new highs, I appeared on the Fox Business Network to explain the drivers behind the recent gold moves and how I feel about certain emerging markets.
I shared with hosts Liz Claman and David Asman why I believe gold could take a breather here soon before finishing the year strong.
Gold could easily move up about 10 percent or move down 10 percent over the next 60 trading days. But historically, gold corrects in October and November, then you get your rally going back toward the end of the year.
Watch the Full Interview
By clicking the links in this article, you will be redirected to a third-party website. U.S. Global Investors does not endorse all information supplied by this website and is not responsible for its content. All opinions expressed and data provided are subject to change without notice. Some of these opinions may not be appropriate to …

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 7, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights Tiffany (TIF) as the Bull of the Day and Developers Diversified (DDR) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Alcoa(AA), Barrick Gold (ABX) and DuPont (DD).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=2676

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

Tiffany (TIF) is well positioned to deliver robust sales and earnings growth through leveraging capital investments made over past several years in distribution, manufacturing and diamond sourcing processes. The company, which holds a significant position in the world jewelry market, is poised to benefit from its increased geographic diversification once the economy rebounds.

However, to weather the downturn, Tiffany is concentrating more on smaller size store formats that offer selected collections of lower

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There is a dichotomy occurring today. Gold is at record highs. Stocks are jumping. And bonds -- well, today's Treasury auction was oversubscribed. If this does not have you scratching your head, it should. Because on the surface it does not much sense. So let’s break today's events down. Gold traded as high as $1.045 per ounce, a new record. Speculators put new money into the metal after two events weakened the U.S. dollar further. First, Australia unexpectedly raised interest rates by 25 basis points. The Reserve Bank of Australia opined, "It is now prudent to begin gradually lessening the stimulus provided by monetary policy." Second, a rumor spread about secret talks between Russia, China, Japan, France and Gulf States to replace the dollar as the chief currency for oil. These talks were flatly denied, but the rumor is still having an impact. Stocks ...

Barrick Gold (NYSE:ABX), the world’s largest pure-play gold miner, is about to make a very big bet on gold prices going higher. The company announced this week it will raise as much as $4 billion in a stock issuance and use the proceeds to pay off its gold hedges. In other words, Barrick is willing to give their shareholders the short-term shaft in order to rid themselves of all bets against gold.

“It’s nothing but bullish for gold,” says our resident mining watchdog, Byron King. Barrick evidently believes that the future price of gold is heading up. So Barrick wants to eliminate the drag of lower-priced hedges, presently covering 9.5 million ounces of future output.

“The math works out to about $370 per ounce, hedged. Barrick must think that it’ll make it all back in the future, out of higher gold prices — $1,350 per ounce and more.

“The other side of

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Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX), the world's biggest gold producer, recently agreed to sell 25% interest in its Pascua-Lama silver project in South America to Silver Wheaton Corp. (SLW) for about $625 million.

Based in Vancouver, Canada, Silver Wheaton is the world's only silver trading company. It does not own or operate mines, but buys silver at below-market prices through long-term contracts with five major silver producers including Goldcorp Inc. (GG), Lunding Mining, Hellas Gold and Glencore and then reselling it to major industrial customers at a markup.

Barrick will receive $3.90 for each ounce of silver delivered under the agreement, which covers the life of the mining project, expected to be about 25 years. For Silver Wheaton, the deal will generate 9 million ounces of silver annually over the first 5 years at the Pascua-Lama mine, which will raise the company's output to 40 million ounces

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On September 8th, the world’s largest gold producer, Barrick Gold Corporation (ABX), announced its plans to raise $3 billion from a share offering and use the proceeds to pay off its gold hedges. As of September 7, 2009, Barrick’s gold sales contracts -- which comprise gold hedges and floating contracts -- totaled 9.5 million ounces with a mark-to-market position of negative $5.6 billion. To pay off the hedges, Barrick Gold has entered into an agreement with a syndicate of underwriters for a bought deal public offering for gross proceeds of about $3.0 billion, representing 81.2 million common shares at a price of $36.95 per share. Barrick Gold intends to use $1.9 billion of the net proceeds to eliminate all of its fixed priced gold contracts within the next 12 months and about $1.0 billion to offload a portion of its floating spot price. The company expects ...

Increased activity on the merger and acquisition front and promising signs that the economic downturn is easing sent U.S. stocks higher Tuesday as traders, back after a long weekend, picked up energy and commodity stocks.  With traders turning to riskier bets, Treasury prices sank, sending corresponding yields higher.  Positive factors sent gold prices beyond the $1,000 per ounce mark, before prices eased a little to settle at $997.80.  Dollar declined 1.1% to $1.4498 per euro.  Copper prices gained 3.1% on improved global recovery prospects.

The 30-share Dow Jones industrial average rose 56 points, or 0.6%, to 9,497.34 and the S&P 500 index added 9 points, or 0.9%, to 1,025.39, its highest close in 11 months.  The tech-heavy NASDAQ added 19 points, or 0.94%, to close at 2,037.77 points. On the New York Stock Exchange, advancing issues outpaced those that declined three to one on volume of 1.32 billion shares. 

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