After making gains the last six sessions, the Canadian Markets fell victim to profit taking during Wednesday trading. For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange lost 3.70%, while the TSX Gold Index gave back 7.3% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, dropped 2.76% with the declining issuers beating out the advancers by a 467 to 307 margin on volume of 161 million shares traded.

Crosshair Exploration & Mining (AMEX:CXZ) and Target Exploration & Mining have agreed to merge in a transaction that would see Target shareholders get 1.2 Crosshair shares for each target share. The move gives Target access to Crosshair’s cash, while Crosshair gets Target’s Wyoming uranium assets. Crosshair ended the session down C$0.05 at C$0.25, while Target added C$0.045 at C$0.225.

It was a rough day for Shore Gold as the company announced a reduced 2009 exploration budget of C$17.9 million

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The Canadian Markets started the first full trading week of 2009 in a festive mode with buyers continuing to step up to the plate during Monday’s session. For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange added 0.56%, while the TSX Gold Index got hammered to the tune of 7.3% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, tacked on 3.28% with the advancing issuers beating out the decliners by a 515 to 264 margin on volume of 159 million shares traded.

A new resource estimate for the Raven deposit in Saskatchewan helped shares of UEX Corporation add C$0.17 to close at C$1.08. The resource tallied 3.97 million tonnes grading 0.105% U308 in the indicated category and 0.49 million tonnes grading 0.104% U308 in the inferred camp.

It was also a good day for Mercator Minerals. The company reported that it has begun the shipping of copper concentrates

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Safeway Inc. (SWY) is a food and drug retailer in North America. The company's 1,738 stores are located principally in California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Colorado, Arizona, Texas, the Chicago metropolitan area and the Mid-Atlantic region, as well as British Columbia, Alberta, and Manitoba/Saskatchewan.We maintain our Buy rating and our six-month target price of $28, or about 12x our 2009 EPS estimate. On October 7, Safeway reported in-line results for the third quarter. Management also reiterated its full-year EPS guidance of $2.25-$2.35 and free cash flow of $500-$700 million.While Safeway shares are up about 34% from their November lows, the shares are still down about 27% in the last year. Safeway shares sold off because of risks associated with the difficult macro environment that has consumers trading down to cheaper alternatives as well as the credit crisis that has impacted the entire stock market....

The global coal industry remains active and Micron Enviro Systems (MENV) announced it has been approved for 12 coal permits, with more expected to come before the end of the year.

The coal permits cover exploration and recovery mining rights for 22,456 contiguous acres in central east Saskatchewan, Canada, near a major new coal discovery. Micron applied for the permits in June. It was one of the first companies to attach itself to the discovery, made by Goldsource Mines Inc.

“MENV management is striving to continue to build shareholder value despite the current volatile overall market conditions,” said Bradley Rudman, Micron president. “MENV is anticipating additional coal permits to be granted, and management is continuing to evaluate opportunities in other areas with significant upside potential, including potash.”

MENV also still holds complete or partial Alberta oil sand 15-year leases (for 31,945 acres); they currently have little fiscal value as nothing has been found.

“These

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After an ever so brief reprieve the bears returned and once again started mauling the bulls during Wednesday’s trading session on the Canadian markets. For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange plunged 5.32%, while the TSX Gold Index tanked 8.5% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, lost 5.71% with the declining issuers outpacing the advancers by a 607 to 224 margin, on volume of 141 million shares traded. Going from the penthouse to the poorhouse, Teck Cominco (NYSE:TCK) is looking at several options to trim costs. A series of investments over the past two years has pushed the company from a cash-rich state to a cash poor one, with reports out that the diversified miner will cut its dividend, cut spending on development projects such as the Fort Hills oil sands, its Galore Creek copper project in British Columbia and its Petaquilla copper

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Summary Great Western Minerals is pressing ahead with exploration at its Hoidas Lake rare earth elements deposit in northern Saskatchewan. It is also drilling on a second rare earth project, in Utah USA. The company recently acquired Less Common Metals and it continues development of Great Western Technologies Inc. Both companies focus on development and marketing of value-added rare earth alloys for the aerospace, automotive and high-technology sectors.

Key points:

Core valuation maintained but with increased confidence. Wider risk/reward spread Our revised model maintains a base-case value of C$0.26 per share on Great Western. However the 2008 winter and summer drill programmes provide gathering confidence ahead of a likely expansion of NI 43-101 resource estimates. The spread between our pessimistic and optimistic cases has widened reflecting a greater risk/reward profile associated with doubling the mining rate and, for the optimistic case, the potential for more aggressive marketing at LCM.

Drilling at Deep Sands is now complete Great Western has wrapped up

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It was green lights across the board during Tuesday trading on the Canadian markets as investors placed bets that the conclusion of the United States presidential election would prompt a stock rally. For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange surged 4.07%, while the TSX Gold Index added 11.5% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, climbed 4.24% with the advancing issuers swamping the decliners by a 560 to 306 margin on volume of 176 million shares traded.

Hathor Exploration (CVE:HAT) came out with ore stellar numbers from its Roughrider zone on the Midwest NorthEast property in northern Saskatchewan. The latest included 23 metres running 11.23% U308. Hathor ended the day up C$0.05 at C$2.29, while 10% owner Terra Ventures was unchanged at C$0.43.

Sherwood Copper (CVE:SWC) discovered a new high grade copper-gold zone at its Minto Mine in the Yukon. Located only 800

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Despite more profit taking on the big board, the junior bourse made it five winning sessions in a row during Monday trading on the Canadian Markets. For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange lost 0.42%, while the TSX Gold Index fell 1.9% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, added 2.22% with the advancing issuers swamping the decliners by a 429 to 351 margin on volume of 150 million shares traded.

Silver Wheaton posted a 5% jump in third-quarter profit to $20.2 million, or $0.08 per share. Silver sales tallied 2.7 million ounces at cash costs of $3.93 per ounce, down from 3.1 million in the same period a year earlier. The company lowered its 2008 sales projections to 11.4 million ounces, from 13-15 million ounces previously envisioned. Silver Wheaton ended the day up C$0.13 at C$4.33.

Rockwell Diamonds got its wish with Pala Investments

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The Canadian markets made it two winning days in a row as investors scurried to buy beaten down resource stocks. For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange rallied 3.82%, while the TSX Gold Index surged another 8.5% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, added 5.14% with the advancing issuers swamping the decliners by a 595 to 256 margin on volume of 160 million shares traded.

Sherritt International posted third quarter earnings of $133.1 million, or $0.45 per share, up from the $65.4-million or $0.28 per share tallied in the same period a year earlier. Falling commodity prices have the company looking at reducing its capital spending. Sherritt ended the day up C$0.53 at C$4.60.

The fifth set of diamond results from underground bulk sampling of the Orion South kimberlite, within the Fort a La Corne joint venture in Saskatchewan resulted in the recoveries of

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Take our quiz: Is the market even close to normal anymore?… Credit freeze continues to thaw… Mayer and Denning on what companies need to rebound… Home prices fall again, consumer confidence crashes, but market rallies? … Eric Fry on when this global financial trauma will come to an end… Plus, want a DVD copy of I.O.U.S.A.? Get the details below…

Pop quiz: The biggest company in the world? Nope, not Exxon Mobil, not today anyway. Would you believe…

Oh, how twisted the markets have become.

In European trading this morning, shares of Volkswagen AG leapt 93% when word leaked that Porsche would be upping its stake from 49% to 75% — a controlling stake of the company. Buyers rushed in, short sellers were squeezed (big-time) and, for a

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