Freeport McMoRan, BHP: Mining Winners
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- A weaker dollar, strong jobs news in the U.S., strong manufacturing readings out of China and promising manufacturing data out of Britain and the euro-zone have heat up metals and mining stocks.
The U.S. dollar index was lower by 0.3% to $81.05 late Wednesday morning.
BHP Billiton
(BHP) - Get Report
was gaining by 3.1% to $84.94, while
Rio Tinto
(RIO) - Get Report
was climbing by 2.7% to $65.89. The latter said it's investing an additional $1.2 billion to lift annual its iron ore production capacity in Western Australia's Pilbara region to 283 million tonnes a year as part of the producer's broader plan to expand capacity by more than 50% over the next five years to 333 million tonnes a year.
Vale
(VALE) - Get Report
was rising by 2.5% to $32.47. These three mining giants, which all have a strong presence in iron ore production, gained as Barclay's Capital put out a note saying that iron-ore spot prices will likely stay above $100 a metric ton for the next half decade, driven by demand from China and supply deficits caused by project delays -- sometimes due to onerous environmental permitting requirements.
Copper stocks were marching up as well, with
Freeport McMoRan
(FCX) - Get Report
and
Southern Copper
(SCCO) - Get Report
higher by 2.5% to $103.81 and 1.6% to $42.60, respectively. Copper for March delivery was rising by 8 cents.
"The premium for immediate delivery of copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) rose to the highest level in over two years as an unidentified buyer has been accumulating stockpiles of the metal," said Dahlman Rose analyst Anthony Rizzuto in a note. "Market sources are indicating that the buyer may be building inventory for the launch of a physically backed exchange-traded fund (ETF)."
Steel stocks were also rebounding on strong economic news out of China, with
ArcelorMittal
(MT) - Get Report
up 3.8% to $32.89;
Nucor
(NUE) - Get Report
up 2.2% to $38.58 and
U.S. Steel
(X) - Get Report
up 3.3% to $50.21.
North American carbon flat-rolled steel is poised for price increases as producers set additional hikes in reaction to rising scrap prices and demand, says
American Metal Market
.
>>Search for Highest Dividends by Rate or Yield
More on Earnings Today's Top Earnings |
-- Written by Andrea Tse in New York.
>To contact the writer of this article, click here:
Andrea Tse
.
>To follow the writer on Twitter, go to
.
>To submit a news tip, send an email to:
.
Copyright 2010 TheStreet.com Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.