Investors ignore solid growth data

Economic report cards from both Canada and the United States came in better than expected yesterday, but investors were having none of it, driving down stock markets on both sides of the border.

The S&P/TSX composite index was down 179.9 points, or 1.6%, to 11,094.31.

The big three sectors of financials, energy and materials were all negative. For January, the TSX was down 5.6%, its biggest monthly loss since last February.

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. dropped 4.8% yesterday as investors continued to punish the stock after the 69% drop in fourth-quarter profit reported Thursday.

Niko Resources Ltd. fell 3.4%, while First Quantum Minerals Ltd. was down 3.1%.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold was down US$1 to US$1,083.80 an ounce, while oil fell US75¢ to US$72.89. The Canadian dollar was down 27 basis points to US93.52¢.

The TSX Venture composite index was down for an eighth straight day, falling 9.64 points, or 0.6%, to 1492.15.

Economic growth in Canada was 0.4% in November, Statistics Canada said yesterday, the third consecutive monthly increase.

Economists had expected a gain of between 0.1% and 0.3%.

The U.S. Commerce Department reported the economy grew at 5.7% in the fourth quarter, surpassing expectations for a 4.6% growth rate.

USA and Canada Have 3 Bad Days On Markets

Economic report cards from both Canada and the United States came in better than expected Friday, but investors were having none of it, driving down stock markets on both sides of the border.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index was down 166 points, or 1.5%, to 11,108 at the close. The big three sectors of financials, energy and materials were all negative.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold was down $1 to US$1,083.80 an ounce, while oil fell 75 cents to US$72.89 a barrel.

The Canadian dollar was down 26 basis points to 93.53 cents US late in the afternoon.

Economic growth in Canada was 0.4% in November, Statistics Canada said Friday, the third consecutive monthly increase. Economists had expected a gain of between 0.1% and 0.3%.

The U.S. Commerce Department reported the American economy grew at an annualized 5.7 % in the fourth quarter, surpassing expectations for 4.6 %.

Still, U.S. markets gave up their earlier-day momentum and finished down Friday. The Dow Jones industrial average was off by 57 points, or 0.6%, to 10,064 as trading stopped. The Nasdaq composite index was down 32 points, or 1.5%, to 2,147.

Markets were mostly up in Europe but down in Asia.

With files from John Morrissy

Time To Clean The Inside Of Your PC Monitor Screen

Yamana sees production from Ernesto project in late 2012

Yamana sees production from Ernesto project in late 2012
10:40 EST Tuesday, January 26, 2010

* Construction of Ernesto project to begin in mid-2010
* Sees annual production of about 1.5 mln ounces by 2013
Jan 26 (Reuters) - Canadian gold producer Yamana Gold Inc said the construction of its Ernesto/Pau-a-pique project in Brazil is expected to begin in mid-2010, with production commencing in late 2012.
Yamana said the Ernesto/Pau-a-pique project has an initial mine life of about seven years with current mineral reserves of 710,000 ounces of gold.
The company expects its Agua Rica project in Argentina to produce about 12.5 million tonnes of copper/gold concentrate and 357,750 tonnes of molybdenum concentrate over a 26.5 year mine life.
Yamana, which has four development stage projects including two in Brazil and one each in Mexico and Chile, said these four projects are expected to contribute 410,000 gold equivalent ounces (GEO) annually, with production expected to be about 1.3 million GEO in 2012.
With these new mines, Yamana expects an annualized production rate of about 1.5 million GEO by the beginning of 2013.
Yamana Gold shares were up 16 Canadian cents at C$11.31 Tuesday morning on the Toronto Stock Exchange. (Reporting by R. Manikandan in Bangalore; Editing by Ratul Ray Chaudhuri)

©2010 CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc. All rights reserved.

Pescod Talks Stock

S&P/TSX COMPOSITE INDEX:

AMAZON MINING

I suspect there were more than a few people who went to

bed last night and didn’t sleep much as they had looked at

the futures markets and what it suggested was going to hap-

pen for tomorrow on the American markets. It already

looked ugly because of what was happening to the Asian

markets, but with the recent seven to 10 day correction, it’s

been ugly and brought back to many people memories of a

year ago.

It was nice to see a pleasant surprise this morning as

consumer confidence numbers in the United States, virtually

changed the screen from red to green, but after a six month

run in the markets, one wonders how much of a correction

we might be going through, when it will end or if it’s just

another step up. Certainly in the oil sector you can worry

about the big inventories and in the gold sector you can

worry about the huge amount of paper that has been printed

by the brokers. Suddenly there is a lot of dilution on every

gold stock out there and we are going into a time of year

when precious metal stories traditionally don’t do their best.

Still news out today like every other day shows that

things are going up with consumer confidence better in the

United States and it looks like Britain is now out of its reces-

sion (finally), but a sense of reality is the thousands of peo-

ple that lose their jobs today in Verizon. Sign of the times.

So what stories do we find of interest in the market at a

time like this? We ask so many people the question, what

are your three favourite stories and so many analysts, bro-

kers, etc specialize in different spheres you get a long list of

alternatives.

One of the most intriguing stories we find is still Amazon

Mining. Having been to Brazil, seeing first-hand how strong

that economy is and I suspect it’s going to get a lot stronger

down the road, and seeing first-hand the Brazilian sense of

getting things done. The Brazilians didn’t like that they had

to import so much oil so they made a go out of ethanol dec-

ades before it had been heard of in North America.

We suspect down the road, Amazon and their potential

thermal potash play might seal the same fate and sometime

this summer when they get to work on their Madeira Gold

project, we suspect it also, is going to attract a lot of atten-

tion.

We hope Kaiser is right, but at a time like this, would one

add to ones’ position? Well, at a time like this, one is always

nervous, but we have to mention that we have an interview

with “You-Know-Who” coming up shortly and you haven’t

heard his name here since Ultra Petroleum (NY-UPL) many

years ago.

Remember when Ultra was barely alive, having to lay off 3/4 of its staff, brining in new management just to survive?

And then the $1.00 stock became a triple, a five-bagger and a ten-bagger and how excited we were? Who would have ever thought that it would become ultimately a 130-bagger!

Hopefully “You-Know-Who’s” next high risk/high reward play has just a fraction of that intrigue. Interview coming

shortly.

Yamana Accumulation at $11.40 target is $15.00

Here are all the house positions for : YRI for 1/26/2010.

41 Records Returned

House Positions

	Exch	House	Bought	$Value	Ave		Sold	$Value	Ave		Net	$Net
		18 Genuity	136,300	1,544,771	11.33		0				136,300	-1,544,771
		39 Merrill Lynch	92,918	1,048,303	11.28		4,800	54,690	11.39		88,118	-993,613
		12 Wellington	68,100	780,155	11.46		0				68,100	-780,155
		1 Anonymous	480,700	5,468,671	11.38		444,200	5,039,133	11.34		36,500	-429,538
		13 Instinet	147,800	1,678,616	11.36		124,700	1,416,510	11.36		23,100	-262,106
		80 National Bank	307,850	3,493,668	11.35		288,500	3,276,115	11.36		19,350	-217,553
		89 Raymond James	75,600	858,455	11.36		64,400	731,236	11.35		11,200	-127,219
		90 Barclays	10,000	113,692	11.37		0				10,000	-113,692
		79 CIBC	874,226	9,923,816	11.35		865,168	9,825,581	11.36		9,058	-98,235
		2 RBC	71,861	813,246	11.32		63,452	715,623	11.28		8,409	-97,623
		101 Newedge	77,700	883,451	11.37		70,800	804,596	11.36		6,900	-78,855
		60 MF Global Can	51,000	577,453	11.32		46,000	520,498	11.32		5,000	-56,955
		37 MacDougall	5,500	62,650	11.39		800	8,920	11.15		4,700	-53,730
		33 Canaccord	25,400	289,362	11.39		22,500	255,837	11.37		2,900	-33,525
		64 Octagon	2,500	28,415	11.37		0				2,500	-28,415
		67 Northern	2,000	22,660	11.33		0				2,000	-22,660
		58 Qtrade	2,700	30,311	11.23		850	9,636	11.34		1,850	-20,675
		32 CTI	1,000	11,310	11.31		0				1,000	-11,310
		95 Wolverton	900	10,008	11.12		0				900	-10,008
		63 Byron	25,026	283,974	11.35		24,801	281,642	11.36		225	-2,332
		57 Interactive	0				85	965	11.35		-85	965
		36 Latimer	6,000	68,890	11.48		6,400	71,727	11.21		-400	2,837
		31 Dominick	30,500	346,895	11.37		31,400	357,228	11.38		-900	10,333
		5 Penson	0				1,100	12,478	11.34		-1,100	12,478
		15 UBS	20,900	234,812	11.24		22,050	248,165	11.25		-1,150	13,353
		81 HSBC	2,100	23,917	11.39		5,450	61,784	11.34		-3,350	37,867
		124 Questrade	1,535	17,350	11.30		8,000	90,203	11.28		-6,465	72,853
		53 Morgan Stanley	0				6,492	72,764	11.21		-6,492	72,764
		62 Haywood	2,000	22,960	11.48		10,000	114,500	11.45		-8,000	91,540
		74 GMP	14,500	161,393	11.13		23,400	263,762	11.27		-8,900	102,369
		250 Infinium Capital	2,500	28,330	11.33		13,400	150,103	11.20		-10,900	121,773
		9 BMO Nesbitt	11,230	125,873	11.21		23,000	260,960	11.35		-11,770	135,087
		19 Desjardins	65,650	746,264	11.37		77,715	882,994	11.36		-12,065	136,730
		65 Goldman	0				14,345	161,785	11.28		-14,345	161,785
		85 Scotia	25,975	296,439	11.41		42,700	484,023	11.34		-16,725	187,584
		14 ITG	28,390	320,634	11.29		45,304	513,356	11.33		-16,914	192,722
		11 MacQuarie	5,000	56,770	11.35		27,000	307,240	11.38		-22,000	250,470
		16 Paradigm	74,000	840,613	11.36		97,100	1,106,501	11.40		-23,100	265,888
		99 Jitney	171,900	1,952,694	11.36		217,400	2,468,153	11.35		-45,500	515,459
		7 TD Sec	116,066	1,308,008	11.27		215,676	2,445,246	11.34		-99,610	1,137,238
		72 Credit Suisse	600	6,814	11.36		128,939	1,467,689	11.38		-128,339	1,460,875
		Total	3,037,927	34,481,643	11.35		3,037,927	34,481,643	11.35		0	0