Weak hands are crying....Soon the strong hands will start buying. The stock market is a great vehicle to transfer wealth from the uninformed to the informed or the impatient to the patient.
My only question is, where will those pulling their money out hide?! Maybe they will squirrell their funds away into a money market vehicle or cash. That's a great investment right now, it only, cough, cough, is subjecting holders to an 8% real loss after inflation. Maybe they will try to catch a falling knife on the S&P or the DOW, good luck with that one!!
A nice flush out below $1.50 USD is good timing for RIO to boost their share count in the open market after the share purchase moratorium ends in three weeks. Getting rid of the weak hands is what is needed to set the table for the final stretch, sorta like burning down the dead wood so that the forest can grow stronger.
The weak hands need to learn from history: what was the best performing asset class in the '70's? Answer: gold. But, maybe the best teacher is the ol' school of hard knocks!!
Copper won't light up the charts in this environment we are heading into (copper price inflation will be somewhat offset by an economy in recession) but gold is king in this environment. As, I've been saying all along........gold is what will make Casino rock. Copper is just a sweetener.
So, NEM will be forced to make a play on Casino and RIO will try to snag the deposit at a lower price whilst copper is treading water. Gold is what will keep Casino from being scooped up on the cheap. Maybe Paul's quip about renaming the company "Western Gold & Copper" should be given some serious thought.