Stockhouse @ the Bell: New bank rules depress markets

Today on Stockhouse

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Thom Calandra looks to titans of the Canadian mining industry for fresh investing ideas.

Keith Fitz-Gerald of Money Morning outlines four solid investment strategies that are tailor made for uncertain times.

This as Lorimer Wilson details reasons why gold/silver speculators would be wise to buy warrants.

Top Bullboards post: In a post to the MacDonald Mines Exploration (TSX: V.BMK, Stock Forum) RODBUSTER explained the recent run up. “If the impending Freewest shareholders meeting scheduled for Jan. 25, 2010, approves the Cliffs-Freewest transaction then MacDonald Mines believes that this will be the tipping point for renewed exploration in southern James Bay. The total quoted investment required to develop the chromite mine is in the order of $1.5-billion with infrastructure estimated to comprise $700-million of the total. This significantly changes the economics for other potential discoveries and exploration companies such as MacDonald Mines can now encompass a broader range of targets.”

Top Bullboard: Allana Resources (TSX: V.AAA, Stock Forum) collected the second-most posts, while Stem Cell Therapeutics (TSX: V.SSS, Stock Forum) received the second-most reads.

Top blog: littleguy123 speculates on the possibility of China ending its U.S. dollar peg and what it might mean for the gold price in his Outside the Market blog.

For news about small stocks that made big moves in Thursday’s trading, please read the Stockhouse Canadian Small and Micro-cap Stock Report.

Word on Wall Street

"We're going to be in the dance of one step forward and one step back as people digest all these earnings reports," said Frank Ingarra, co-portfolio manager at Hennessy Funds in an interview with Associated Press.

Today In The Markets

Markets drop sharply on proposed limits for US banks, lower commodities

DJIA	10,389.88	-213.27
NASDAQ	2,265.70	-25.55
S&P500	1,116.48	-21.56
S&P/TSX	11,469.10	-210.22
S&P/TSX Venture	1,558.91	-31.78

Toronto & New York (The Canadian Press) - The Toronto stock market was sharply lower for a second day Thursday as economic concerns pressured commodity stocks while financials were negative after U.S. President Barack Obama called for tougher regulations on banks.

"We've run a big rally here," said Sid Mokhtari, market technician at CIBC World Markets.
"We shouldn't be panicking by any means. It's more of a backing and filling (by the market), digesting what it's done so far and... looking for a reason why it should further pursue its uptrend."

New York indexes were under added pressure as other data showed a surprising rise in jobless insurance claims last week and deteriorating manufacturing activity in the U.S. Northeast. The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank diffusion index fell to 15.2 in January from 22.5 in December. Economists had expected a reading of 17.

Please click here for the complete U.S. and Canadian market summaries.

After-Hours News

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG, Stock Forum)
The search giant reported a jump in fourth quarter profit and revenue, including a rise in its Internet search ads. Google said that net income rose to $1.97 billion or $6.13 a share, up from $382 million or $1.21 per share in the comparable quarter the year before. Net revenue was $4.95 billion. Excluding special items, the company had earnings of $6.79 per share. Analysts had forecast earnings of $6.48 a share and $4.92 billion in revenue.

First Gold Exploration (TSX: V.EFG, Stock Forum)
The company said late on Thursday that grab samples from its Pivert/Rose property in northern Quebec showed traces of lithium, along with several of the rare earth elements like rubidium, tantalum, beryllium, niobium and gallium. Grab samples are selective, and do not represent average grades. The company also said it plans to release results from its hole LR-09-02 in the “coming days.”