Today on Stockhouse
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Gene Arensberg reveals details on how COMEX Commercials are covering their gold shorts in his Got Gold Report.
And, Steven Saville argues why gold bullion is often a better bet than gold mining stocks.
Top Bullboards post: Following the release of a NI 43-101 compliant feasibility study by American Bonanza Gold (TSX: T.BZA, Stock Forum), behindblueeyes wrote: “let them manipulate all they want all i know is that with # like they have shown and with production by Q3 this is a buy and hold at these levels
“I think we all forgett that its not like it was 2 to 3 yrs ago when we had meteoric rises in junior stocks on drill news and property accuisitions
“Its a new world and Gold and producing profitable miners will win in the long tearm
“the muckymucks cant print this stuff and there isnt a unlimited supply.”
Top Bullboard: Ecometals (TSX: V.EC, Stock Forum) received the third-most reads and posts.
Top blog: _tsxcommentary examines the outlook for real estate and REITs in the Reit Sector Commentary blog.
For news about small stocks that made big moves in Wednesday’s trading, please read the Stockhouse Canadian Small and Micro-cap Stock Report.
Word on Wall Street
"Only about 30% of companies are reporting revenue increases, which bothers us," said David P. Prokupek, managing partner at Consumer Capital Partners, in an interview with MarketWatch. "That's part of the reason we're in no man's land for the market right now."
| Selected expected U.S. earnings releases for Thursday |
| (Consensus Estimates vs. Last Year) |
|
| BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: BCRX) |
Q4 |
$0.09 vs. $0.26 |
|
| Burger King Holdings (NYSE: BKC) |
Q2 |
$0.34 vs. $0.33 |
|
| CIGNA Corp. (NYSE: CI) |
Q4 |
$0.96 vs. $0.49 |
|
| Kellogg Company (NYSE: K) |
Q4 |
$0.49 vs. $0.47 |
|
| Liquidity Services (NASDAQ: LQDT) |
Q1 |
$0.10 vs. $0.03 |
|
| Mastercard (NYSE: MA) |
Q4 |
$2.46 vs. $1.87 |
|
| Royal Gold (NASDAQ: RGLD) |
Q2 |
$0.18 vs. $0.03 |
|
| Selected expected Canadian earnings releases for Thursday |
| (Consensus Estimates vs. Last Year) |
|
| BCE Inc. (TSX: T.BCE) |
Q4 |
$0.50 vs. $0.06 |
|
| Canaccord Financial (TSX: T.CF) |
Q3 |
$0.21 vs. $ - 0.33 |
|
| Fortis (TSX: T.FTS) |
Q4 |
$0.52 vs. $0.48 |
|
| Manitoba Telecom (TSX: T.MBT) |
Q4 |
$0.60 vs. $0.59 |
|
Today In The Markets
Markets give back ground
|
| DJIA |
10,270.55 |
-26.30 |
 |
|
| NASDAQ |
2,190.91 |
+0.85 |
 |
|
| S&P500 |
1,097.28 |
-6.04 |
|
|
| S&P/TSX |
11,390.46 |
-17.88 |
|
|
| S&P/TSX Venture |
1,513.98 |
-3.09 |
|
|
Toronto & New York (The Canadian Press) – The Toronto stock market was down Wednesday as investors took in sluggish explansion of the U.S. services sector last month.
The S&P/TSX composite index dipped 17.88 points to 11,390.46 after U.S. manufacturing and housing data had pushed the main index up about 300 points over the previous two sessions.
The TSX Venture Exchange inched 3.09 points lower to 1,513.98.
New York markets were mainly lower with the Dow Jones industrial average closing down 26.3 points to 10,270.55.
The Nasdaq composite index added 0.85 of a point ahead of earnings from tech bellwether Cisco Systems to 2,190.91 while the S&P 500 index lost 6.04 points to 1,097.28.
Please click here for the complete U.S. and Canadian market summaries.
After-Hours News
Novellus Systems (NASDAQ: NVLS, Stock Forum)
The chip equipment maker said it swung to a profit in its fourth quarter. Novellus reported a profit of $35.2 million or 36 cents per share, compared to its year ago loss of $130.3 million or $1.36 per share. Revenue was $244.2 million, up from $188.5 million in Q4 of 2008. Excluding onetime items, the company would have earned $38.2 million or 39 cents per share. Analysts were forecasting the company to earn 33 cents per share on $237.1 million in sales.
Apella Resources (TSX: V.APA, Stock Forum)
The company announced on Wednesday that it would launch a new drill program at its Iron-T vanadium-iron-titanium project in Quebec. The company plans a further 1000 metres of drilling.