Briefing.com -- PM Upgraded to ****
Comment: After year's of underperforming the market, the precious metals sector is one of the market's few bright spots this year... Sector benefitting from a number of factors including: "safe haven" status in aftermath of terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon; ongoing threat of war; inflation concerns stemming from aggressive monetary policy; slowing in pace of central bank sales; and weakening in the dollar relative to the yen... Confluence of these factors has underpinned a broad rally in the group, with most of the component issues trading at, or near, their 52-wk highs... While Briefing.com is concerned by valuation levels over the intermediate- to long-term, tough to bet against the group as long as the broader market remains on the defensive due to the economic/geopolitical uncertainties... Given that we expect the macro picture to remain clouded for at least the next couple of months, we are upping our rating on the group one notch... However, once the uncertainties are lifted and the broader market regains its footing, the extended valuations are apt to come back and haunt the sector.
Stocks: Agnico-Eagle Mines (AEM), AngloGold (AU), Barrick Gold (ABX), Gold Corp. (GG), Hecla Mining Co. (HL), Homestake Mining (HM), Newmont Mining (NEM), Pan-American silver (PAAS), Placer Dome (PDG).
AI
