For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – January 8, 2010 – Zacks.com releases the latest Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks featured in this week’s analysis include Cliffs Resources (CLF), Anglo Platinum (AGPPY), Freeport McMoRan (FCX), Hecla Mines (HL) and Buenaventure (BVN).
Zacks Industry Rank Analysis is written by Dirk Van Dijk, CFA, Chief Equity Strategist for Zacks.com.
Marvelous, Marvelous Metals
As regular readers of this article know, I like to look for both industries with good overall scores and those that are showing significant improvement in their relative ranking. Because we track 206 different industry groups, I also like to focus on the bigger industries, those with lots of stocks in them. Since the industry ranks are based on the average of the ranks of the stocks in the industry, it is relatively easy for an industry with only one or two firms to float to the top of the list (or sink to the bottom).
Allocating stocks across so many different industries is often quite arbitrary, so I also like to find a pattern in a bunch of related industries. It is the pattern of related industries that caught my eye this week. There is a very nice pattern of activity in several industries that have to do with mining. The strength also makes sense based on the fundamentals, since metals prices have been very strong of late.
Normally, I would not mention the iron mining group, even though it is tied for 3rd place among all the industries, since it only has two firms in it, and because it only moved up one spot. Then again, there was a limit to how many spots it could move up when it was already tied for fourth place. It is on the list entirely because of Cliffs Resources (CLF), which is a Zacks #1-Ranked stock.
However, along with the ferrous metal miners, the non-ferrous metal miners also look quite good, staying in 14th place for the second week in a row with an average score of 2.33. Two of the six stocks in the group currently hold a coveted Zacks #1 Rank, Anglo Platinum (AGPPY) and Freeport McMoRan (FCX).
While the base metal miners look much better on an absolute basis, the precious metals miners are showing very significant improvement. The silver miners jumped 50 spots this week into a tie for 32nd place with an average score of 2.84. Two names there that hold Zacks #1 Ranks are Hecla Mines (HL) and Buenaventure (BVN). Silver has been stronger than gold on the commodity exchanges of late. That is very normal. The two metals tend to move in the same direction, but silver tends to be the more volatile of the two.
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Contact: Dirk Van Dijk, CFA
Company: Zacks.com
Phone: 312-265-9211
Email: pr@zacks.com
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