The sell-off that had taken a turn for the ugly at the end of last week was the ostensible result of fears about global economic growth, with the focal point of concern being the Chinese economy.
Worries about the Chinese economy are by no means new, and are in fact carry-overs from 2013. But now that the dust from the sharp upward turn of the bull run last year is settling, the picture that is starting to take place is being seen as cause for concern, even if the slowdown in Asia is only a notch less exponential.
All asset classes have been affected by this recent trading activity, but precious metals have perhaps felt the least of the pain, with futures for February delivery up over a percent over the last week to over $1,270 prior to Monday’s opening bell. While analysts expect yellow metal to remain range-bound between $1,200 and $1,400 throughout 2014, last week proved a modest reminder that gold and other metals in its class like silver, and to a lesser extent platinum and palladium, are still every bit as good as their reputation as a store of value during times of uncertainty.
This can be seen in the impressive performance of a number of gold and silver stocks over the week. The following companies gold and silver companies, all with market-caps of $300,000 million or greater, are the previous week’s best-performing precious metals companies, all of which were trading nearly ten percent higher or more.
Ruicon Metals Corporation ($RBY)
Industry/Country: Gold/Canada
Market-Cap: $355.05 million
Price: $1.23
Performance (week): +18.27 percent
Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. ($FSM)
Industry/Country: Silver/Canada
Market-Cap: $462.31 million
Price: $3.67
Performance (week): +13.07 percent
AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. ($AU)
Industry/Country: Gold/South Africa
Market-Cap: $5.5 billion
Price: $14.10
Performance (week): +10.24 percent
Compania de Minas Buenaventura SA ($BVN)
Industry/Country: Gold/Peru
Market-Cap: $3.38 billion
Price: $13.31
Performance (week): +9.73 percent
Endeavour Silver Corp. ($EXK)
Industry/Country: Silver/Canada
Market-Cap: $442.72 million
Price: $4.44
Performance (week): +9.63 percent
Randgold Resources Limited ($GOLD)
Industry/Country: Gold/Channel Islands
Market-Cap: $6.47 billion
Price: $70.11
Performance (week): +9.60 percent
