Friday’s biggest gaining and declining stocks

Atlanta, GA 5/18/12 (StreetBeat) -- Here are some of the stocks making notable moves in Friday trading:

Gainers

AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (NYSE: AU +6.26%) added about 5%. The stock also rose on Thursday, when hedge-fund manager John Paulson made positive comments about the stock at a conference in New York. Paulson rarely speaks publicly about his positions and strategies.

Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM +9.78%) shares added 10% after the business software company reported stronger-than-expected results and its sales outlook beat Wall Street’s estimates.

Foot Locker (NYSE: FL +9.71%) rose 9% after posting a 30% jump in first-quarter profit while handily surpassing Wall Street’s top and bottom line estimates.

And Brown Shoe (NYSE: BWS +17.81%), the parent of the Famous Footwear chain, rose 12% after its adjusted first-quarter profit topped analyst estimates. The company also raised its full-year outlook.

Decliners

Autodesk Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK -15.97%) shares fell 15%. On Thursday, the company issued a cautious forecast for earnings and revenue in the second quarter of fiscal 2013.

Kirkland’s (Nasdaq: KIRK -14.01%) fell 14% after reporting a drop in quarterly profit on the back of slumping sam-store sales.

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Safety-Related Work Stoppages Hurts Metal Producers in South Africa Safety-Related Work Stoppages Hurts Metal Producers in South Africa

Orlando, FL 2/15/12 (StreetBeat) -- On Monday, the world’s biggest platinum producer, Anglo American Platinum, said that output would probably be flat in 2012 as safety stoppages hamstringed production that fell short of targets last year. The company said that it plans to refine and sell between 2.5 and 2.6 million ounces of platinum in 2012 after selling 2.6 million ounces in 2011 – just shy of its estimate of 2.7 million ounces for the year.

The South African government is on a mission to thwart the death toll in mines and halted Anglo’s production on 81 occasions, more than twice as many as the year prior. On average, 10 workers in South African die each month in the world's deepest and most dangerous underground mines.

"While we agree with the need for the regulator to stop operations for non-compliance, the key issue is the nature of stoppages and their effectiveness in addressing real risks," the company said in a statement. The company estimates that it lost 138,215 ounces of platinum because of the halts in 2011.

Anglo American has also raised caution about expected earnings not only because of the safety halts that are shutting down entire shafts and mines, but also as an outcome of associated costs related to South Africa’s BEE (Black Economic Empowerment) initiative. As part of the deal, South African miners are mandated to be a minimum of 26 percent black-owned by 2014.

Lonmin PLC (PinkSheets: LNMIF) reported last week that it has lost about $13 million a month in platinum production in the past four months because of safety stoppages.

Today, AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (NYSE: AU), the world’s third largest gold producer, joined the growing list of those disgruntled by safety halts imposed by the South African Department of Mineral Resources. The Australian-traded miner said that it lost 73,000 troy ounces of gold production (worth about $126 million at current prices) in the last year. The company derives about 40 percent of its global annual production from operations in South Africa. The safety halts present "a significant risk to forecasting production,” warned the company today as it reported a sharp fall in fourth-quarter earnings.

AngloGold Chief Executive Mark Cutifani is concerned that the safety stoppages actually create a more dangerous situation than the hazard they are trying to fix in some cases. He stated, "It is now an industry issue. We have as an industry come together with a view to again engaging with the department of mineral resources in a conversation that gets us all to the right outcome."

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Gold Prices Sell Off on Margin Hikes

Northern, WI 8/11/2011 (PennyPayDay) – Gold prices were lower Thursday after the Chicago Mercantile Exchange raised the amount of money it costs to buy a speculative gold futures contract and after gold spiked to a record of $1,817.60 an ounce in overnight trading.

Gold for December delivery was down $24.90 to $1,759.40 an ounce at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The gold price has traded as high as $1,817.60 and as low as $1,757.10 while the spot gold price was losing $37, according to Kitco's gold index.

Silver prices were down $1.10 to $38.21 an ounce. TheU.S. dollar index was slightly lower at $74.77 while the euro was up 0.18% vs. the dollar.

The CME finally stepped up and raised margin requirements on gold, that is the amount it costs to buy an 100 ounce gold futures contract, after the metal skyrocketed more than $200 in 3.5 weeks. It now will cost $7,425 to buy a speculative contract and $5,500 to maintain it, both represent a 22.2% increase.

The CME deployed the same technique with silver in May when prices skyrocketed to almost $50 an ounce, which then led to more than a 30% decline in the metal. If the same were to occur in gold, prices would dip to under $1,300 an ounce. However, gold seems to be shaking off the margin requirement as cries for a safety net as the Dow Jones Industrial Average nears bear market territory.

"We noted at the start of the week that a margin hike could dent the bullish sentiment in gold," says James Moore, research analyst at FastMarkets, who thinks, along with other traders, that gold could benefit from a period of consolidation. "But, with little in the way of positive news in-sight and threat of default/downgrades continuing to overshadow markets gold will likely remain underpinned and could potentially extend to fresh highs."

Scott Redler, chief strategic officer for T3Live.com, says that it's hard to buy gold at record levels, his favorite vehicle is SPDR Gold Shares, but says "I still expect significant upside due to continued demand ... It looks like gold is in the last stage of a parabolic move up to the $2000 mark."

Redler says not to chase gold's recent extension but that "every sale so far has been a bad one."

Gold's frenzied rally has some long-time gold bugs worried. Legendary gold investor Jim Rogers has said that in the end of the gold bull run there will be a huge bubble in precious metals.

"I don't know when that will be," says Rogers. "Most long term bull markets wind up in a huge mania, a huge bubble before it's over and this one will too. Someday, everybody will own gold. Someday, people will be walking down the streets checking gold prices in front-shop windows."

When asked if gold's recent rally qualified as this huge mania, Rogers said it was "not enough frenzy yet, but it is getting very worrisome. I want to keep my gold another several years, but who knows IF this keeps up?"

David Banister, chief investment strategist at ActiveTradingPartners says that gold "could see a final surge to $1,862-$1,900, but that should top it for a while." Banister foresees a multi-month correction that will have gold trading sideways with some big drops along the way.

But for Thursday gold seems content still being a safe haven as even a $30 drop in the spot market doesn't counter act the massive three-week rally. Weekly initial jobless claims in the U.S., which fell to 395,000 last week, did nothing to calm jittery investors. Worries about the solvency of French banks and the country itself not to mention Spain and Italy are still resonating throughout markets, making gold the go-to asset.

Gold mining stocks closed higher Wednesday. Barrick Gold was up 4.02% to $49.66 while Newmont Mining added 0.74% at $55.81. Other gold stocks, Goldcorp and AngloGold Ashanticlosed higher at $50.54 and $44.33, respectively.

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