Silver Wheaton Corporation (NYSE: SLW) is up 6.7% at $34.07, and the 52-week trading range is $25.84 to $47.60.

Pan American Silver Corp. (NASDAQ: PAAS) is still only flat at $21.85 but it was lower before the FOMC comments today. The 52-week trading range is $19.93 to $43.06.

Goldcorp Incorporated (NYSE: GG) is up 5.2% at $46.70, and the 52-week trading range is $39.93 to $56.31.

Newmont Mining Corporation (NYSE: NEM) is up 3.4% at $59.43, and the 52-week trading range is $50.05 to $72.42.

Kinross Gold Corporation (NYSE: KGC) up over 6% at $11.23, and the 52-week trading range is $9.96 to $18.25.

Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited (NYSE: AEM) up 8% at $37.23, and the 52-week trading range is $34.36 to $76.49.

ETFs are rocking as well.  The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSE: GDX) is up 5.3% at $54.58 against a 52-week range of $49.22 to $66.98.  Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners (NYSE: GDXJ) is up 6.5% at $28.66 against a 52-week range of $22.58 to $42.97.  The Global X Silver Miners ETF (NYSE: SIL) is up 3.9% at $23.69 and the 52-week range is $19.05 to $31.34.

The logic is simple enough… This signals extremely low interest rates and low costs of borrowing.  It also signals that investors will have to look elsewhere yet again to seek higher returns than short-term and intermediate-term Treasuries.  As this means that rates will be low in the U.S. for longer than expected, that is going to drive a weak dollar policy as long as things remain static in Europe and in other major economic zones.  That is the perfect storm for gold and silver as they are often inversely correlated to the dollar.

JON C. OGG

Gardner Denver, Inc. (NYSE: GDI) named as the Value Stock of the Day at Zacks Investment Research. HSBC Holdings PLC (NYSE: HBC) was named as the Bear of the Day and AGCO Corporation (NYSE: AGCO) was named as the Bull of the Day by Zacks Investment Research.

Warner Chilcott plc (NASDAQ: WCRX) lowered price target to $25 and Forest Labs Inc. (NYSE: FRX) target cut to $40 at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Windstream Corporation (NASDAQ: WIN) Started as Neutral at Piper Jaffray.

Rayonier Inc. (NYSE: RYN) and Reliance Steel & Aluminum (NYSE: RS) were added to the #1 (Strong Buy) List at Zacks Investment Research.  The Zacks additions to the #5 (strong Sell List are as follows: Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. (NYSE: AEM); Badger Meter Inc. (NYSE: BMI); Kellogg Co. (NYSE: K); and Sears Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ: SHLD). 

Molycorp Inc. (NYSE: MCP) is one where we said earlier in the week that the efficient market theory cannot be applied, and Zacks included it on the Strong Sell ratings list this morning to close out 2011.

JON C. OGG

Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. (NYSE: AEM) Cut to Hold at Canaccord Genuity.
Avalon Rare Metals Inc. (AMEX: AVL) Started as Buy at Citigroup.
Brocade Communications Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: BRCD) Reiterated Hold at Argus.
Coinstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSTR) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
Eaton Vance Corporation (NYSE: EV) Cut to Underperform at Credit Suisse.
Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
The Finish Line, Inc. (NASDAQ: FINL) named Value stock of the day at Zacks.
Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) Raised to Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.
Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Green Dot Corporation (NYSE: GDOT) Started as Outperform at KBW.
Montpelier Re Holdings (NYSE: MRH) named as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Research in Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) Cut to Neutral at Stern Agee.
Salix Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SLXP) named as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
The Wendy’s Co. (NYSE: WEN) Reiterated Hold at Argus.
Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN) Raised to Buy at KeyBanc.

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JON C. OGG

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA down nearly 72 points to 11,504.70, the NASDAQ fell more than 53 points (2.01%) to2,604.04, and the S&P 500 fell 1.26% or more than 15 points to 1,209.89.

Today’s top analyst upgrade and downgrade calls were numerous and included Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and Whole Foods Markets Inc. (NASDAQ: WFM), and about a dozen other companies.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) reported better than expected earnings for the quarter, following  yesterday’s positive report from Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC).  Morgan Stanley got a big lift from an accounting gain that lowered the value of its debt by $3.4 billion, thus boosting the bank’s revenue to $9.9 billion. Even without the gain, MS posted EPS of $0.02, There has been a turnaround from the indicated loss in Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) after its earnings showed that book value managed to actually grow and the stock was up almost 10% at $6.63 late in the session.

As far as the other big earnings report reactions today (prices within 20 minutes of the closing bell): Apple is down more than -5.5%, at $398.78; Morgan Stanley up 0.3%, at $16.68; Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) is up about 3.5%, at $24.22; Yahoo is up 2.78%, at $15.90.

Several other standouts from today are as follows…

Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE: WMB) rose again by another 1.7%, to $29.55, after investors are considering it a cheap merger alternative to the El Paso buyout by Kinder Morgan this week.

Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: HGSI) had another big day on merger speculation up, up nearly 8%, at $13.83, and here is how it ranks with analysts other price targets for biotechs ahead of the biotech earnings floodgates.

Abbot Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) rose 1.62%, to $53.29, following the announcement of the company’s intention to split its branded drug business from its other product lines.

Oxigene, Inc. (NASDAQ: OXGN)  got a nice boost of about 12.55%, to $1.59, following good data on the survival benefits of its anti-thyroid cancer drug.

Powerwave Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: PWAV) warned of a revenue shortfall of more than 50% for its third quarter. The shares lost nearly -42% of their value, to fall to $0.85, after posting a new 52-week low of $0.68 earlier in the day.

Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. (NYSE: AEM) has suspended operations indefinitely at its mine in Val d’Or, Quebec, due to unstable ground and inflows of water. The stock has fallen by -19%, to $46.21.

Stay tuned for Thursday.  We have speeches to watch from Lockhart and Kocherlakota on the docket as well as a 30-year TIPS auction.  Here are some economic releases due in the morning and throughout the day:

• 8:30 Unemployment Benefits Claims for last week
• 8:30 Existing Home Sales
• 10:00 Conference Board’s Index of Leading Economic Indicators
• 10:30 Natural Gas Report
• 4:30 PM Federal Reserve Balance Sheet

Paul Ausick

Agrium, Inc. (NYSE: AGU) named Bull of the Day at Zacks.
Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. (NYSE: AEM) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
American Express Company (NYSE: AXP) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
AMR Corporation (NYSE: AMR) Raised to Outperform at Rodman & Renshaw.
BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG) Started as Outperform with $370 target at Credit Suisse.
China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (NYSE: SNP) Started as Neutral at Credit Suisse.
CNOOC Ltd. (NYSE: CEO) Started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
The Jones Group Inc. (NYSE: JNY) Value stock of the day at Zacks.
LM Ericsson Telephone Co. (NASDAQ: ERIC) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
PetroChina Co. Ltd. (NYSE: PTR) Started as Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Riverbed Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: RVBD) Cut to Equal-Weight at Barclays.
SodaStream International Ltd. (NASDAQ: SODA) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
Sonoco Products Co. (NYSE: SON) Cut to Hold at Argus.
Stillwater Mining Company (NYSE: SWC) Removed from Focus List ar Credit Suisse.
W.R. Berkley Corp. (NYSE: WRB) named Bear of the Day at Zacks.

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 JON C. OGG

No money was injured while filming

Billionaire and hedge fund manager John Paulson of Paulson & Co. and of Paulson Management is a widely followed equity hedge fund manager for whale watchers.  He has made billions of dollars, but 2011 is proving to be a very tough year.  We have tracked some of the more obvious portfolio changes in the Paulson 13F filing from this evening (as of June 30):

Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) has been trimmed to about 60.4 million shares, down from about 123.6 million from March 31, 2011.  It is likely that Paulson has trimmed even more as the price tanked, unless he bought more last week during the panic.  Keep in mind that there are some additional warrants for 29 million shares expiring in 2019 and some 9.68 million warrants expiring in 2019.  Both warrant positions are smaller than the May 16 filing as well for the March 31 cut-off date.

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) was also cut to 33,505,002 shares and there are warrants for another 225,000 shares.  The split adjusted shares on March 31 were 41.2 million shares.

A partial list of the standout changes we saw are as follows…

Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. (NYSE: AEM) is a new small position listed as 700,0000 shares as of June 30 that was worth some $44.2 million at the time.

AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (NYSE: AU) is a lower ADR stake as the June 30 position was listed as 39,935,382 versus what was listed 41,046,974 on March 31.

Capital One Financial Corporation (NYSE: COF) is one that Paulson actually grew to 21,100,000 as of June 30 versus 18,000,000 as of March 31.

Gold Fields Ltd. (NYSE: GFI) was down slightly listed as 24,700,000 shares on June 30 versus 26,050,000 on March 31.

Grifols, S.A. (NASDAQ: GRFS) is a new position for Paulson and the ADR’s worth was $107.1 million for the 14,266,995 shares as of June 30.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) was cut to 47 million shares as of June 30 versus 50 million shares as of March 31.

Life Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: LIFE) was listed as a new position of 7,520,000 shares as of June 30.  That stock has been pounded since June 30 when shares were above $50.00 versus $38.84 today.

NYSE Euronext Group Inc. (NYSE: NYX) was a new position of 3,000,000 shares as of June 30, implying he is ready to profit from the buyout (merger).

Ralcorp Holdings Inc. (NYSE: RAH) is a much higher position as Paulson must think the buyout merits are there… This was listed as 3,692,000 shares at June 30 versus only 400,000 back on March 31.  Nice gains have been made since.

Tenet Healthcare Corp. (NYSE: THC) is one where Paulson must think a buyout will ultimately come because he has added Tenet as a pick whereas it was not on there before.  The new position was listed as 20,000,000 shares.

Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) was listed as being 33,600,000 shares as of June 30, but this is a gain compared to the 20,500,000 shares as of March 31.

The big surprise is that the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE: GLD) was kept static at 31,500,000 shares worth some $4.59 billion as of June 30.  What is interesting is that if he has stuck by the position he is up more.

Trouble is apparently no obstacle, if Paulson stuck with this position.  News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWSA) was listed as a new position with some 10.4 million common shares.

If you want to see the change in the total value of Paulson’s holdings, it is being confirmed that his value fell.  It was listed as $29.05 billion in total for the funds under the filing as of June 30, 2011.  The figure total was $34.27 billion on March 31.

JON C. OGG

Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSE: GDX) closed at $54.47 on Monday, up 0.5%, and the 52-week range is $45.88 to $64.62.  Shares are up 18.72% from the low and down 15.71% from the high. 
 
Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (NYSE: GDXJ) closed at $34.70 on Monday, up only $0.01 on the day, and the 52-week range is $24.25 to $44.86.  Shares are still up about 40% from the low but shares are down 22.65% from its high.
 
When it comes to bullion as a last example, the biggest and best is the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE: GLD).  It closed at $145.37 on Monday after losing 0.2%.  The 52-week range is $113.08 to $153.61.  The ETF is up 28.55% from the lows of the last year but is down only 5.36% from the highs.  Now you know why investors flocked to the real metal rather than in the players of the metal… No tracking risk, at least that is the hope.

Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. (NYSE: AEM) closed at $61.61, down $0.35 on Monday.  The consensus price target from Thomson Reuters is currently $85.23 and the 52-week range is $54.12 to $88.20.  The company is also still one of the larger gold players with a $10.4 billion market cap.  Shares are up almost 14% from the lows but still down about 30% from the highs.

Kinross Gold Corporation (NYSE: KGC) closed at $14.27, after a $0.03 gain on Monday. Thomson Reuters has a consensus price target of $22.68 and the 52-week range is $13.84 to $19.90.  This is also one of the larger gold players with a $16 billion market cap.  Shares are only about 3% off the 52-week lows and are down about 28% from the highs of the last year.

Compania de Minas Buenaventura SA (NYSE: BVN) in Peru closed at $39.16 on Monday, Thomson Reuters has an average analyst target of $52.68, and the 52-week range is $32.81 to $57.20.  With a market cap of just under $10 billion, shares are still up almost 20% from the lows and down over 31% from the highs. 

Golden Star Resources, Ltd. (NYSE: GSS) is one of the smaller companies in our universe of gold players with a $667 million market cap.  Shares closed at $2.58 Monday and the 52-week range is $2.58 to $6.01.  Thomson Reuters has an estimate of $4.05 although we’d treat that loosely due to its size.  Shares are basically at 52-week lows now, but the stock has fallen 57% from its highs.  This peaked last November and has been falling ever since.

Jaguar Mining Inc. (NYSE: JAG) closed at $4.31, up $0.04 on Monday, and this is also a much smaller player with a market cap of about $363 million.  Thomson Reuters has an average price target of $8.11 on this one and the 52-week range is $4.11 to $10.60.  Shares are only up 5% from its 52-week lows, but they are still down almost 60% from the peak.  Realistically, Jaguar has been dropping since the middle of last summer.

Exeter Resource Corporation (AMEX: XRA) closed at $4.53, up $0.03 on Monday.  The market cap is small at just under $400 million and its 52-week range is $4.50 to $7.92. The stock is right at 52-week lows and is down over 40% from the 52-week high. Exeter has been falling since early last summer.

Picking a bottom in some of these names is close to impossible because of the issues that have been driving them down individually plus the commodities markets having an impact.  In others, picking a bottom is simple if you know exactly where the bottom in gold (and silver) happens to be. 

If you think the move has been exaggerated in gold, the one in silver put it to shame.  Still, those shares have been far more volatile than gold shares and that is for another session.

JON C. OGG

Akamai Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) rose after earnings and calling 2011 analyst targets as being conservative.  Jim Cramer also said that Cisco or HP should buy it out.  Shares are up 4.3% at $52.57 in fairly active pre-market trading.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is trading lower after the company’s annual report discussed that margins will fall and it now sees 36% margins in the coming quarter.  Shares are down 0.32% at $306.85, which is better than the drop in the after-hours session last night.

Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. (NYSE: AEM) is surging after Jim Cramer hosted the company’s CEO on CNBC’s Mad Money and recommended that investors buy the gold stock.  Shares are up 3.9% at $73.75.

Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) is trading slightly higher again today after analysts came out in defense of the stock yesterday.  Shares are up 0.6% at $11.61.  Yesterday’s intraday high was $11.67.

Eastman Kodak Co. (NYSE: EK) seems to rarely beat earnings expectations, but this morning the stock is trading higher on a narrower loss.  Shares are trading up 7% at $4.25.

Flextronics International Ltd. (NASDAQ: FLEX) is surging this morning after the manufacturing outsource or EMS shop beat earnings expectations; Shares are up 10.3% at $7.06 this morning.

Flowserve Corp. (NYSE: FLS) posted more than a 10% profit decline as sales missed expectations; shares are down 7.4% at $106.00.

Integrated Silicon Solution Inc. (NASDAQ: ISSI) is getting clipped this morning after missing earnings expectations. Shares are down 9.7% at $8.35.

Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS) is trading higher after earnings beat expectations due to growth in Asia via Singapore and Macau.  Shares are up 11.7% at $45.86 this morning.  Due to the Asia comments, Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. (NASDAQ: MPEL) shares are running up as well with a gain of almost 7% at $6.20 in pre-market trading.

Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. (NASDAQ: MLNX) is trading up over 8% at $23.01 after Oracle bought a 10.2% stake.

Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) is trading higher after sales grew and beating earnings expectations; shares are up 4.3%at $8.44 in pre-market trading.

PMI Group Inc. (NYSE: PMI) is falling after the mortgage insurer reported a wider loss than expected.  Shares are down 6.3% at $3.85.

Sourcefire, Inc. (NASDAQ: FIRE) earnings sounded good with a more than 50% earnings rise, but Q4 guidance hit the stock.  Shares are down over 17% at $25.52 after a $30.99 close.

Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC) managed to beat earnings expectations, in part from enterprise spending that had previously seen order pushouts.  Shares are up 6.8% at $16.88.

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JON C. OGG

Prices have been provided and we have provided some basic data on each along with color for an outlook or what has been a driving force.  Those which were within 1% of the objective price targets were also included in the screen, but we left off the highly speculative Canadian names that trade in Vancouver or Toronto with small market caps and which have limited operations.

AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (NYSE: AU) is one of the biggest companies in our investing gold universe that we track.  It is also based in South Africa and it operates in many friendly and many hostile environments.  Operations are in Congo, the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, Russia, Guinea, and the U.S. At $46.62 it has a market cap of $17.1 billion.  Analysts have a consensus price target objective of $42.12 and it has traded in a range of $34.11 to $47.75 over the last 52-weeks.  The company trades ate nearly 19-times forward earnings and the screen shows that it trades at about 5.4-times an implied book value.  Shares are up 36.68% from a year low and down only 2.37% from a year high.

Gold Fields Ltd. (NYSE: GFI) is also one of the largest gold players in our investing in gold universe.  It too is a South African-based company and it operates in South Africa, Australia, Peru, and Ghana.  At $15.55 it has a market cap of nearly $11 billion and a consensus analyst price target objective is $15.39.  The 52-week trading range is $10.88 to $15.99 and the screen listed that it trades at about 1.7-times an implied book value.  Shares are up 42.9% from the lows of the year and are only down 2.75% from the highs.

Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited (NYSE: AEM) is based in Canada and has operations in Canada, Mexico, U.S., and Finland.  At $72.21 it has a market cap of $11.3 billion and analysts hav a price target objective of $72.77.  the 52-week trading range is $49.64 to $74.43 and it trades at an implied forward ratio of about 26-times earnings.  The screen also showed that it trades at about 3.8-times an implied book value and shares are up 45% from lows and down only 3% from highs over the last year.

Home Furnishing Retail was a closed second, up 55% lead by Pier 1 (PIR) and Kirklands (KRK).

Over the last month, the Vehicle Rental sector was higher by 50%. AvisBudget (CAR) and Hertz (HTZ) help push up this industry group.

The biggest loser in the last month was Gold and Silver stocks with the largest companies in the sector being Agnico Eagle (AEM) and and Yamana Gold (AUY)

Data from Tickerspy.

Douglas A. McIntyre