copper prices

AURICO GOLD $4.64 (Toronto symbol AUQ; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (604-681-2802; www.auricogold.com; Shares outstanding: 248.0 million; Market cap: $1.2 billion; Dividend yield: 3.5%) operates the El Chanate gold mine in Mexico, which produced 71,864 ounces in 2013. The company’s Young-Davidson gold mine in Northern Ontario reached full production in 2013, with total output of 120,738 ounces. The project’s output should rise to over 152,000 ounces this year. In the three months ended December 31, 2013, the company’s revenue fell 19.5%, to $50.8 million from $63.1 million a year earlier. Cash flow declined to $0.07 from $0.11. Higher gold production was more than offset by lower prices....

AMERIGO RESOURCES $0.47 (Toronto symbol ARG; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (604-681-2802; www.amerigoresources.com; Shares outstanding: 172.5 million; Market cap: $82.8 million; No dividends paid) processes copper and molybdenum from waste rock at Chile’s El Teniente, the world’s largest underground copper mine. This includes rock from the mine’s current production and tailings from the nearby Colihues deposit. This contract runs at least through 2037.

Amerigo gets 94% of its revenue by processing copper. The remaining 6% comes from molybdenum.

A landslide in one of Amerigo’s production areas has hurt its copper and molybdenum production. In the quarter ended December 31, 2013, copper output fell 9.7%, to 12.25 million pounds from 13.56 million a year earlier. Molybdenum production declined 37.6%, to 181,464 pounds from 290,775. However, these operations are now recovering, and production growth is returning to normal.

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CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY LTD., $169.99, Toronto symbol CP, and CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAY CO., $61.98, Toronto symbol CNR, have had trouble shipping last year’s record grain harvest on the Prairies to Canada’s west coast due to bad winter weather. To help clear the backlog, Ottawa now plans to fine CP and CN if they fail to ship a minimum amount of grain per day. The railways already plan to increase shipments as the weather improves, so any fines should be small next to their earnings. CP Rail and CN Rail are still buys....

GLOBAL X COPPER MINERS ETF $8.80 (New York symbol COPX; buy or sell through brokers; www.globalxfunds.com) tracks the Solactive Global Copper Miners Index, which includes 20 to 40 international companies that mine, refine or explore for copper. Germany-based Structured Solutions AG created this index.

Canadian firms make up 41.9% of the fund’s holdings. It also includes companies based in Australia (14.2%), Poland (4.7%), Peru (4.9%) and Mexico (5.0%). Global X Copper Miners ETF’s MER is 0.65%.

Its top holdings are Imperial Metals at 6.5%; Turquoise Hill Resources, 5.7%; Grupo Mexico, 5.1%; Lundin Mining, 5.1%; Glencore International, 5.1%; First Quantum Minerals, 5.1%; Hudbay Minerals, 5.0%; Capstone Mining, 5.0%; Antofagasta plc, 5.0%; and Southern Copper, 5.0%.
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GLOBAL X COPPER MINERS ETF $8.80 (New York symbol COPX; buy or sell through brokers; www.globalxfunds.com) tracks the Solactive Global Copper Miners Index, which includes 20 to 40 international companies that mine, refine or explore for copper. Germany-based Structured Solutions AG created this index.

Canadian firms make up 41.9% of the fund’s holdings....

AURICO GOLD (Toronto symbol AUQ; www.auricogold.com) operates the El Chanate gold mine in Mexico, which produced 71,864 ounces in 2013....

AURICO GOLD $5.05 (Toronto symbol AUQ; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (604-681-2802; www.auricogold.com; Shares outstanding: 247.1 million; Market cap: $1.3 billion; Dividend yield: 3.3%) operates the El Chanate gold mine in Mexico, which produced 71,864 ounces in 2013.

The company’s Young-Davidson gold mine in Northern Ontario reached full production in 2013, with total output of 120,738 ounces....

ISHARES MSCI CHILE INVESTABLE MARKET INDEX FUND $45.70 (New York Exchange symbol ECH; buy or sell through brokers) is an ETF that aims to track the MSCI Chile Investable Market Index, which consists of stocks that are mainly traded on the Santiago Stock Exchange.

The fund’s top holdings are S.A.C.I. Falabella (retail), 9.2%; Empresas Copec SA (conglomerate), 8.6%; Enersis AS (electricity), 8.4%; Empresa Nacional de Electricidad (electricity), 6.7%; Cencosud SA (retailer), 5.7%; LATAM Airlines, 5.6%; Banco Santander Chile (banking), 4.7%; Banco de Chile, 4.3%; Empresas CMPC (pulp and paper), 4.2%; and Quimica y Minera de Chile (mining), 3.5%.

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We think conservative investors could hold up to 10% of their portfolios in foreign stocks. One way to do that is to buy carefully chosen exchange traded funds (ETFs) that have an overseas focus....

We think conservative investors could hold up to 10% of their portfolios in foreign stocks. One way to do that is to buy carefully chosen exchange traded funds (ETFs) that have an overseas focus.

The best ETFs offer very low management fees and well-diversified, tax-efficient portfolios of highquality stocks.

Here are six international ETFs we like:

ISHARES MSCI JAPAN INDEX FUND $12.04 (New York Exchange symbol EWJ; buy or sell through brokers; us.ishares.com) is an exchange traded fund that tries to match the return of the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Japan index.

The ETF’s top holdings include Toyota, 6.1%; Mitsubishi UFJ Financial, 3.1%; Softbank Corp., 3.0%; Honda Motor, 2.5%; Sumitomo Mitsui Financial, 2.4%; Mizuho Financial Group, 1.8%; Hitachi, 1.4%; Takeda Pharmaceutical, 1.3%; Canon, 1.3%; and Mitsubishi Estate Co., 1.3%.

The fund’s industry breakdown is as follows: Financials, 21.5%; Consumer Discretionary, 20.9%; Industrials, 19.3%; Information Technology, 10.4%; Consumer Staples, 6.3%; Health Care, 6.0%; Materials, 5.9%; Telecommunication Services, 5.8%; Utilities, 2.5%; and Energy, 1.2%.

iShares MSCI Japan Index Fund was launched on March 12, 1996....