Newmont Corp.

APPLE INC., $520.03, Nasdaq symbol AAPL, sold 33.8 million iPhones in the three months ended September 28, 2013. That’s up 25.6% from 26.9 million a year earlier. The gain is partly due to strong sales of its new premium 5S and lower-priced 5C models, which the company started selling just a few days before the end of the quarter. Strong demand in Latin America, the Middle East, Russia and India also contributed to the higher sales. As a result, Apple’s overall revenue in the quarter rose 4.2%, to $37.5 billion from $36.0 billion a year earlier. iPhones supplied 52% of the total....

PENGROWTH ENERGY $6.57 (Toronto symbol PGF; Shares outstanding: 517.7 million; Market cap: $3.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 7.3%; www.pengrowth.com) has gained over 31% since early July 2013. That’s mainly because the company has successfully completed its plan to sell some of its less important oil and gas properties in Western Canada.

The cash from these sales will help Pengrowth speed up the development of its Lindbergh oil sands project in Alberta....

PETSMART INC. $73 (www.petsmart.com) reports that the uncertain economy is hurting demand for its pet products and services, like grooming. As a result, it now expects its same-store sales to rise 2.2% to 2.5% in the third quarter of fiscal 2014, which ends October 31, 2013....

Kinross Gold, $5.07, symbol K on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 1.1 billion; Market cap: $5.6 billion, www.kinross.com), is a Canadian senior gold producer with nine operating mines in the U.S., Brazil, Chile, West Africa, Mauritania and Russia. Kinross is forecast to produce 2.4 million to 2.6 million gold-equivalent ounces in 2013. The company has a big base of mostly unexploited properties, but it has incurred major cost overruns and writedowns as it has tried to bring mines into production. Its biggest challenges are at its Tasiast gold mine in Mauritania, which it received as part of its $7.1-billion acquisition of Red Back Mining in 2010. Kinross is now postponing an expansion of Tasiast that it planned for 2014, and possibly one in 2015, as well....

NEWMONT MINING $27.53 (New York symbol NEM; Shares outstanding: 492.8 million; Market cap: $13.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 3.6%; www.newmont.com) is considering adding copper mines to diversify its assets. The company currently gets 90% of its production from gold mining.

Newmont is considering a bid, or perhaps a joint venture, to buy mining giant Glencore Xstrata’s Peruvian copper project....

ISHARES S&P/TSX GLOBAL GOLD INDEX FUND $12.52 (Toronto symbol XGD; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) aims to mirror the performance of the S&P/TSX Global Gold Index.

This index is made up of 49 gold stocks from Canada and around the world. The fund’s MER is 0.60%. iShares S&P/TSX Global Gold Index Fund began trading on March 23, 2001.

The fund’s top 10 holdings are Goldcorp at 16.7%; Barrick Gold, 13.3%; Newmont Mining, 11.0%; Yamana Gold, 6.0%; Randgold Resources (ADR), 5.0%; Franco Nevada, 4.7%; Kinross, 4.4%; Eldorado Gold, 4.2%; Agnico-Eagle Mines, 3.6%; and AngloGold Ashanti (ADR), 3.6%.
...

J.C. PENNEY CO., INC., $9.05, New York symbol JCP, fell 13% on Friday after the company announced that it is selling 84.0 million new common shares to the public at $9.65 each. Underwriters have an option to buy an additional 12.6 million shares. The potential 96.6 million new shares would increase the total outstanding by 44%. The department store operator will probably use the $932-million proceeds to build up its inventories ahead of the busy Christmas shopping season. Penney is also making progress with its plan to win back shoppers it alienated under a failed everyday low price strategy. The company expects to report positive same-store sales in the fourth quarter of its 2014 fiscal year, which ends January 31, 2014. In the second quarter, same-store sales fell 11.9%. As well, sales through its website continue to improve....

Most precious metals stocks dropped when gold fell to $1,200 U.S. an ounce and silver declined to $18.50 U.S. an ounce in June 2013. Both metals have rebounded somewhat lately, with gold now at $1,371 and silver at $22.92. Here are two low-fee exchange traded funds that offer global gold and silver miners....

Most precious metals stocks dropped when gold fell to $1,200 U.S. an ounce and silver declined to $18.50 U.S. an ounce in June 2013. Both metals have rebounded somewhat lately, with gold rising to $1,394 and silver to $23.55.

Gold and silver could well regain their early 2011 highs ($1,900 for gold and $48.48 for silver) and move up even further in the longer term, but they will likely remain volatile....

BCE INC. $44.58 (Toronto symbol BCE; Shares outstanding: 775.9 million; Market cap: $34.8 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Yield: 5.2%; www.bce.ca) has gained in response to U.S.-based Verizon Communications’ (New York symbol VZ) announcement that it will not enter the Canadian wireless market right now (see box below).

BCE is Canada’s second-largest wireless carrier, with 7.72 million subscribers....