Recs

9

The 15 Most-Watched Metals and Mining Stocks

People watch stocks for different reasons -- they're waiting for a dip in price, watching for a specific catalyst, gathering all the news and information that might affect stocks they already own, or considering a sell. Regardless of their motivation, we can better understand market sentiment by seeing who's watching what. With the Fool's free My Watchlist service, we have tens of thousands of people telling us the businesses that have, for whatever reason, piqued their interest.

The most watched metals and mining stock is ...
Looking at the aggregate data, we see that Nucor (NYSE: NUE  ) is above the rest in terms of watch interest, the percentage of people keeping an eye on Metals & Mining stocks in general who are specifically watching each company. And for good reason.

Fool analyst Jeremy Phillips named Nucor one of his three favorite American stocks and liked it enough to invest 20% of his Outstanding Dividend Portfolio in Nucor. Jeremy likes that Nucor is a disruptor in the steel industry. He writes:

  1. Their mini-mills break-even at lower capacities than their competitors, giving them a large advantage ... compared to companies like U.S. Steel, which has significantly higher fixed costs.
  2. Management's "pain sharing" philosophy is aligned with shareholders and employees. CEO pay was cut 43% in 2009 versus 2008 levels, and the company didn't make any layoffs.

Here are the rest of the top 15 most-watched companies in the industry with their watch interest along with the stocks' CAPS rating to show the sentiment of our investing community.

 

Company

Market Cap (millions)

CAPS Rating 
(out of 5)

Watch Interest

1

Nucor

$14,149

****

9.6%

2

Titanium Metals (NYSE: TIE  )

$3,126

*****

5.0%

3

Alcoa (NYSE: AA  )

$16,636

****

4.0%

4

Silver Wheaton (NYSE: SLW  )

$13,449

***

3.2%

5

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold

$47,599

****

2.9%

6

Rubicon Minerals (NYSE: RBY  )

$907

*****

2.3%

7

Compass Minerals International

$2,876

****

2.3%

8

Vale

$164,640

*****

2.1%

9

Molycorp (NYSE: MCP  )

$3,573

*

1.7%

10

Taseko Mines (NYSE: TGB  )

$1,090

*****

1.7%

11

Yamana Gold (NYSE: AUY  )

$8,900

****

1.7%

12

Terra Nova Royalty (NYSE: TTT  )

$481

*****

1.5%

13

BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP  )

$241,673

****

1.5%

14

Hecla Mining (NYSE: HL  )

$2,275

***

1.5%

15

Goldcorp (NYSE: GG  )

$36,596

***

1.3%

Sources: Motley Fool, Motley Fool CAPS.

Whether you're keeping an eye on the industry stalwarts like BHP Billiton or are watching an up-and-comer like Rubicon Minerals, it pays to watch. We can help you keep tabs on your companies with My Watchlist, our free, personalized stock tracking service. Click here to start now.

The Steve Jobs Betrayal
You may already know that in the final year of his life, Jobs revealed a stunning betrayal — and told his biographer, "I will spend my last dying breath... and every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank to right this wrong." What was it that made Jobs so irate — and why could it make a few in-the-know investors some major profits over the coming months and years?

Enter your email address below to find out what made Jobs so enraged!

Dan Dzombak's musings and articles he finds interesting can be found on his Twitter account: @DanDzombak.

Nucor and Titanium Metals are Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendations. The Fool owns shares of Nucor, Rubicon Minerals, and Terra Nova Royalty. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.


Comments from our Foolish Readers

Help us keep this a respectfully Foolish area! This is a place for our readers to discuss, debate, and learn more about the Foolish investing topic you read about above. Help us keep it clean and safe. If you believe a comment is abusive or otherwise violates our Fool's Rules, please report it via the Report this Comment Report this Comment icon found on every comment.

Be the first one to comment on this article.

Compare Brokers

Fool Disclosure

DocumentId: 1461471, ~/Articles/ArticleHandler.aspx, 5/26/2012 5:19:59 AM

Report This Comment

Use this area to report a comment that you believe is in violation of the community guidelines. Our team will review the entry and take any appropriate action.

Sending report...

Today's Market

updated 8 hours ago Sponsored by:
DOW 12,454.83 -74.92 -0.60%
S&P 500 1,317.82 -2.86 -0.22%
NASD 2,837.53 -1.85 -0.07%

Create My Watchlist

Go to My Watchlist

You don't seem to be following any stocks yet!

Better investing starts with a watchlist. Now you can create a personalized watchlist and get immediate access to the personalized information you need to make successful investing decisions.

Data delayed up to 5 minutes

Related Tickers

5/25/2012 4:00 PM
NUE $36.11 Up +0.38 +1.06%
Nucor CAPS Rating: *****
AA $8.63 Down +0.00 +0.00%
Alcoa, Inc. CAPS Rating: ****
AUY $14.88 Up +0.42 +2.90%
Yamana Gold, Inc.… CAPS Rating: ****
BHP $61.81 Down -0.99 -1.58%
BHP Billiton Limit… CAPS Rating: ****
GG $37.70 Up +0.26 +0.69%
Goldcorp, Inc. (US… CAPS Rating: ***
HL $4.50 Up +0.02 +0.50%
Hecla Mining Compa… CAPS Rating: ***
MCP $20.22 Down -0.08 -0.39%
Molycorp, Inc. CAPS Rating: **

Advertisement