Image source: Freeport-McMoRan.
What: Shares of miner Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX 0.52%) jumped as much as 11% today as commodity prices gave the industry some hope.
So what: Gold prices rose 2.2% today to $1,294 per ounce while copper prices increased 2.2% to $2.28 per pound. The biggest driver of the increase in commodities is a falling dollar, which has been a drag for the company for a few years now.
Now what: While the weaker dollar may be good for commodity prices, it doesn't yet change the company's financial struggles. Freeport-McMoRan just reported first-quarter revenues of $3.5 billion and a whopping $4.2 billion loss. On top of that, it has $20.8 billion in debt hanging over operations. There will need to be a much bigger increase in commodity prices to get me excited about this stock, and today's pop may evaporate as quickly as it came if the greenback climbs on Monday.
