Monday, April 7, 2008

Brokers zero in on European miners: Price forecasts revised higher (AAL; BHP; RIO; XTA)

From MarketWatch:

Brokers turned the spotlight Monday on the European mining sector, with a pair of rating moves on shares of London-traded miners to go with Goldman Sachs, MF Global and Citigroup all making changes to their forecasts for commodity prices.

News out overnight that South Korea's Posco (PKX) the biggest Asian steelmaker, has agreed to lift the prices it will pay this year to an unidentified Australian coal supplier for coking coal -- by between 205% and 210% per metric ton -- punctuated the recent strong pricing action in the sector.

"The impact on earnings of this price increase should be quite substantial once the full impact makes itself felt over the next one to two years," noted Tobias Woerner, sector analyst at MF Global....MORE