Gilead Sciences GILD NASDAQ:GILD

Basic Material Active Stocks: Potash Corp./Saskatchewan (NYSE:POT), Barrick Gold (NYSE:ABX), Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL), Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM)

Potash Corp./Saskatchewan (USA) (NYSE:POT) was upgraded to a market perform rating by research analysts at Cowen and Company. The price recovery in the Potash market and growth in the Nitrogen market will benefit the company’s top line. Potash Corp./Saskatchewan (USA) (NYSE:POT) stock performance was -2.48% in last session and finished the day at $35.32. Traded volume was 8.21million shares in the last session and the average volume of the stock remained 6.25million shares. The beta of the stock remained 0.93.

Gold giant, Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX), has unveiled a new executive compensation plan for its lead directors and also announced that the company is open to the idea of appointing two new board members after its annual meeting, set to take place on April 30. Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX) rose 0.34 percent to $17.89 Tuesday on volume of 8.01million shares. The intra-day range of the stock was $17.74 to $18.09. Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX) has a market capitalization of $20.84billion.

Equities research analysts at Deutsche Bank cut their price objective on shares of Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) from $75.00 to $73.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday, ARN reports. Deutsche Bank’s price target indicates a potential upside of 23.96% from the company’s current price. Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL)’s stock on Apr 01, 2014 reported a increase of 1.26% to the closing price of $59.63. Its fifty two weeks range is $36.77 -$59.99. The total market capitalization recorded $50.74billion. The overall volume in the last trading session was 7.97million shares. In its share capital, HAL has 850.87million outstanding shares.

Newmont Mining Corp (NYSE:NEM), which is involved into mining of both gold and copper, traded nearly 2% down on the previous day, which could be interpreted as a function of the underlying price of the commodities that the company mines for. In spite of an upward swing in the stock market, the investors were wary of taking sides of the miner’s stock, particularly on a day when both copper and gold prices retreated. On Tuesday, shares of Newmont Mining Corp (NYSE:NEM) advanced 0.04% to close the day at $23.45. Company return on investment (ROI) is -17.30% and its monthly performance is recorded as -0.13%. Newmont Mining Corp (NYSE:NEM) quarterly revenue growth is 2.90%.