Basic Material Movers: USEC Inc. (NYSE:USU), Vale (NYSE:VALE), Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA), Molycorp Inc (NYSE:MCP), Kinross Gold (NYSE:KGC)

USEC Inc. (NYSE:USU), on June 27, 2014, through Amendment no. 003 in the previous contract, agreed to let UT-Battelle act as the operator and administrator of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Both the companies had signed an agreement on 1st of May, 2014, whereby UT-Battelle was assigned the tasks of demonstration, research and development of the American Centrifuge technology keeping in view the national security purposes of U.S. Department of Energy. USEC Inc. (NYSE:USU) stock performance was 49.39% in last session and finished the day at $11.04. Traded volume was 26.76million shares in the last session and the average volume of the stock remained 274.75K shares. The beta of the stock remained 3.00. USEC Inc. (NYSE:USU) insider ownership is 2.70%.

Shares of Vale SA (NASDAQ:VALE) have received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the fourteen brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Analyst Ratings Network reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $16.69. Vale SA (ADR) (NYSE:VALE) rose 1.78 percent to $13.70 Wednesday on volume of 17.66million shares. The intra-day range of the stock was $13.49 to $13.74. Vale SA (ADR) (NYSE:VALE) has a market capitalization of $70.60billion.

Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by equities research analysts at Sterne Agee in a research note issued to investors on Friday. They currently have a $18.00 target price on the stock, up from their previous target price of $15.00. Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA)’s stock on July 02, 2014 reported a increase of 0.34% to the closing price of $14.85. Its fifty two weeks range is $7.63 -$15.18. The total market capitalization recorded $17.41billion. The overall volume in the last trading session was 10.40million shares. In its share capital, AA has 1.17billion outstanding shares.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Molycorp Inc (NYSE:MCP) from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. They now have a $2.50 price target on the stock, down previously from $2.85. On Wednesday, shares of Molycorp Inc (NYSE:MCP) dropped -8.95% to close the day at $2.34. Company return on investment (ROI) is -10.50% and its monthly performance is recorded as -6.40%.  Molycorp Inc (NYSE:MCP) quarterly revenue growth is -51.55%.

The recent announcement by Canadian owned Kinross Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:KGC) to withdraw from mining exploration in Jackson Creek Roadless Area sounded to me like whining. Kinross Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:KGC) stock performance was 2.14% in last session and finished the day at $4.29. Traded volume was 9.01million shares in the last session and the average volume of the stock remained 8.21million shares. The beta of the stock remained 0.61.