These 5 Stocks Are Kicking Off The Week With A Bang

Barrick Gold Provides Long-Term Guidance

Although it had around $9 billion in debt at the end of the first quarter, Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX) President Kelvin Dushnisky believes the leading gold miner could reduce its debt burden to $5 billion in three years and be debt-free within ten years. The feat would be achieved through a combination of cost cuts, asset divestment, and gold future price gains. Barrick Gold currently has a goal of reducing its debt by $2 billion in 2016 and any potential acquisition would likely be funded with stock rather than additional debt. Barrick Gold reducing its debt burden would certainly be good news for bond holders. 49 elite funds were long Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX) at the end of the first quarter, up by nine funds from the end of the previous quarter.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Cliffs Natural Resources Inc (NYSE:CLF) has a “strong desire to take over the existing Essar Steel Minnesota project if Cliffs is assigned the state mining leases.” Essar recently put its Minnesota mine into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and the state has nullified the company’s mining leases. Cliffs’ shares have surged by almost 300% year-to-date on a combination of better sentiment and short covering. 14 funds in our database were long Cliffs Natural Resources Inc (NYSE:CLF) at the end of the first quarter.

Last but not least, Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA) is in the spotlight today as the company is expected to report its latest quarterly earnings after the market close. According to Yahoo Finance, analysts are expecting Alcoa to report EPS of $0.10 on revenue of $5.2 billion for the June quarter. If Alcoa beats or if future guidance is strong, the broader indexes could benefit, as Alcoa is typically considered a bellwether for the broader index. 37 funds that we track owned shares of Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA) as of March 31, down by four funds from the beginning of the first quarter.

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