By Gavin Adamson


(September 29 – 18:00 ET) – The gold rush ended today with a bout of profit taking among those who saw share prices of gold company stocks jump since the weekend.


For example, Canada’s Placer Dome was down C$1.10 to $21.80 late in the day, and Barrick Gold, which had seen its stock jump more than $5 in the past two days, was down C$1.55 to $33.45 on the TSE.


Still, overall, the TSE inched higher every so slightly today, closing up 0.93 point to 6878.78. The gains were made in financial services stocks such as Royal Bank of Canada, which had taken on 50¢ late in the day.


The VSE, which had gained more than 20 points in the past two days, was also a victim of some profit taking. It was down 0.57 in late Pacific trading. The ASE was down 6.9 to 2821.11, and the ME was down 20.99 to 3,630.57.


In the US, it was much of the same thing, only Internet stocks buoyed a generally sinking market. Amazon.com gained a whopping US$14 7/8 to $80 3/4, and Excite At Home jumped $5 1/16 to $43 7/16 because of optimism about the retail action through the coming holiday season. Nasdaq still finished down 25.99 to 2730.26. The Dow closed 62.05 points lower, to 10,213.48, and the S&P lost 1.1%, finishing at 1,266.37.