Rio Tinto is a world leader in finding, mining and processing the earths mineral resources. The Groups worldwide operations supply essential minerals and metals that help to meet global needs and contribute to improvements in living standards. Rio Tinto encourages strong local identities and has a devolved management philosophy, entrusting responsibility with accountability to the workplace. Major products include aluminium, copper, diamonds, energy products (coal and uranium), gold, industrial minerals (borax, titanium dioxide, salt, talc and zircon), and iron ore. The Groups activities span the world but are strongly represented in Australia and North America with significant businesses in South America, Asia, Europe and southern Africa. Rio Tinto comprises wholly owned subsidiaries (such as Borax, Comalco, Hamersley, Rio Tinto Coal Australia, Kennecott and Rio Tinto Iron & Titanium), partly owned subsidiaries (Coal & Allied and Palabora) and non-managed, (Escondida) and joint ventures (Grasberg) in which public shareholders, other companies or governments are partners.

            Red = 25 day moving average.           Green = 200 day moving average.

SALES PER ACTIVITY (Data as of 31/12/2005)

Iron:        29%
Coal:       19%
Copper     18%
Aluminum: 14.5%
Minerals:  12.5%
:              6%
Misc:        1%

BB - i don't think you've missed the boat at all ..... you just have to work out your entry and exit points and be prepared for a volatile ride ..... it is of course a very "heavy" stock, but fortunately in CFDs at least, the margin low.

for myself, i got my timing reasonably ok, though i sold some arguably too early, and sold some more yesterday, though i still hold sufficient - i confess to having been very greedy and being even more fortunate not to get burned.

it took a while for sp to break through 3600, but it has now done and looks to have consolidated above that level - i.e. 3600 should now offer some support ..... meanwhile, RBS has tipped this as one of their commodity stocks for 2010, and certainly the chart shows 4000 to be the next level before resistance.

It's the 10 lurches down which worry me. Prefer BLT though argueably less volatile & therefore less interesting.

RIO = blue
VED = red
BLT = green

Looks like we should be trading VED then, with the greater price swings (or ENRC)?

Broker note from Nomura (Paul Cliff):
"Investment Conclusion
We advise clients to buy the current dip in mining equities. Our top picks remain Rio Tinto (Buy, TP 43) and Anglo American (Buy, TP 35). The current correction in mining equities is in-line with our view in early December that fears over tighter monetary policy in China, potential US$ strength and/or rolling-over of OECD leading economic indicators would produce a better entry point in early 2010. The key catalyst for the current correction is the fear of draconian monetary tightening in China and its impact on metals demand. However, we believe such fear is misplaced and we expect Chinese demand for industrial metals to continue to surprise on the upside through 2010. More importantly, history suggests that the mining sector actually outperforms through tightening cycles. The current correction in mining equities reminds us of the short-lived correction at the beginning of China's tightening cycle at the end of 2004.
Summary
Fears of draconian tightening measures in China are misplaced. We expect further tightening measures in China to be mild and wellpaced. Nomura's China economist - Mingchun Sun, expects to see another 50bp Reserve Requirement Ratio (RRR) hike in 2Q10; a raising of the benchmark interest rate by 27bp per quarter in 1Q, 2Q and 3Q; and the resumption of CNY/USD appreciation by around March. By the end of 1Q10 we would expect the market's attention to return to strong and sustainable Chinese metals demand and CNY/USD appreciation with its associated positive impact on metals prices via steeper cost curves.

Our analysis shows that miners consistently outperform through initial phases of monetary tightening, either in China or the US. This proved to be the case through tightening cycles in China through the last decade and the four major tightening cycles in the US over the past two decades.
We advise clients to stick to bulk commodity exposure, mainly iron ore and coking coal. We estimate that iron ore contract prices are likely to rise by 40-50% y-o-y in 2010 with a rapidly rising probability of 2010 coking coal contracts at $200+ (2009 at $129/t). Although copper has slipped from top spot in our order of commodity preferences, we think the risk of a significant short-term correction has been overplayed. Copper remains our preferred base metal exposure and we advise against switching into aluminum exposure.

Although we expect mining equities to remain choppy through 1Q10 due to the expected short-term rise in Chinese CPI inflation and likely peak in OECD leading economic indicators (see our December note for a more detailed discussion of Nomura's Leading Indicators (NOLI) we would buy the sector now."

not kidding when they say "choppy"

Final summary paragraph from SocGen broker note out this morning:
"Miners should be back for good. Miners offer more straightforward exposure to China and the developing world and hence have been hit hard by fears of monetary tightening in China. We maintain our overall positive view on the demand outlook. We have however performed a stress test analysis on our mining coverage. It confirms our preference in the mining complex for Xstrata (TP 1,550p vs 1,500p) and Rio Tinto (TP 4,000p vs 3,900p). After the recent selloff we move Anglo American to Buy (vs Hold) with a TP of 3,000p (vs 2,900p)."

strong BUY from Sunday Times - biz section; back page

cynic don't look good form here ....Bearish head @ shoulders patten emerging if nick line is broken 3036 we could see 2500......then you have a good buying opp

would like a tick up of 2 my self..

Post Edited: On reflection, overly patronising.
My own record on RIO is rubbish, so I'll keep quiet on this one :-)

Tense times in Chinese iron ore price talks

Underlying EBIDTA -36%
SP will probably go up then!

Dividend down 60%.

And opens, up 100p!!

Ahhhh, sweet smell of profit coming back..

watch that 3300 level ...

Testing the 33 mark but can't quite hold it at mo.

have sold half for that reason

170 pt turnaround here Ricardo, hope you sold t'other half!