Caution On Metals And Coal.

YOU might expect a company's stock to fall after a decline in the going rate for its main -- or only -- product, so the recent dives in prices for iron ore, copper, aluminum and other industrial metals should have brought share prices for mine operators down with them. What might not have been expected was that the rout in mining stocks would have begun in the spring, while prices for the raw materials were still climbing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]