mdg

Although they spent most of the day in the positive, markets ended flat after a little volatility following the feds comments. As expected the fed left rates unchanged today continuing the wait and see approach. First Quarter GDP was revised lower to an annual 0.7% -the slowest pace in four years.

The NYSE had volume of 2.9 billion shares with 1,880 shares advancing while 1,377 declined for a gain of 16.86 points to close at 9,865.77. On the NASDAQ, 1.9 billion shares traded, 1,536 advanced and 1,453 declined for a gain of 3.02 to 2,608.37.

Meridian Gold (NYSE: MDG) rose $3.15 (13%) to $27.55 and Yamana Gold (NYSE: AUY) fell $1.01 (-8%) to $11.13 after a merger proposal. Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) fell $1.82 (-8%) to $22.37 on high expenses. CKE Restaurants (NYSE: CKR) fell $1.20 (-6%) to $20.25 after earnings. Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) fell $0.93 (-4%) to $19.85 as prices fell on its popular rental plan.

With a penchant for following insider buying, Jack Adamo takes a fundamental long-term approach to investing. In his Insider Plus newsletter, he has been a fan of mining companies, and sees recent price weakness as a reason to add to positions in Meridian Gold (NYSE:MDG) and Compania de Minas Buenaventura (NYSE:BVN).

His proprietary indicators, which follow patterns of insider buying and selling, had been forecasting a setback for metals; as such, he did not view the recent pullback as a surprise. And with the "speculative fever" in the gold sector having cooled, he is now more comfortable recommending mining positions.

One favorite is Meridian Gold, which he notes pulled back nearly 16% on what he cites as no news except a broker downgrade from Market Outperform to Market Perform. He notes, "This is hardly cause for panic."

"Meridian is back within our buy range now," he says. "If you don't own the stock, I'd ease in by buying a half position at this time, and waiting to see what the market does. Still, it's a good long-term buy at this price, with the stock down 33% from its 52-week high."

Gold has been making a nice rebound today along with the rest of the markets. Rising gold prices combined with a favorable analyst upgrade have helped lift shares of Meridian Gold (NYSE: MDG) up over 3% on the day.

As the market sold off last week gold took a pretty hard hit as traders looked to cash in on some of their recent gains in the precious metal. I think what we have been seeing is hedge funds selling off their gold to pay for some of the losses that they have seen since last week's China-related sell off.

Meridian Gold was no exception and between last Monday's open and yesterday's close the stock saw its shares fall 18.5%. The market seems to have cooled off a bit today and we are finally seeing some buyers come in to gobble up some bargain prices it has been able to make up some lost ground. Currently gold has been able to trade up $8.60 to $647.80, helping push gold stocks higher with it.

Meridian has also benefited from an upgrade from UBS, who lifted their opinion on the stock from neutral to buy. The stock has traded up 3.1% to $24.50 up $0.76.

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last two years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.

DISCLOSURE: Mr. Fowlkes owns and/or controls diversified portfolios of long and short stock and option positions that include holdings in MDG.