Newmont Corp. shares experienced a sharp decline on Friday, falling nearly 8% to close at $99.71, as a combination of falling gold prices and a broad Wall Street selloff weighed heavily on the world's largest gold miner. Trading volume surged to approximately 9.4 million shares, surpassing the 50-day average, and the stock now sits roughly 26% below its 52-week high reached in late January.
The move is significant because Newmont's cash flow is closely tied to the price of gold. Bullion dropped about 3% to $4,341.52 an ounce after the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that nonfarm payrolls increased by 172,000 in May, with the unemployment rate holding steady at 4.3%. The stronger-than-expected jobs data dampened hopes for easier Federal Reserve policy, pushing Treasury yields higher. Since gold pays no income, higher yields increase the cost of holding the metal compared to interest-bearing assets.
“We’ve got payrolls that came in fairly significantly over what was expected,” Bart Melek, global head of commodity strategy at TD Securities, told Reuters. He added that the “cost of carry” for gold—the cost of holding a metal that does not pay interest—was getting high.
Newmont was not alone in the downturn. Barrick Gold dropped 7.8%, Agnico Eagle Mines lost 7.4%, and Royal Gold slid 6.4%, indicating that Friday's selling was directed at the gold complex as a whole rather than any single company. The broader market also suffered, with the S&P 500 falling 2.64%, the Dow losing 1.35%, and the Nasdaq tumbling 4.18%, led by declines in chip and technology shares. “The dam just broke today,” Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group, said of the equity selloff.
Despite the selloff, Newmont's underlying fundamentals remain strong. In April, the Denver-based miner reported first-quarter attributable gold production of about 1.3 million ounces, record quarterly free cash flow of $3.1 billion, and authorized an additional $6 billion share buyback. Chief Executive Natascha Viljoen stated that the company was “well on track” to meet its 2026 guidance.
However, there are cost concerns on the horizon. Newmont warned after its first-quarter results that second-quarter output would be slightly lower and that unit costs would rise due to higher sustaining capital, lower silver output, and pressure at several mines including Boddington, Tanami, Lihir, and Peñasquito. Interim CFO Peter Wexler noted that a $10-per-barrel move in oil could have an “approximately $60 million” cost impact.
The outlook is not one-directional. If inflation data softens and yields ease, gold could regain support, providing some breathing room for miners. Conversely, if yields remain firm while oil and royalty costs rise, Newmont's margins could narrow even with a large buyback in place. Ohsung Kwon, chief equity strategist at Wells Fargo, said markets would likely see volatility into the Fed unless inflation comes in soft.
For now, Newmont is being priced less as a balance-sheet-and-buyback story and more as a rate-sensitive gold stock. The next test will be whether bullion can stabilize before investors begin questioning how much of the first-quarter cash windfall can carry into a potentially tougher second quarter.
