Meridian boosted by upgrade

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.