Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF) is a leading mining and natural resources company in the U.S., and is also the largest producer of iron ore pellets in North America. It competes with other international mining and natural resources companies like Vale, BHP Billiton (BHP) and Rio Tinto (RTP).

Cliffs' North American Iron Ore division accounts for more than two-thirds of the company's total revenue, and around 60% of Cliffs' stock value, by our estimates. Long-term contracts with customers like ArcelorMittal (MT), Algoma and Severstal ensure substantial sales of the firm's mineral produce.

Every major crisis has its winners and losers. With the Japanese crisis, most prominent may be the uranium stocks. As you might guess they are getting hammered. The presumption is that governments will be reluctant to approve nuclear projects in the wake of Japan's nuclear meltdown.

Here are just a few companies and recent stock prices:

• Denison Mines (DNN): $2.55, down 74 cents. Denison is a worldwide mining and exploration company. It has two uranium waste recycling plants in the U.S.

Freeport McMoran Copper (FCX) is a miner of copper, gold and molybdenum. It has operations in North and South America, Indonesia and Africa, and competes with other miners such as the Southern Copper (SCCO), Codelco and Newmont Mining (NEM).

Australian mining firm Rio Tinto (RIO) revealed plans to triple its capital expenditure to around $11 billion. The company also plans to up its iron ore production by more than 50% during the next five years.

The boost in production stems from new drilling and a reevaluation of deposits in Western Australia where the company found an extra two billion tons of iron ore reserves. The expansion of the iron ore division should help RIO take advantage of the "growing demand for raw materials to make steel" in China.

Shares of Taseko Mines Ltd. (TGB) plunged this week on news that the Canadian federal government in Ottawa has announced that it has decided not to approve the company's Prosperity mining project due to environmental concerns. This project had been previously approved by the provincial government of British Columbia.

The call options on TGB were also very active this week, suggesting that traders believe the sell-off was overdone. Around 16,745 calls were traded, which is more than 3X the average daily volume. Essentially, after the initial reaction to the Prosperity news, the trading activity in Taseko was bullish, and for good reason.

Friday morning, Consol Energy (CNX) announced that it will close its Mine 84 near Washington, Penn. The closure will cost roughly 60 employees their jobs.

The employees who lose their jobs will have the choice of taking a position with another Consol operation. The company will conduct the layoffs for 14 days, starting at 12:01 AM on December 1 -- talk about your happy holiday season. The good news is that these workers will be able to look for alternative work before the layoffs take place.

For the first half of 2010, almost two thirds of money managers are bullish, according to Barron's. In fact, 54% are bullish, and 5% are "very bullish." Responses suggest that the Dow Jones Industrial Average is expected to gain another 5% by the end of the year.

According to Barron's, "Today's bullish investors see the major stock indexes making steady progress through next June, amid signs the U.S. economy is on the mend after a searing recession."

Aluminum producer Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA), the first Dow Jones Industrial Component to report earnings, beat estimates when they announced after the bell -- or so the story goes. It continues that this touched off buying interest across the market that had been sorely lacking in prior sessions. There's only one problem: Alcoa's results weren't very good, and they didn't boost the market.

Alcoa opened trading today up more than 5.5% from its close yesterday, before it reported earnings. Going into the final minutes of trading, the stock was down more than 2% -- a tough reversal for those buying on the pop. The company reported a headline EPS of -$0.32, or -$0.26 excluding restructuring charges. This compared to analysts' consensus of -$0.38 on $3.9 billion in revenue.