The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition the world's largest producer of the world's hottest commodity finished dead last in a yearly profit ranking of Canada's largest corporations. The Globe's John Daly writes that Barrick Gold's second-quarter operating results showed adjusted profit climbed 76 per cent to a record $759-million (U.S.) or 77 U.S. cents a share. The trouble is Barrick's share price, like those of other major producers, is still lagging the price of bullion. When the company announced last Sept. 8 that it was eliminating its hedges, its shares were trading near $42 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. On Monday, Barrick closed at $45.59. Meanwhile, bullion has climbed by almost 20 per cent, to about $1,200 (U.S.) an ounce. As a recent UBS gold report notes, "many of the initial issues supporting gold are not yet solved. High fiscal deficits are still in place, with the recent problems in Europe still able to spill over to other parts of the world. This leaves concerns about monetizing the debt on the back of inflation." Yet that global economic uncertainty has also driven investors away from stocks in general, including gold producers, and into safer havens such as U.S. Treasuries.