Company Description: Patriot Coal Corporation engages in the production and sale of thermal coal in the United States. It has operations and coal reserves in Appalachia and the Illinois Basin. The company provides its thermal coal to electric utilities, as well as metallurgical coal to steel mills and independent coke producers. It has 16 company-operated mines, contractor-operated mines, and coal preparation facilities that are located in northern West Virginia, southern West Virginia, and western Kentucky. As of December 31, 2008, the company controlled approximately 1.8 billion tons of proven and probable coal reserves. Patriot Coal Corporation, through its subsidiary, Magnum Coal Company, operates 11 coal mines and 7 preparation plants with production from surface and underground mines located in Appalachia, as well as controls approximately 600 million tons of proven and probable coal reserves. The company is based in St. Louis, Missouri..

Our Analysis: The shares of Patriot Coal Corporation 'PCX' set a new yearly closing high yesterday. In the process of moving higher over the course of the last couple of weeks the shares of 'PCX' have completed a series of "cup patterns" to our stated price targets of $16.14 and $16.56/share. I see downside support on the shares of 'PCX' @ $14.30 and have set my stops accordingly at $13.87/share.