By Johanna Bennett

Looking for gold miner stocks? You better think twice before jumping into the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX ) if a new report from JPMorgan is to be believed.

Reuters

The market remains amazed by yesterday’s surge in gold prices —  the biggest one-day gain by the precious metal in half a year. The jump has been pegged by some on short covering with strategists pointing to the Federal Reserve and its decision this week to stand pat on monetary policy. It’s not an opinion shared by all, as my colleague Brendan Conway pointed out earlier today .

Analysts at J.P. Morgan say its prudent to have exposure to gold-related stocks in your portfolio given the uncertainty in Iraq and other places. But they warn that investors need to pick carefully.

Analyst John Bridges and his team like Goldcorp (GG ), B2Gold (BTG ) and Eldorado (EGO ), and feel Buenaventura (BVN ) is a serious laggard with likely improved results in the second half of 2014. They write:

Goldcorp remains a simple-decision stock, in our view, due to its strong balance sheet, growth profile and disciplined management. Other than Goldcorp, decisions get more complex. In a strong gold price environment, which J.P. Morgan’s commodity team doesn’t forecast, Barrick, Newmont and Kinross would probably outperform given their elevated debt levels. We feel gold is in a back-to-basics phase where valuation is driven more by strong operations and accretive deals rather than delivering market-leading liquidity. One of our strongest recent themes is around having operations in the safest locations and this is continuing to pay off for Agnico (AEM) which has been a very strong recent performer. But our recent initiation on B2Gold and our knowledge of Randgold Resources (covered by JPM’s Allan Cooke) has highlighted another theme which is for companies to learn to operate successfully in more complex locations.

Gold prices calmed considerably today. Prices for futures to be delivered in August rose 1.16% to $1,316.20. But mining stocks were largely down today, with the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF dropping 1.16% to $25.67.

Barrick Gold (ABX ) fell 0.9% to $17.84 0.7% to $23.87 and Goldcorp dropped 0.58% to $27.21. Newmont Mining (NEM ) rose 0.9% to $24.82.

B2Gold rose 0.7% to $2.86. Eldorado and Buenaventura fell 0.35% and 0.46% respectively.