BullMarketRun.com

Visit the BMR comments section throughout the day for updates and helpful information.

1. Gold has traded between $1,320 and $1,330 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is down $5 an ounce to $1,320…Silver is off slightly at $16.42…Copper and Nickel are both under pressure, down 6 cents and 18 cents, respectively, at $3.08 and $5.95…Zinc has slipped 2 pennies to $1.46…Cobalt, meanwhile, has surged more than $1 a pound to a new decade high of $37.76…Crude Oil is 31 cents lower at $60.84 while the U.S. Dollar Index has added one-tenth of a point to 89.93…the ECB left interest rates unchanged this morning and said it was continuing its asset-purchase program.  “The Governing Council expects the key ECB interest rates to remain at their present levels for an extended period of time, and well past the horizon of the net asset purchases.”

2. Attendance at the PDAC 2018 Convention totaled 25,606, a 5% increase over last year and another sign that the mineral exploration and mining industry has started to regain its swagger (some taxi cab drivers, a useful measurement of activity, told BMR their tips – especially from Americans – were the best in quite a few years)…the world’s premier mineral exploration and mining convention attracted investors, analysts, mining executives, prospectors, geologists, government officials and students from over 125 countries.  “This year’s convention was full of energy and excitement for the year ahead,” stated PDAC President Glenn Mullan, referring to sold out exhibitor space, panel discussions, courses, workshops, and networking events such as the prestigious Awards Gala. “After experiencing several years of economic challenges, today the mineral exploration and mining industry is experiencing a renaissance and renewed sense of confidence.”

3. Cenovus Energy (CVE, TSX) President and CEO Alex Pourbaix said during a panel discussion at Houston’s CERA Week energy conference that the daily cost of the currently large discounts for Western Canada Select to his company is $4 million…still, Pourbaix told attendees the Canadian energy sector was a stable place to do business relative to other heavy Oil-producing regions because “the only issue that needs to get addressed is getting pipelines built.” No, Mr. Pourbaix – that isn’t the only problem that needs to be addressed…a plethora of taxation and regulatory hurdles are a growing threat to the Oil and gas sector in Canada and solid evidence of that is seen in the current investment outflows…meanwhile, anti-Oil sentiment is being driven in this country by climate change extremists, many of whom hold political office at provincial and federal levels, while U.S.-backed activist groups like 350.org will continue to ramp up their opposition to Canadian projects such as the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion…

4.  LNG – that’s another huge missed opportunity for Canada…a cold winter in China could be signaling a hotter market for a new wave of U.S. natural gas exports sooner than expected…Cheniere Energy (CGH, NYSE)
CEO Jack Fusco said Chinese demand for liquefied natural gas was up 40% year-over-year and should continue to be strong…he said the growth in demand is about the size of Cheniere.  “As we saw this winter, demand in Asia and China kind of surprised the market. What we saw was supposed to be a market that might not be hitting supply-demand balance until the mid-2020’s,” said Kevin Brown, research analyst at Tortoise Capital Advisors.  It’s at a place now where we see the balance coming maybe earlier, in the 2020’s, pushing people to have to make that second wave of LNG investment.”

5. The Dow is up 83 points through the first 30 minutes of trading…in Toronto, the TSX is 59 points higher…the CDN dollar is steady at 77.37 cents…one of the most prominent currency market gurus says the Canadian dollar will plunge to levels not seen in more than 15 years by the end of 2019…John R. Taylor, retired founder of what was once the largest currency hedge fund on the planet, says his analysis of statistical patterns projects the loonie to fall a further 20% by the end of next year…it hasn’t been that weak since August 2002…the Venture is up 2 points at 834…accumulation continues in Pascal Biosciences (PAS, TSX-V) which has traded 25 million shares this week including 11.6 million yesterday when it jumped 8.5 cents to 55 cents…

6. Phivida Holdings (VIDA, CSE) and WeedMD (WMD, TSX-V) have signed an LOI to form a joint venture focused on cannabis-infused beverages…the new JV company, Cannabis Beverages, plans to develop a production facility at WeedMD’s state-of-the-art greenhouse in Strathroy, Ontario…CanBev will operate one of the first cannabis-infused beverage production facilities in Canada with the JV partnership focusing on manufacturing, marketing and distribution of cannabinoid-infused beverages for the medical and future adult-use cannabis markets…WeedMD will be the exclusive cannabis supplier and distributor for CanBev cannabis-infused beverages and will designate production space at its 610,000 sq. ft. facility in Strathroy for CanBev’s operation…

7. Kopin Corp. (KOPN, NASDAQ), a leading developer of innovative wearable computing technologies and solutions, reported encouraging financials for Q4 this morning including revenue growth that exceeded expectations at 79%.  “We are very pleased with such a strong finish to the year, with 79% revenue growth in the fourth quarter as compared to the fourth quarter of 2016 allowing us to achieve our stated goal of second half revenues increasing 70% over the first half of the year,” said Dr. John C.C. Fan, CEO of Kopin.  “Our military revenue primarily drove our results, with increasing demand for our displays from a number of new programs. We begin 2018 with both the F-35 and FWS-I programs tracking to plan, along with a new display development program for armored vehicles. We expect these programs to ramp over the coming years as they enter full production.  We are also starting 2018 with very strong demand from enterprise augmented reality (AR) customers for our displays and optics. At an event we hosted at CES 2018 our key customers forecasted a significant increase in volume this year, with some pointing to 2018 as the ‘tipping point’ for enterprise adoption of AR.”  Kopin expects to increase revenues by approximately another 50% this year to $35 to $40 million, and break even on profitability by the end of 2019…

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