Visit the BMR comments section throughout the day for updates and helpful information!
1. Gold has traded between $1,470 and $1,480 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific the yellow metal is off $2 an ounce at $1,474…Gold is on track for its biggest annual gain since 2010, bolstered by multiple factors including interest rates cuts by major central banks…Silver has slipped 6 cents to $16.92…Copper is down 2 pennies at $2.78…Nickel is unchanged at $6.31 while Zinc is up 2 pennies at $1.05…Crude Oil (WTI) has retreated 44 cents a barrel to $60.50 while the U.S. Dollar Index has gained more than one-fifth of a point at 97.36…strong reads on the U.S. economy have researchers at mortgage giant Fannie Mae revising their 2020 housing forecast much higher…Fannie Mae’s Economic and Strategic Research Group predicts builders will expand production more than previously expected, due to a strong labor market and robust consumer spending…low mortgage rates will also help…
2. BMO Capital Markets looks for Gold to benefit from loose central-bank monetary policy in 2020, allowing the metal to post an average price of $1,500 an ounce…the “vast majority” of Gold producers should be profitable at these prices, BMO added in an outlook report released this morning…they’re also calling for Silver to average $18.20 an ounce…“With inflation stubbornly low and surprisingly well correlated across global economies, monetary policy looks set to remain loose through 2020 – indeed the bias of risk is for further cuts. This will keep macro asset allocation supporting Gold and precious-metals markets. However, in our view, 2020 is more likely to be a year of consolidation than aggressive upside for Gold and Silver price. For Gold to push out the top of its current range would likely require significant portfolio rotation, most likely at a time of emerging-market panic or equity market sell-off. For a downside breakout, this would involve a significant risk-on rally for which Gold would be the funding source”…
3. Ahead of a House vote that’s expected to impeach President Trump, in a move Democrats will surely regret next November, a new CNBC All-America Economic Survey shows that the President’s economic approval numbers have surged to their highest in a year…Trump’s net economic approval rating swung from minus 8% in September (the first negative of his Presidency) to plus 9%, a massive 17-point move for the series…
4. Marathon Gold (MOZ, TSX) has delivered encouraging results from drilling at the under-explored Sprite zone, 3 to 5 km northeast of its Leprechaun deposit at its Valentine Gold Project in central Newfoundland…multiple holes returned high-grade values including 7.6 g/t Au over 22 m (VL-19–786), 10.4 g/t Au over 5 m (VL-19–776) and 9.7 g/t over 6 m (VL-19–778)…Matt Manson, President & CEO commented, “We are encouraged by these exploration results from an area of the Sprite Zone that was last explored with drilling in 2014 and 2018. The new drill holes were designed to step out from areas of previously identified mineralisation. About half hit new mineralization, some significantly so. Of note, the drilling has confirmed a new ‘Main Zone’ type sequence of stacked, en-echelon quartz-tourmaline-pyrite veining with significant Gold grades at Section 13410E. This new zone is located proximal to the Valentine Lake Shear Zone, extends to a depth of at least 250 m with an apparent thickness of up to 50 m and is bounded by mafic dikes. This is similar to the geological setting of the Main Zones of both the Leprechaun and Marathon Deposits. Hole VL-19–786, which returned 7.60 g/t over 22 m, represents a 300 m step-out to the northeast, suggesting potential extension of the mineralization along strike. We expect that Sprite, and this new discovery area in particular, will be a priority for follow up drilling in our 2020 exploration program”…MOZ is up a penny at $1.65 as of 7:00 am Pacific…
5. The Dow is up 23 points through the first 30 minutes of trading as U.S. markets aim for their 6th straight winning session…the S&P 500 and NASDAQ once again hit intra-day all-time highs in early trading…in Toronto, the TSX has retreated 55 points…the Gold Index is steady at 245 and remains on pace for a major breakout through 250 by month-end…total expected exploration expenditure in Canada in 2019 is expected to be down about 6% to $2.3 billion compared to the year prior, according to data from Natural Resources Canada…SilverCrest Metals (SIL, TSX) has closed a $92 million bought deal financing including a $12 million over-allotment option exercised in full…Skeena Resources (SKE, TSX-V) has bounced higher after announcing that it has hit 1,131.9 g/t Au over 1.5 m (36.4 oz/ton), including 3,390 g/t over 0.5 m, from 249.6 m depth in new footwall mineralization at the past producing Snip mine in the Eskay Camp…another drill hole also intersected 7.4 g/t Au over 6.65 m starting at a depth of just 41 m…key resistance for SKE is in the mid-60’s…Canada Cobalt (CCW, TSX-V), enjoying a breakout week, has retreated 2 pennies to 51 cents…however, with the drill turning at Castle East, and initial assay results expected imminently from the first wedge hole that hit massive Silver mineralization at the Robinson Zone Discovery, any weakness is an accumulation opportunity as the 200-day SMA also starts to reverse to the upside…Balmoral Resources (BAR, TSX) has hit a new 2019 high of 38 cents…
6. A supply crunch is coming and this will cause commodities to skyrocket in 2020, according to Frank Holmes, CEO of U.S. Global Investors…“This theme of ESG, environmental, social governance, is driving everything and it’s going to harm exploration. We’re going to see a supply-side restriction but people are going to have babies and the world is going to chug along and grow, but the commodities aren’t going to be there,” Holmes said, adding that a huge price rally would follow…on equities, Holmes says U.S. markets may still be the best option for stocks…“I don’t think (stock markets) are frothy and I don’t think there are many other places to go, and I think that what you have to recognize is that some of these other central banks like Switzerland are printing money out of the thin air,” he said…Holmes noted that today’s macroeconomic environment requires investors to continue to hold Gold…“You have to have Gold because there are going to be imbalances with currencies back and forth and China and India, 30 years ago, were 10% of the global consumption of Gold, but today they are 50% of the consumption of Gold and that’s correlated to rising GDP per capita”…
7. Five of the world’s largest tech companies have been accused of being complicit in the death of children in the Democratic Republic of Congo forced to mine Cobalt in a landmark lawsuit…the legal complaint on behalf of 14 families from Congo was filed a few days ago by International Rights Advocates, a U.S.-based human rights non-profit, against Tesla, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft and Dell Technologies…the companies were part of a system of forced labor that the families claimed led to the death and serious injury of their children, it said…this marks the first time the tech industry jointly has faced legal action over the source of its Cobalt…images in the court documents, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C., showed children with disfigured or missing limbs…6 of the 14 children in the case were killed in tunnel collapses, and the others suffered life-altering injuries, including paralysis, according to the complaint…“These companies – the richest companies in the world, these fancy gadget-making companies – have allowed children to be maimed and killed to get their cheap Cobalt,” Terrence Collingsworth, an attorney representing the families, told Reuters…
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Jon, thanks for the reply on GEMC. I always like to look for tax loss selling bargains this time of year but a company that is short on cash is always a concern.
Comment by Danny — December 18, 2019 @ 3:04 pm
BMR: I know you mentioned PDM before for a Palladium play. Did it breakout today as reached a high of 12.5. Thanks!
Comment by MERIDEX — December 18, 2019 @ 4:17 pm
Meridex, it’s looking good…John’s last chart pointed out a band of Fib. resistance between 10 and 14 cents…
Comment by Jon - BMR — December 19, 2019 @ 4:44 am
Looks like someone dumping IMR at a discount.. hmmmm anyone have a take on this? I thought the company had looked better than last year at this time but now is only half the price!
Comment by Karen — December 19, 2019 @ 6:22 am
its hard to jawbone a stock up and unless IMR has more than just one or maybe 2 big buyers talking about them, without good results in hand, its hard to contain and maintain momentum
Comment by David — December 19, 2019 @ 7:50 am
Thanks David, just can’t understand when you compare it to a year ago.. it’s acting weird like someone is holding it down intentionally
Comment by Karen — December 19, 2019 @ 8:20 am