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A strong day for Gold and more weakness in the greenback following dovish signals from the Fed yesterday…as of 9:00 am Pacific, bullion is up $14 an ounce at $1,199 after climbing as high as $1,207…Silver is up 6 cents to $16.18…Copper is flat at $2.60…Crude Oil has added 20 cents a barrel to $60.20 while the U.S. Dollar Index has fallen one-third of a point to 93.86…as John’s charts have been suggesting for more than 2 months, the Dollar Index is in trouble and that’s positive for both commodities and the Venture over the second half of this year…

Gold has two immediate technical challenges – 1) overcoming a band of resistance between $1,200 and $1,210, and 2) pushing through the mid-$1,220‘s…the bears will be put on the defensive IF those walls come down anytime soon…

Even after yesterday’s Fed statement and Janet Yellen’s news conference, commodity analysts at Commerzbank insist that Gold will remain under pressure over the summer, an interesting view for several reasons including the fact that Q3 traditionally is Gold‘s strongest quarter of the year.  “Our economists continue to expect the cycle of rate hikes to begin in September. Until then, the Gold price is unlikely in our opinion to make any significant gains because of the uncertainty surrounding this question. What is more, the currently weak investment demand and subdued physical demand are likely to prevent Gold rising lastingly above the $1,200 per troy ounce mark,” they stated…

“Lazy Commentators” On Gold

Another excellent article this morning by Mineweb’s Lawrence Williams that we suggest readers check out at Mineweb.com (“Nonsensical Gold Commentary)…Williams writes about how “lazy commentators” in the mainstream media are still overstating the importance of Hong Kong Gold exports to China, while he challenges the general media assumption that “any rise in U.S. interest rates will immediately mean a sharp decline in the price of Gold…

“Indeed,” Williams continues, “so strongly held is this ‘truism’ that any hint that the U.S. Fed may be bringing forward the first interest rate rise for a number of years immediately knocks the Gold price backwards as the theory is that because Gold is a non-interest earning asset, people may switch to assets which give a greater rate of return. Well, true in concept but no one seems to take account that any rise in interest rates will almost certainly be extremely small and still leave them in real negative territory.

“But even more important is that in any case U.S. demand for Gold bullion nowadays is tiny in relation to demand elsewhere in the world where interest rates may still be falling and which should in reality be the true price setters. But this significant fact seems to be totally ignored and, unfortunately for the pro-Gold lobby the prime Gold commodity market is largely being driven by what we see as the plethora of what could be regarded as basically misleading information emanating from the media – reporting the views of the bank economists who, in any case may have their own hidden agenda. However, in recent months, any such consequent Gold price dips have been remarkably short-lived as investors in parts of the world, which understand this, bring the price back to its previous levels, but aren’t yet prepared to chase prices upwards.”

Fed Afraid To Act? 

As part of its release yesterday, the Fed suggested it might raise rates only once in 2015 by a quarter percentage point, rather than twice as many officials previously anticipated…by December 2017, the Fed expects its benchmark short-term interest rate to remain below 3%, far lower than it has been for the past half century this long into an economic expansion…

“Economic conditions are currently anticipated to evolve in a manner that will warrant only gradual increases in the target federal-funds rate,” Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen said in her news conference following the Fed’s 2-day policy meeting…

Net exports remain a “substantial drag on growth”, Yellen stated, a direct shot at the negative affects of the record dollar surge from last summer (tech giant Oracle blamed the dollar yesterday on disappointing Q1 results)…inflation continues to run below the Committee’s longer-run objective, this year’s wage growth remains “relatively subdued”, and the Fed continues to be concerned about diminished growth in worker productivity which has restrained the economy’s capacity to grow quickly…

In economic projections accompanying the Fed’s statement, the central bank revised down its estimate of growth for 2015…in March the Fed saw economic output expanding by 2.3% to 2.7%…in the latest estimate it revised output growth to 1.8% to 2.0%…

“I want to emphasize sometimes too much attention is placed on the timing of the first increase in the federal-funds rate,” Yellen stated in her news conference.  “What should matter to market participants is the entire expected trajectory of policy.”

In other words, Yellen is doing some more back peddling on the potential timing of the Fed’s first rate hike since 2006…September?…likely not…

Drunk On Climate Change Kool-Aid 

With a decision looming on the Keystone XL pipeline, President Barack Obama is scheduled to appear at a fundraiser tomorrow in California (guests will reportedly pay as much as $33,000 each) hosted by the so-called “green” billionaire, Democratic activist Tom Steyer, a bitter opponent of fossil fuels who has promoted and donated heavily to anti-pipeline campaigns including of course Keystone…Steyer is extremely adept at using his government connections to produce subsidies and mandates that make his “green” energy investments profitable, but that’s a story for another day (ironically, he amassed a fortune while investing in the types of energy projects that he now decries…it’s just that “green” is more sexy right now)…

Yesterday, White House Press Secretary John Earnest couldn’t resist the opportunity to “talk up” Steyer, the Democrats’ ATM Machine that dispenses massive amounts of cash every single day…

“Mr. Steyer,” Earnest stated, “is a well-known advocate for policies that are good for the environment.  Particularly policies that will limit carbon pollution, and other contributors to climate change. And obviously the President has a historically strong record in confronting these issues.”

Getting back to Keystone for a moment, isn’t it interesting how Obama and newly-elected Alberta Premier Rachel Notley have gotten so drunk on climate change Kool-Aid, they’ll say anything to their respective constituencies – Obama to Americans and Notley to Albertans – to try to undermine public support for this critical project?…

Obama’s most recent strategy, of course, has been to dismiss’s Keystone job-producing benefits for Americans (no more than “2,000” jobs, the President stated, incorrectly), while Notley told the Alberta legislature Tuesday, “First of all, our position on the Keystone (pipeline) was that if we ship unprocessed bitumen to Texas, according to this government and to the American government, we will give tens of thousands of Alberta jobs to Texas – not to Albertans – and that’s not what Albertans want to see.” 

So the Alberta premier is against Keystone because it’s going to “ship tens of thousands of Alberta jobs to Texas” (not just thousands of jobs, but “tens of thousands”) while Obama downplays the job-producing benefits for Americans and (in addition) falsely claims that Keystone is really all about Canadian “tar sands” companies exporting their product overseas through the United States…

During the election campaign, another one of Notley’s weak arguments against Keystone was that “we need to look towards being more than simply drawers of water and hewers of wood (hmm, hasn’t the extraction of natural resources made Canada one of the wealthiest nations on earth?)…

Politicians and activists drunk on climate change Kool-Aid, though God has assured us in His Word that variations in climate should not alarm us…the hangover from this foolishness won’t be pleasant as governments and environmental groups make it harder for companies to extract resources…

Thomas Pyle of the Institute of Energy Research makes an effective point:  “The simple reality is that energy is the essential building block of the modern world.  The application of affordable energy makes everything we do – food production, manufacturing, health care, transportation, heating and air conditioning – better.”

Euro Updated Chart

A clear sign of a reversal in the U.S. dollar trend is evident in how the euro continues to behave – very bullishly…after putting in a double bottom in March-April, the opposite of what occurred in the Dollar Index, the euro has now importantly broken out above its downtrend line resistance in place since last summer…this is a major technical development…

Today’s Equity Markets

Asia

China led Asian markets lower overnight as the Shanghai Composite tumbled 182 points or 3.7% to close at 4786…

Europe

European markets were modestly higher today ahead of a key meeting of euro zone finance ministers…the could present a “take-it-or-leave-it” plan to Greece which should have been booted out of the euro zone long before now…

North America

The Dow has surged 176 points as of 9:00 am Pacific while the NASDAQ has finally hit a new all-time high, eclipsing the 5132.52 mark it hit on March 10, 2000 at the height of the tech bubble…

U.S. consumer prices posted the largest monthly increase in May in more than 2 years, but the numbers also weren’t as high as expected…the CPI, which reflects what Americans pay for everything from cars to cans of tuna, rose a seasonally adjusted 0.4% in May (vs. expectations of 0.5%) from a month earlier, the Labor Department reported this morning…that was the largest gain since February 2013…higher gasoline prices pushed up the overall index…excluding volatile food and energy categories, so-called core prices increased 0.1% (vs. expectations of 0.2%)…

In Toronto, the TSX is up only slightly while the Venture has added 3 points to 685 as of 9:00 am Pacific…Fission Uranium (FCU, TSX) has started site preparation for an aggressive 60-hole (20,000 m) summer drill program at its PLS Property in the Athabasca Basin…the program, expected to commence during the first week of July, will follow up on the successful winter drilling which greatly expanded the Triple R deposit’s footprint and high-grade area and also identified multiple prospective regional targets…

Venture 6-Month Daily Chart

Venture support at the 680 level is rock-solid, making the risk-reward ratio for this market more attractive than it has been that at anytime since the end of 2013…investors who are bold but very selective should be rewarded handsomely over the next few months as the Venture takes what we believe will be the path of least resistance and finally pushes through 707…

Notice the uptrend line from the December low on this 6-month daily chart…the recent minor pullback has successfully tested this strong chart and Fib. support…

NexGen Energy Ltd. (NXE, TSX-V) Update

As we mentioned the other day, a powerful summer is shaping up for NexGen Energy (NXE, TSX-V) which has demonstrated the world class potential of the high-grade Arrow Zone at its Rook 1 Uranium Project in the Athabasca Basin…

NexGen’s aggressive summer drill program will be expanded to 5 rigs by next week…

Technically, the minor pullback to 70 cents Tuesday was an accumulation opportunity as this 2+ year weekly chart shows a very bullish trend…momentum should create extended overbought RSI(14) conditions…

NXE is up a penny at 79 cents as of 9:00 am Pacific…

Discovery Ventures Inc. (DVN, TSX-V) Update

Discovery Ventures (DVN, TSX-V) has pulled back to an attractive support area after hitting a 7-month high of 25 cents on Monday…a recent game-changing development for Discovery has been the recruitment of a major new investor, Winnipeg entrepreneur Dan Omeniuk, who is also slated to take over as CEO…Omeniuk, who heads up a successful transport business, brings a lot of new synergies to Discovery as it advances its Willa-Max high-grade Gold-Copper Project in southeast British Columbia…

There’s every reason to believe DVN will enjoy another strong summer as it did in 2013 and 2014 based on its current technical posture and the addition of Omeniuk who is also providing $7 million in credit facilities to the company…

DVN is up half a penny at 21 cents after touching support at 19 cents during yesterday’s trading session…

Copper Fox Minerals Inc. (CUU, TSX-V)

It’s highly encouraging for the overall junior resource market to see a chart like this for Copper Fox (CUU, TSX-V), a clear trend change than began in March…CUU has finally overcome its 200-day SMA which is now reversing to the upside after being in decline and providing stiff resistance since late 2011…strong new chart support at 19 cents…

Copper Fox nearly doubled in the month of March, posting a gain of 86%, as Teck Resources (TCK.B, TSX) committed to a significant increase in program expenditures this year ($4.8 million vs. $2.2 million in 2014) at the Schaft Creek Cu-Au-Mo-Ag Project in northwest British Columbia (proven and probable reserves are 940.8 million tonnes grading 0.27% Cu, 0.19 g/t Au, 0.018% Mo and 1.72 g/t Ag)…

Crews have commenced mobilization for drilling at Schaft Creek at the promising LaCasse Zone…they will test a geological setting similar to that in the Paramount Zone of the deposit located approximately 3 km to the south…approximately 2,500 m of drilling (5 holes) will test the depth extension of the impressive Copper-Gold mineralization located in potassic-phyllic altered outcrop and in hydrothermal breccia…this could mark a potentially important new discovery…

CUU is off 3 cents at 20.5 cents as of 9:00 am Pacific…

Amarc Resources Ltd. (AHR, TSX-V) Update

There’s lots happening in British Columbia…we do expect the Sheslay district to heat up profoundly with the strong potential for near-term new discoveries…not only of course is Doubleview Capital (DBV, TSX-V) on the cusp of a major breakthrough, but Garibaldi Resources (GGI, TSX-V) has a phenomenal opportunity at the Grizzly…

Further south in the Cariboo region, meanwhile, keep an eye on Amarc Resources (AHR, TSX-V) with regard to potential developments at its Ike Property after highly encouraging initial drill results late last year…

John’s 4-year weekly AHR chart shows a “Big Picture” bullish trend with a confirmed breakout late in Q1…excellent support exists around 10 cents which was previous resistance…note the rising 200-day SMA at 11 cents…RSI(14) is at previous support…

Note:  John and Jon both hold share positions in DBV and GGI.