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Check back later this morning for today’s BMR Morning Market Musings.

1. Gold has traded in a narrow range so far today and is down $2 an ounce at $1,215 as of 7:00 am Pacific…Silver, trading above its 50-day moving average (SMA) for the first time in more than 2 months, is steady at $17.18 while the U.S. Dollar Index has recovered one-fifth of a point to 100.66 after yesterday’s plunge…

2. U.S. inflation has climbed above 2% on an annual basis for the first time since 2014…the Labor Department said its Consumer Price Index rose 0.3% in December, in line with expectations, and that lifted the annual rate to 2.1%…rising energy prices were the biggest driver of inflation last month…the energy index rose 1.5% in December, more than offsetting falling food prices…the core inflation index, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.2% last month, and was up 2.2% for the year…

3. The Philippines has cancelled the environmental permits of 4 more mining companies, Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Regina Lopez said today…the world’s top supplier of Nickel ore is reviewing hundreds of environmental compliance certificates (ECC’s) and among the latest to be cancelled are those for 1 Nickel producer as well as 1 Gold miner…last month, the Philippines revoked the ECC’s of 3 nickel mines as the anti-mining government intensifies its “crackdown” on the industry…

4. Crude Oil prices are under pressure today amid new worries over global supply…however, Crude is also still digesting the big gains it made last month and new support at $50 is very strong…earlier in the week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration projected that shale Oil production would increase to 4.75 million barrels a day in February…the body also revised upward its shale Oil production numbers for January to 4.71 million barrels a day from 4.54 million…

5. The Venture is up slightly at 797 through the first 30 minutes of trading…the TSX and Dow are both down marginally in early trading…interestingly, the gap between the Dow’s high and low prices over the past month is a miniscule 1.4% – the narrowest gap in data going back to 1957…

6. Otis Gold (OOO, TSX-V) is showing strength this morning, gapping up at the open and 3.5 cents higher at 30.5 cents as of 7:00 am Pacific on its best volume since mid-December…final assay results from a recently completed drill program at the company’s Kilgore Gold Project in Idaho are expected before month-end…during the first half of this year, Otis will be carrying out additional drilling and will also be updating the existing Kilgore resource estimate to reflect nearly 15,000 m of drilling over 65 holes completed since 2012…

7. Probe Metals (PRB, TSX-V) and Richmont Mines (RIC, TSX) are doing business with each other, a noteworthy fact since Richmont’s Beaufor mine is immediately adjacent to Probe’s flagship Val d’Or East Project in northwest Quebec…Probe has struck a deal with Richmont to acquire a 60% interest in RIC’s nearby Monique Property which ceased production 2 years ago and has a current Inferred resource of 107,500 tonnes at a grade of 4.88 g/t Au…Probe can earn a 60% interest in Monique by spending a total of $2 million on exploration over 4 years…the property is being added to Probe’s Val d’Or East package…