Gold has hovered between $1,322 and $1,334 so far today…as of 7:45 am Pacific, bullion is off $7 an ounce at $1,325…Silver is down 7 cents at $21.20…Copper is a penny lower at $3.22…Crude Oil is up 17 cents at $102.57 while the U.S. Dollar Index has tumbled nearly half a point to 79.84…
Gold is on track to post its best monthly performance since July of last year…boosted by a variety of technical and fundamental factors, including strong demand out of Asia, a drying up of ETF selling, weak economic data out of the United States, and turmoil (political and economic) in Ukraine, bullion has gained nearly 7% in February…stiff resistance, however, exists around $1,350, but there are near-term potential catalysts that could drive Gold through that level including a further weakening in the U.S. dollar…recent weakness in the yuan, however, is making Gold more expensive in China (the yuan fell sharply against the U.S. dollar today, the steepest one-day decline in nine years)…
SPDR Gold Trust (GLD), the world’ largest Gold ETF, has accumulated just over 10 tonnes of Gold in February – the first monthly gain since December 2012 when it added a mere one tonne…between the beginning of January 2013 and the beginning of February 2014, this single ETF had shed an incredible 557 tonnes of Gold…China eagerly absorbed much of that as physical Gold shifted from west to east…
Axel Merk, head of Merk Investments LLC in Palo Alto, California, summed up what’s happening in Gold very well in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “Gold has been playing its role as a great diversifier,” he said. “U.S. data has raised some doubts about the economy’s performance, and people are choosing to buy Gold as a hedge. This rally is for real.” Merk has $400 million under management and currently has 15.7% of its fund’s assets in Gold, up from 8.4% this time last year…
What Next In The Ukraine?
Armed men occupied two key airports in Ukraine’s restive pro-Russia region of Crimea today, a move that Ukraine’s interior minister called an “armed invasion and occupation” by Russia, stirring already heightened tension in the country…the Crimean peninsula has long been a potent symbol of Moscow’s ability to extend its influence via the Black Sea and a flashpoint in centuries of regional clashes, so this situation seems likely to heat up in the coming days – Gold bullish…
TSX Gold Index Updated Chart
This 12-year monthly TSX Gold Index chart from John shows RSI(2) in overbought territory at 88%, but RSI(2) levels like this have been seen before in this Index and for extended periods of time…clearly, an important bottom occurred in the Gold Index in December at 149 – interestingly, about six months after the Venture bottomed at 859 last June (if you recall, the Venture topped out at 2465 in early 2011 almost exactly six months before the Gold Index hit an all-time high of nearly 460)…
John has cautioned readers to be careful about the “Golden Cross” (when the 50-day SMA crosses above the 200-day SMA)…that’s exactly what we’re seeing right now in the TSX Gold Index…a “Golden Cross” occurred in late 2012 and gave a false signal, but what’s different about this occasion is that the Gold Index’s 200-day SMA is just now beginning to reverse to the upside – a very bullish development that typically indicates a major change in trend…
Key resistance on the Gold Index is around 210 – a move through that area would likely spark a rally up to the 225-240 resistance band…
Today’s Markets
Asia
A late in China’s Shanghai Composite allowed it to post a 9-point gain and finish February in the green, closing at 2056…Japan’s Nikkei slipped 82 points to finish February at 14841…the latest economic data which indicated that the world’s third largest economy was off to a great start for 2014 did little to help the Nikkei…January retail sales figures beat expectations to rise an annual 4.4%, the fastest annual gain since April 2012…industrial output data also soared 4% in January, marking a second straight month of gains…
Europe
European shares have reversed to the upside in late trading overseas…
North America
The Dow is up 80 points as of 7:45 am Pacific…the U.S. government slashed its estimate for fourth quarter growth as consumer spending and exports were less robust than initially thought, leaving the economy on a more sustainable path of modest expansion…GDP expanded at a 2.4% annual rate, the Commerce Department reported this morning…that was down sharply from the 3.2% reported last month and the 4.1% logged in the third quarter…economists polled by Reuters had expected growth would be revised downward in the fourth quarter to a 2.5% pace…
Fed Chair Janet Yellen told lawmakers yesterday that severe weather had played a role in the weakening of recent U.S. economic data…she said, however, that it would take a “significant change” to the economy’s prospects for the Fed to put on hold its plans to wind down its bond buying…the Fed has trimmed its monthly bond purchases by $10 billion at each of its previous two meetings…its next meeting is scheduled for March 19…
The TSX is up 43 points through the first 75 minutes of trading while the Venture has added 2 points to 1021…
Abcourt Mines Inc. (ABI, TSX-V) Updated Chart
Abcourt Mines (ABI, TSX-V), which has been doing an admirable job advancing its Elder Mine near Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, to commercial production, has broken above a long-term downtrend line, though this requires confirmation today…what’s also notable about this chart is the growing accumulation in the stock since October of last year as demonstrated by the CMF indicator…with the potential for even firmer Gold prices, and a weak Canadian dollar, Abcourt could be in for a strong 2014 with Elder expected to reach full production capacity during the first half of this year…ABI is unchanged at 9 cents as of 7:45 am Pacific…
High North Resources (HN, TSX-V) Chart Update
High North Resources (HN, TSX-V) has enjoyed a strong month, climbing 52% after yesterday’s 67-cent close…a few weeks ago, the company reported that it has started to receive sales revenue from its first two Montney horizontal wells…they were flowing oil with combined preliminary rates exceeding a total of 350 barrels of oil per day over a seven-day period…
Technically, HN over the last eight trading sessions has been trying to overcome resistance around 70 cents (it hit an all-time high of 74 cents intra-day last Friday) following an important breakout above 48 cents at the beginning of the month…below is a 1-year weekly chart…today’s trading should give a good indication if HN has enough energy to push through this resistance or if it’s temporarily running out of steam and needs to consolidate its recent gains for at least a brief period…it’s up 3 pennies at 70 cents as of 7:45 am Pacific…
Pilot Gold Inc. (PLG, TSX) Drills Into More High-Grade At Kinsley Mountain
Nice move in Pilot Gold (PLG, TSX) yesterday which surged 26 cents to close at $1.58 after the company reported strong results including a 41.7 m intersection grading 6.85 g/t Au at its Kinsley Mountain West Flank target in eastern Nevada to follow up on a recent high-grade discovery (PLG holds a majority interest in a JV with Nevada Sunrise, NEV, TSX-V)…the high-grade zone is located in a previously unrecognized stratigraphic horizon below the limit of prior drilling…assay results from four additional holes, drilled 25 metres to 50 metres to the north and south of the two holes reported yesterday, are pending…
Kinsley Mountain hosts near-surface mineralization similar to other Carlin-style, sediment-hosted Gold systems along a 2.2-kilometre SE-NW strike extent…the property consists of 380 claims and 7,650 acres (3,095 hectares) and hosts a past producing mine with an extensive exploration database and numerous, untested Gold targets…
Below is a 1.5-year weekly PLG chart…notice how PLG broke above a long-term downtrend line at the beginning of the year, and then pushed through resistance at $1.16 earlier this month…the next Fib. resistance level is $1.72…PLG is down a penny at $1.57 as of 7:45 am Pacific…
John, Jon and Terry do not hold share positions in ABI, HN or PLG.