Visit the BMR comments section throughout the day for updates and helpful information .
1. Gold has traded between $1,262 and $1,268 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is off $1 an ounce at $1,264…Silver is also relatively unchanged at $16.14…both Gold and Silver appeared to bottom last week at key technical support levels…Copper and Nickel are steady at $3.17 and $5.42 as they prepare to close a strong year on a positive note…Crude Oil has slipped 43 cents to $57.36 while the U.S. Dollar Index has fallen one-tenth of a point to 93.37…the U.S. Commerce Department reported this morning that the final estimate of GDP for the 3rd quarter showed the U.S. economy expanded by 3.2%, down slightly from the second estimate of 3.3%…the final Q3 estimate comes after the 2nd quarter showed economic growth of 3.1%…not once during the Obama years did quarterly growth exceed 3%…
2. The end of the Bitcoin party might just come at Gold’s hand, according to well known Gold bull Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital…once the yellow metal really starts to accelerate, says Schiff, it will be “the pin that pricks the Bitcoin bubble. When people who have been buying digital Gold decide they want the real thing and they want to make the switch, that’s impossible. There is no way a significant amount of money can get out without imploding the entire Bitcoin market”…Schiff added that he would not be surprised if Bitcoin dropped 80–90% in a single day. “If you are in Bitcoin the last thing you want to see is a big move up in the price of Gold,” he said…contrast Schiff’s point of view that with that of a typical Bitcoin bull such as Horizon Kinetics’ Chairman and CEO Murray Stahl whose firm manages over $6 billion in hedge funds, mutual funds and other products and calls itself “value-oriented” and “risk-averse”…Stahl has been vocal about Horizon’s recent purchases of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. “I call it an emerging, historically and sociologically unique asset class that, if accepted, will change society, and before it does that will be enormously valuable. Cryptocurrency is merely a reaction to global market policy” that has sent all asset prices climbing…the battle between the Bitcoin bulls and bears will be a major investment theme in 2018…
3. In a move that caused double takes on Wall Street trading floors and prompted comments on Twitter about how this must be the top of Bitcoin mania, a little known NASDAQ micro-cap stock called Long Island Iced Tea (LTEA, NASDAQ) has tripled in price this morning on huge volume after the company announced that it’s changing its name to “Long Blockchain Corp.“…the Farmingdale, New York-based beverage maker said it’s “shifting its primary corporate focus towards the exploration of and investment in opportunities that leverage the benefits of blockchain technology”…the company, however, will still find time to make iced tea and other juice beverages. “The Company will continue to operate Long Island Brand Beverages as a wholly-owned subsidiary and maintain the focus of this business on the ready-to-drink segment of the beverage industry, specifically, premium, ‘better-for-you’ brands marketed at an affordable price…the company believes that emerging blockchain technologies are creating a fundamental paradigm shift across the global marketplace, with far reaching applications across all industries from financial services (smart settlements) to consumer packaged goods (supply chain verification) to healthcare (electronic medical records).”
4. The fine print of yesterday’s historical tax reform package passed by Congress gave Alaska’s beleaguered Oil industry a major lift as exploration was approved in the vast Arctic preserve, another sign of President Trump’s determination to use Oil and gas as a major component of his economic strategy (unlike Canada which is losing its competitive advantage as lefty globalists try to “save the planet”)…this would remove an almost 40-year old ban on prospecting for Oil and natural gas in the Arctic coastal plain which was once America’s busiest Oilfield…that won’t solve the challenge of declining wells, or global Crude prices too low to support many Alaskan projects, but it’s a long way from a year ago when then-President Obama put millions of acres off-limits, citing the risks of Oil spills and concerns about climate change. “It’s a recognition that the era of Oil is not over in Alaska,” said Kara Moriarty, President of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association. “Clearly we have an administration that believes that America can be energy dominant, and that is a complete 180-degree shift from the previous administration.”
5. Copper is on track to post its best year since 2010, supported by a favorable global economic backdrop and the prospect of more mine disruptions…the metal is up just over 25% in 2017 and hit its highest level in 3 years in October…steady demand for the industrial metal – often considered an economic indicator because of its use in everything from smartphones to vehicles – has supported prices, signaling investors’ confidence in this year’s rebound in global growth…all of the countries tracked by the OECD are on track to post growth this year for the first time since 2010…meanwhile, in a bullish contrarian sign for the 1st quarter of next year, hedge funds and other speculative investors’ net bets on higher Copper prices are at their lowest levels since May, according to the latest data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission…
6. U.S. stocks opened higher this morning after multiple companies said they would spend the savings stemming from lower corporate taxes on employee bonuses, higher wages and new construction…the large U.S. tax cut for individuals and corporations puts pressure on Canada to get its act together as federal and provincial taxes have generally been on the upswing in this country, thanks to left-leaning governments, while increasingly burdensome regulations are also a problem…in Toronto, the TSX has slipped 4 points while the Venture is off 2 points at 804 as the Index continues to test new support in advance of what’s expected to be a strong finish to the year next week…Datametrex AI’s (DM, TSX-V) subsidiary, Graph Blockchain, has signed a collaboration agreement with Revive Therapeutics (RVV, TSX-V) to develop the blockchain component in Revive’s proprietary patient-focused program enabled by artificial intelligence dedicated to the medical cannabis industry. “The collaboration with Graph Blockchain complements our current relationship with Datametrex’s AI subsidiary, Nexalogy, and is an important piece of our plan in building our concept of a patient-focused platform enabled by AI for the medical cannabis industry,” said Fabio Chianelli, President of Revive…Calyx Bio-Ventures (CYX, TSX-V) has also firmed up in early trading after announcing that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Canada Blockchain Hosting, has more than doubled the blockchain data validation computing capacity at its Kamloops facility…sufficient GPU resources have been acquired to add an additional 113 cryptocurrency mining rigs, bringing the operation’s current total unit count to 200…
7. Some interesting statistics just released – Glencore commissioned CRU to measure the impact the global shift away from internal combustion engines to an electric vehicle market would have on metal markets…the London-based research company modeled metal requirements across the supply chain – from generation and grid infrastructure through to storage, charging and vehicles – based on relatively modest penetration of EVs in the total global vehicle market out to 2030…according to the study, as early as 2020 when EVs would still make up only 2% of new vehicle sales, related metal demand already becomes significant, requiring an additional 390,000 tonnes of Copper, 85,000 tonnes of Nickel and 24,000 tonnes of Cobalt…based on an EV market share of around 30% in 2030, forecast metal requirements are roughly 4.1 m tonnes of additional Copper (18% of 2016 supply)…the move away from gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles would need 56% more Nickel production or 1.1 m tonnes compared to 2016 and 314,000 tonnes of Cobalt, a 4-fold increase from 2016 supply…
Next 10% Move In Garibaldi Resources
The Nickel Mountain Magma Highway
Two Big Plays Emerge in B.C., Setting The Stage For A Summer To Remember
How To Bring A Junior Resource Market To Life!
Northern Ontario Cobalt Junior Attracts Interest From Metal Trading Companies
The Most Important Venture Development Since The New Bull Market Began
