BullMarketRun.com

Visit the BMR comments section throughout the day for updates and helpful information.

1. Gold is down just slightly this morning but is nonetheless headed for its sharpest weekly drop in 2-and-a-half months…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is off $3 an ounce at $1,328…today’s trading range has been between $1,325 and $1,332…U.S. government yields have retreated further from Wednesday’s multi-year highs…a U.S. monetary policy forum is taking place in New York today with 4 major Federal Reserve officials due to speak on economic policy…Silver is down 9 cents at $16.50…Copper has slipped 2 cents to $3.19…Nickel, which continues to exhibit the largest speculative long position on the London Metal Exchange, is off 2 pennies at $6.19 while Zinc is flat at $1.60…Cobalt has added 23 cents to $36.29…Crude Oil is up 7 cents at $62.84 while the U.S. Dollar Index has gained one-tenth of a point to 89.90…President Trump addresses CPAC (Conservative Political Action Committee) this morning where he’s expected to announce the Treasury Department will unveil a massive new set of sanctions against North Korea targeting 56 vessels, shipping companies and trade businesses that are assisting the rogue regime…

2. Three Canadian provinces – Saskatchewan, Quebec and Ontario – are among the world’s top 10 mining jurisdictions according to the Fraser Institute’s just-released 2017 annual global survey of mining executives…Finland has climbed from 5th to 1st overall, followed by Saskatchewan, Nevada, Ireland, Western Australia, Quebec, Ontario, Chile, Arizona and Alaska…Ontario moved to 7th place from 18th last year…the worst mining jurisdictions are Guatemala, Kenya, Mendoza, Chubut, Mozambique, Bolivia, Venezuela, Romania, China, and Nicaragua…Alberta, which consistently used to be near the top of this survey before the NDP swept into power in 2015, is now mired in 49th place, immediately behind South Africa and just ahead of Tasmania and the Congo – Albertans should be embarrassed…Kenneth Green, senior director of the Fraser Institute’s energy and natural resources studies, stated, “Capital is fluid and one province’s loss can be another province’s gain because mining investors will flock to jurisdictions that have attractive policies.”

5. The Dow, which has climbed in 8 out of the last 10 sessions, is up 130 points as of 7:00 am Pacific…there’s money in pets – General Mills is buying natural pet food company Blue Buffalo for about $8 billion in cash…in Toronto, the TSX is 60 points higher in early trading…Centerra Gold (CG, TSX) has recorded 2017 net earnings of $209.5 million (U.S.) or 72 cents (U.S.) per share on revenues of $1.2 billion…this compares to net earnings of $151.5 million or 60 cents per share in on revenues of $757.7 million in 2016…the increase in earnings in 2017 reflects a full-year of operations at Mount Milligan and increased production at Kumtor…all-in-sustaining costs on a by-product basis were $688 (U.S.) per ounce sold, beating the low-end of AISC guidance for the year…the Venture is 1 point higher at 830 as of 7:30 am Pacific…eCobalt Solutions (ECS, TSX) has closed a $30 million bought deal financing at $1.30 per unit…the company continues to advance due diligence for potential off-take of its clean Cobalt concentrate to be produced from the company’s 100%-owned Idaho Cobalt Project…also on the Cobalt front, Castle Silver Resources began trading this morning as Canada Cobalt Works (CCW, TSX-V) with no change in the capital structure…Canada Cobalt is the only company in the northern Ontario Cobalt Camp with underground access and plans to use that advantage to become the first company in that district to get product to market…

6. Tahoe Resources (THO, TSX), dealing with a shutdown of its giant Escobal Silver mine in Guatemala due to environmental terrorists and a corrupt government and legal system, is threatening to hit new multi-year lows after announcing a 4th quarter loss of $18 million…the company had no Silver output in the 4th quarter while Silver production for the full year fell to 9.9 million ounces from 21.3 million…however, Tahoe did ramp up its Gold production to record levels (446,000 ounces), thanks to La Arena in northern Peru, and was therefore able to post net earnings for 2017 of $81.8 million or 26 cents per share…Ron Clayton, President and CEO, commented: “We remain optimistic that based on legal precedent, the Guatemalan Constitutional Court will issue a favorable ruling reinstating the Escobal mining license.”

7. Canada’s industrial real estate sector remains hot, and the legalization of recreational pot will only add to the demand…the country’s 8 biggest weed companies will require more than 8 million sq. feet of space for growing marijuana by 2020, up more than 5-fold from current levels, according to a report from brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle Canada…the estimate, which excludes logistics and distribution centers, would be about the size of Amazon.com’s Seattle headquarters which houses about 40,000 workers across multiple buildings…Canopy Growth (WEED, TSX), the world’s largest publicly traded cannabis producer, used to hunt mainly for massive, empty industrial warehouses but the company is now eyeing outdoor greenhouses in an effort to reduce costs…

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Visit the BMR comments section throughout the day for updates and helpful information.

1. Gold has traded between $1,324 and $1,333 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is up $4 an ounce at $1,328…yesterday’s minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting gave little indication that the central bank plans to raise rates at a faster pace than previously indicated, though in general Fed officials seem increasingly confident in how the economy is performing…U.S. government yields have pulled back this morning from multi-year highs reached yesterday…the 10-year yield hit a 4-year high of 2.95% while the yield on the benchmark 2-year Treasury note hovered just under a 9-year high at 2.26%…Silver is up 7 cents at $16.57…Copper is steady at $3.20…record high stocks of Copper in land-locked Arizona and Utah are a reflection of soaring transport costs in the U.S., according to industry sources…Nickel has slipped 6 cents to $6.17 while Zinc is off a penny at $1.60…Cobalt has eased off to $36.06…Crude Oil has climbed 25 cents to $61.95 while the U.S. Dollar Index reacted around 90 again and has fallen one-third of a point to 89.79…

2. A key index tracking 10 economic metrics in the U.S. rose for the 3rd straight month in January…the composite indicator increased 1% in January from the prior month, besting expectations of 0.7% from a survey of Reuters’ economists…the monthly gain in December was 0.6% which also surpassed economists’ expectations…the organization tracking the Leading Economic Index previously announced that the passage of federal tax reform legislation in December will “provide even more tailwind to the current expansion”…

3. Billionaire investor Ray Dalio, who founded world’s largest hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, believes there’s is a relatively high chance the U.S. economy will stumble into a recession before the next Presidential election in 2020.  “I think we are in a pre-bubble stage that could go into a bubble stage…the probability of a recession prior to the next Presidential election would be relatively high, maybe 70%,” he said during an appearance at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics…Dalio, whose fund invests some $160 billion, stepped down from the hedge fund’s day-to-day operations nearly a year ago but his views on markets and the economy are still very closely followed…he added, “The greatest mistake of the individual investor is to think that a market that did well is a good market rather than a more expensive market.”

5. After a big intra-day swing yesterday, the Dow has rebounded 108 points as of 7:00 am Pacific…in Toronto, the TSX is up 19 points while the Venture is flat at 893…Adam Travis is out as President and CEO of Colorado Resources (CXO, TSX-V), replaced by economic geologist Robert Shaw who has 30 years of mineral exploration experience throughout the Americas…most recently he was President of the Western Canada Greenfields Group…in that capacity, he pursued project generation and mineral exploration opportunities in the North American cordillera, specifically British Columbia, from March 2016 until January of this year…Oceanagold (OGC, TSX) has firmed up after reporting record full-year net profit of $172 million or 28 cents per share including a record quarterly net profit of $89 million…Alamos Gold (AGI, TSX) is off modestly after posting net 2017 earnings of only $27.4 million or 9 cents per share…the company, however, is poised to benefit from low-cost production growth from the Island Gold mine through its recently completed acquisition of Richmont Mines…Gold Standard Ventures (GSV, TSX-V) has closed a $38 million financing at $2.05 per share with both Goldcorp (G, TSX) and Oceanagold participating…combined, the 2 producers own about 25% of GSV…

6. Canada’s self-inflicted wound as climate change extremists try to “save the planet”: Lack of pipelines and massive discounts for Canadian heavy Oil could cost the economy as much as $15.6 billion this year, or three-quarters of a point in the country’s GDP, according to economists at Scotiabank in a damning report released yesterday. “Reliance on the existing pipeline network and rail shipments to bring Canadian Oil to market has a demonstrable impact on Canada’s well-being, with consequences that extend well beyond Alberta…the sooner governments move to allow additional pipeline capacity to be built, the better off Canada will be,” stated Scotiabank senior Vice-President/chief economist Jean-Francois Perrault and commodity economist Rory Johnston…unfortunately, the new government in British Columbia – the Green Monster – is determined to kill the federally approved Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion, and many Green Monster followers are prepared to break the law if necessary in order to help make that happen…meanwhile, a new poll by the Angus Reid Institute shows 49% of Canadians say they strongly or moderately support the pipeline, while one-third are opposed…even in British Columbia, 48% back the pipeline while 40% are against…

7. With Cobalt prices trading at a decade high, it should come as no surprise that Apple – according to reports from Bloomberg – is in talks to buy long-term supplies of Cobalt for iPhone batteries directly from miners…the iPhone maker is seeking contracts to buy several thousand metric tons of Cobalt for 5 years or longer, according to a Bloomberg source…while many manufacturers are trying to increase the proportion of Nickel used in electric vehicles, which is more economical and helps increase energy density, Cobalt remains an essential element of electric car batteries given its positive impact on cycle life and the batteries’ ability to recharge quickly…it’s simply not possible – and it won’t be for perhaps 2 or 3 decades according to many experts – to remove Cobalt from the battery equation…prices for the metal are expected to rise even further this year, as the Democratic Republic of Congo, responsible for more than half the world’s supply, recently hiked its taxes and royalties on the metal…meanwhile, it’s estimated that about 20% of the Cobalt mined in Congo is extracted by hand by informal miners including children, often in dangerous conditions…the LME, the world’s biggest market for industrial metals, has recently stepped up efforts to make sure that Cobalt mined by child labor doesn’t trade on the exchange…

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Check back later today for Daniel’s Den and visit the BMR comments section throughout the day for updates and helpful information.

1. Gold has traded between $1,324 and $1,333 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is up $1 an ounce at $1,330…traders are eyeing the minutes of the Fed’s January 30–31 policy meeting which will be released in a few hours…a hawkish tone out of the FOMC minutes could push bond yields even higher…Silver is up 15 cents at $16.57…Copper, Nickel and Zinc are off slightly at $3.18, $6.16 and $1.61, respectively…Cobalt is unchanged at $36.51…Crude Oil has slipped 25 cents to $61.54 while the U.S. Dollar Index has added another one-tenth of a point to 89.84…flash PMI readings from research firm IHS Markit for the U.S. manufacturing and service sectors came in better than expected this morning…

2. Bloomberg reports that Apple is in talks to buy long-term supplies of Cobalt for iPhone batteries directly from miners…the iPhone maker is seeking contracts to buy several thousand metric tons of Cobalt for 5 years or longer, according to a Bloomberg source…while many manufacturers are trying to increase the proportion of Nickel used in electric vehicles, which is more economical and helps increase energy density, Cobalt remains an essential element of electric car batteries given its positive impact on cycle life and the batteries’ ability to recharge quickly…it’s simply not possible – and it won’t be for perhaps 2 or 3 decades according to many experts – to remove Cobalt from the battery equation…

6. The Dow’s 6-session winning streak was snapped yesterday but the index is up 74 points through the first 30 minutes of trading this morning…interestingly, 6-day win streaks have been a highly reliable predictor of short-term future gains over the last 5 years…improving commodity markets and a strong performance from its trading arm have allowed Swiss-based Glencore to post its best results ever as annual adjusted profits rose by 44% to $14.8 billion (U.S.)…just 2 years ago, at the bottom of the commodity cycle, Glencore was forced to raise $2.5 billion through an emergency share placing…senior executives showed their confidence by buying a large proportion of the shares and have seen their bet handsomely rewarded…in Toronto, the TSX has added 99 points while the Venture is flat at 833…Castle Silver Resources (CSR, TSX-V) begins trading Friday as “Canada Cobalt Works” with a new trading symbol of CCW…Barkerville Gold (BGM, TSX-V) released additional results this morning from its Phase 2 Island Mountain exploration and infill drill program…7 rigs are currently exploring and delineating the Shaft zone…highlights include 104.5 g/t Au over 1 m near-surface in IM-17–201; 23.9 g/t over 6.65 m and 12.2 g/t over 13.3 m further down the hole in IM-17–215; 28.7 g/t over 4.45 m in IM-17–226; and 24.8 g/t Au over 5.1 m in IM-17–231…Alamos Gold (AGI, TSX) now has Proven and Probable mineral reserves of 9.8 million ounces of Gold…the 28% increase reflects the addition of the Island Gold mine (through the acquisition of Richmont Mines), further growth at La Yaqui Grande and the declaration of an initial mineral reserve at Lynn Lake…

7. Governments and central banks sure seemed worried about Bitcoin…the cryptocurrency has backed off today but remains above $10,000 after a strong rally from its lows earlier this month…the Dhaka Tribune in Bangladesh is reporting that local police are “on the hunt for Bitcoin users”…the report adds that the government has warned people not to make any transactions using Bitcoin, and according to Bangladesh Bank, “Bitcoin is neither accepted nor considered legal tender anywhere in the world”…meanwhile, Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, said at a talk at a university in London Monday night that Bitcoin has “failed” as a currency.  “It has pretty much failed thus far on…the traditional aspects of money. It is not a store of value because it is all over the map. Nobody uses it as a medium of exchange,” Carney said, according to Reuters… 

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Visit the BMR comments section throughout the day for updates and helpful information.

1. Gold has traded between $1,335 and $1,343 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is down $7 an ounce at $1,339…minutes of the Fed’s January 30–31 policy meeting will be released tomorrow and could impact bullion, while markets are also keeping a close eye on a barrage of U.S. debt that’s being auctioned off today…the greenback, which has rallied since Friday morning, could weaken again if there is less than the required appetite for that mountain of debt…Silver is off slightly at $16.49…Copper is flat at $3.20 while Nickel has added 5 cents to $6.20…Zinc is up slightly at $1.63…Cobalt has eased off to $36.51…Crude Oil has gained 22 cents to $61.90 while the U.S. Dollar Index has jumped another one-third of a point to 89.62 after plunging to a 3-year low around 88.30 intra-day Friday…

2. This is good for the markets – small business confidence in the United States continues to surge, according to new numbers this morning from the CNBC/SurveyMonkey Q1 Business Confidence Index…this comes on the heels of 2017 numbers from the National Small Business Association, a nonpartisan lobbying group, which found that more than half of small business owners feel the national economy is doing better than it was just 6 months ago…this compares to only 20% who reported the same in December 2015 entering President Obama’s final year of office…in addition, the percentage of small business owners who say they feel very confident about the future of their own businesses is at the highest level in more than a decade…you wouldn’t know it by watching CNN…

3. After a 6-day winning streak, the Dow has retreated 145 points through the first 30 minutes of trading as North American equity markets return to action following yesterday’s holiday…in Toronto, the TSX is flat in early trading while the Venture has added 1 point to 831…here’s another interesting name change – Gold Reach Resources (GRV, TSX-V) will be known, effective tomorrow, as Surge Copper Corp. (SURG, TSX-V) to better reflect the main commodity in the company’s advanced stage Ootsa Project in British Columbia…Copper Mountain (CMMC, TSX) has reported net earnings of $67 million in 2017 on total revenue of $304 million from the sale of 73.9 million pounds of Copper, 23,800 ounces of Gold and 264,800 ounces of Silver at its mine near Princeton…the company’s cash position increased to $45 million at year-end…Jim O’Rourke, President and CEO remarked “During 2017, Copper Mountain continued to demonstrate efficiency in production and mine operations. The installment of the SAG mill bull gear in April 2017 was a major maintenance project that was completed ahead of schedule. The mine had $102.8 million in cash flow from operations and generated $67 million in earnings. The mine has continued to focus on cost controls and production efficiencies.”  Arizona Mining (AZ, TSX) has intersected 86 feet (26 m) assaying 28.6% combined Zinc-Lead and 3.7 ounces per ton Silver in an 850-foot step-out hole, opening up an entirely new area to the southwest of its Taylor deposit and highlighting the continued potential for resource growth and increased grades at its 100%-owned Hermosa Project in Santa Cruz county, Arizona…Probe Metals (PRB, TSX-V) has released an updated resource estimate for its 4 deposits at its Val d’Or East Project in northwest Quebec…the majority of the Gold occurs within the central New Beliveau deposit which totals 600,000 ounces Indicated and 531,500 ounces Inferred…463,000 of those ounces represent the Indicated open-pit constrained resource (6.3 million tonnes grading 2.3 g/t Au)…

4. B.C. has quickly turned into a NO-GO zone for Oil and gas investment:  The radical new British Columbia government is unrepentant in its illegal and unconstitutional effort to stop the federally approved Kinder Morgan pipeline (which the last B.C. government endorsed)…during a long weekend in most of Canada, the Oil-hating Green Monster (the NDP-Green alliance) announced that it’s appealing a National Energy Board ruling that allowed the pipeline project to override some Burnaby bylaws…particularly disturbing was this short sentence in a news release from the Ministries of Environment and Attorney General:  “The Province’s position is that the NEB erred by too broadly defining federal jurisdiction over interprovincial pipelines.”  Also over the long weekend, B.C. Premier John Horgan used a 2-minute pre-budget promotional video to ramp up his defiance of the pipeline expansion while also accusing Alberta of “unfair trade practices” in its banning of B.C. wine…the federal government, despite all its empty rhetoric that the pipeline expansion will go ahead, is obviously having no impact on the Green Monster despite reports of recent discussions (Trudeau’s real agenda does not favor Oil)…British Columbia has already plummeted to the bottom 25% of global Oil and gas jurisdictions according to the latest Fraser Institute survey…meanwhile, on the opposite side of the country, there is some sanity and common sense when it comes to development of Canada’s rich Oil resources – cash-strapped Newfoundland and Labrador has launched a 12-year plan to speed and increase offshore Oil and gas development while drawing coveted global investment…the province will review regulations, enhance seismic data and advance cost-saving tie-back technology to extract more from existing sites…its goal is to double overall production to more than 650,000 barrels a day by 2030…they’ll be able to draw plenty of capital (human and investment) from British Columbia to aid their efforts…

5. Alberta intends to limit how many retail cannabis licenses one organization can hold in an effort to prevent industry powerhouses from dominating a market that is scheduled to be legalized later this year…no person or group will be allowed to hold more than 15% of the licenses, the provincial government announced on Friday…further, the proposed rules give the government power to set a floor price for recreational marijuana…the province estimates roughly 250 private retail marijuana stores will set up shop within its borders in the first year… the proposed regulations, according to the NDP government, are designed to ensure public safety, shrink the black market and give small businesses a toehold in the sector…

6. Canopy Growth (WEED, TSX) has firmed up this morning on news that it has received a cultivation license for the first of its two sites operating under the BC Tweed Joint Venture Inc. banner…the rapid licensing of the Aldergrove site, the largest federally licensed cannabis site anywhere in the world (amazing how B.C. can get pot to market but doesn’t want Oil to get to market), continues a pattern of execution for the company as it prepares to meet an unprecedented increase in demand in a few short months once legal adult-use markets commence…the initial licensing covers over 400,000 sq. ft. of growing space, allowing vegetative growth so that the mature plants can be spread into the full 1.3 million sq. ft. in the coming months for flowering and ultimate harvest…over the weekend, the site received the largest single shipment of pot plants (100,000) in the company’s history…with the Aldergrove site now into the production stage, BC Tweed’s focus will turn to its second B.C site, a 1.7 million sq. ft. greenhouse, with work already well under way…with this expansion, Canopy Growth is on track to have over 5.6 million sq. ft. of domestic growing space…

7. Fission Uranium (FCU, TSX) has increased Inferred resources by 95% and Indicated resources by 8% at its Triple R deposit in the Athabasca basin that now now includes the R1515W, R840W, R00E, R780E and R1620E zones…Triple R is now estimated to contain 87.8 million tonnes pounds of U3O8 Indicated resources based on 2,186,000 tonnes at an average grade of 1.82%, including the R780E high-grade zone of 48,246,000 pounds U3O8 based on 119,000 tonnes at a grade of 18.39%…Inferred resources total 52.9 million pounds U3O8 based on 1,331,000 tonnes at an average grade of 1.80%, including the R780E high-grade zone of 14,710,000 pounds U3O8 based on 32,000 tonnes at a grade of 20.85%…also included in the updated resource estimate are 32,000 and 24,000 ounces of Gold, respectively, in the Indicated and Inferred categories…President Ross McElroy commented, “With the deposit open in multiple directions, there is superb potential for continued growth. This is particularly the case for the R1515W zone, which is a high-priority focus in our current winter exploration program. Overall, this new resource estimate is a strong milestone as we continue towards pre-feasibility.”

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