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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 $1,310 and $1,323 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is down $12 an ounce at $1,310…Silver has slipped 28 cents to $16.18…Copper, Nickel and Zinc are steady at $3.07, $6.27 and $1.42, respectively…Crude Oil is 46 cents lower at $67.64 while the U.S. Dollar Index has jumped one-third of a point to 91.87…a strong band of resistance exists between 92 and 92.74…signs of stronger U.S. economic growth and inflation are becoming a central focus of financial markets, helping lift the dollar to its highest level since January…yields on the U.S. 10-year Treasury note last week crossed above 3% for the first time since 2014, evidence that part of the economy is returning to more normal conditions after a long stretch when bonds yields had hovered near historic lows…the 10-year yield is relatively unchanged this morning at 2.96%…

2. There’s a lot on the market’s plate this week…more than one-fifth of S&P 500 companies report earnings including bellwether Apple tomorrow (key for tech sector as industry has been worried about Apple’s phone sales)…meanwhile, the Fed meets tomorrow and Wednesday…no interest rate is likely but traders will be looking for any hints on how the Fed views inflation and the economy (rate hike expected in June)…a gusher of economic reports will be released this week including U.S. April employment numbers on Friday…trade issues will also be in the headlines with high-ranking U.S. officials in China, while NAFTA talks intensify…in some economic news just out, U.S. consumer prices accelerated in the year to March, in line with expectations, as a measure of underlying inflation reached the Federal Reserve’s 2% target…consumer prices as measured by the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index jumped 2% year-on-year in March, in line with expectations as weak readings from last year dropped out of the calculation…that was the biggest gain since February 2017 and followed a 1.7% rise in February…

3. Oil prices eased off today after a rising rig count in the U.S. suggested the boom in shale output is showing no signs of slowing…however, prices are near their highest in over 3 years and were set for a 2nd straight month of gains…U.S. drillers added 5 Oil rigs in the week to April 27, bringing the total count to 825, the highest level since March 2015, according to data released Friday by Baker Hughes…Crude production in the U.S. has grown by more than 25% since mid-2016 to a record 10.59 million barrels per day (bpd)…only Russia currently produces more, at around 11 million bpd…what’s Canada doing?…apologizing for its Oil (3rd largest Reserves in the world)…

4. Shock at the pump for some Metro Vancouver drivers as gas prices broke a North American all-time record over the weekend…imagine what would happen if Alberta Premier Rachel Notley had the courage to give climate change fanatics in British Columbia a glimpse of what a carbon-free future might look like by turning off the Oil taps to counter the Green Monster’s illegal, unconstitutional efforts to block the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion?…the latest jump in prices in B.C. is the result of temporary refinery closures and the shutdown of the Olympic pipeline in Washington state, as well as a general increase in the price of Oil…the Trans Mountain pipeline fiasco is certainly not helping the situation…Dan McTeague with Gasbuddy.com predicts that the upward pressure on gas prices in B.C. could be just a sign of things to come if the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion continues to stall.  “We need that pipeline built,” he said.  “The sooner it can be built, the more it can bring gasoline in.  The 1.619 represents the single largest price point ever paid at any gas station, or any regional gas station across North America in the history of fuel.  That beats the all-time record that was established in Los Angeles back in 2008.  So now Vancouver has stolen that title and it looks like these high prices are here to stay.” 

5. The Dow has added 163 points through the first 30 minutes of trading…Dow component McDonald’s is up strongly after reporting better-than-expected earnings and revenue…stocks also got a boost from several deals being announced…T-Mobile says it’s buying Sprint for $26 billion while Marathon Petroleum is acquiring Oil refiner Andeavor for $23 billion..in Toronto, the TSX has gained 17 points while the Venture is up slightly at 784.5…A.I.S. Resources (AIS, TSX-V) has added a 2nd drill rig at its Chiron Project in Salta, Argentina…Chiron appears to be the preferred area in the Pocitos Salar for brine saturated sequences based on geophysics data…“Our modelling suggests there is a significant aquifer at depth,” stated Chief Operating Officer and Exploration Director Phil Thomas…Good Life Networks (GOOD, TSX-V) is adding to Friday’s gains after the company announced record net revenue and record net income…Finteck Select (FTEC, TSX-V) reported this morning that it made a net profit of $435,000 for 2017…volume is picking up again in Pascal Biosciences (PAS, TSX-V) which started the morning with a couple of Haywood crosses…PAS is up 2 pennies at 50 cents through the first 30 minutes of trading…started almost anywhere you live in Alberta, someone wants to open a pot shop…the renamed Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission has received about 450 applications since opening its process March 6 for setting up marijuana retail stores once recreational use of the drug becomes legal in Canada this summer…

6. Cobalt Power Group (CPO, TSX-V) announced this morning that it’s acquiring Western Cobalt Corp., a privately held exploration company that holds 9 strategically located mineral claims in the eastern Athabasca basin of Saskatchewan…CPO, never afraid of dilution, will issue 12.2 million shares to complete the deal…the Western Cobalt properties comprise approximately 80 sq. km of prospective geology contiguous with UEX Corp.’s (UEX, TSX) West Bear Cobalt-Nickel Project…UEX recently announced 2% Cobalt and 1.25% Nickel over 10.5 m in drill hole WBC-001, and 0.73% Co and 0.36% Ni over 20.5 m in drill hole WBC-005 (unfortunately, UEX also has 350 million shares outstanding)…the geological setting of the Western Cobalt properties exhibits the critical features for both Cobalt-Nickel and Uranium mineralization found in the region, including proximity to the eastern margin of the Athabasca sandstone…

7. The ability of Canadian consumers and governments to shoulder an ever increasing mountain of debt is about to be tested…the country’s biggest banks began raising key borrowing rates last week…Frances Donald, senior economist at Manulife Asset Management, stated, “the economy has never been as levered as it currently is, and the economy is far more interest sensitive than it has been in the past, to a degree that we don’t have certainty over how each interest rate hike is going to affect Canadian consumers.  All we know is it’s going to be painful, but how painful isn’t quite clear.”  The heavy debt burden is one of the reasons the central bank has been reluctant to raise borrowing costs further, after hiking interest rates 3 times between July and January…given the nation’s debt load – as of February, households had a record $2.1 trillion of mortgage and non-mortgage debt – Bank of Canada Governor Poloz estimates the economy is 50% more sensitive to rate hikes than in the past…

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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 $1,315 and $1,324 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is up $4 an ounce at $1,320…Gold is trying to bounce off a nearly 5-week low and is set for a decline of more than 1% this week, weighed down by a strong greenback, higher U.S. Treasury yields and easing geopolitical concerns…Silver is off slightly at $16.43…base metals are under some pressure with Copper at $3.07, Nickel at $6.28 and Zinc at $1.41 as of 7:00 am Pacific…Cobalt is steady at $41.14…Crude Oil has climbed 36 cents to $67.83 while the U.S. Dollar Index has added another one-third of a point to 91.87 as it approaches resistance at 92…the leaders of North and South Korea have pledged to jointly eliminate the risk of war and work together to achieve complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula…today’s joint statement, from the border truce village of Panmunjom, concluded an historic 1-day bilateral summit aimed at achieving peace between the two adversarial nations for the first time in more than 60 years…the meeting of the Korean leaders was the first in more than a decade…

2. The U.S. economy has experienced its strongest 9-month stretch in a decade, thanks to major regulatory rollbacks and broad based corporate and individual tax cuts…the Commerce Department reported this morning that GDP rose at an annual rate of 2.3% during Q1, better than the consensus estimate of 1.8% to 2.0%…the January-March increase was enough to propel growth over the past year to very close to the 3% goal set by the Trump administration…economists expect Q2 growth to surpass 3%…meanwhile, a measure of overall inflation rose during Q1…the price index for personal consumption expenditures increased at a 2.7% pace, matching the 4th quarter gain…core prices, which exclude food and energy, rose at a 2.5% rate…

3. Another blow to Canada’s struggling Oil and gas sector:  Several Canadian environmental groups including Environmental Defence and the David Suzuki Foundation are cheering the federal government’s new regulations, announced this week, aimed at reducing methane emissions from the Oil and gas sector by close to half…however, Patrick McDonald, director of climate and innovation at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, warned that the regulations are too prescriptive and will make industry less competitive.  “The regulations very much are not reflective of CAPP’s proposal that was issued in October,” he said.  “This new regulation is going to be a significant cost to the industry and as such will have additional impacts on our competitiveness when we’re looking at the global market.” 

4. Canada’s economy will “grind to a halt faster than you can say ‘free trade'” if B.C. gets the regulatory powers it’s seeking under a court reference filed yesterday, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley warns…a defiant British Columbia Premier John Horgan, propped up by Andrew “Wacky” Weaver and the Greens, and sounding like a South American dictator fighting the “evil” foreign profiteers, has followed through with a lawsuit to confirm his province has jurisdiction to restrict an increase in bitumen shipments…nothing is going to solve the Kinder Morgan pipeline problem other than the defeat of the worst provincial government British Columbians have ever been saddled with…Notley says the B.C. regime is trying to exploit a constitutional loophole around the environment to target and harass the $7.4 billion pipeline project…environment is a shared jurisdiction, Notley said, but B.C. has strayed “several miles” beyond the parameters that lay out who controls what.  “The way B.C. is framing this would effectively drive a truck – but not a train or a pipeline, apparently – through that loophole,” she said.  “The resulting consequences would be very, very damaging to our national economy.”  Well, if that’s the case, and we certainly agree that the Green Monster is a threat to not only the B.C. economy but the national economy, then the answer, quite simply, is to topple the NDP-Green coalition which holds a razor-thin majority in the B.C. legislature…the only conceivable way to immediately defeat this reckless, illegitimate government and force a new election is to shut off the Oil taps to the province, causing a major spike in gas and grocery prices that would undoubtedly cause the masses to revolt and slay the Green Monster…recent opinion polls show a majority of British Columbians favor the pipeline expansion…B.C.’ers, already facing the highest gas prices in North America, would not tolerate $2+ per liter gas and higher grocery prices from a socialist government whose Big Lie was that it was going to make life more affordable for British Columbians…

5. The Dow is off 17 points through the first 30 minutes of trading…the NASDAQ is sharply higher, however, up 48 points at 7,167 after Amazon delivered another earnings gem, blowing away Wall Street estimates…the tech-heavy index also got a boost from Microsoft which reported better-than-expected earnings…in Toronto, the TSX is up 18 points while the Venture has added 1 point to 784…Good Life Networks (GOOD, TSX-V) is the big Venture mover in early trading, jumping 8.5 cents to 30 cents after the media/marketing/advertising technology company reported record net income ($1.3 million) and record revenue ($9.7 million, up 278%) for 2017…

6. Nemaska Lithium (NMX, TSX) and Northvolt AB have signed an agreement in principle providing for the supply by the corporation to Northvolt of battery-grade Lithium hydroxide…under the agreement in principle, Northvolt will purchase from Nemaska Lithium, on a take-or-pay basis, up to 5,000 but not less than 3,500 metric tonnes per year of Lithium hydroxide produced at Nemaska’s commercial plant in Shawinigan, for a 5-year supply period commencing upon the start of commercial production at both Shawinigan and Northvolt’s projected Skelleftea factory in Sweden…in connection with this supply of Lithium hydroxide, Northvolt has agreed to deliver to Nemaska a EUR 10M promissory note which, at Nemaska’s option, can be converted into voting shares of Northvolt in connection with the Skelleftea factory funding, or redeemed at cost plus an agreed-upon interest rate.  “We are pleased with this first step in establishing a strategic partnership between Northvolt and Nemaska, as we both share the same vision and values of facilitating access to green energy for the benefit of humanity and pushing the boundaries to do so,” declared Guy Bourassa, President & CEO of Nemaska Lithium…rather than the flowery language about humanity, how about just saying the companies are keenly focused on driving shareholder value and creating new wealth in the rapidly expanding green energy sector?…

7. Copper Mountain Mining’s (CMMC, TSX) adjusted earnings for Q1 were $10.6 million or 8 cents per share, compared to $300,000 and nil per share for the same quarter of 2017…Copper, Gold and Silver production for the 1st quarter at the Copper Mountain mine in southern B.C. was 23.2 million pounds of Copper equivalent which includes 19.9 million pounds of Copper, 6,070 ounces of Gold and 77,900 ounces of Silver…revenue for the period was $78 million…Jim O’Rourke, President and CEO, remarked:  “During the 1st quarter of 2018, the mill throughput averaged 38,800 tpd.  Abnormally high snowfall during the quarter created operating challenges in the pit and resulted in some power supply disruptions.  We remain bullish on the outlook for the Copper market and with our production on target we are well positioned to benefit from a strong Copper price environment.  We continue to focus on cost control and operational improvements to further strengthen the company’s balance sheet.”  Meanwhile, Copper Mountain also announced this morning that O’Rourke is retiring as CEO June 1 and will be replaced by Gil Clausen, currently President and CEO of Brio Gold (BRIO, TSX) which is being acquired by Leagold Mining (LMC, TSX)…Clausen will launch a new growth phase for Copper Mountain which recently acquired 100% of Altona Mining Ltd. which includes $30 million in cash, a permitted development project in Queensland, Australia, and a large mineral land tenure position in a highly prospective area in mining-friendly Queensland…

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

1. Gold has traded between $1,319 and $1,327 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is off $1 an ounce at $1,319…China’s net Gold imports via main conduit Hong Kong rose 78.7% in March from the previous month, data showed today…Silver has fallen 4 cents to $16.47…Copper, Nickel and Zinc are also off slightly at $3.14, $6.36 and $1.41, respectively, while Cobalt has slipped to $40.14 per pound…Crude Oil has jumped 25 cents to $68.30…Chevron has evacuated executives from Venezuela after two of its workers were imprisoned over a contract dispute with the state-owned Oil company…output in Venezuela, a member of OPEC, has plunged from almost 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd) to just around 1.5 million bpd due to political and economic turmoil…the U.S. Dollar Index is off slightly at 91.14…it has broken out above 90 this week but faces stiff resistance around 92…research by Chinese geologists suggests that the mountain above North Korea’s main nuclear test site has likely collapsed, rendering it unsafe for further testing and requiring that it be monitored for any leaking radiation…

2. Goldcorp (G, TSX) has reported sharply lower 1st quarter net earnings on higher costs and lower Gold production – news that helps explain why Gold producers in general continue to underperform vs. the metal…Goldcorp says it earned $67 million (U.S.) or 8 cents per share, compared with net earnings of $170 million or 20 cents per share in the same period last year…analysts had expected earnings of 11 cents per share…revenue fell to $846 million from $882 million on Gold production of 590,000 ounces…All-In-Sustaining Costs (AISC) were $810 per ounce compared to $800 per ounce for the 1st quarter of 2017…the company has reconfirmed full year 2018 guidance for Gold production of 2.5 million ounces (+/-5%) at AISC of $800 per ounce (+/-5%)…it says its goal to reach $250 million of sustainable annual efficiencies by the middle of 2018 is on track with $210 million achieved as of the end of Q1…CEO David Garofalo says Goldcorp’s operations met their quarterly targets and its pipeline of growth projects is lining up with its plan to grow production and reserves by 20% while reducing costs by 20% by 2021…Goldcorp is down 52 cents at $17.59 as of 7:00 am Pacific…while Goldcorp disappointed, Newmont Mining (NEM, NYSE) slightly beat Q1 earnings estimates with its numbers this morning…

3. The obstructionist B.C. government will release its much-anticipated pipeline reference case question this morning…Premier John Horgan, Attorney General David Eby and Environment Minister George Heyman are scheduled to speak to the media at 9:15 am Pacific…the Globe and Mail reports that B.C.’s reference case on the transport of heavy Oil across its borders will point to supposed “gaps in science” to justify asserting its authority over the environment when Oil is moved by truck, rail or pipeline…Heyman is quoted as saying, “We’re not sure – and neither is the Royal Society of Canada – that we know everything we need to know to make pipelines safer, particularly when they cross water bodies.”  Of course the existing Trans Mountain pipeline has been operating safely since 1953, and Green Party leader Andrew “Wacky Weaver” just happens to be a “fellow” of the Royal Society of Canada…good grief, when will all this nonsense end???…

4. Appalling – the federal government, in effect, is taking tax dollars from people who are out of work in the energy sector and giving it to people who are trying to block a critical energy project in the national interest…a B.C.-based non-profit group has received federal funding for a job to advocate against the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion…the Dogwood Initiative has a job posting for an organizing assistant who will “work directly with a Dogwood Provincial Organizer and the field organizing team to help our organizing network stop the Kinder Morgan pipeline and tanker project”…the position is funded by the Liberals’ controversial Canada Summer Jobs program…this is either another example of federal government incompetence in handling the energy file, or it’s Trudeau way of straddling both sides of the fence…Kinder Morgan should be asking the Feds, why are you funding opposition to us?…

5. In case you missed this news the other day, as it didn’t fit the general narrative of the Canadian mainstream media, the federal government’s carbon pricing plan is going to put a dent in Canada’s GDP, costing Canadians $10 billion they would have otherwise gained by 2022 (the benefit, of course, is that we will have saved the planet!)…that forecast of a $10 billion loss to the economy comes straight from the Parliamentary Budget Officer’s (PBO) latest report, very credible and damning evidence of how the Feds have messed up on the energy file…the PBO’s report warns that the levy will “generate a headwind” for the economy as the price on carbon is boosted from $10 per tonne this year to $50 per tonne in 2022…while a headwind might be nice on a hot day, in economic terms “headwinds” aren’t a good thing…in this case, it refers to the fact that with a carbon pricing plan in place, the GDP will be 0.5% lower than it would be if the Feds didn’t put in place this new tax…add to that the tens of millions of dollars lost each day due to a lack of pipeline capacity in Canada, and one can see how the economy in this country will significantly underperform vs. the United States (in another development, the federal government has just announced new regulations for methane emissions in the Oil and gas sector that impose much more costly requirements on industry than Alberta’s proposed rules unveiled Tuesday)…

6. The Dow has climbed 119 points through the first 30 minutes of trading…Facebook is up strongly after the company posted better-than-expected earnings and revenue for Q1…the company’s number of daily active users pointed to steady engagement in the platform despite backlash from the Cambridge Analytica debacle…in Toronto, the TSX is up 71 points while the Venture has added 1 point to 785…Zinc One Resources (Z, TSX-V) has strengthened in early trading after announcing high-grade drill results from its Bangara mine project in north-central Peru including 19.8 m grading a whopping 46.8% Zinc…Osisko Gold (OSK, TSX) reported fresh results this morning from infill drilling at the Lynx deposit at Windfall Lake…highlights included 115 g/t Au over 8.4 m in drill hole OSK-W-17–1363…the company will be releasing an updated resource estimate for Windfall Lake next month…these folks should have been paying attention to our Oil charts – a big, bad bet on Oil prices hurt Cenovus Energy (CVE, TSX) as the Oilsands producer posted a massive Q1 net loss thanks in part to a hedging program that the company vows never to repeat…Cenovus hedged 80% of its Oil production in the 1st half of this year to Oil prices that range between $45.30 at the low end and $62.77 per barrel (U.S. dollars) at the high end…by contrast, WTI prices only dipped below $60 U.S. per barrel for 1 week in the middle of February and crossed $68 per barrel this week…Cenovus also blamed its weak financial showing on full pipelines and a lack of spare rail capacity, which pressured prices and forced it to throttle back output…

7. The June 7 Ontario provincial election can’t come soon enough for the exploration/mining sector, the entire Ontario economy, Ontario voters and the rest of Canada for that matter…fresh numbers from Stats Canada demonstrate how the Wynne’s government’s socialist policies have hurt the people it actually claims to be helping…the proportion of Ontarians living in “low-income status” rose a scandalous 26% from 2003 to 2016, according to Stats Canada…no other province comes close to performing that badly…in 2016, the percentage of Ontarians living in low-income exceeded the national average for the 5th straight year…this was despite the fact that in 2003, only 10.9% of Ontarians lived in low-income, well below the national average of 13.2% at the time…Kathleen Wynne – you’re fired…you are economically illiterate and your policies have burdened the province and future generations with crippling debt…it’s time to make Ontario (and Canada) competitive again…

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