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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 $1,339 and $1,345 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is down $3 an ounce at $1,342…holdings of Gold by global exchange-traded funds have increased for 12 straight sessions…ETFs added 112,781 troy ounces to their holdings yesterday, taking total accumulation to 74.7 million ounces…Commerzbank notes that holdings have jumped by 45 tonnes since the start of the month…Silver is off 16 cents at $17.16…Copper is flat at $3.13, Nickel has slipped 18 cents to $6.63 (new support around $6.50) while Zinc is up a penny at $1.46…Cobalt remains unchanged at $41.50 while the U.S. Dollar Index is relatively flat at 89.95…Crude Oil has retreated 41 cents to $67.42, cooling off slightly after President Trump took a swat at OPEC in a morning tweet for “artificially high” prices that “will not be accepted”…Trump understands markets and the reason for his tweet this morning is likely related to the link between Oil prices, inflation and interest rates…it wouldn’t help the economy if interest rates increased more than expected this year, and of course Republicans are in a fierce battle to maintain control of both the House and Senate in November’s mid-terms…meanwhile, the Democratic Party, blaming everyone but a horrible candidate (Hillary) for its defeat in the 2016 elections, has filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit in Manhattan federal court this morning against President Trump’s campaign, the Russian government and the Wikileaks group, claiming a broad conspiracy to help Trump win the White House…great fodder for the Clinton News Network…ironically, it was Hillary who paid for a fake Russian dossier on President Trump that was ultimately used by the FBI to wrongfully obtain FISA warrants…
2.On restricting the flow of beer (and bitumen): Yesterday’s bizarre ruling by Canada’s Supreme Court in support of provincial regulations limiting the amount of booze crossing borders has broader implications for inter-provincial commerce…the Supreme Court’s decision means Canadians can’t buy their favorite beverages in any province they please and bring it or ship it home without potentially facing fines (no such thing as legal protection of internal free trade in Canada)…the so-called “free the beer” case stems from an incident in late 2012 when Gerard Comeau was stopped at the New Brunswick-Quebec border by RCMP and was fined for having 14 cases of beer and 3 bottles of liquor (he was trying to save money)…Comeau’s purchases were confiscated by the RCMP and he was given a ticket for $292.50 for violating N.B.’s Liquor Control Act, which limits booze purchases (even with a bordering Canadian province) to no more than 12 pints of beer or one bottle of liquor…some lawyers are saying that the 46-page decision bolsters Alberta’s Bill 12 that could stop the flow of Alberta energy resources into B.C. as a way of pressuring the west coast as it continues to attempt to stall and block the already approved $7.4 billion twinning of the Kinder Morgan pipeline…
3. Another potential blow for the Canadian economy: Canadian Pacific Railway has started shutting down its domestic rail network, telling shippers it will not handle any Canadian goods as of early tomorrow morning, ahead of a possible weekend strike by two of its unions…the move precedes a possible Friday night walkout by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference that could halt much of the country’s rail freight…a strike by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers risks shutting down parts of commuter railways serving Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal…CP and both unions have been in talks since the fall, but both unions said they are set to strike at midnight tonight if talks fail to produce a collective agreement they believe members will support….CP head Keith Creel said this week that he’s seeking a “fair” deal, but was willing to endure “short-term pain”to reach labor contracts that will fend off “long-term damage”…
4. Cryptocurrency/blockchain stocks are showing some strength today as Bitcoin jumped again, bringing its post-Tax Day gains to more than 8%…the cryptocurrency spiked about $300 to a high of $8,555 (U.S.), according to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin price index…that marked an 8.5% rise from a low of $7,384 hit Tuesday, which was the original deadline for Americans to file taxes this year (the IRS gave taxpayers another day to submit their returns after the agency’s web page for making the payments crashed Tuesday)…
5. The Dow is down 29 points through the first 30 minutes of trading…Apple shares fell more than 3% after Morgan Stanley said the company’s iPhone sales for the June quarter will disappoint Wall Street…about 16% of the S&P 500 has released its quarterly results with 81.5% of those companies posting better-than-expected earnings, according to FactSet…next week will be the busiest week of the earnings season as more than a third of the S&P 500 will report…in Toronto, the TSX is up 18 points while the Venture has added 2 points to 804as of 7:00 am Pacific…the Venture is set for its 2nd straight weekly gain…in a positive sign for the crypto/blockchain space, Datametrex (DM, TSX-V) is pushing above a downtrend line in place since late last year on the daily chart…it’s up 2 pennies at 15 cents on strong volume in early trading…
6. A.I.S. Resources (AIS, TSX-V)has mobilized for drilling at its Chiron Project in Salta, Argentina…up to 8 diamond drill holes totaling 2,300 m are expected to be completed across all 4 tenements at Chiron in the Pocitos Salar…Chiron appears to be the preferred area in the salar for brine saturated sequences, based on geophysics data interpretation…significantly, as part of its program at Chiron, AIS will be utilizing a new geophysics technique for Lithium exploration which has has been tested successfully in the Oil industry…the company will be using magnetic resonance of hydrogen to determine porosity and permeability to calculate the reservoir and specific brine yield values…Chief Operating Officer Phil Thomas, an expert in Lithium brine production, says this is the first time this technique has been used commercially in brines with high salt content…it will save nearly 4 months of brine yield testing using traditional methods…
7. A rise in photovoltaic demand should improve Silver’s supply/demand fundamental picture in the coming years, according to a just-released report from BMO Capital Markets…Silver has been a frustrating commodity for investors over the past 18 months, but BMO sees the Gold-Silver ratio eventually falling to 60 which is bullish for the metal. “In our view, one of the ongoing challenges for Silver is the longer-term trend of industrial demand decline, which is in marked contrast to other major metals,”BMO stated. “However, as the demand void from photography is replaced by a surge in photovoltaics over the coming years, we see a brighter future for Silver fundamentals.”
Visit the BMR comments section throughout the day for updates and helpful information.
1. Gold has traded between $1,345 and $1,355 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is down $1 an ounce at $1,348 after 4 straight winning sessions…Silver, which has pushed through key resistance in the $16.80’s, is up another 14 cents at $17.31…Silver is finally waking up after being the worst performing precious metal over the past 6 months, little changed versus a rise of 4.5% for Gold and nearly 8% for Palladium…Nickel has eased off 4 cents to $6.85 after its best move since 2008 yesterday…Copper is off 3 cents at $3.13 while Zinc is up a penny at $1.45…Cobalt remains unchanged at $41.50…Crude Oil has jumped another 42 cents to $68.89 while the U.S. Dollar Index is relatively flat at 89.60…the yield on the 10-year Treasury note has climbed above 2.9%, a key level it’s failed to stay above multiple times this year, as new data point to a strengthening U.S. economy…
2. Wake up, Canadians, Kinder Morgan has just dropped another bombshell in the wake of the Three Stooges Pipeline Summit…unimpressed the B.C. government is pushing ahead with its latest court case, trying to throw another wrench in the works, Kinder Morgan CEO Steve Kean has stated the following on an earnings call: “It’s become clear this particular investment may be untenable for a private company to undertake.” That’s a damning indictment of the new British Columbia government, not to mention Justin Trudeau’s failed National Energy Program…thanks to the Green Monster, the hideous Oil-hating, tax-and-spend NDP-Green coalition that’s even ignoring public opinion polls, British Columbia is now viewed as a pariah by international Oil and gas investors…that can only be negative for the entire B.C. economy, but try explaining that to a “snowflake” in Metro Vancouver where pipeline hostility is concentrated…meanwhile, support for the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion continues to grow among British Columbians, though that doesn’t quite fit with the narrative of the mostly left-wing Vancouver media…the new poll, commissioned by the respected Angus Reid Institute, found 54% of those asked in B.C. are in favor of the project while 38% are opposed…this compares to 48% in favor in February vs. 40% opposed…nationally, the pipeline has even more support (except in Quebec of course)…
3.Talk that Saudi Arabia has its sights on $80 to $100 (U.S.) a barrel Oil again and of more U.S. sanctions on Russia ignited a rally in commodities and resource stocks yesterday…significantly, the CRB is now threatening to break out above a stiff resistance band that has restrained the Index since the beginning of 2016, despite the big run-up in resource stocks and certain commodities that year…meanwhile, Crude Oil prices do appear to be headed higher…OPEC and its partners next meet formally on June 22 but a ministerial monitoring panel will gather in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, tomorrow and is expected to make noises about the broader supply and demand in the Oil market…
4. Speaking of Saudi Arabia, it opened its first movie theater in 35 years yesterday with Marvel’s“Black Panther” the first movie shown publicly in the kingdom in decades…the superhero blockbuster was shown at a new cinema theater built by U.S.-based AMC Entertainment in the King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh…AMC received the first license to operate movie theaters in Saudi Arabia 2 weeks ago…it plans to open up to 40 cinemas in 15 cities in the kingdom over the next 5 years…this all comes as part of social reforms being promoted by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman as he attempts to transform the country’s economy and society (significantly higher Oil prices over the next year or two will aid the Crown Prince in that effort)…
5. Gold bugs are smiling: Global debt has hit its highest levels ever and governments should take actions to reduce their indebtedness while the going is still good, says the International Monetary Fund…total debt levels globally came in at a record $164 trillion in 2016, amounting to 225% of the world economy’s GDP, according to the IMF’s April Fiscal Monitor…that level of debt is 12 percentage points steeper than the last historic high seen in 2009 immediately after the global financial crisis…those findings, taken together with the business cycle upswing, mean that governments should build buffers and cut public debt levels to face “challenges that will unavoidably come in the future,” Vitor Gaspar, director of the fiscal affairs department at the IMF, told CNBC…
6. The Dow off 72 points through the first 30 minutes of trading…U.S. home prices just took their biggest jump in 4 years…according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, 79% of the S&P 500 companies that had reported through yesterday morning surpassed earnings expectations…meanwhile, 83% of those companies topped sales estimates…in Toronto, the TSX is down 8 points while the Venture is flat at 802…Pascal Biosciences (PAS, TSX-V) is up a penny-and-a-half at 50 cents after retreating to strong support after the stock nearly doubled on heavy accumulation between April 4 and April 9…much more to come from Pascal following the company’s game-changing news February 21 followed by a quickly completed $5 million financing at 40 cents…First Cobalt (FCC, TSX-V) announced this morning that it has initiated a study of the First Cobalt refinery located in the Northern Ontario Cobalt Camp Cobalt…the study is intended to help the company estimate the capital requirements for a future restart and expansion of the refinery…First Cobalt is 100% owner of the facility which is the only fully permitted Cobalt refinery in North America capable of producing battery materials…
7. Datametrex AI’s (DM, TSX-V) wholly owned subsidiary, Ronin Blockchain Corp., has started mining a combination of alternative coins including Zcash, Zcoin, Monero and Ethereum at both its Quebec and China locations…Ronin looks to maximize its 150-megawatt capacity in China and is also in discussions with a number of industry strategic partners that see the value in this large footprint. “The China jurisdiction along with the support from our partner GoSun has tremendous advantages and economies of scale. This footprint is one of the largest in the cryptocurrency-mining sector today and should give Ronin key advantages,” stated Michael Frank, Ronin CEO…DM has been under strong accumulation this week with the latest chart showings signs of a new uptrend forming…
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 $1,342 and $1,356 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is up $4 an ounce at $1,351…Silver is finally breaking out above key resistance, up 38 cents at $17.13…that’s a good sign not only for Silver but for Gold…Nickel is enjoying a magnificent day, up a whopping 56 cents to $6.98…at one point it got as high as $7.17, a level not seen in nearly 3-and-a-half years (see today’s Morning Alert)…that’s the biggest 1-day move for Nickel in a decade and it has been driven, in part, by continued concerns about Russian supplies of the metal following U.S. sanctions…Russia accounts for around 10% of the global supply of Nickel…meanwhile, Vale yesterday reported lower-than-expected production in Q1 with a drop of 25% from the previous quarter…the timing for a massive follow-up drill program at Nickel Mountain in the Eskay Camp couldn’t be better…Copper has added 6 cents to $3.15…Zinc has climbed 4 cents to $1.47…Cobalt remains steady at $41.50…Crude Oil has soared $1.29 a barrel to $67.81 while the U.S. Dollar Index is relatively flat at 89.54…
2. As clumsy Canada trips over its own feet with regard to Oil and gas,despite being blessed with the world’s 3rd-largest Reserves which multiple politicians (bewilderingly) are essentially apologizing for, WTI prices have rocketed to a new 3-year high on the back of declining U.S. inventories…government data released this morning confirmed that U.S. Crude stockpiles fell last week, further encouraging the bulls who also have geopolitical dynamics in their favor with the possibility of supply disruptions in key Oil producing nations…this morning’s report from the Energy Information Administration was very bullish with across the board drawdowns in everything, including a 1.1 million barrel drop in Crude inventories in the week through April 13…meanwhile, traders are looking ahead to the next joint ministerial monitoring meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC countries that have joined forces to hold back production…ministers are set to discuss options for further cuts into next year when they meet in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Friday…
3. As flabbergasted as a growing number of Canadians are with the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion fiasco, and how that $7.4 billion project is now in serious jeopardy, don’t forget how the Trudeau Liberals killed Energy East in sneaky fashion last year in the face of strident opposition from politically influential Quebec…Trudeau, who has saddled Canadians with a modern day version of his father’s disastrous National Energy Program, imposed an “upstream emissions test” on Energy East, blatantly ignoring the emissions emanating from foreign Oil suppliers and those hundreds of tankers carrying their Oil…yes, Trudeau actually discriminated against Canadian companies…the government then required a restart of the entire NEB regulatory hearing process with (significantly) newly appointed board members…TransCanada saw the writing on the wall – Quebec votes were far more important to the Trudeau government than their project, and TransCanada was forced to throw in the towel…rather than directly opposing the project, Trudeau merely killed it indirectly behind the scenes so as not to stir up Oil supporters out west where the Liberals made some inroads in the 2014 elections…no different than his father, Justin’s heart is certainly not with the Oil and gas sector…
4.The Bank of Canada held interest rates steady today, as expected, but said more hikes will be needed over time amid progress on the dynamics of wage growth and inflation, two issues that have concerned the central bank…in altering its long-repeated notes of caution on price and wage pressures, the bank sounded a more hawkish tone on the future of interest rates, which have been hiked 3 times since last July. “Some progress has been made on the key issues being watched closely by the Governing Council, particularly the dynamics of inflation and wage growth,” the bank said in a statement. “This progress reinforces Governing Council’s view that higher interest rates will be warranted over time, although some monetary policy accommodation will still be needed to keep inflation on target.”
5. The Dow is relatively flat through the first 30 minutes of trading…Morgan Stanley reported record net income and revenues for the 1st quarter as the bank’s top and bottom lines blew past Wall Street expectations…in Toronto, the TSX has surged 133 points while the Venture has added 1 point to 799…Ascot Resources (AOT, TSX-V), banged down to a strong support area in recent months, has commenced a 45,000-m drill program at its Premier-Dilworth Property near Stewart…approximately 200 drill holes will be completed, targeting infill and expansion in various areas…an updated resource estimate is also expected next month which will contain the maiden higher-grade resources in the Premier-Northern Lights area…
6. Colorado Resources (CXO, TSX-V) hopes its internal battles are behind it…a new board of directors was elected at the company’s AGM yesterday with major shareholder Goldcorp (G, TSX) taking the independent 5th position on the board (Alastair Still) to go along with management’s 2 directors (Robert Shaw and Cecil Bond) and 2 directors from the proposed slate of former President and CEO Adam Travis…we’ll now see what the new CEO and board have planned for Colorado which has been a major disappointment since some success in 2016…in a March 28 news release, Shaw stated: “Following the termination of the Damara transaction, the company under my leadership is contemplating expanding and significantly improving its property portfolio in northwestern British Columbia.”
7. Keep an eye on Uranium: As tensions escalate between the U.S. and Russia, the market for Uranium could finally turn...Russian lawmakers have proposed measures that would halt enriched Uranium exports to the U.S. which has the potential to reset the supply and demand picture…Fission Uranium (FCU, TSX) director Rob Chang says Russia’s move could “potentially be quite explosive”, according to a Financial Post report…Uranium prices have declined by more than 70% since 2011 when Japan took all its nuclear reactors off-line…that contributed to an oversupply and depressed prices to the point where at many mines it costs more to produce Uranium than to buy it on the spot market…in January, Cameco laid off 845 workers and suspended operations at its McArthur River mining and Key Lake mill in Saskatchewan…
