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1. Gold has traded between $1,232 and $1,242 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is off $7 an ounce at $1,235 in a healthy minor retreat…Silver has fallen 22 cents to $14.50…Copper and Zinc are off slightly at $2.78 and $1.18, respectively, while Nickel is unchanged at $4.88…Cobalt remains steady at $25.06…Crude Oil is 49 cents lower at $52.09 while the U.S. Dollar Index has climbed one quarter of a point to 97.33…China officially stated today that it will temporarily halt its additional 25% tariff on vehicles made in the United States…the relief will last for 3 months starting from January 1 as part of an agreed truce between Beijing and Washington…that brings the auto tariffs in China back down to the same level they were (15%) prior to when the 2 countries began imposing tit-for-tat levies…euro zone growth continues to slow…the IHS Markit Flash Eurozone PMI index fell to 51.7 in December, its lowest level in 4 years…“New business inflows almost stalled, job creation slipped to a 2-year low and business optimism deteriorated,” IHS Markit said in a release…
2. China today reported industrial output and retail sales growth for the month of November that missed expectations, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics…industrial output in November grew 5.4% from a year ago, well off from the consensus estimate of 5.9% and the slowest pace in almost 3 years…meanwhile, retail sales came in at 8.1% in November, the weakest pace since 2003 and lower than the 8.8% analysts were expecting…the only bright spot was fixed asset investment which climbed 5.9% from January to November, marginally higher than the consensus forecast of 5.8%…despite escalating trade tensions with the U.S., Chinese data have shown that the economy has surprised on the upside for much of 2018…manufacturing, in particular, has held up as exporters rushed to ship their goods – a phenomenon called front-loading – before tariff deadlines hit…the weaker Chinese data in November appears to indicate that the positive impact of front-loading had begun to taper off and that downward pressure on the Chinese economy was increasing…
3. The U.S. federal government ran a $205 billion deficit in November, according to data released yesterday by the Treasury Department…analysts polled by Reuters had expected a $188 billion deficit for last month…Treasury said federal spending in November was $411 billion, up 18% from the same month in 2017, while receipts were $206 billion, down 1% compared to November 2017…the total deficit for the first 2 months of the current fiscal year has widened 51%, to $305 billion, compared to $202 billion in the first 2 months of the prior fiscal year…trillion dollar annual deficits are lining up in Washington as far as the eye can see and this is ultimately going to be very bullish for Gold…
4. The anti-Oil, climate-change extremism of many Canadians is truly astonishing, which is why Canada under Trudeau has become a country that cares more about getting pot to market than Oil to market…in the latest example of this destructive anti-Oil mentality, energy companies are rightfully pulling out of a high-profile investment conference slated for January in Whistler after its mayor, Jack Crompton, called for Canadian Natural Resources to “compensate the mountain town for the effects of climate change”…The Globe And Mail reports that in a letter, Crompton asked Canadian Natural President Tim McKay to “begin taking financial responsibility for the climate-related harm caused in our community by your products”…what a hideous statement…one of the impacts has been increased spending on wildfire protection, he claims (liberals/socialists/greenies want to blame “climate change” for increased forest fires in B.C. rather than deal with the real problem which is government mismanagement of the forests and fire prevention strategies)…Crompton’s remarks are going to fan a polarizing debate between Canada’s globalist climate change extremists and the Oil industry, which has been struggling to convince the loud minority of Canadians that this country’s inability to add pipeline capacity and garner higher prices for Crude is costing the national economy anywhere from $50 million to $100 million a day…PrairieSky Royalty and Gibson Energy are among companies that have already opted to back out of the event in response to Crompton’s letter…others are said to be following suit…these companies should cancel the Whistler conference and stage it somewhere else where they are welcomed by the community, not insulted by the likes of Crompton…
5. In less than 2 weeks since Alberta ordered Oil companies to curtail output starting in January, Western Canadian Select has nearly doubled in price, taking a huge discount on Canadian Oil back down to normal levels (for now at least)…Oil and gas stocks, on the other hand, have continued to decline…the S&P/TSX Composite Energy Sector Index is down 2% since production cuts were announced, leaving the sector’s total loss at 21% since July…the divergence suggests investors are doubtful that the home-grown Oil crisis is over…the Trudeau government’s Bill C-69, which is awaiting Senate approval, is the final nail in the coffin for new pipelines in Canada – not another pipeline will ever get built as long as Bill C-69 is Trudeau’s law of the land…
6. The Dow is down 196 points as of 7:00 am Pacific on more global growth fears…in Toronto, the TSX is off just 52 points…Kirkland Lake Gold’s (KL, TSX) 12-session winning streak is in jeopardy today with the stock slipping 90 cents to $32.49 through the first 30 minutes of trading, thanks to the modest retreat in Gold prices and profit-taking…KL is the best Gold stock in the business and should enjoy a stellar 2019…the Venture is up a point at 558…19 years of Venture history shows that, on average, the December low occurs on the 12th of the month…it has occurred as early as the 1st and as late as the 19th, meaning a bottom on the Venture can be expected anytime between today and next Wednesday (Fed Day) before a potentially powerful rebound sets in…sentiment levels and chart indicators are all pointing to an imminent sharp reversal, and that turn may have started this morning after the Index briefly dipped as low as 555…Fib. 560 support is going to hold…this is a time to be bullish, not bearish…Sokoman Iron (SIC, TSX-V), at its Moosehead Project in north-central Newfoundland, has drilled into a 1.1 m visible Gold-bearing quartz vein averaging 550.3 g/t within a broader 5.1 m zone @ 124.2 g/t…this intercept lies 35 m up-dip (above) drill hole MH-18–01 that returned 11.9 m m 44.96 g/t Au, including a high-grade vein that averaged 385.85 g/t Au over 1.35 m (true thickness of vein is believed to be 90% of core length)…nice grades, but SIC still has to show that the system at Moosehead “hangs together”…
7. Canada Goose Holdings (GOOS, TSX) is delaying the opening of its flagship store in Beijing, as escalating tensions between China and Canada triggered by the arrest of Huawei Technologies’ CFO threaten its ambitions in the world’s 2nd largest economy…the Toronto-based maker of premium parkas said on its Weibo account today that it was postponing the store’s debut, scheduled for tomorrow in Beijing’s trendy Sanlitun district, “due to construction reasons”…the posting came after Weibo social media users threatened to protest the opening…the company has been targeted for a boycott of its brand on media platforms since Meng Wanzhou’s arrest, given its prominence as a Canadian label…the timing could not be worse for the luxury jacket maker, which just last month launched a splashy entry into greater China with a store in Hong Kong and plans for the Beijing flagship, betting that the country’s growing middle class is ready to spend on its Arctic-ready, $1,000 plus parkas…GOOS is off $1.82 at $71.24 as of 7:00 am Pacific, a drop of 22% since Meng’s arrest was made public last week…
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