BullMarketRun.com

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

1. Gold has traded between $1,301 and $1,310 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is up $1 an ounce at $1,307…the Federal Reserve is expected to hold interest rates steady today, shave the number of hikes projected for the rest of the year, and release long-awaited details of a plan to end the monthly reduction of its massive balance sheet…how much of this dovishness is already “baked” into the market we’ll soon find out as markets react to the news later today and through the rest of the week…Silver is off slightly at $15.32…Copper is up a penny at $2.94…Nickel has jumped 7 cents to $5.98 while Zinc is a penny higher at $1.31…Crude Oil has retreated 19 cents a barrel to $58.84 while the U.S. Dollar Index is up slightly at 96.45…China will strive to achieve its economic development targets for 2019, state television said today, quoting the cabinet after a meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang…the government says it’ll speed up tax and fee cuts and push reforms to help shore up confidence and protect jobs…the European Union has fined Alphabet’s Google $1.7 billion (U.S.) for abusing the dominance of its search engine to block competitors in the niche market of selling text ads on the search results that appear on 3rd party websites…today’s decision is the last among 3 sets of formal charges that the European Commission, the bloc’s antitrust regulator, has so far filed against the tech giant, drawing to a close at least one part of a nearly decade-long investigation…

2. The biggest trading volume in Copper call options on record signals supply troubles brewing in the market…a spread trade worth $6.5 million was posted early Monday morning on Comex in New York in a bet that the price of the metal used in wires and pipes will surge past $3.05 in a few months…“It’s a pretty aggressive bullish bet,” stated Tai Wong, head of base and precious metals derivatives trading at BMO Capital Markets…the wager was likely fueled by “expectations that supply will become tight”…Copper production will trail consumption by 116,000 metric tons this year, a 2nd straight deficit, Citigroup analysts wrote in a report in December, while Antofagasta CEO Iván Arriagada said yesterday that the Copper deficit could run as high as 300,000 metric tons this year…investors looking ahead several months should do well on high quality juniors with strong Copper exposure, and Northwest B.C. would be a great first place to look…

3. Oil prices are likely to turn higher on news just out that U.S. stockpiles of Crude refined fuels plunged last week…Crude inventories fell by 9.6 million barrels in the last week, the Energy Administration confirmed this morning in its weekly update, vs. analysts’ expectations for an increase of 309,000 barrels…the draw was the largest since July 2018…gasoline stocks, meanwhile, fell by 4.6 million barrels, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 2.4 million barrel drop…distillate stockpiles also fell much more than expected…Crude futures, hitting new 4-month highs, have drawn support this week from ongoing supply cuts led by producer club OPEC and U.S. sanctions against Iran and Venezuela…Crude prices have risen by almost a third this year but are still not at levels that would be considered inflationary for the global economy…

4. Investors now put a 75% probability on the likelihood the Fed won’t raise its overnight benchmark interest rate, or federal funds rate, any more this year, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool…the fed funds rate is currently set in a range of 2.25% to 2.50%…new quarterly economic and rate projections to be released with the latest Fed policy statement at 11:00 am Pacific will show how closely policymakers align with that view…the Fed’s December projection called for 2 hikes this year, but that is widely expected to be cut to a single increase at the conclusion of the 2-day policy meeting later this morning…it would take a downward move by 7 policymakers to bring the median expected number of hikes to zero for the year, a full half-percentage point change that has happened only once since the Fed began making its “dot plot” of projections public in 2012…the more intense focus among investors may be on the balance sheet, and the Fed’s plans to stop reducing its holdings of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities each month by as much as $50 billion…details of that plan are also expected to be released today, providing investors with a sense of how much longer the drawdown will continue, and what will likely be left in the Fed’s portfolio of assets when it stops…

5. Yesterday’s Canadian federal budget was yet another disappointment – many billions of dollars in new spending targeted at the Liberals’ favorite groups, in an attempt to win votes, but not even the promise of a comprehensive review of Canada’s aging tax code or other measures to boost the country’s competitiveness…nothing of course for the resource sector…not that Trudeau’s assurances mean anything – a pipeline was supposed to be built and of course there was that promise of a balanced budget by 2019, but now we have a pipeline fiasco and a $20 billion budget hole with no end in sight to deficit spending that’s doing nothing to improve the economy…annualized growth of 0.4% in Q4 vs. 2.6% in the United States…the numbers don’t lie…day by day, month by month, Canada’s competitiveness vs. the United States and other countries continues to wane, yet many Canadians seem perfectly content with that…liberals assume that bigger government means better government and a stronger economy when the opposite is actually true…since 2015, real GDP growth in Canada has averaged 1.9%, less than in the previous 4 years (during balanced budgets)…slower growth during the Trudeau years, like the Obama era in the U.S., has occurred despite much larger doses of both monetary and fiscal stimulus…on top of the federal government’s large and sustained budget deficits, the Bank of Canada lowered interest rates and presided over a devaluation of the loonie…one lasting effect of Canada’s increasing dollops of stimulus was a surge in housing prices in Vancouver and Toronto, which required a tightening of mortgage regulations to curb possible housing market bubbles…

6. The Dow has slid 122 points after the first 30 minutes of trading…FedEx (FDX, NYSE) shares fell more than 5% after the company warned that “slowing international macroeconomic conditions and weaker global trade growth trends continue, as see in the year-over-year decline in our FedEx Express international revenue”…in Toronto, the TSX has lost 54 points while the Venture is unchanged at 636 after hitting a new 2019 high yesterday of 638…the Index is working through a band of resistance between the 620’s and the mid-660’s…once that is cleared, a major acceleration to the upside is likely…astute investors are positioning now for a very buoyant summer which will likely start early…the Venture’s 100-day moving average (SMA), in decline for a year, has flattened out at 600 and is preparing to reverse higher early in Q2, a sure sign that this market is going to heat up in a major way…

7. 48North Cannabis (NRTH, TSX-V), which is bouncing back strongly as predicted after dipping as low as $1.19 late last week, has been added to the Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences ETF…“The addition of 48North to the HMMJ signals market validation of the company’s strong position in the Canadian cannabis industry,” stated 48North co-CEO Alison Gordon.  “48North’s inclusion, along with a select group of its peers, is a proof-point that the company is being watched closely by the investment community.  Investors are taking note of the disruptive potential that, pending Health Canada’s approval, 48North’s significant outdoor cultivation will have on the industry as a whole”…in addition to the HMMJ, 48North is also listed on the Horizons Emerging Marijuana Growers Index ETF (HMJR, TSX), a select group of primarily North American publicly-listed companies involved in the cultivation, production and/or distribution of marijuana…HMMJ is an index (or passively managed) ETF, which seeks to replicate, to the extent possible, the performance of the North American Marijuana Index, net of expenses…this index is designed to provide exposure to the performance of a basket of North American publicly listed life sciences companies with significant business activities in the marijuana industry…the North American Marijuana Index selects from a current universe of companies that have operations that may include one or more of biopharmaceuticals, medical manufacturing, distribution, bio-products and other ancillary businesses related to the marijuana industry…

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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 $1,303 and $1,312 so far today as investors focus on a new 2-day Fed meeting that begins this morning…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is up $6 an ounce at $1,309…the Fed tomorrow is expected to lower its interest rate forecasts, or “dot plots”, to show little or no further tightening in 2019…with global economic growth appearing to slow, most market participants anticipate the U.S. central bank to adopt a cautious tone…how much of this dovishness is already “baked” into the market we’ll see as the week unfolds…SPDR Gold holdings posted their biggest daily gain yesterday since January 18th…Palladium has hit a new all-time high, crossing the $1,600 an ounce mark for the first time as news that Russia is planning to ban exports of precious metals scrap fuelled concerns over an already supply-constrained market…Palladium also continues to get help from China, the world’s biggest auto market, which continues to enforce stimulus measures to boost its tiring economy…Silver has added 7 cents to $15.39…Copper is up a penny at $2.94…Chilean miner Antofagasta expects a deficit of between 100,000 and 300,000 tonnes in the global Copper market in 2019, CEO Iván Arriagada said today…Nickel is 6 cents higher at $5.93 while Zinc has gained 1 cent to $1.29…Crude Oil hit a new 2019 high this morning, currently up 18 cents at $59.27…the U.S. Dollar Index has retreated one-tenth of a point to 96.40…lawyers for British Columbia’s anti-Oil socialist government argued in court yesterday that B.C. should have the authority to limit Oil shipments on federally regulated export pipelines within the province, such as the Trans Mountain expansion project, which of course would effectively give the province a “veto” over federally authorized, interprovincial infrastructure projects…such a scenario should be viewed by any reasonable judge as contrary to the Canadian constitution…meanwhile, the embattled Liberal federal government rolls out a new budget today which will be far from balanced as Prime Minister Trudeau promised voters in the last election…the 2018 budget actually mentioned the word “gender” more than 150 times but not once mentioned the word “pipeline”…that defined Trudeau’s real priorities as the most far-left PM in Canadian history…not surprisingly, Canada’s economy in Q4 grew at a paltry annualized rate of just 0.4% vs. a much more robust 2.6% in the United States…as Kevin O’Leary has pointed out repeatedly, Canada is just a very poorly managed country these days…

2. U.S. economic growth is set to slow significantly this year and next, according to respondents to the CNBC Fed Survey for March, and weaker global growth and tariffs are seen as the major culprits…the average forecast for GDP growth this year is just 2.3%, down from 2.4% expected in the January survey and a further slowing from the actual 3.1% year-over-year pace for the 4th quarter of 2018…economic growth is seen stepping down below 2% in 2020, according to the survey…the outlook for slower growth has prompted the 43 survey respondents to lower their expectations for Fed rate hikes this year and next – barely forecasting 1 hike and some even seeing rate cuts on the horizon…asked about the biggest threats to the U.S. expansion, slowing global growth and protectionist trade policies ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively…however, the concerns about trade policy come from a group where 51% approve of President Trump’s handling of the economy and only 32% disapprove…a weak outlook for growth abroad knocked just under half a percentage point off GDP forecasts this year, according to respondents, who include economists, fund managers and strategists…tariffs, both those put in place by the Trump administration and retaliatory tariffs from other countries, are estimated to cut one-fifth of a percentage point from growth…how does the Fed process all these crosscurrents? – with fewer rate hikes and a bigger balance sheet, according to respondents…60% still see a rate hike this year, but that’s down from 78% in the January survey…notably, 14% forecast a rate cut, rising to 35% in 2020…

3. Exploration spending in the prolific Eskay region this summer is expected to hit a new all-time high…1 junior that was not involved in the district last year, Crystal Lake Mining (CLM, TSX-V), has just raised $4 million for its Newmont Lake Project, starting 15 km northwest of Nickel Mountain, which features an historic Gold resource and multiple high-grade opportunities along the McLymont Fault, in addition to a new grassroots drilling discovery at Burgundy Ridge announced 10 days ago that includes high-grade Copper plus Gold, Silver, Cobalt and Zinc in a potential large-scale porphyry system west of the McLymont Fault…meanwhile, Tudor Gold (TUD, TSX-V) has just completed a $3 million private placement with Eric Sprott taking half of that amount in his first investment in the company…Tudor owns 60% of the Treaty Creek Project which borders Seabridge Gold’s (SEA, TSX) KSM Property to the southwest and Pretium Resources‘ (PGX, TSX) Brucejack mine property to the southeast…Garibaldi Resources (GGI, TSX-V), Crystal Lake, Metallis Resources (MTS, TSX-V), Aben Resources (ABN, TSX-V), Etruscus Resources (ETR, CSE) and Tudor Gold top BMR’s list of best opportunities among juniors in the district this summer…

4. The Dow is up 86 points through the first 30 minutes of trading…in Toronto, the TSX has lost 15 points while the Venture has jumped another 3 points to 636, a new yearly high…Harvest Cannabis (HVT, TSX-V) continues to run, slightly surpassing its 2018 high of $1.10 in early trading…Corvus Gold (KOR, TSX) has drilled its best hole yet at Mother Lode in Nevada, a 126-m intercept grading 1.85 g/t Au that outlines a major new and expanding center of the deposit north of the existing resource…resource expansion drilling at Mother Lode is ongoing with 15,000 m planned during the current phase…ML-19–104 had thick intervals of underground-type grades in the 4–6 g/t Gold range with the bottom of the hole averaging almost 5 g/t Au…this hole, along with previously reported ML-18–093 (116 m @ 1.8 g/t Au) and ML-18–087 (114 m 1.4 g/t Au) are defining a large new deposit north of the currently defined resource…First Vanadium (FVAN, TSX-V), formerly Cornerstone Metals, has more than doubled the size of its Carlin Vanadium Property from 1,331 acres to 3,177 acres…the new claims provide the company with a larger working area around the Carlin Vanadium deposit…Vanadium is growing in importance for key industrial manufacturing sectors, most notably steel and renewable energy…

5. Westhaven Ventures (WHN, TSX-V) is off to a flying start in 2019 drilling at its Shovelhose high-grade Gold discovery near Merritt in B.C.’s southern interior…the first hole of this year’s campaign (SN-19–01) has returned 12.7 m grading 39.3 g/t Au and 133.1 g/t Ag from 154.34 m to 167.0 m …assays are pending for SN-19–02 which cut an intercept of rhyolite breccia with sections of banded quartz, ginger, pyrite and visible Gold in veins between approximately 137 m and 177 m…SN-19–03 is currently in progress…based on the geology of the vein zone with a steep dip to the west, the company says true widths are estimated to be about 80% to 90% of reported interval lengths…Gareth Thomas, Westhaven President & CEO, commented, “SN19–01 contains the highest gram-metres (497.66 g-m) intercept to date on Shovelnose.  It was drilled at 50-m strike spacing between hole SN18–14 (435.36 g-m) and hole SN 18–15 (413.49 g-m).  South zone drilling continues to define the extent and demonstrate the continuity of this Gold-mineralized vein system.  Drill intercepts of this grade and thickness strengthen management’s belief that we’re dealing with a large, high-grade Gold system”…WHN jumped 19 cents yesterday following the halt, closing at $1.12 on total volume (all exchanges) of 1.3 million shares…the stock broke above its 50-day SMA which had been resistance since mid-January…

6. Chemesis International (CSI, CSE) announced this morning that it has arranged a partnership with First Medical Cannabis LLC to commence exclusive cultivation of hemp with high yields of cannabidiol…with the anticipation of hemp legalization in Puerto Rico, the company continues to increase its foothold on the island and now has the ability to cultivate high yield CBD derived from hemp on a large scale for distribution on the island and the mainland USA…initially, Chemesis will have access to 1,000 acres for hemp cultivation, and will have the option to expand up to an additional 5,000 acres of prime agricultural estate…in total, the partnership and joint venture with First Medical Cannabis provides CSI with access of up to 6,000 acres of agricultural land in Puerto Rico…Chemesis will leverage its fully compliant facility to manufacture, process, and distribute hemp-derived CBD products…the facility has the ability to off-take all hemp produced by First Medical, and process into finished goods for sale in domestic and international markets, including the continental United States…Puerto Rico has a competitive advantage as the climate, soil, and geographical region allow for a much longer growing season…“Since the last of Puerto Rico’s sugar mills closed in 2000, the island has been in need of an agricultural revolution and the hemp industry promises much needed jobs,” said Chemesis CEO Edgar Montero. “Puerto Rico’s tropical climate makes the island an ideal competitor in the hemp industry, furthermore it will allow the company to harvest up to 3 crops per year compared to 1 in many areas around the world”…CSI is up 4 cents at $2.07 as of 7:00 am Pacific…

7. Tilray (TLRY, NASDAQ) has reported that its cannabis sales more than doubled over the last year…Tilray’s 4th-quarter revenue of $15.5 million lifted 2018 sales to $43.1 million, up 110% from last year…the surge was driven by bulk sales, the first months of the legal adult-use market in Canada and accelerated wholesale exports, according to its latest financial update…analysts had expected Q4 sales of $14.1 million…“Our team made significant progress on our long-term initiatives including increasing production capacity, expanding and strengthening strategic partnerships, and acquiring complementary businesses to accelerate our future growth and leadership position in medical and adult-use cannabis,” Tilray CEO Brendan Kennedy stated…net loss for the quarter was $31 million, or 33 cents per share, compared to $3 million, or 4 cents per share, for the prior-year period…the company also said that the number of kilograms of cannabis and derivative products increased nearly 3-fold to 2,053 from 694 kilograms compared to the 4th quarter of 2017…kilograms sold in 2018 more than doubled to 6,478 from 3,024 in the prior year…Tilray expanded a number of strategic partnerships with global partners in Q4…

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

1. Gold has traded between $1,298 and $1,307 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is up $3 an ounce at $1,305…Silver has added 12 cents to $15.38…Copper is up a penny to $2.94…Nickel is 5 cents higher at $5.87 while Zinc is unchanged at $1.29…Crude Oil is flat at $58.53 while the U.S. Dollar Index is also unchanged at 96.52…OPEC and other major Oil producers today canceled a meeting planned for April, a move that leaves the alliance’s price-boosting production cuts in place until at least June…the group is delaying its decision because it expects the Oil market to remain oversupplied through the 1st half of the year, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said at a committee meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan…the delay also allows the producers to assess how U.S. sanctions on OPEC-members Iran and Venezuela will affect the Crude market in the coming months…

2. Underneath the stock market’s epic rebound has been a “more favorable” trend that Credit Suisse says will drive the market higher…the bank has dialed up its year-end forecast for the S&P 500 to 3,025 from 2,925 previously…the new forecast calls for a gain of more than 20% or more than 7% from current levels after the big rally to start the year…it would also be the stock market’s best year since 2013..all the market risks that tanked stocks in December are now “receding” according to Credit Suisse chief U.S. equity strategist Jonathan Golub…“Less hawkish comments from the Fed, declining inflation and recession fears, and the potential for a resolution to China trade issues are the primary forces driving volatility and spreads lower, and stocks higher,” he stated…notably, the U.S. election cycle favors bullish markets this year…U.S. equity markets have risen significantly in the year after all 18 mid-term elections since World War II with the S&P delivering an average return of 14.5%, according to LPL Financial Research…the pattern is pointing to a longer bull run even after this year’s epic rebound…the S&P is up only 1.3% since the mid-terms last November, so there is indeed a lot of room for stocks to run in 2019 based on historical patterns…

3. Canadian mining companies and investors don’t need to be lectured by socialists from Mexico – they’ll just take their money elsewhere…Canadian companies operating in Mexico have been “put on notice” that the sector is going to face increased scrutiny on its environmental practices and treatment of Indigenous people, according to the the country’s new ambassador to Ottawa…“President Lopez Obrador has been very public about this, that we really want a strong, profitable mining sector – and Canadian mining companies are large investors in Mexico – but we expect them to operate in this country with exactly the same standards as they do in Canada,” Juan Jose Gomez Camacho, who was ratified as the new ambassador last Thursday, said in an interview at the foreign affairs ministry in the Mexican capital…some 70% of foreign-owned mining companies operating in Mexico are based in Canada, according to Global Affairs Canada…in 2015, Canadian firms held assets in Mexico totalling nearly $20 billion (U.S.)…Gomez Camacho said enforcement of Mexico’s existing laws will be increased under the government of Lopez Obrador, a socialist who has made “combating corruption” and improving the welfare of Mexico’s poor key parts of the plan for his 6 years in office…“One area that is very important to us, in the case of the mining industry, is that we see a stronger, more robust impact on the socio-economic development of the communities where the mines are,” the ambassador said…part of this process is strengthening the rule of law in Mexico, he said, and “increasing the role of the state in making sure that the standards of operation in Mexico from foreign companies in this or any other sector are sustainable.  But it’s also a self-discipline, it’s a question of companies’ values on how they operate”…it’s not hard to see where things are headed in Mexico – it’s yet another jurisdiction resource sector investors need to be increasingly wary of..

4. The Dow is up 22 points through the first 30 minutes of trading…in Toronto, the TSX has gained 52 points while the Venture has added another 4 points to 623, a new yearly high…Harvest One Cannabis (HVT, TSX-V) is a volume and price gain leader in early trading after announcing that it has inked an agreement to become a medical cannabis supplier to Shoppers Drug Mart…Auramex Resource (AUX, TSX-V) continues to consolidate an impressive land position in Northwest B.C. with the company announcing this morning that it has optioned the Silver Crown Property from Teuton Resources (TUO, TSX-V)…the Auramex geological team is planning to integrate the newly acquired Silver Crown Property into its exploration program along the Bear Valley-American Creek corridor near Stewart…currently, the team is finalizing its data compilation and preparing for the 2019 field season, which includes permitting for diamond drilling…on the CSE, Miramont Resources (MONT, CSE) has hit a new high of 63 cents in early trading…the company started drilling its promising Cerro Hermosa Project in Peru in late January and an update is expected soon…strong opportunity for a new discovery there…

5. Westhaven Ventures (WHN, TSX-V) was halted pre-market, pending news (likely drill results)…another discovery play in B.C. (high-grade Gold) we continue to watch closely…we were the first to bring Westhaven to investors’ attention last fall during the time BMR broke the story about a huge staking in the southern B.C. interior along the Spences Bridge Gold Belt…Westhaven raced from 15 cents to more than $1.40 after a series of stellar results from its Shovelnose Property near Merritt such as 17.7 m @ 24.5 g/t Au and 107.9 g/t Ag, including 6.78 m @ 50.76 g/t Au and 203.54 g/t Ag (hole #14)…2019 drilling started in late February (3,000-m program)…stock closed at 93 cents Friday…a move back above $1 would be a bullish technical development…

6. B.C. goes to court over Oil:  British Columbia’s Court of Appeal will consider a key question regarding provincial powers in the political battle over the future of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project during a 5-day hearing that starts this morning…the B.C. government’s reference case asks the court if the province has jurisdiction to regulate the transport of Oil through its territory and restrict bitumen shipments from Alberta…specifically, it asks if proposed amendments to B.C.’s Environmental Management Act are valid and if they give the province the authority to control the shipment of heavy Oils based on the impact spills could have on the environment, human health or communities…the province is also asking the court whether the amendments are overridden by federal law…Alberta Premier Notley and Prime Minister Trudeau have said only Ottawa, not the provinces, has the authority to decide what goes in trans-boundary pipelines…Alberta and Saskatchewan have both filed documents as interested parties supporting Ottawa in the case…

7. One Canadian pot company is making a huge splash in the U.S. market…early last week, cannabis product retailer Harvest Health and Recreation (HRVSF, NASDAQ) announced it would buy competitor Verano Holdings for $850 million in an all-stock deal, marking the largest U.S. cannabis deal to date…the combined company will be one of the country’s largest multi-state operators, presiding over as many as 200 facilities in 16 states…Steve White, the co-founder and CEO of Harvest, has a clear vision for how Verano will bolster Harvest’s positioning in the still-developing U.S. pot industry…“Presently, we’re in a phase that people are referring to it as a land grab,” White told CNBC…“We plan on…developing the largest retail footprint, the largest retail platform, in the United States, and with this acquisition, I think we’ve done that”…Harvest currently operates in Arizona, California, Florida, Maryland, Ohio and Pennsylvania, and was already planning to open new locations in Massachusetts, Michigan and North Dakota…the Verano acquisition adds Illinois and Nevada to that list, as well as plans for new locations in Puerto Rico, Oklahoma and New Jersey…

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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 $1,297 and $1,305 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is up $8 an ounce at $1,304…the yellow metal got a lift when the New York region’s manufacturing sector showed weakness in fresh numbers released this morning…the New York Federal Reserve said its Empire State manufacturing survey’s general business conditions index dropped to a reading of 3.7 in March, down from February’s reading of 8.8…consensus forecasts were calling for a rise to 10.1…according to the report, this is the 3rd consecutive month the index has remained below 10, “suggesting that growth has remained quite a bit slower so far this year than it was for most of 2018“…Silver has jumped 16 cents to $15.31…Copper is up 2 pennies to $2.93…Nickel is 5 cents higher at 5.86 while Zinc is down a penny at $1.29…a nationwide power failure in crisis-stricken Venezuela could trigger “serious disruption” to the Oil market, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned today, but OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia should have the means to offset any further production woes in Caracas…the IEA report comes at a time when Venezuela, home to the world’s biggest Oil reserves, is in the midst of the Western Hemisphere’s worst humanitarian crisis in recent memory…thanks to socialism, Venezuela has gone from being the richest country in South America to an economic basket case…bad government policies continue to plague Canada’s Oil sector…Imperial Oil (IMO, TSX, NYSE) has just announced that it has slowed the development of a $2.6 billion Oilsands project because of uncertainty due to the Alberta government’s Oil production curtailment program and other challenges…first production from the Aspen in-situ project had been expected in 2022 but will now likely be delayed by at least 1 year, Imperial has confirmed…some profit-taking in WTI this morning which is down 48 cents at $58.13 after a strong week…the U.S. Dollar Index is off more than one-tenth of a point at 96.57…

2. The world’s appetite for Oil and gasoline is growing faster than many forecasters expected, meaning Crude prices will continue to push higher according to Goldman Sachs…the investment bank says Oil demand grew by 1.55 million barrels per day in January alone, a strong result despite a tough comparison with high consumption last year…for the 1st quarter, Goldman expects global Oil demand to grow by nearly 2 million bpd, trouncing its earlier forecast for 1.1 million bpd and driven by consumption in emerging markets…it will also keep growth for the full year on pace for Goldman’s target of 1.45 million bpd, making the bank more bullish than most forecasters…“We continue to believe that ongoing macro and Oil demand concerns are overdone,” Goldman analysts said in a research note yesterday…the strong demand will likely push Brent Crude, the international benchmark for Oil prices, above $70 per barrel…the rally has already outstripped Goldman’s prior view that Brent would peak at $67.50 in the 2nd quarter…Brent hit a 2019 high above $68 yesterday and is trading around $66.52 this morning…

3. The precious metals space will soon be reawakened by Palladium’s rally, with Gold, Silver, and Platinum prices heading higher, according to Mike McGlone, respected senior commodity strategist for Bloomberg Intelligence (BI)…“The precious metals market is about to resume a rally, in our view, on the back of a surge in the Palladium price.  For the first time in 5 years, the Bloomberg Precious Metals Spot Subindex is poking above its 72-month average.  It may be a better bullish broad-market indication if the recent visit above $1,500 an ounce in Palladium marks a peak”…a pattern in which the precious metals follow Palladium’s lead has already been established, McGlone pointed out…“Platinum, Silver and Gold embarked on decade-long rallies shortly after a similar parabolic Palladium rally and peak in 2001,” he pointed out…“History is likely to repeat, as we see it. The precious metals index is just recovering from the halfway point of that rally, with Platinum the most unloved, similar to 1999. The Platinum discount to Palladium appears to be unsustainable.  Platinum and Silver have the most upside potential, with the former looking ready to test the resistance level of $1,500 an ounce.  That level is the recent record high in Palladium, but only the halfway mark of the 2008-09 bear market for Platinum.  At the bottom of that range now, with the Palladium-to-Platinum ratio extending the 2001 peak, we think Platinum is ready to take the bull market baton,” McGlone concluded…

4. The Dow is off 17 points through the first 30 minutes of trading…in Toronto, the TSX is getting some help from Gold stocks and is up 62 points…Continental Gold (CNL, TSX) was halted pre-market and then announced that it has obtained a $175 million (U.S.) financing package consisting of (a) $75 million of unsecured convertible debentures being issued to certain investors, including a $50 million debenture from Newmont Mining (NEM, NYSE), and (b) a $100 million Gold and Silver stream from a company based in Bermuda…Continental is proceeding toward construction, commissioning and start-up of its Buritica Project in Antioquia, Colombia…the Venture, still trying to overcome resistance in the low 620’s, has added 3 points to 626…on the CSE, Miramont Resources (MONT, CSE) has hit a new high of 59 cents in early trading…Miramont could be on the verge of an important new discovery at its flagship property in Peru…drilling at Cerro Hermosa commenced in January and an update is expected soon…this is a well-financed company (powerful backers) with solid management that’s determined to push the story out to investors…interestingly, especially considering the rather prolific regional trend, Cerro Hermosa has hardly been touched historically, a fact that drew considerable curiosity from Dr. Quinton Hennigh (Miramont Chairman) when he first looked at the project…however, Dr. Hennigh quickly came to the conclusion that Cerro Hermosa was a stellar overlooked opportunity…combined with local infrastructure and community support, Cerro Hermosa “ticked all the boxes”, according to Dr. Hennigh…just recently, in a clear indication that drilling has been going well, Miramont signed an option agreement to acquire the An An concession immediately adjacent to Cerro Hermosa…the company has now consolidated a total of 1,886 hectares at the project with the addition of this 568-hectare concession…

5. Tesla (TSLA, NASDAQ) has just introduced its latest electric vehicle, the Model Y, a crossover SUV that will cost from $39,000 to $60,000 depending on configuration…some Wall Street analysts were underwhelmed by the vehicle, however, and Tesla stock is down about 5% on the news in early trading…the Model Y is about 10% bigger than the Model 3, seats 7, features a panoramic glass roof and 66 cubic feet of cargo space, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said, showing off a a Model Y prototype at the Tesla Design Canter in Hawthorne, California last night…the company plans to produce 4 different versions of the new SUV…according to Musk, the Model Y will share about 75% of its components with the company’s Model 3 electric sedans, allowing Tesla to start manufacturing the new SUV for far less money that it spent to begin producing the Model 3…

6. Lightspeed POS (LSPD, TSX) has been a big market success in the early going which bodes well for other tech IPOs this year in Canada…the stock opened at $18.10 last Friday and is trading just below $23 this morning…the company has closed its initial public offering of 17.25 million subordinate voting shares at a price of $16 per share for total gross proceeds of $276 million, which includes the exercise in full by the underwriters of their over-allotment option…headquartered in Montreal, Lightspeed provides an easy-to-use, omni-channel commerce-enabling platform…the company’s software platform provides its customers with the critical functionalities they need to engage with consumers, manage their operations, accept payments and grow their business…Lightspeed operates globally in approximately 100 countries, empowering single and multi-location small-and-medium-sized businesses to compete successfully in an omni-channel market environment by engaging with consumers across on-line, mobile, social and physical channels…founded in 2005, the company has grown to approximately 700 employees, with global offices in Canada, the United States, Europe and Australia…

7. There was a ton of excitement over the 56,000 Canadian jobs run-up in February, but the closer you examine the data, the less impressive it becomes as pointed out by David Rosenberg, chief economist and strategist at Gluskin Sheff + Associates…all the employment in this country is coming out of 2 sectors – government and high-tech…disturbingly, goods-producing employment has declined 23,000 year-to-date and is little higher today than it was in November 2017…and that 56,000 headline number actually becomes a 131,000 decline once the 0.7% shrinkage in hours worked is taken into account…in fact, this was the 3rd straight decline in the hours worked in a row and, over this time, the workweek has dropped at a 4.2% annual rate, something we have not seen happen since May 2009…

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