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1. Spot Gold has traded between $1,677 and $1,717 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific the yellow metal is near its high of the day, up $22 an ounce at $1,710…investment demand continues to keep Gold in a strong uptrend…holdings in the world’s largest Gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust, rose 0.4% yesterday to 1,033.39 tonnes…Silver has rebounded 16 cents to $15.01…base metals are mixed with Copper, Nickel and Zinc trading at $2.29, $5.40 and 86 cents, respectively…June WTI futures have gained $3.55 a barrel to $15.12…Crude seemed to get a jolt after President Trump tweeted he had “instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea”…the U.S. Dollar Index is off slightly at 100.16…a new stimulus bill cleared the U.S. Senate and European leaders weighed an emergency loan package to avoid mass layoffs, the latest efforts to prop up economies flattened by measures to contain the Wuhan COVID-19 virus..confirmed cases rose past 825,000 in the U.S. and deaths from the respiratory disease caused by the virus exceeded 45,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University…globally, the virus has infected more than 2.58 million people and claimed more than 178,000 lives, according to Johns Hopkins data that no doubt understates the extent of the contagion (China, of course, has produced fake numbers while under-reporting has occurred in multiple other jurisdictions)…Toronto home sales and listings plunged in the first part of April as the pandemic curbed demand in Canada’s largest city…Greater Toronto saw 1,654 home sales in the first 17 days of April, a 69% drop from the same period a year ago…few owners were trying to sell…new listings fell 64% to 3,843, the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board said in a statement…the figures are for the city of Toronto and its suburbs…average prices were 1.5% lower than a year ago, suggesting the market remained tight enough to provide support for pricing levels seen in 2019, TRREB said…the average selling price for all homes was $819,665…detached homes fell 4.6%, dropping just below $1 million..business groups in British Columbia released a survey yesterday warning that 4 in 10 companies that have been forced (by government) to shut down due to the pandemic believe they will not be able to reopen – those are numbers government officials and their health experts seem to be ignoring…

2. Bank of America commodity analysts just keep getting more bullish on Gold as the weeks go by…the bank said in a report last week that Gold’s technical momentum could drive prices to an all-time high this year…in a new report published yesterday, analysts have officially increased their bullish outlook, saying that Gold prices could hit $3,000 within 18 months, a 50% increase from its previous forecast…along with increasing its 18-month target, in line with our own forecast that emphasized record government budget deficits as a key driver, the bank said that it sees Gold prices averaging $2,063 an ounce in 2021…“As economic output contracts sharply, fiscal outlays surge, and central bank balance sheets double, fiat currencies could come under pressure. And investors will aim for Gold,” BOA analysts said…although a strong U.S. dollar and weak physical jewelry demand in Asia could be headwinds for the Gold market, BOA says the Federal Reserve has provided enough momentum to propel investment demand and prices higher…economists at Bank of America have warned that the Fed’s balance sheet as a percentage of GDP could rise 20% to 40% this year…according to reports last week, the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet hit a record high of $6.42 trillion, up more than 50% from levels reported during the first week of March…“Beyond traditional Gold supply and demand fundamentals, financial repression is back on an extraordinary scale. Rates in the U.S. and most G-10 economies will likely be at or below zero for a very long period of time as central banks attempt to push inflation back above their targets,” the analysts said…

3. Kirkland Lake Gold (KL, TSX, NYSE), the Apple of Gold stocks, has reported impressive new drill results from 19 holes (9,522 m) of underground exploration drilling as well as 15 holes (29,085 m) of previously drilled (not reported) and re-interpreted holes from the Macassa mine…drilling through the east portion of the Main Break at Macassa has intersected high-grade mineralization in close proximity to the #4 Shaft (currently under development) and a planned exploration drift off the 5700 Level (50 m east of previous drilling and 300 m below deepest level at the Kirkland Minerals Property, wholly owned by KL)…key intercept was 141 g/t Au over a 2.4-m core length…meanwhile, a review of new and previously drilled but unreported holes along the Main Break at Kirkland Minerals has identified a 700 x 300 m corridor of high-grade mineralization open along strike and to depth…in addition, drilling on SME East has intersected high-grade mineralization up to 75 m outside of the current resource, highlighting the potential for continued growth at SMC (43.1 g/t over 2.3 m; 31 g/t over 2.3 m; 16.4 g/t over 2.1 m; 19.3 g/t over 4.2 m)…Tony Makuch, President and CEO, commented: “We have a truly unique and very exciting opportunity at Macassa to add substantial new mineral resources and, ultimately, mineral reserves through the continued growth of the SMC, the identification of high-grade mineralization along the largely unexplored Amalgamated Break, and also by drilling along the Main Break, which accounts for most of the 25 million ounces of historic production in the Kirkland Lake camp. While the resurgence of mining in Kirkland Lake over the last 10 to 15 years has been driven by the discovery and growth of the SMC, we have always recognized that the Main Break remains a highly-prospective target for additional exploration success and Mineral Resource growth. The fact that the new corridor of high-grade mineralization along the Main Break is located close to planned infrastructure adds significantly to the value creating potential of today’s results”…

4. Time for Canada to prepare to open its economy ASAP: Epidemiological evidence shows that by the end of the month, Canada will be through the worst of the pandemic…the most reliable modelling suggests that, at that point, Canada will have in the order of 50,000 to 75,000 confirmed cases, depending on testing rates…approximately 3,000 people will have lost their lives (far fewer than models were forecasting), about half of those in long-term homes…after this, some degree of spread will continue – a 2nd wave is possible later in the year – until herd immunity is reached or a vaccine comes to market…overall, though, Canada will be in a much better place by May and that’s why it’s critical to prepare now to get the economy up and running again..the health affects of massive unemployment and a large number of potential bankruptcies cannot be overlooked…British Columbia is now past the peak of daily new infections – there are only 109 COVID-19 patients in hospital and 51 in intensive care in the entire province…there are also an unusual number of hospital beds open due to cancellation of elective surgeries…Alberta, with far fewer infections than first predicted, is also approaching its peak, and is sending personal protective equipment and ventilators to neighbouring provinces…Ontario and Quebec, the worst-hit provinces, should reach their peaks within days…and this follows recent trends in countries such as Italy, Spain, Germany, Switzerland and Austria, where cases and deaths from COVID-19 have reached their peaks and are slowing…Ontario currently has about 200 COVID-19 patients on ventilators – roughly 80% of the province’s 2,811 ventilator-equipped critical-care beds are unoccupied and ready for use by new patients…

5. Sweden’s success in tackling Wuhan COVID-19 with no lockdown: Its neighbors closed borders, schools, bars and businesses as the pandemic swept through Europe, but Sweden went against the grain by keeping public life as unrestricted as possible…the strategy – aimed at allowing some exposure to the virus in order to build immunity among the general population while protecting high-risk groups like the elderly – has been controversial…however, the country’s chief epidemiologist said the strategy appears to be working and that “herd immunity” could be reached in the capital Stockholm in a matter of weeks…“In major parts of Sweden, around Stockholm, we have reached a plateau (in new cases) and we’re already seeing the effect of herd immunity and in a few weeks’ time we’ll see even more of the effects of that. And in the rest of the country, the situation is stable,” Dr. Anders Tegnell, chief epidemiologist at Sweden’s Public Health Agency, told CNBC yesterday…herd immunity among a population, usually achieved through vaccination, is reached when around 60% of citizens are deemed immune…without a vaccine for the coronavirus, however, scientists are looking at whether exposure to and recovery from COVID-19 leads to long-term immunity…reinfections of coronavirus have been reported…Tegnell said sampling and modeling data indicated that 20% of Stockholm’s population is already immune to the virus, and that “in a few weeks’ time we might reach herd immunity and we believe that is why we’re seeing a slow decline in cases, in spite of sampling (testing for the coronavirus) more and more. Unfortunately the mortality rate is high due to the introduction (of the virus) in elderly care homes and we are investigating the cause of that,” he said…the major part of Sweden’s 15,322 confirmed cases are in Stockholm and its surrounding areas, with very small incidences of the virus in the rest of Sweden – a country of around 10 million that has a low population density outside its urban hubs…the number of cases in Sweden is almost double that in neighboring Denmark (it has 8,108 cases and has reported 370 deaths) and Finland (with just over 4,000 cases and 141 deaths) that imposed strict lockdown measures…since their populations are each about 5 million – half of Sweden’s – the rates are about the same, although the comparison could be skewed by testing numbers in each country…

7. GoGold Resources (GGD, TSX) has drilled 11.2 m grading 625 g/t Silver equivalent (358 g/t Ag and 3.56 g/t Au) at its Los Ricos Project, further expanding the scale of the mineralized system…hole LRGG-20–136 was drilled on section 400N in the Main area of the project and intersected the Los Ricos quartz vein from 162.6 to 173.8 m…“As additional assays come in from our exploration program at Los Ricos South, we continue to be pleased with the results,” stated President and CEO Brad Langille…“Hole 132 includes one of our widest intercepts, at close to 50 m, while also showing a very high-grade core of 3 m of 1,270 g/t Silver equivalent. We also have strong results near surface from hole 135, and good results from others including 133 and 137 which we believe will help to increase the number of Silver equivalent ounces in our future resource”…hole LRGG-20–132 was drilled on section 625N in the Main area and intersected 49.4 m, from 321.9 to 371.2 m, of 111 g/t Silver equivalent (80.3 g/t Ag and 0.41 g/t Au)…the intersection featured 3 m of 1,271 g/t Silver equivalent…hole LRGG-20–135 was drilled on section 500N in the Main area of the project and intersected 22.6 m at surface averaging 212 g/t silver equivalent, made up of 133 g/t Ag and 1.06 g/t Au…the intersection included 11.3 m of 297 g/t Silver equivalent…GGD is off 2 pennies at 67 cents as of 7:00 am Pacific…the stock should continue to show strong support at its rising EMA(8), currently 69 cents…

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1. Spot Gold has traded between $1,702 and $1,655 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific the yellow metal is off its overnight lows, now trading down just $9 an ounce at $1,687…strong support is coming from investment demand…inflows of Gold and Silver into global ETFs remain robust, according to a report this morning from Commerzbank…Gold ETFs accumulated another 11 metric tons of metal yesterday, including a large inflow by SPDR Gold Shares…this comes on top of the 112 tons that had already gone into these ETFs so far this month as of the end of last week…Silver has slipped 54 cents to $14.69…base metals are under modest pressure with Copper, Nickel and Zinc at $2.27, $5.51 and 86 cents, respectively…the plunge continues in Crude Oil (see below)…June WTI futures are down $5.47 a barrel or nearly 30% at $14.96…the world is awash in Oil, due to lockdowns across the globe, and storage has become a major problem…on the bright side, Edward Morse, Citigroup global commodities head who predicted last month that Oil prices could turn negative, says Oil could rebound sharply by the end of the year to $50 a barrel…the U.S. Dollar Index is up more than one-tenth of a point at 100.10…Airlines for America, a lobbying group that includes American, Delta, United Southwest and other large U.S. carriers, said as of April 15 that U.S. airlines had idled more than 2,700 planes, more than 44% of their fleet…Vice President Mike Pence, who spoke at length about the importance of coronavirus testing yesterday, will be touring the GE Healthcare facility near Madison, Wisconsin, later this morning and will also engage in a round table discussion about the pandemic…UNESCO estimates that 1.6 billion children around the world have been impacted by school closures…nearly every country, according to the report, has closed all of its schools to contain the spread of the Wuhan COVID-19 virus…however, the U.S., Canada, Russia and Australia have not issued nationwide mandates, and left it up to local governments to choose whether or not to close schools…many schools across the globe have turned to remote lessons…online learning has allowed children to keep up their education from home, but it’s come with a handful of other problems…educators fear that students without Internet access or necessary equipment could be set back while classes are virtual, and in some countries, millions of students rely on their schools for free meals…

2. A virus in the Oil market: The crash in global Oil prices deepened today as pain spread to currencies of major exporters and shares in energy producers…Brent Crude futures, the international benchmark for Oil markets, has dropped about 20% to $20.43 a barrel this morning, its lowest level since 2002…the decline came a day after the price of West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. Crude benchmark, dropped below zero for the first time in history (the May contract which expires today after closing yesterday at minus $37.63 a barrel)…the convulsions in Oil markets underlined the huge hit that widespread government-imposed lockdowns designed to stall the spread of the Wuhan virus have dealt to Oil demand…with producers unable to shut wells fast enough, and OPEC and G-20 production cuts not due to take effect until early May, traders say that the world is essentially running out of space to store Oil…the negative impact of the carnage in Oil will spread far and wide, directly and indirectly impacting hundreds of millions of people across many parts of the globe…North American producers are getting crushed as a flood of Oil is expected to keep prices depressed for longer…RBC Capital Markets expects U.S. shale production to plummet to 1.5 million barrels per day…Alberta’s Oilsands are also being hit particularly hard…for now the Russians and Saudis appear to be winning the market share war…President Trump this morning ordered Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to put together a plan to get funding ASAP to the struggling U.S. Oil and gas industry…Trump tweeted moments ago, “We will never let the great U.S. Oil & Gas Industry down. I have instructed the Secretary of Energy and Secretary of the Treasury to formulate a plan which will make funds available so that these very important companies and jobs will be secured long into the future!”…what is Canada doing?…the coalition of 84 environmental groups that lobbied the Trudeau government late last month want the industry to disappear so we can supposedly “save the planet” and all have a “beautiful green future”…

3. America begins to reopen: The governors of Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina have announced new plans to bring their states’ economies closer to full force amid signs the Wuhan COVID-19 outbreak has slowed significantly in those areas…Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp says certain businesses, including gyms and hair salons, can reopen beginning this Friday…meanwhile, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee confirmed his state’s stay-at-home order, previously extended to April 30, will end that day…and, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said businesses previously deemed nonessential – department stores, flea markets, florists, bookstores and music shops – could reopen their doors…U.S. Attorney General William Barr said this morning that some state governors’ efforts to fight the pandemic “infringes on a fundamental right” of American citizens…Barr said in an interview on “Th Hugh Hewitt Show” that governments in the U.S. need to “do a better job” of ensuring coronavirus restrictions are “properly targeted” and do not unnecessarily infringe on constitutional rights…he added that currently the country is facing “unprecedented burdens on civil liberties”…

4. Premier Doug Ford says Ontario is preparing for the “gradual” reopening of the economy as new modelling shows the province has likely reached its peak in the Wuhan COVID-19 pandemic, even as the situation in long-term care homes continues to worsen…Ford said yesterday that his jobs and recovery committee, made up of key cabinet ministers, has started to develop a framework for a “gradual, measured and safe” reopening of the province, while cautioning that physical distancing and self-isolation measures must remain in place for weeks if not longer…“Absolutely in no way is this fight over,” Ford said…“We aren’t there yet. But we want to make sure we give people hope”…new projections, released by provincial health officials, say Ontario is now expected to have fewer than 20,000 cases of the virus, substantially lower than the 80,000 projected by previous models…more than 60% of the province’s deaths have been in long-term care (the numbers do not include group homes or retirement homes)…new research from the University of Toronto, based on Ontario statistics, has found that nursing-home residents over the age of 69 were 13 times more likely to die of COVID-19 than people in the same age group living elsewhere in the province…

5. An ambitious new plan to radically increase the number of coronavirus tests in the United States would see up to 30 million people screened each week and cost up to $100 billion to implement, a private foundation said today…but that pricey effort for what one expert called “the largest public health testing in history” is necessary to stem the $300 billion to $400 billion in American economic losses each month as a result of the pandemic, the Rockefeller Foundation said…it added that the sooner coronavirus tests become much more widely available, the quicker the U.S. economy can start getting back to normal…“We do have the capacity to do that, and we’ve got the resources to do that,” said Dr. Michael Pellini, managing partner of health venture firm Section 32 and board member of the Personalized Medicine Coalition, who contributed to the foundation’s new plan…“Yes, it’s ambitious, but at this point we’ve got to do it,” Pellini said…“We have to fix testing in this country to enable our workforce to be deployed once again”…the plan comes amid calls by numerous experts and CEO’s to boost coronavirus testing to make sure businesses and social events can reopen safely without sparking 2nd and 3rd waves of virus outbreaks…Amazon (AMZN, NASDAQ) CEO Jeff Bezos, in a note to shareholders last week, wrote, “Regular testing on a global scale, across all industries, would both help keep people safe and help get the economy back up and running”…

6. The Dow has fallen another 372 points as of 7:00 am Pacific after yesterday’s drop…in Toronto, the TSX has dipped 95 points through the first 30 minutes of trading…Gold producers will benefit significantly from ultra-low Oil prices…the Gold Index dipped at the open to 306 but has since rebounded to 313, down 1 point…the Venture has retreated 7 points to 438…GFG Resources (GFG, TSX-V) has a significant new investor – Alamos Gold (AGI, TSX, NYSE) is taking the majority of a non-brokered private placement announced this morning that will raise $5 million for GFG…Alamos has mines close to GFG’s Pen Project where the junior recently made a new grassroots drilling discovery with 71.3 g/t Au over 8.5 m, including 511 g/t over 1.15 m, at a vertical depth of approximately 50 m…“We are excited to welcome Alamos as our strategic partner,” stated Brian Skanderbeg, President and CEO of GFG…“Alamos‘ commitment and investment in our team and projects validates our belief in the prospectivity of our land position and allows us to take a more aggressive approach. Following the closing of the financing, we look forward to outlining an aggressive drill program that we anticipate beginning in the 3rd quarter”…GFG is up a penny-and-a-half to 20 cents on the news…SilverCrest Metals (SIL, TSX) has raised another $27 million through a private placement with SSR Mining (SSRM, TSX), a current SilverCrest investor, that then sold its $7.50 shares to Eric Sprott at $7.65…SilverCrest closed a $100 million financing last week…VSBLTY Groupe Technologies (VSBY, CSE) and Photon-X, developer of sensor technologies that enable biometric verification, document security, CGI motion imaging and photo mapping, announced this morning that they have arranged a collaboration to develop advanced camera applications to help screen for persons who may be infected with COVID-19 as they enter buildings…the 2 firms are collaborating to develop a multi-sensor camera capability specifically for security and smart buildings applications…Photon-X object recognition and analytics combined with VSBLTY facial recognition will provide an advanced screening tool for facilities to identify and validate that someone with a high temperature is about to enter a building…

7. A new bullish call for Gold has been issued by TD Securities, targeting $1,900 an ounce Gold in just 3 months “in anticipation of continued growth in investment demand amid massive and prolonged unconventional central bank stimulus”…TD Securities head of global strategy Bart Melek and commodity strategist Daniel Ghali explained, “The Fed’s latest QE program is now the largest on record. Of course, there is a well-known relationship between QE and lower real rates, such that it ultimately suppresses real rates by lifting inflation expectations at a faster pace than nominal rates. The Fed and other central banks are likely to keep their uber-easy policies in place for far longer than anticipated, following a decade of below-target inflation and a newfound interest in asymmetric inflation targeting. Despite the bullish outlook, dry-powder analysis suggests only a modest bullish tilt, while CTA positioning remains subdued given their vol-targeting nature. Consensus analyst forecasts remain below spot prices, despite positive sentiment, strengthening the argument that the market is underestimating the potential impact on Gold. We expect investment demand to rise as liquidity returns”…

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1. Spot Gold has traded between $1,697 and $1,677 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, the yellow metal is up $4 an ounce at $1,691…prices remain strong despite the fact that physical demand in China continues to be in the doldrums with dealers in the top consumer offering massive discounts…Silver, with strong new support at $15, has added 14 cents to $15.33…Nickel, the top-performing base metal last week, has added another 12 cents to $5.54…Copper and Zinc are relatively unchanged at $2.33 and 88 cents, respectively…Crude Oil for May delivery is getting hammered, down $6.31 a barrel this morning to $11.96 (see below), while the U.S. Dollar Index is up slightly at 99.87…in a televised address over the weekend, Russian leader Vladimir Putin said the pandemic in Russia is “completely under control”...so we know, then, that the situation there is exactly the opposite…Russia, Turkey, India, Indonesia, Brazil and Ecuador are just some of the global “hot spots” where management of the pandemic has been very weak and cases are accelerating…Britain is not considering lifting its lockdown imposed almost 4 weeks ago given the “deeply worrying” increases in the death toll, a senior minister said yesterday…certain countries in Europe, however, have already started to slowly ramp up their economies…Italy, the epicenter of Europe’s crisis, reopened some bookshops and children’s clothing stores last week…Spain allowed workers to return to factories and construction sites, while also allowing children outside for the first time in 5 weeks…Austria allowed thousands of hardware and home improvement stores to reopen, on the condition that workers and customers wear masks…in Denmark, elementary school teachers readied classrooms for young children to return to school in the coming days…the Czech Republic announced reopening of sports centers and some shops…Poland is preparing to open some shopping malls…in Germany, smaller shops will be reopened this week…are the COVID-19 health experts in the United States (and Canada) looking at this? – according to the National Bureau of Economic Research and the medical journal Lancet, every 1% hike in the U.S. unemployment rate will likely produce a 3.3% increase in drug-overdose deaths and a 0.99% increase in suicides…with 22 million Americans losing their jobs so far, and unemployment approaching Great Depression-era levels of near 20%, those projections suggest thousands could be at risk…policymakers in the U.S. and Canada must weigh the potential impact of strict lockdown measures on citizens’ health (physical and mental)…it is so important, where possible and with the right approach beginning in the lowest risk areas, to begin reopening the U.S. and Canadian economies as quickly as possible…accurate testing and contact tracing will be critical in terms of making that happen…

2. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is set to visit the GE Healthcare manufacturing facility in Wisconsin tomorrow…ventilators are being produced there while GE is also involved with Sona Nanotech (SONA, CSE) in producing an important rapid response lateral flow test for COVID-19…GE’s powerful new membrane, interacting with SONA’s proprietary Gold nanorods plus the right biologics, are expected to give SONA a highly trusted versatile test (3rd party validation is imminent) that delivers results in 5 to 15 minutes…click on the arrow to learn more from the latest interview over the weekend with SONA director Jim Megann:

3. U.S. Crude prices are getting hammered today as traders continue to fret over a slump in demand due to the Wuhan COVID-19 pandemic…the price of the nearest Oil futures contract, which expires tomorrow, was the hardest hit, detaching from later month futures contracts with a drop of more than 30%…Spot prices are particularly weak at the moment due to a combination of a collapse in demand and a subsequent lack of storage…in addition, recently announced OPEC+ cuts don’t take effect until May 1…the front part of the Oil futures ‘curve’, which is the May contract, applies to fuel that’s set to be delivered while most of the country remains on lockdown…there’s little demand for gasoline from refineries, and storage tanks in the U.S. are nearing their limits, exacerbating the problem…Oil storage is filling rapidly across the globe, approaching operating max…this has led to a dash by traders to lease floating or onshore storage in a bid to sell the fuel for a profit when prices rebound, creating the “contango” structure in the futures market where contracts for later delivery trade at a significant premium…traders believe Crude prices will rally in the future, encouraging them to store Oil now and to sell at a later date…if demand doesn’t pick up during this 2nd quarter, however, the problem will just get worse…

4. If a major industry in Quebec or Ontario is under imminent threat, the Trudeau government jumps in immediately to do all that it can…the Feds are actually racking up a deficit that could easily touch a previously inconceivable $200 billion…when it comes to the West, however, Team Trudeau only has a few crumbs to hand out to the Oil and gas sector which the Liberals ideologically don’t favor…they are still clinging to their ridiculous “climate change” narrative to secure left-wing votes (mostly out east) and remain in power…now is actually the perfect time, with such low interest rates and the need to create jobs, for the federal government to invest heavily in the Oil and gas sector, greatly expanding pipeline capacity and strategically positioning the country economically for the next wave up in Oil prices…none of that will happen under the Trudeau regime, however, which is more content to simply see Oil and gas companies go bankrupt…last Friday the government gave yet another slap in the face to the industry, announcing a series of measures that they knew would appeal to their political base while at the same time allowing Trudeau to say he has actually taken steps to “help” the industry…Ottawa says it will spend $1.7 billion to help clean up Oil and gas wells in producing provinces (for the last few years the Feds had been encouraged to do this but it took a national crisis for them to finally act)…in addition, Trudeau also announced a $750 million fund aimed at reducing methane emissions…he said the fund would allow Canada to “continue to fight climate change and reduce emissions while keeping people at work”…the reality is that Friday’s announcements from the government had more to do with Liberal environmental messaging than any serious desire to directly help the Oil and gas sector…“This is not going to do anything,” declared Grant Fagerheim, CEO of Calgary-based Whitecap Resources (WCP, TSX)…“If this is as good as it gets, it will do very little or nothing to assist with operations for companies. I don’t think there’s a full appreciation and understanding of the severity of what we’re dealing with”…a coalition of 84 environmental advocacy groups lobbied the Trudeau government late last month NOT to provide any direct help to the Oil and gas sector…“Giving billions of dollars to failing Oil and gas companies will not help workers and only prolongs our reliance on fossil fuels,” the coalition wrote in an open letter March 23…has there ever been a country in the history of the planet that has deliberately undermined/sabotaged its most important industry as the Trudeau Liberals have over the past several years?…it is beyond comprehension…what Canadians have to realize is that through this process, wealth is being transferred from Canada to the United States…that in turn means Canadians will have to accept a lower standard of living…

5. The U.S. economy could experience a double-digit percentage contraction in 2020 due to the Wuhan virus pandemic, Mohamed El-Erian told CNBC this morning, suggesting a much steeper decline than most economists…“I think we may be at minus 10% to minus 14% growth for the U.S.,” the Allianz chief economist said on “Squawk Box”…“This is a big hit”…El-Erian said the distinct nature of this economic hit – stemming from a health crisis – means traditional frameworks may not be applicable, acting as a further obstacle for a rebound…“The benefits you would expect normally, lower Oil price means more dollars in consumers’ pockets, even that doesn’t work in this economy. So I’m a little bit more worried than what the consensus of economists out there is right now”…the comments from El-Erian, formerly CEO of investment powerhouse Pimco, were in response to data from CNBC’s Rapid Update Survey which includes various GDP forecasts from across Wall Street…the average of the estimate late last week showed about a 4% decline in U.S. GDP this year…

6. The Dow has fallen 395 points as of 7:00 am Pacific after posting back-to-back weekly gains for the first time since early February…energy stocks are taking a hit on Wall Street and in Toronto where the TSX is off 155 points through the first 30 minutes of trading…the Venture is steady at 445…the Index is up 34.4% since its March 19 intra-day low of 331, making it the top North American equity market since that time…Sona Nanotech (SONA, CSE) has gained a nickel to $2.03…technically, the stock has commenced what appears to be a “Wave 5” move that should take it powerfully through Fib. resistance in the $2.20’s…in another example of the growing humanitarian/economic disaster in Ecuador, Salazar Resources (SRL, TSX-V) announced this morning that it has created a new registered non-profit organization called the Salazar Foundation…this entity, supported by Salazar Resources and private donors including Fredy Salazar, will build on the initiatives that Salazar Resources has introduced during the course of its Community and Social Relations programmes in the 13 years since its creation…Ecuador has been hit particularly hard by the Wuhan COVID-19 pandemic combined with the plunge in Oil prices…

7. It’s still too early to celebrate the possible near-term end to The Great Lockdown…even if we somehow managed to get the number of new cases down to zero (won’t happen), the reality is that the virus could return in additional waves…2 additional waves, to be more exact…that’s the projection, at least, of quantitative analysts at CLSA, working in conjunction with professors at the University of Toronto…in a research report dated April 17, the group, led by Head of Quantitative Research Jon Barden, states that until a vaccine is developed, the coronavirus could continue to reseed itself in human populations, with the 2nd wave to peak in late August and the 3rd in early 2021…procurement departments at health agencies around the world are preparing now for that worse-case scenario, and that’s why a company like Sona Nanotech – with a highly versatile and accurate test – is in such a favorable position…the most shocking part of CLSA’s forecast is that more than 30 million people could contract the virus over the next 12 to 18 months. CLSA believes this could be the case since “current reported new cases do not yet include nearly 80% of the world’s population”…as of today, the total cumulative number of confirmed cases tops 2.4 million, but the actual number is undoubtedly much higher…

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Rapid Response!

How This Pandemic Will Ultimately Help Copper

Wuhan COVID-19 Virus Update

The Cost Of Doing Business With China (The CCP)

“Silver Lining”: Innovative Vancouver Company Provides Help During Crisis

COVID-19 Update

Smithers Shakes Off Turmoil For A Major 3-Day Event Connecting Hockey And The Resource Sector

Turbocharged Nickel

Commodity Check!

The Nickel Mountain Magma Highway

The Dramatic New Chase For A Nickel-Copper-Rich Massive Sulphide Deposit In The Heart Of A Famous Gold Camp

The Venture leads the broader equity markets with a 34.4% climb from its March low – what does that suggest?

Learn more in today’s Week In Review And A Look Ahead!