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1. Gold has traded between $1,726 and $1,749 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific the yellow metal is up $8 an ounce at $1,739…the $1,730’s is key resistance…Gold ETF inflows have climbed for 15 consecutive trading days, totalling 11o tons…Silver, this month’s top performing major metal with a current gain of 10.1%, has shot up 58 cents to $16.43…base metals are off modestly with Copper, Nickel and Zinc at $2.34, $5.38 and 88 cents, respectively…Crude Oil has added $1.12 a barrel to $28.68 while the U.S. Dollar Index has slipped one-third of a point to 100.12…U.S. consumer spending tumbled a record 16.4% in April as the backbone of the economy retrenched amid the Wuhan COVID-19 pandemic…economists were expecting a drop of 12.3% after March’s reported 8.3% dive already had set a record for data going back to 1992 (the March numbers were revised to be not as bad as the 8.7% initially reported)…some 68% of the nation’s $21.5 trillion economy comes from personal consumption expenditures, which tumbled 7.6% in Q1 just as social distancing measures aimed at containing the coronavirus began to take effect…how the mighty have fallen: legendary retailer J.C. Penney, which had 90,000 full-time employees pre-pandemic, is on the verge of filing for bankruptcy protection, according to a CNBC sport…it’s working on a plan that would contemplate closing 180 to 200 stores while in bankruptcy…sales at J.C. Penney, which dates back to 1913, have fallen annually since 2016 with its roughly 846 store footprint less than a quarter of what it was in 2001…by 1994 it had $20.4 billion in retail sales, with net income nearing $1 billion…the Trump administration this morning moved to block shipments of semiconductors to Huawei Technologies from global chipmakers, in an action that could ramp up tensions with China…the Commerce Department said it was amending an export rule to “strategically target Huawei’s acquisition of semiconductors that are the direct product of certain U.S. software and technology”…the department added the “announcement cuts off Huawei’s efforts to undermine U.S. export controls”…industrial output in China was reportedly up 3.9% from a year earlier, according to China’s National Bureau of (Fake) Statistics today, recovering from a 1.1% fall in March and beating the 1% increase predicted by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal…but the official reading of urban unemployment ticked higher to 6.0%, just off February’s record 6.2%, and retail sales were down 7.5% from a year earlier, a touch worse than economists expected…numbers from China really don’t mean much anymore, though, as the CPC will lie about anything…the coronavirus problem that India had feared is becoming a reality in Mumbai, the country’s most densely populated city…the city of 20 million is now responsible for 20% of India’s infections and nearly 25% of deaths…hospitals are overflowing with the sick…in the city’s vast slum districts, where people live 8 to a room across miles and miles of informal settlements, infections are exploding…the Food and Drug Administration is warning that early data suggests Abbott Laboratories‘ rapid COVID-19 diagnostic test may be delivering inaccurate results…specifically, the Abbott ID NOW test, used by the White House to screen staffers and visitors, may return false negative results…
2. China’s state-run media is targeting congressional Republicans for their outspoken stance against the nation’s government and their condemnation of the country’s nefarious actions concerning the Wuhan COVID-19 pandemic…an article posted yesterday in the Global Times, which is a branch of the CPC’s People’s Daily, said the nation is “extremely dissatisfied with the abuse of litigation” by U.S. leadership, “and is considering punitive countermeasures against U.S. individuals, entities and state officials such as Missouri’s Attorney General Eric Schmitt”…Schmitt, a Republican, filed a lawsuit against China on behalf of the state, saying the impact of the virus has led to thousands of Missourians being infected, killed and economically devastated…meanwhile, as Trudeau is afraid to challenge China, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney added his voice to the growing concerns regarding China, savaging the communist republic’s handling of the earliest days of the COVID-19 outbreak and urging Canada and the United States to join forces in bringing manufacturing capacity back to North America…China will soon face a “great reckoning” for its efforts to play down, obfuscate and cover up the dangers posed by the virus when it first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan, Kenney told virtual roundtable hosted Wednesday by the Washington-based Canadian American Business Council…“Western countries, including Canada and the United States, must have a reset in their relationship with China – and part of that reset, in my judgment, must be a deliberate effort to onshore production, particularly on critical supplies,” Kenney stated…
3. The pandemic is taking quite a toll on U.S. state budgets, forcing many to consider deep cuts to schools, universities, health care and other basic functions that would have been unthinkable just a few months ago…many states expect their revenue to plunge by 15% to 20% because government-ordered lockdowns have wiped out much of the economy and caused tax collections to evaporate…that puts statehouses billions of dollars in the red for the fiscal year that usually begins in July, with no end to the crisis in sight…the drumbeat of bad news continued Wednesday as Washington’s governor froze most state hiring and called for 15% cuts to many parts of the budget…New Jersey announced that tax revenue for April was down 60% compared with the year before – and that it will look worse next month…the dire projections are coming out as Congress gets ready to debate whether and how to help…Democrats are pushing for another $3 trillion of federal emergency spending…before the pandemic, most states had generally healthy budget situations and were working on adding to their reserves, which had been built over the decade since the Great Recession…now state finances are in peril regardless of the actual number of infections…in nearly every state that has estimates, the projected budget gaps are bigger than the emergency savings…
4. The “mask” is the icon of the pandemic…it has also become not only a necessity for some people, but a fashion statement…according to a Financial Post report this morning, the disposable mask market alone could grow to an estimated $3.5 billion over the next 12 months for both medical N95 masks and non-medical masks, according to an analysis by Ottawa-based consultancy Allam Advisory Group…it expects demand to explode to 3.3 billion masks in that period, with 330 million surgical masks ordered by the Canadian government alone, of which only 33.5 million have been delivered to date…“The numbers are pretty staggering in terms of what’s required,” consultant Omar Allam said…while the initial demand came from the health-care sector, industrial and consumer markets will also require masks…based on import restrictions and challenges procuring goods overseas, Allam sees the opportunity for manufacturers to ramp up domestic production to meet both short- and long-term needs…
5. Given the above, the news this morning that Sixth Wave Innovations (SIXW, CSE) has introduced the “SmartMask” (trademarked) takes on added importance, with the company also announcing that it has signed an MOU with Neocon International (a division of Exco Technologies, XTC-TSX) to design and produce a face mask (i.e., the “SmartMask“) which incorporates Sixth Wave’s patent-pending virus detection technology currently under development…the envisioned SmartMask could provide the standard protective capabilities of an N95 mask, with the added interactive capability to alert the user that a target virus has been detected in the exhaled breath of the user…Neocon is a Tier One designer and manufacturer of automotive trim level components, serving multiple international companies such as Nissan, Toyota, Hyundai and General Motors…the Nova Scotia-based company has extensive experience in material science, quality systems and high-speed manufacturing including in-line thermoforming, robotic assembly and ultra-sonic assembly and has retooled a portion of its factory to produce N95 compliant masks…politicians are certainly taking notice…Geoff Regan, Member of Parliament for Halifax West, stated: “This collaboration between two Atlantic Canadian companies is a great example of how our local businesses can work together to potentially help in the fight against COVID-19. I’m excited by the prospect of products that can change colour in the presence of the virus, and products that can potentially allow event organizers to know instantly if a guest has the virus. This partnership with Neocon will assist Sixth Wave with bringing this important testing technology to market and I wish them the best of success”…
6. The Dow has backed off 57 points as of 7:00 am Pacific…Wall Street is wrapping up its worst weekly performance since late March as investors grapple with a slew of economic reports as well as increasing tensions between the U.S. and China…in Toronto, the TSX has gained 78 points on strength in Oil and Gold, with the TSX Gold Index climbing 7 points to 364…the Venture is on track to post its 6th consecutive weekly advance…it’s up 6 points at 504 after testing new support yesterday in the low 490’s (previous Fib. resistance)…Silver’s jump today is giving Canada Cobalt (CCW, TSX-V) another boost with CCW up 2 pennies to 52 cents in early trading…CCW officially becomes Canada Silver Cobalt next Tuesday (same stock symbol) with a major update to follow on the high-grade Castle East Silver discovery in the Gowganda Camp where Silver is measured in kilograms…Probe Metals (PRB, TSX-V) is pushing through key resistance at $1.20, up 4 pennies at $1.24 as of 7:00 am Pacific…Pure Gold (PGM, TSX) has hit a new multi-year high of $1.03…Corvus Gold (KOR, TSX) is closing in on a new all-time high after a new discovery was confirmed this week through diamond drilling under the company’s Mother Lode deposit in Nevada…KOR is up 8 cents at $3.04…Tudor Gold (TUD, TSX-V) announced this morning that Eric Sprott has exercised all his outstanding Tudor warrants for total proceeds to the company of $2.9 million…Tudor recently started its 2020 drill program at Treaty Creek in the Eskay Camp…Mission Ready Solutions (MRS, TSX-V) is up 2-and-a-half cents at 17 cents…earlier this week the company announced it has received $24 million contract award from Homeland Security’s FEMA for the provision of personal protective equipment…
7. Defense Metals (DEFN, TSX-V) has completed an updated mineral resource estimate (MRE) with respect to its 17 sq. km Wicheeda rare earth element (REE) project, located near Prince George…
- 49% increase in overall tonnage based on the results of 2019 diamond drilling of 13 holes totalling 2,005 m;
- 30% increase in overall average grade, in part though the incorporation of potentially economically significant praseodymium not previously estimated;
- Conversion of 4,890,000 tonnes (3.02% light rare earth elements, LREE) to Indicated resources previously defined as Inferred;
- Increased Inferred Resources by 730,000 tonnes to 12.1 million tonnes averaging 2.52% LREE;
- Potential for expansion of the Wicheeda deposit to the north and west in the down plunge direction.
Diamond drilling data supports the interpretation of a moderately north-northeast dipping, shallowly north plunging, layered sill complex having low REE grade syenite at its base, overlain by transitional intermediate REE grade hybrid xenolithic-carbonatite (fenite), and finally relatively higher REE grade dolomite-carbonatite rocks, which form the main body of the Wicheeda REE Deposit outcropping at surface…based on the modelling completed by Defense Metals’ technical team, there remains significant potential for expansion of the Wicheeda Deposit to the north in the down plunge direction where 2019 drilling indicates the deposit remains open…President and CEO Craig Taylor stated, “With the release of our updated mineral resource estimate, Defence Metals has delivered on another significant milestone in advancing what management believes is one of the most compelling undeveloped rare earth element assets in North America. Our successful 2019 drill campaign has resulted in a significant expansion and increased level of confidence in the mineral resources of the Wicheeda REE deposit”…DEFN, with only about 45 million shares outstanding, is off half a penny at 18 cents through the first 30 minutes of trading…
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