BullMarketRun.com

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

1. Spot Gold has traded between $1,743 and $1,727 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific the yellow metal is up $12 an ounce at $1,735… Gold inflows into ETFs continue but at a slower pace, while those for Silver have been “robust”…Commerzbank says ETF Gold inflows have averaged 1.5 metric tons per day this week, down slightly from last week’s figure of 1.9 tons, while the average for the current quarter is 5.6 tons per day…Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch added, “Silver ETFs have seen their robust inflows continue…yesterday saw inflows of another 90 tons, already making for a total of 212 tons this week”…an “unprecedented series” of Silver ETF inflows began 3 months ago when prices hit an 11-year low of $11.65 per ounce during the height of the “Corona Crash”…since then, Silver inflows have been just shy of 4,900 tons…“That’s equivalent to more than 2 months of global mining production,” Fitch pointed out…“Or to put it another way, two-thirds of mining production in the past 3 months went directly into ETFs. It is likewise remarkable to note that the ETF inflows of the past 3 months almost equate to the coin and bar purchases of an entire year”…Silver has shot up 34 cents to $17.70 as of 7:00 am Pacific…base metals continue to push higher with Copper, Nickel and Zinc at $2.65, $5.83 and 94 cents, respectively…Crude Oil has touched the $40 level, up $1.29 a barrel to $40.13, while the U.S. Dollar Index has slipped one-tenth of a point to 97.33…fears about a resurgence of COVID-19 are taking a backseat to continued signs of rapidly improving demand and a commitment by OPEC to hold the line on production…Canadian retail sales posted an historic drop in April from a full month of non-essential business closures and strict physical distancing measures, though sales rebounded in May based on preliminary data…receipts fell 26% in April compared with the prior month, Statistics Canada said this morning…in the first 2 months of the lockdowns, sales declined by more than a third when combined with the 10% drop in March…May looks to have seen a significant rebound, with the agency’s flash estimate predicting a 19% increase…the UK government’s debt exceeded the size of the UK economy in May for the first time in more than 50 years as borrowing surged to pay for Wuhan COVID-19 mitigation measures, according to official data published today…

2. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison didn’t name the country, but Communist China immediately comes to mind given the regime’s recent ramping up of intimidation tactics…Australia, which has very openly criticized the flawed World Health Organization (WHO), is under increasing cyberattack from a “sophisticated state-based cyber actor”, Morrison said…“Australian organizations are currently being targeted by a sophisticated state-based cyber actor. This activity is targeting Australian organizations across a range of sectors, including all levels of government, industry, political organizations, education, health, essential service providers and operators of other critical infrastructure,” he added…the threat has been constant and the frequency of attacks has increased “over many months. This is the actions of a state-based actor with significant capabilities. There aren’t too many state-based actors who have those capabilities”…

3. A key Chinese index has turned positive for the year, making it one of the few international stock benchmarks to show a gain for 2020, underlining the relative resilience of mainland shares…the CSI 300 index added 1.3% to close at 4,099 for a slight year-to-date gain of less than 1%…the Shanghai Composite, meanwhile, jumped 28 points today to close at 2,967, just 53 points below its 2019 close…China has benefited from being “first in, first out” when it comes to tackling the pandemic and recovering from its economic fallout even if it is now battling a small outbreak in Beijing…the index joins the technology-heavy NASDAQ Composite, which has rallied 10.8% over the same period…the Venture, a key leading indicator, has led all markets higher since the “Corona Crash”, similar to what occurred immediately following the 2008 financial crisis…those who say this rally from the March lows isn’t “real” will be ones scrambling later to jump in at higher levels…

4. Amex Exploration (AMX, TSX-V) has added 2 diamond drill rigs to its Perron Property, bringing the total drills on site to 6 rigs…these 2 additional drill rigs will be mobilized and operating on the project by mid-July with the company increasing its fully financed drill program from 100,000 m to 200,000 m following yesterday’s completion of a $17.5 million financing…4 drills are currently operating on the Eastern Gold Zone (EGZ)…2 of these drills are testing the depth extension of the High Grade zone (HGZ)…1 is currently testing the near-surface potential of the Denise zone, while the 4th is completing large diameter (PQ size) holes for the purpose of metallurgical testing…the 5th drill rig will also be deployed to test the HGZ at depth, while the 6th will resume exploration at the Grey Cat and Gratien zones now that the ground has dried sufficiently to allow access to the western portion of the property…Jacques Trottier, Executive Chairman of Amex, commented: “With the recently announced closing of our $15.75 million financing, Amex has elected to significantly increase the pace and size of its exploration program. We have had great successes this year on drilling the depth and strike extension of the HGZ and look forward to continuing the rapid advancement of this very attractive Gold system. We are also excited to resume drilling on Gratien and Grey Cat, where we have been intersecting robust grades over significant widths. In addition, we intend to test the potential of connecting the Gold zones at Perron. We will be exploring for additional zones both along strike of the known 2.7-km corridor of Gold mineralization as well as in between the known zones of mineralization”…AMX is unchanged at $1.50 as of 7:00 am Pacific…

5. The Dow, aiming for its 4th weekly gain out of 5, has climbed 206 points through the first 30 minutes of trading…Wall Street was encouraged by a Bloomberg report this morning that China will buy more corn, soybean and other agricultural products after purchases were derailed earlier this year due to the pandemic…however, Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren just gave a rather strange gloomy outlook on the U.S. economy as well as the pandemic, even cautioning against reopening the economy too quickly after the end of lockdowns aimed at containing the virus…his comments may throw some cold water on today’s equity rally and further boost Gold…casino operators are on the move in early trading after Penn National Gaming (PENN, NASDAQ) resumed operations at several locations…it has now reopened 31 of 40 properties…sports continue to slowly come back, with the Belmont Stakes horse race set for tomorrow…in Toronto, the TSX is 98 points higher…the TSX Gold Index has gained 5 points to 312…key resistance on the short-term chart is around 320…the Venture has added 3 points to 561 as it works its way through a resistance band between 560 and the upper 580’s…GT Gold (GTT, TSX-V) is on the verge of a technical breakout, up a nickel at $1.60 through the first 30 minutes of trading…the company is expected to release a maiden NI 43–101 resource estimate for Saddle North by month-end…a downtrend line going back to 2017 on the 3-year weekly chart for GTT intersects through $1.60…Skeena Resources (SKE, TSX-V) has hit a new high, up 12 cents at $1.67 as it prepares for a major new phase of drilling at Eskay Creek…Northwest B.C. will be hot again this summer, led by multiple plays including upstart Auramex (AUX, TSX-V) which is expected to soon close a $6 million private placement as part of a major reorganization…

6. Blockchain Holdings began trading this morning under its new name “TraceSafe” (TSF, CSE), with the company also announcing it has arranged a financing of up to $10 million led by Canaccord Genuity at $1 per share…each unit will consist of 1 common share and half a warrant at an exercise price of $1.50 for a period of 2 years…TraceSafe is a full suite of real-time location management services and contact tracing solutions enabled through advanced bluetooth beacons in a variety of form factors…the company’s leading cloud management solution ensures both user privacy and comprehensive administrative control…TraceSafe is deployed in mission critical quarantine applications around the world in partnership with leading governments…in addition to their government work, TraceSafe is developing leading edge solutions for Enterprise, Healthcare, and large-scale venue management…

 7. Finally, some common sense in Canada regarding COVID-19: Students returning to school this fall should not have to wear masks or maintain physical distancing while at play, Canada’s largest children’s hospital argues in a new report that stresses the importance of getting young people back to class…the advice from the Hospital for Sick Children seems to veer toward a more relaxed approach than taken by some jurisdictions, especially in East Asia, as they re-opened shuttered schools…requiring masks could lead to more infection, not less, while separating children as they socialize outside the classroom would have negative psychological effects, says a guidance document SickKids released this week…it does urge keeping desks as far apart as possible and cancelling assemblies…children have suffered anxiety, depression and loneliness and faced greater risk of family discord and abuse during the lockdown, hospital experts told a virtual news conference…they said the psychological benefits of resuming in-person classes this September outweigh COVID-19’s risks, which they said can be lessened with measures like frequent handwashing and keeping sick students at home…“It has never been 100% safe to send children to school,” said Dr. Ronald Cohn, the SickKids CEO…“There’s always been a risk of contracting some infectious disease, whether it’s the flu, the Norovirus or other viruses. Children are at risk of being injured…and suffering mental and physical harm from bullying. But of course we can manage these risks and put mitigating factors in place to deal with them. This is exactly the kind of approach we have to take now”…

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

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

1. Spot Gold has traded between $1,741 and $1,717 as of 7:00 am Pacific the yellow metal is off $4 an ounce at $1,723… TD Securities on Gold: “We believe the market is coiling ahead of a breakout to higher prices – an historical pattern that we have observed several times over the course of the last few years. Ultimately, the key question for Gold bugs is whether we are on the cusp of a regime shift in inflation, as the combination of world war era fiscal and central bank stimulus, long with a chance in the central bank template (symmetric inflation target) and unwinding globalization could lead to a world where inflation is once again very relevant. In this context, a continued growth normalization should be welcomed by Gold bugs as a reversal in safe-haven flows should be offset by investment demand, with real rates significantly surpassed”…Silver has slipped 20 cents to $17.30…base metals are pushing higher with Copper, Nickel and Zinc at $2.62, $5.81 and 92 cents, respectively, while Cobalt is steady at $13.15…Crude Oil is 8 cents higher at $38.04 while the U.S. Dollar Index has added one-fifth of a point to 97.32…Prime Minister Trudeau’s 4-year campaign to win a seat on the useless U.N. Security Council thankfully came to a screeching halt yesterday when Canada was beat out on the first round by Ireland and Norway…for the past 4 years, the globalist Trudeau has been sacrificing Canadian values to court favor with dozens of countries in an attempt to gain his U.N. prize…in February, while the Canadian economy was being held hostage by anarchists protesting a major job-creating B.C. LNG project, Trudeau was globetrotting and warmly greeting the likes of Iranian foreign minister Zarif…Trudeau failed to list Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist entity and gave his support to the UN Relief and Works Agency which has known links to the Hamas terrorist group…appropriately, Erin O’Toole’s campaign slogan in the Conservative leadership race is “Take Back Canada”…Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer says in a new report that this year’s federal deficit could hit a staggering $256 billion…the result, posted this morning, is the combination of an estimated total of $169 billion in federal spending on emergency aid and an historic drop in economic output…Argentina’s debt restructuring talks appear to have hit a stalemate, amid escalating tensions between government officials and international creditors…it means around $65 billion in bonds could be left in default for an extended period…Latin America’s 3rd-largest economy tumbled into its 9th sovereign debt default on May 22 after it missed overdue interest payments..cities with large technology sectors appear to be leading the U.S. housing recovery, according to new data released by Realtor.com…the company’s Weekly Housing Recovery Report, which contains data for the week ending June 13, showed that local markets with strong pre-pandemic job creation – specifically in the technology sector – are bouncing back quicker than other markets…oops – McDonald’s (MCD, NYSE) is reportedly planning to keep salads, bagels and yogurt parfaits off its menus for the foreseeable future after the pandemic led the company to shrink its offerings…as Congress discusses a new economic-relief package, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is pushing for $120 billion in aid for restaurants that aims to prevent further closures and job losses due to the pandemic…

2. Americans filed a seasonally adjusted 1.51 million first-time jobless claims in the week to Saturday, the Labor Department announced this morning…consensus estimates of economists called for initial jobless claims to be around 1.3 million to 1.35 million…the previous week’s 1.54 million claims were revised to 1.57 million…new weekly claims have been 1.51 million or higher every week since March 21 after the previous all-time high had been 695,000 back in October 1982, according to Labor Department figures…while initial claims have now fallen for the 11th straight week after the late March spike, this past week saw the slowest pace of decline on a percentage basis since early April…traders have been closely monitoring jobless claims as a key gauge of the weakness in the economy due to lockdowns and physical distancing measures across the country to combat the spread of the Wuhan COVID-19 pandemic…a stable level of people on benefit rolls suggests that new layoffs are being offset by employers hiring or recalling workers as states have allowed more businesses to reopen in recent weeks…

3. Vice-President Pence, in an exclusive interview with Charles Payne’s Making Money, denied that a 2nd wave of Wuhan COVID-19 is on the horizon, and said that the White House is committed to ushering through another stimulus package, as well as a separate $400 billion infrastructure bill to pull America out of this pandemic-induced recession…the VP criticized the media for propping up the threat of a 2nd wave and accused them of trying to scare the American people…“Despite the fact that some networks like to put maps up with lots of red states, the reality is, as of this morning, there are only 11 counties in America that are seeing accelerating new cases, and only about 2% of the counties in this country are seeing any significant increases in cases at all,” Pence said…“The truth is, now that all 50 states and our territories are reopening, we’re proving we can do that in a safe and responsible way. Areas where we’re seeing increases in cases, places like Texas and Florida, the reality is that those states are also focusing on vulnerable populations, whether it be nursing homes, or prisons, or meat packing plants, and that combined with the massive increase in testing all across the country, I think is creating the impression for some Americans that we’re in a different place”…

4. Elsewhere on the COVID-19 front, Chile is strengthening lockdown measures in its capital of Santiago after confirming that cases have surpassed 200,000, according to a report from Reuters…in a government briefing, officials said residents of Santiago will now only be able to leave their homes twice a week instead of 5 times a week…parts of the city have been under lockdown for 3 months…Chile has reported 220,628  COVID-19 cases and 3,615 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University…Sweden, which has taken a less restrictive approach than others in an effort to develop “herd immunity” to COVID-19 in its population, says about 6% of its people have developed antibodies to the virus…herd immunity, which is usually achieved via vaccination, is attained when around 60% of citizens are deemed immune…Sweden’s response (no full lockdown) has differed from others, without leading to a massive outbreak, but the country’s leading epidemiologists will likely not realize their goal of achieving herd immunity…England’s test and trace system identified about 45,000 people who came into contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19 in its 2nd week of operation, according to data from Britain’s health ministry…since the project began on May 28, tracers have identified more than 95,000 contacts, according to the data, and successfully contacted more than 85,000 of them…Canadian firms such as Shopify (SHOP, TSX) and Blackberry (BB, TSX) have helped develop a made-in-Canada mobile contact testing app for COVID-19, it was announced this morning…the app, which will be voluntary, will soon be tested in the province of Ontario…

5. The Dow has slipped 152 points through the first 30 minutes of trading…in Toronto, the TSX is 18 points lower while the Venture is off just 1 point at 559…Auramex (AUX, TSX-V), gaining traction at 6.5 cents, has upsized its over-subscribed private placement by 50% to $6 million as part of a major reorganization of the company that could turn AUX into a hot high-grade Gold play over the summer focused on the prolific Stewart Camp, south of the Eskay Camp…Benchmark Metals (BNCH, TSX-V) is mobilizing drill rigs and technical crews to the company’s Lawyers Gold-Silver Project in north central British Columbia…Benchmark plans 50,000 m of drilling, mostly focused on resource expansion and definition drilling as the company sees the potential to convert the existing exploration targets into a multi-million ounce Gold-Silver mineral resource estimate…Clean Air Metals (AIR, TSX-V) has drilled 78.9 m grading 3.8 g/t Pt-Pd and 1.2% Cu+Ni, including 20 m @ 7.8 g/t Pt-Pd and 2.4% Cu+Ni, at its Escape Lake Project near Thunder Bay…Abraham Drost, CEO of Clean Air, stated: “Assays from Clean Air’s initial 2 holes in Phase 1 drilling suggests a new Platinum-Palladium-Copper-Nickel discovery at Escape Lake. The emerging picture is that of a body of mineralization that is open laterally and along strike, contained in a mafic-ultramafic intrusion and magma conduit system. Given the $6.7 million flow-through financing the company closed Tuesday, we are in a position to pursue our 2020 exploration objectives with vigour. The company is presently executing Phase 1 drilling on the Escape Lake magma conduit and planning targeted geophysics to search for high tenor massive sulphides, which have previously been identified on the Thunder Bay North Property”…Strategic Metals (SMD, TSX-V) has announced a $4 million hard dollar/flow-through financing…Ascot Resources (AOT, TSX-V) has closed a $25 million bought deal co-led by Desjardins Capital Markets and Stifle GMP…Derek White, President and CEO, commented, “The completion of the offering facilitates the funding for the order of long lead time items and continued development, optimization and de-risking of the Premier Gold Project. This supports the company’s efforts of re-starting the mining operations at the Premier Gold Project”…Gatekeeper Systems (GSI, TSX-V) has hit a new multi-year high of 36 cents in early trading…yesterday, the company announced a contract with the U.S. Air Force, building on a long-standing business relationship with the Department of Defense…Blockchain Holdings (BCX, TSX-V) has completed its name change to TraceSafe – trading under the new name will begin at the opening of trading tomorrow under the symbol “TSF“…

6. Discovery Metals (DSV, TSX-V) has drilled 0.7 m grading 2,489 g/t AgEq at its Cordero Project in Mexico, along with 51.9 m grading 197 g/t AgEq, 62.2 m @ 174 g/t AgEq and 85.5 m @ 112 g/t AgEq in a series of drill hole results released this morning (core intervals, true widths are unknown at this time)…these holes were focused on defining and extending the higher-grade mineralized footprint in the northern corridor along the northeast trend…Taj Singh, President and CEO, states: “We are very encouraged that we continue to intercept broad zones of mineralization with excellent grades along the northeast trend in areas where there are significant gaps in previous drilling. We are also excited to announce, based on the excellent exploration results we have achieved to date, we are expanding our Phase 1 drill program by approximately 20,000 m. With over $40 million cash on our balance sheet we are very well positioned to not only complete this expanded program, along with an updated resource and PEA, but also to advance and drill test our property-wide targets at Cordero”…Discovery with its low grade, high-tonnage deposit (one of the largest undeveloped Silver deposits in the world) commands a current market cap of just over $200 million…

7. Students returning to school this fall should not have to wear masks or maintain physical distancing while at play, Canada’s largest children’s hospital argues in a new report that stresses the importance of getting young people back to class…the advice from the Hospital for Sick Children seems to veer toward a more relaxed approach than taken by some jurisdictions, especially in East Asia, as they re-opened shuttered schools…requiring masks could lead to more infection, not less, while separating children as they socialize outside the classroom would have negative psychological effects, says a guidance document SickKids released yesterday…it does urge keeping desks as far apart as possible and cancelling assemblies…children have suffered anxiety, depression and loneliness and faced greater risk of family discord and abuse during the lockdown, hospital experts told a virtual news conference…they said the psychological benefits of resuming in-person classes this September outweigh COVID-19’s risks, which they said can be lessened with measures like frequent handwashing and keeping sick students at home…“It has never been 100% safe to send children to school,” said Dr. Ronald Cohn, the SickKids CEO…“There’s always been a risk of contracting some infectious disease, whether it’s the flu, the Norovirus or other viruses. Children are at risk of being injured…and suffering mental and physical harm from bullying. But of course we can manage these risks and put mitigating factors in place to deal with them. This is exactly the kind of approach we have to take now”…

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

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

1. Spot Gold has traded between $1,734 and $1,714 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific the yellow metal is unchanged at $1,723…astute investors continue to buy any dips…Commerzbank’s latest comments on Gold: “The massive increase in liquidity by not only the Fed but other central banks pumping much money into the market is helping Gold. We see Gold rising towards $1,800 in the 2nd half of the year driven by the massive increase in liquidity by the central banks which should lead to currency devaluation”…Silver has jumped 18 cents to $17.55…base metals are pushing higher on bullish economic news and reports of a Trump infrastructure plan to be rolled out soon…Copper, Nickel and Zinc are at $2.61, $5.85 and 91 cents, respectively…Cobalt is off slightly at $13.15…Crude Oil has climbed $1.71 a barrel to $38.83 while the U.S. Dollar Index is up one-fifth of a point at 96.90…Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to announce today that the Canada Emergency Response Benefit program (CERB) will be extended until the end of the summer…yesterday, Trudeau signalled the announcement was on the horizon, saying that the government was “working on a solution to extend the benefit for people who can’t return to work yet”…the problem with CERB, businesses are saying, is that it has actually created a disincentive for many people to return to work – they can earn more money just staying a home, taking the summer off…socialism is wonderful, isn’t it?…the global economy is on track for a more significant contraction than the International Monetary Fund estimated back in April, the institution’s chief economist said this morning…“For the first time since the Great Depression, both advanced and emerging market economies will be in recession in 2020. The forthcoming June World Economic Outlook Update is likely to show negative growth rates even worse than previously estimated,” Gita Gopinath, the IMF’s chief economist, said in a blog post…Wall Street isn’t so pessimistic…

2. Renewed shopping drove a record 17.7% increase in U.S. retail sales in May, though total spending remained below levels before the Wuhan COVID-19 virus struck America…May’s jump in retail spending marked the biggest monthly increase in records dating back to 1992, and followed the largest monthly drop on record in April, a revised 14.7% seasonally adjusted decline, the Commerce Department said this morning…retail sales totalled $486 billion in May, just 10% below February’s $527 billion…May’s increase followed 3 straight months of declining retail sales, and offered an additional sign that the worst of the economic shock from the pandemic occurred in late March and April when widespread shutdowns to contain the virus were in place across the country…Americans increased their outlays across the board in May…the report showed particularly hard-hit retail categories during the coronavirus, such as apparel and furniture sales, posted strong gains last month, with sales at clothing stores rising 188% from the prior month and furniture sales jumping 89.7%…online sales continued to gain…the U.S. consumer drives about two-thirds of GDP…

3. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned moments ago about “significant uncertainty” regarding the pace of the U.S. economic recovery and said small businesses and lower-income and minority Americans are particularly at risk…during the first day of his semiannual testimony before Congress, Powell told the Senate banking committee that while some indicators have shown improvement, there’s still a long way to go as the economy regains its footing from the coronavirus pandemic…“The levels of output and employment remain far below their pre-pandemic levels, and significant uncertainty remains about the timing and strength of the recovery,” he said in prepared remarks…“Much of that economic uncertainty comes from uncertainty about the path of the disease and the effects of measures to contain it. Until the public is confident that the disease is contained, a full recovery is unlikely”…Powell’s comments could give Gold another boost today while tempering some of the early morning enthusiasm on Wall Street…

4. Investors have rarely been this flush with cash, and that bodes well for continued strength this summer in the equity markets…grappling with the most economic uncertainty in decades and volatility on Wall Street, many investors have rushed into money-market funds…assets in the funds recently swelled to about $4.6 trillion, the highest level on record, according to data from Refinitiv Lipper going back to 1992…it is a “pantry-loading and survival” mentality, said Peter Crane, founder of Crane Data, which tracks the industry…“It’s blown the lid off the previous record high”…assets in money-market funds are one, but not the only, measure of cash holdings, and investors have socked away cash in other places, too…other measures, like bank deposits, are also at a high…analysts attribute the flight to cash to the pandemic, which spurred an immediate rush out of stocks, bonds and commodities…meanwhile, stimulus checks sent to millions of Americans as part of the economic rescue package helped add to the heap…

5. Tesla (TSLA, NASDAQ) will buy cobalt from Glencore, the world’s biggest miner of the metal, as the carmaker looks to avoid a future supply squeeze on the key battery metal, according to reports this morning…the contract will help Tesla shore up its Cobalt supply for new plants in China and Germany…the opening of Tesla’s so-called gigafactory in China this year has helped propel its shares to a record, as investors turn bullish on Elon Musk’s ambition to transform the company into a global mass-market automaker…while there’s enough Cobalt supply for now, demand is expected to surge in the coming years as Tesla expands in China and Europe and Volkswagen AG to BMW AG roll out fleets of electric vehicles…warnings about long-term shortages caused Cobalt prices to spike in 2017 and 2018, prompting Musk to work on reducing Tesla’s reliance on the metal…even so, the accord signals that the metal will remain key to the company’s expansion over the next few years…

6. The Dow has surged 759 points through the first 30 minutes of trading, buoyed by much better-than-expected retail numbers and reports that the Trump administration will soon roll out a $1 trillion infrastructure proposal…in Toronto, the TSX is up 312 points while the Venture has added 7 points to 566 as it works through a resistance band that continues into the upper 580’s…North American infrastructure play Cematrix (CVX, TSX-V) is up 3 pennies at 55 cents after retreating to its 20-day SMA…Great Bear Resources (GBR, TSX-V) has hit the $15 level for the first time in early trading…it’s up $1 at $14.97 as of 7:00 am Pacific…momentum continues to push Tudor Gold (TUD, TSX-V), Artemis Gold (ARTG, TSX-V) and Else Nutrition (BABY, TSX-V) higher…Canada Silver Cobalt (CCW, TSX-V) has closed a $1.2 million private placement at 60 cents (flow-through) while also commencing a series of wedge holes into a new exceptionally high-grade vein discovered 95 m below the Robinson Zone at Castle East…wedge holes, aided by a custom-built downhole camera used in this Camp for the first time, proved extremely effective last winter in helping to delineate an initial 7.6 million Inferred ounces of Silver in 2 areas of the Robinson Zone at an average grade of 250 oz/ton in the most significant grassroots Silver discovery in Northern Ontario in half a century…CCW moved up 6 cents on the news yesterday as it attempts to conquer resistance in the mid-50’s…Gatekeeper Systems (GSI, TSX-V) has hit a new multi-year high of 29 cents this morning…Gatekeeper is a leading provider of intelligent video solutions designed to provide a safer transportation environment for children, passengers, and public safety personnel on multiple transportation modes…the company uses AI, video analytics and mobile data collectors to inter-connect public transit assets as part of intelligent transportation systems for Smart City initiatives…KABN Systems (KABN, CSE) announced this morning that it has entered into an agreement to integrate its Liquid Avatar platform with Disrupted Logic Interactive’s (DLI) ctalyst platform to enhance the experience of on-line and e-sports gamers…informative article on KABN in this morning’s Financial Post – How Digital Data Is Making E-Commerce Smarter…

7. One in 4 chief executives in Alberta are concerned their businesses might not survive the economic collapse triggered by COVID-19, according to a new survey…Alberta is Canada’s largest Oil and gas producing province and is widely expected to record the sharpest economic contraction and drop in employment this year, following the triple threat of an anti-West far left federal government, the pandemic-induced business closures and weak Oil prices…the Business Council of Alberta published a survey of its members yesterday that showed 26% of respondents didn’t know if their “organization will survive this crisis until a vaccine is widely available or we otherwise reach herd immunity”…

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