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1. Gold has traded between $1,295 and $1,300 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is down $4 an ounce at $1,297, easing off slightly on revised prospects for a U.S.-North Korea summit…holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest Gold-backed ETF, fell 0.42% to 848.50 tonnes Friday…meanwhile, speculative bets on higher Gold prices have fallen sharply, with funds’ net long position in COMEX Gold slipping to its lowest level in 10 months (bullish contrarian sign)…Silver has retreated 5 cents to $16.41…Copper, Nickel and Zinc are all relatively flat at $3.11, $6.68 and $1.38, respectively…Cobalt is steady at $41.28…Crude Oil is getting hit again today after experiencing its worst session Friday since July 2017…WTI is down another $1.51 a barrel to $66.37 while the U.S. Dollar Index is up slightly at 94.34…
2. Crude Oil prices remain under pressure today but will likely find strong support near current levels due to bullish overall technical and fundamental factors…to address potential supply shortfalls, Saudi Arabia, de-facto leader of the OPEC cartel, as well as top producer Russia, said on Friday they were discussing raising Oil production by some 1 million bpd to make up for losses elsewhere under the production cut agreement…meanwhile, surging U.S. Crude production is showing no signs of abating as drillers continue to expand their search for new Oil fields to exploit…U.S. energy companies added 15 rigs in the week ended May 25, bringing the rig count to 859, the highest level since 2015…U.S. Crude production has already surged by more than 27% in the last 2 years to 10.73 million barrels per day (bpd), bringing American output ever closer to Russia’s 11 million bpd…the Oil sector is being championed in the U.S. – why is not being championed in Canada?…
3. No surprise here – optimism about the Canadian economy among business directors has waned over the past year, according to a new survey, as various domestic political squabbles, higher taxes, over-regulation and uncertainty surrounding the North American Free Trade Agreement talks dampen Canada’s business outlook (in the United States, under the Trump administration, business optimism is now at its highest levels in many years, so the 2 countries are clearly moving in opposite directions)…an annual survey from the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD) released today found that 33% of respondents expected the Canadian economy to improve in the next 2 to 5 years, down significantly from 52% in 2017…in the 2018 survey, 34% of respondents now expect the Canadian economy to worsen while 26% expect it to stay the same…
4. Australian Gold producer Resolute Mining has made the first major investment by an international Gold mining company into Sudan by acquiring 32.4 million shares of Ocra Gold (ORG, TSX-V), or 15% of the company on a fully diluted basis, in a private placement at 67 cents per share ($22 million)…Richard Clark, Orca CEO, commented: “This strategic investment by Resolute demonstrates and supports a rapidly growing international mining interest in Sudan. Resolute is a well-credentialed Australian Gold producer that has been successfully developing and operating Gold mines in Africa for more than 20 years and has recognized the scale and quality of our Block 14 Gold Project. Orca is now fully funded to deliver a feasibility study on Block 14, expand our exploration endeavours on this 2,170 sq. km license and our concessions in Cote d’Ivoire.”
5. B.C.-based Torino Power Solutions (TPS, CSE) has landed an important contract and will deliver its technology to one of the largest utility companies in the northeastern United States…the utility is based in New England and controls several regulated subsidiaries offering retail electricity and natural gas service to more than 3 million customers, so that’s certainly a vote of confidence in Torino’s disruptive technology which features a patented microwave cavity sensor delivering real-time temperature measurements of overhead power lines…this allows for increased transmission capacity, improved grid resiliency, lower energy costs and bottleneck elimination…the Torino power line monitoring (PLM) sensor system will be installed at a specified location on a New England utility overhead power line on a pilot basis with terms for purchase after an evaluation period is successfully completed…Torino, trying to tap into a very large potential global market, is focused on servicing utilities that are seeking new innovative sensor technology to improve grid performance and reduce cost for their customers…TPS, with only 46 million shares outstanding, is up 2 pennies at 12 cents as of 7:00 am Pacific…
6. U.S. equity markets are closed today due to the Memorial Day holiday…in Toronto, the TSX has slipped 19 points while the Venture is off 1 point at 775…Aphria (APH, TSX) has entered into a series of agreements resulting in the company forming a joint venture, CannInvest Africa Ltd., with South Africa’s Verve Group of Companies…as part of this transaction, CannInvest will acquire an interest in Verve Dynamics, poised to become one of the lowest-cost producers of medical cannabis extracts in the world..Aphria’s international expansion now extends to more than 10 countries across 5 continents…California-based MedMen Enterprises, the U.S. marijuana retailer known for its upscale, Apple-like stores, plans to finalize its reverse takeover listing in the coming days and is set to become one of the biggest publicly-traded cannabis firms on the Canadian market, trading on the CSE…
7. Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau plans to give a speech to a Calgary business audience Wednesday, a day ahead of a deadline set by Kinder Morgan Canada for its Trans Mountain Pipeline Project…the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, which announced the event set for May 30, says the speech will focus on “securing Canada’s economic future”…Kinder Morgan suspended all non-essential construction on the project in April, citing obstruction by the new British Columbia government, and the company set a May 31 deadline for getting assurances it can proceed without delays…the Feds, who have certainly not championed the Oil or broader resource sector in Canada since being elected in late 2014, have been all talk and no action on the Trans Mountain file for many months, so we certainly don’t expect Morneau to pull a rabbit out of the hat Wednesday…Kinder Morgan has now won 16 consecutive court challenges to its Trans Mountain Pipeline Project, yet the obstructionist B.C. government remains relentless in its attempt to block the already approved extension…the Feds have put no pressure on the Green Monster due in part to fear of losing seats in Metro Vancouver/Vancouver Island in the upcoming 2018 federal election…
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Hi BMR guys. How is AIS looking for the near term? And when do you think we will start getting results from Chiron with two drill rigs turning? Also you guys were right on about second half of May with CCW, nice work!!!
Comment by Tycoon777 — May 28, 2018 @ 9:05 am
Data breach at BMO and CIBC. Change your passwords. BNS also asked me to change my password this morning.
Comment by DavidW — May 28, 2018 @ 9:13 am
Gtt looking really purrrrtttyyy.
Comment by BigBid — May 28, 2018 @ 4:04 pm
Very much so, BigBid…more on that plus others in Evening Alert…
Comment by Jon - BMR — May 28, 2018 @ 5:17 pm
Cool! Tell AIS to hurry up too…
Comment by BigBid — May 28, 2018 @ 6:20 pm