Check back throughout the day for updates and helpful information!
1. Gold continues to firm, trading between $1,246 and $1,259 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is up $7 an ounce at $1,256 ahead of a Fed statement at 11:00 am Pacific…Gold holdings in exchange-traded funds continue to rise, according to commodities brokerage SP Angel…“Global (ETF) assets expanded more than 10 tonnes to the highest since July, with investors seeking havens as equities flounder, and expectations of hikes in 2019 recede. Gold snapped a 6-month losing run in October, held its ground in November, and then gained this month as investors position themselves for 2019 by adding to worldwide holdings in ETFs”…meanwhile, holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust – the world’s largest Gold ETF – jumped 1.1% yesterday to 771.79 tonnes, the highest since August 20…Silver has jumped 16 cents to $14.76…Copper has added 2 pennies to $2.73 while Nickel and Zinc are both up slightly at $4.94 and $1.18, respectively…Crude Oil, after a steep plunge yesterday, has rebounded 91 cents to $47.15…the U.S. Dollar Index has retreated one-tenth of a point to 96.88…one of the keys to an improving Venture and commodity sector is a lower U.S. dollar, and at the moment the greenback is on the cusp of a potential technical breakdown entering January…today’s Fed language will be critical..
2. The Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise interest rates by a quarter point later today (11:00 am Pacific, followed by a Jerome Powell news conference half an hour later)…more importantly, however, the Fed is likely to signal that it won’t be pushing rates higher as much as it had previously forecast…this should help soothe volatile financial markets but the Fed has a tough task in explaining its actions in a way that will not sound too alarmist about the economy or too unconcerned about deteriorating financial conditions…the central bank is seen as likely to take the Fed funds rate range to 2.25 to 2.50% (the highest in a decade but still low by historical standards) while removing language in its post-meeting statement that says it will continue with “gradual” rate increases…the Fed has said it expected to raise interest rates 3 more times next year, but many economists now believe the Fed will have a tough time pushing through even 1 rate hike in 2019…a more dovish Fed should put downward pressure on the dollar which, in turn, should help the commodity sector as 2019 unfolds…
3. Don’t be fooled: The Trudeau government, which seems to take voters as fools, did what it does best yesterday – it played a very shameful game of “optics” as it unveiled $1.6 billion in new loans and financial support for beleaguered Canadian Oil and gas companies…Ottawa said it’s setting aside $1 billion in financial support from Export Development Canada for companies to make capital investments and buy new technology, another $500 million in new loans over the next 3 years from the Business Development Bank of Canada, $100 million for energy and economic diversification projects, and $50 million for an unnamed Oil and gas project…“This is absolutely not what is needed,” stated Whitecap Resources‘ (WCP, TSX) CEO Grant Fagerheim. “We don’t need welfare; we need policies that get our products to markets – simple”…Albertans are justifiably angry right now and they aren’t interested in handouts – they want real action in terms of building new pipeline capacity, which Trudeau has no intention of doing, while they also want the Trudeau government to make major changes to Bill-69 which has already been passed by the Liberal majority in the House of Commons and is now before the Senate…Bill C-69, if you haven’t read it, is the final nail in the coffin for any future pipeline projects in Canada…it’s an anti-fossil fuel piece of legislation drafted by the same group of left wing climate change extremists who inflicted enormous damage on Ontario during the McGuinty-Wynne era, and it’ll also impact the broader Canadian resource sector…unfortunately, we have a federal government that is unquestionably hostile toward the resource industry, and that partly explains the Venture’s woes this year…Pierre Trudeau’s National Energy Program wreaked havoc on Alberta and the rest of Western Canada, creating new regional tensions in the process…Justin Trudeau’s National Energy Program 2.0 is even more dangerous which is why the silent majority in Canada need to stand up and fight back….the cost to the national economy is estimated at a minimum of $50 million each and every day…Canada is run by a bunch of politicians – very few with any substantive business experience – who are wealth destroyers, not wealth creators…
4. The Congo, which supplies more than 60% of the world’s Cobalt, will vote on Sunday in a long-delayed election that is fraught with risk…President Joseph Kabila is due to step down after 18 years in the office he inherited from his assassinated father, and 2 years after his constitutional mandate officially expired…violence last week in which security forces killed at least 7 opposition supporters and a fire that destroyed thousands of voting machines were timely reminders of how quickly things can turn sour…the disputed results of prior elections in 2006 and 2011 sparked violent protests, and there is every indication that losing candidates will again cry foul…Congo is not only the world’s biggest producer of Cobalt but it’s also Africa’s top Copper miner and a significant producer of Gold…that makes the election of keen interest to investors and mining companies such as Glencore, Randgold and China Molybdenum, all of which are battling the government over a new mining code passed this year that hiked taxes and royalties…Kabila’s preferred candidate, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, would likely continue the recent hard line with foreign investors…his main challengers have said little on the subject…corruption in the Congo has drawn the attention of the U.S. Justice Department which is carrying out investigations, while the Ontario Securities Commission yesterday sanctioned Glencore subsidiary Katanga (KAT, TSX), imposing more than $30 million in fines and forcing CEO Johnny Blizzard to step aside…meanwhile, Congo’s government has started an audit into how radioactive Cobalt produced by Katanga left the country before an alarm was raised…
5. It’s official: This is an all-time record year for U.S. corporate stock buybacks (helps make earnings look better and props up stock prices but takes away from infrastructure and R&D investments for future growth)…announced buybacks for 2018 are now at a whopping $1.1 trillion, and companies are using their authorizations…about $800 billion of stock has already been bought back, leaving about $300 billion yet to be purchased…we’ve seen buyback announcements recently from Lowe’s, Pfizer and Facebook, but in the last few days, as stocks moved to new lows, companies have picked up the pace of activity…
6. The Dow has shot up 172 points as of 7:00 am Pacific…the TSX, meanwhile is 95 points higher as it climbs back above the key 14,500 level…the Venture is up 3 points at 546…the Index may have put in its December low yesterday at 542.55…Venture history, current sentiment levels and multiple charts indicate a sharp reversal out of very oversold conditions is imminent…Westhaven Ventures (WHN, TSX-V) announced this morning that it has completed another 2,183 m of diamond drilling in 5 holes at its Shovelnose Property near Merritt…the company says multiple occurrences of visible Gold were encountered in 2 of the holes, SN18-18 and SN18-21…a separate vein zone was also intersected in 4 of the holes, situated approximately 150 m to 200 m down section from the rich vein zone that was cut in holes SN18-14 and SN18-15…Gareth Thomas, Westhaven President & CEO, commented: “This newly discovered 2nd vein zone has the potential to significantly increase the size and scale of the South Zone Gold discovery. We are planning to initiate a fully financed drill program in early 2019, not only to follow-up on recent drilling success in the South Zone but to drill test targets generated from recently completed magnetic surveys (geophysics initiatives)”…
7. Tilray (TLRY, NASDAQ) shares jumped again this morning after the B.C.-based company took another step to strengthen its medical marijuana business outside Canada through a new collaboration with Novartis pharmaceutical group’s Sandoz AG…“Tilray is a global company, and we’re thrilled to build upon the success and momentum from our existing agreement with Sandoz Canada by taking our partnership global,” Tilray CEO Brendan Kennedy stated yesterday…under its original agreement, announced last January after several months of talks, the companies began shipping non-combustible medical products with the Tilray and Sandoz/Novartis brands to customers in Canada beginning in June…the new global arrangement allows Tilray to use the Sandoz supply chain, sales force and global distribution network to distribute Tilray medical cannabis products, Kennedy said…the number of countries that have legalized medical cannabis has more than doubled to 35 from 15 in 2010, when Kennedy got into the business…“It’s very clear to me how we go from 35, to 40, to 50, 60 countries globally…and this agreement enables us to ensure that our products get into the hands of more patients around the world,” he added…
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