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1. Gold has traded between $1,302 and $1,312 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is up $6 an ounce at $1,309 as the Fed begins its 2-day meeting…Silver, attempting to conquer key resistance at $15.75, has added 8 cents to $15.80…base metals are firmer, led by Nickel – the top-performing metal so far this year – which has hit a 3-month high…it’s currently up 13 cents at $5.45…Copper has added 2 cents to $2.71 while Zinc is a penny higher at $1.22…Crude Oil has strengthened after the Trump administration imposed sanctions yesterday on Venezuelan state-owned Oil firm PDVSA in a move that may temporarily curb the country’s Crude exports…despite the move, which comes as the U.S., Canada and others pile pressure on President Nicolas Maduro to step down, Crude’s immediate/short-term upside appears to be limited given ample global Oil supply and an economic slowdown in Europe and China…WTI has gained $1.45 a barrel to $53.44…the U.S. Dollar Index is up slightly at 95.81…cryptocurrencies stolen from exchanges and scammed from investors surged more than 400% in 2018 to around $1.7 billion, according to a report released this morning from U.S.-based cyber security firm CipherTrace…the market capitalization of more than 1,600 digital currencies is currently just over $100 billion, down more than 80% from its peak a year ago…U.S. consumer confidence fell this month, tested by the partial government shutdown and volatile markets…still, consumer spirits remain very robust by historic standards…
2. The Federal Reserve rate decision will be a non-event for the markets tomorrow while Jerome Powell’s news conference following the announcement will take center stage…in its latest Commodity Weekly update, TD Securities stated, “The Fed has the potential to set the overall tone for commodities, as a dovish tilt could go a long way towards removing a considerable impediment to emerging market and speculative demand for commodities. In this week’s FOMC meeting, the interest rate decision will be a snooze-fest, but the statement and press conference will likely be noteworthy”…Gold has benefitted since Friday on reports of an early end to the Fed’s quantitative tightening which sets up the possibility of a disappointment tomorrow…“Late last week, a WSJ story musing on the prospects of an early end to the Fed’s balance sheet runoff also saw most assets rally, with Gold and precious metals strengthening sharply in response. Considering the market’s recently found optimism with respect to this, we suspect that the bar is high for a positive reaction for risk assets”…
3. China is huffing and puffing, calling on Washington to “stop the unreasonable crackdown” on Huawei Technologies after the U.S. stepped up pressure on the tech giant (and gave President Trump more leverage in trade talks) by indicting it on charges of stealing technology and violating sanctions on Iran…Beijing will “firmly defend” its companies, a foreign ministry statement said…however, Chinese authorities gave no indication whether Beijing might retaliate for the charges against Huawei…the U.S. Justice Department also revealed formal charges against Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s CEO who was arrested in Vanco0uver in December…the U.S., of course, is looking to extradite her…Canada-China relations have since hit a new low with the situation compounded in recent days by bizarre remarks from John McCallum who was fired as Canada’s Ambassador to China after undermining his own government’s position…meanwhile, The National Post’s Tom Blackwell wrote an excellent piece this morning on how Chinese leader Xi Jinping has overseen in recent years what one leading academic expert calls a “massive expansion” in China’s use of soft power overseas including Canada – much of it under the auspices of the United Front Work Department, a shadowy offshoot of the Chinese communist party…
4. The NDP-Green grip on power in British Columbia could slip dramatically by tomorrow night...a new poll shows the free enterprise B.C. Liberals could post a runaway victory in tomorrow’s by-election in the traditional NDP riding of Nanaimo where popular local businessman Tony Harris is up against a long-time political hack from the NDP with zero private sector experience…should be a slam dunk…the Mainstream Research poll among decided and leaning voters shows Harris has 44.7% support while NDP candidate Sheila Malcolmson has 32.2%…the Greens are a distant third at 13.7%…should Harris and the Liberals win, they would have 43 seats in the B.C. Legislature vs. 40 for the NDP and 3 for the Greens, meaning Speaker Darryl Plecas (a former Liberal who’s now an Independent) would have to break every tie vote – a situation that would likely result in early provincial election…meanwhile, it’s apparent that TransCanada has given up on B.C. and Canada due to this country’s continued pipeline fiascos…TransCanada has engaged RBC Capital Markets to manage the planned sale of a majority stake in Coastal GasLink, the $6.2 billion fully approved project that been the target of protests led by a small group of hereditary chiefs in B.C. and the usual Oil and gas haters/climate change extremists who have no respect for the rule of law or the will of the majority…
5. The Dow is up 112 points through the first 30 minutes of trading…Apple (AAPL, NASDAQ) is set to report fiscal Q1 results after the bell today, 4 weeks after it lowered revenue projections for the period and poured cold water on the stock…earlier this month Apple adjusted revenue estimates to $84 billion, down from a previously stated range of $89 billion to $93 billion…shares tanked 10% but have since clawed their way back to trade essentially flat for 2019…the TSX is 73 points higher as of 7:00 am Pacific while the Venture is up a point at 616…OrganiGram Holdings (OGI, TSX-V) pushed higher again this morning on news that the company has signed a multi-year extraction contract with Valens Groworks…“Looking ahead to another year of unprecedented firsts in the national and global cannabis industries, our growth strategy is aggressive,” stated OrganiGram CEO Greg Engel…“A key element of that success is partnerships with companies like Valens who can offer the capacity, quality and expertise to help ensure we deliver on our ongoing commitment to meeting the increasing demand of the global medical and adult recreational cannabis markets”…
6. Westleaf (WL, TSX-V) announced this morning that it has secured 2 additional cannabis retail stores in Saskatchewan…both stores will be in Saskatoon and will be under Westleaf’s brand, Prairie Records, subject to provincial regulatory approval…Westleaf’s first retail location in Saskatchewan will be opening in Warman later this week…”These additional premium cannabis retail locations will provide Westleaf with significant scale in Saskatchewan and will be opened under the Prairie Records brand which provides customers with a unique and engaging cannabis retail experience,” said Scott Hurd, President and CEO. “We believe that Saskatchewan provides for one of the most attractive privatized cannabis markets given the limited number of licenses and the ability to sell online to the entire province. This is especially true in the province’s largest city, Saskatoon”…in addition to a growing portfolio of premium retail locations, Westleaf controls the processing, extraction and cultivation of cannabis – making it one of the few truly vertically integrated cannabis companies…WL is up 45 cents at $3.88 as of 7:00 am Pacific…
7. Court challenge over cannabis?…the head of the Toronto region transportation agency Metrolinx says workers in so-called safety-sensitive positions will be banned from using recreational cannabis at all times so that the company can protect the public as well as its employees…CEO Phil Verster says the provincial agency, which operates GO Transit trains and buses in Greater Toronto and Hamilton, is making the change to its fitness-for-duty policy after spending a year studying the effects cannabis use can have on reaction time…”We’ve had to make the very difficult call on whether the safety interests of the public and our communities outweighs the interests of the individual to use cannabis on a recreational basis. We’ve decided very clearly that the safety of everyone is paramount”…workers in approximately 140 different roles will be banned from using pot under the policy that takes effect February 1…the agency employs approximately 3,700 people and hundreds of contractors who operate GO Transit trains…the Amalgamated Transit Union says it’s exploring a possible court challenge…
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DVR moving in the right direction. Secured a huge 5 year deal worth 3.8 million. Revenue starting this growing season could top a million a quarter. New products, more properties and more connections and they have nearly 4 million cash in the bank with only 34 million shares out. Pretty amazing!!
Comment by Ed — January 29, 2019 @ 9:26 am