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1. Gold has traded between $1,307 and $1,316 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is up $5 an ounce at $1,314…Gold prices are trading near session highs following weaker-than-expected preliminary U.S. manufacturing and service sector sentiment data…the IHS Markit flash manufacturing PMI for March declined to 53.5 from February’s reading of 53…the report noted that sentiment within the manufacturing sector is at its lowest point in 21 months…the data pulled 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yields to fresh multi-month lows of 2.443%, causing the yield curve measuring the gap between 3-month Treasury bills and 10-year yields to invert for the first time since 2007…Silver is relatively flat at $15.42…Copper, Nickel and Zinc are all off slightly at $2.90, $5.87 and $1.29, respectively…Crude Oil has pulled back 93 cents a barrel to $59.05 while the U.S. Dollar Index has gained another one-fifth of a point to 96.54…the greenback is holding up, despite a dovish Fed, because of weaker economies and currencies elsewhere…the dollar is the best of a bad lot, in other words…in the euro zone, manufacturing activity has fallen to its lowest level since April 2013…
2. Battery metals tracker Adamas Intelligence says Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers deployed 253% more Nickel in passenger EV batteries in January this year compared to 2018…the Dutch-Canadian research company, which tracks EV registrations and battery chemistries, in more than 80 countries says the jump is due to an ongoing shift from Lithium iron phosphate (LFP) to Nickel-Cobalt-Manganese (NCM) cathodes…first generation NCM batteries contained around a third Cobalt with a chemical composition of 111 – 1 part Nickel, 1 part Cobalt and 1 part Manganese, but NCM batteries with higher Nickel content (622 and 523 chemistries) have become standard in China…according to Adamas, China is now the the largest market for passenger EV battery Nickel, ahead of Japan and the U.S., which were the 2 largest markets in January 2018…Nickel used in car batteries jumped 88% in Germany and 54% in the U.S. year-on-year…the EV boom in China is only accelerating, and Adamas says despite being a seasonally slow month in January 2019, 3.27 GWh of passenger EV battery capacity was deployed in the world’s largest car market, an increase of 439% over January 2018 levels…even more remarkable, from January 2018 through January 2019, the sales-weighted average passenger EV battery capacity in China increased by a staggering 95%, from 14.9 kWh to 29.1 kWh, meaning that the average EV registered in China in January 2019 contained nearly double the mass of battery metals/materials as the year prior…the price of Nickel is up more than 20% in 2019 as stocks held in warehouses around the world registered with the London Metal Exchange fall to multi-year lows…
3. Investors in Canada’s debt market are becoming more convinced that the next interest-rate move from the country’s central bank will be down, with bonds due in more than a decade now yielding less than cash…an investor has to be willing to lend for around 14 years in order to get more than the 1.75% rate that the Bank of Canada currently has as its overnight benchmark…while Canadian bonds due in 2033 yesterday yielded around 1.79%, securities maturing in June 2029 offered a rate of just 1.67%…local yields have fallen in recent weeks, spurred lower by weakening economic data, a more downbeat assessment from the Bank of Canada and a global rally in bonds…Wednesday’s dovish shift by the U.S. central bank and the market’s more downbeat view on prospect’s for Canada’s southern neighbour added momentum in sovereign bonds and also provide further support for the idea that policy makers in Ottawa will need to cut rates…the recovery in Oil since the turn of the year and optimism surrounding U.S.-China trade talks had some market strategists betting the BOC wasn’t done tightening, after 5 hikes since mid-2017…however, deteriorating economic data have traders shifting gears, sending the probability of a rate hike by July below 15% from about 26% a month ago…
4. Germany’s 10-year government bond yields slipped into negative territory on Friday for the first time since October 2016…hitting a low of -0.001%, the 10-year bond yield’s downturn comes amid rising concern about the direction of the euro zone’s largest economy, with a string of weak data in recent months fueling speculation that Germany could be heading for recession…the move in bond yields appears to be primarily due to the Brexit scare and further softening of the export outlook in manufacturing PMIs…IHS Markit’s PMI survey published this morning revealed that Germany’s manufacturing sector contracted for the 3rd consecutive month in March, with output growth nearing a 6-year low…
5. The Dow has tumbled 230 points after the first 30 minutes of trading…in Toronto, the TSX has fallen 107 points…Paulson & Co will not support Newmont Mining’s (NEM, NYSE) planned $10 billion (U.S.) takeover of rival Goldcorp (G, TSX; GG, NYSE) as the premium offered is unjustified, the investor said in a letter yesterday…Paulson & Co holds 14.2 million Newmont shares for 2.7% ownership of the company, making it one of its biggest shareholders…the Venture, riding a 5-session wining streak, is off 1 point at 640…buy the dip, as they say – the technical and fundamental underpinnings of this market are looking better than they have in a long time…Nextleaf Solutions (OILS, CSE) had a strong debut on the CSE yesterday, closing at 40 cents on volume of nearly 3 million shares…it’s up again this morning on strong volume in early trading…Nextleaf is an extraction and processing technology company that has developed a portfolio of issued and pending patents pertaining to the company’s unique, industrial-scale process of producing purified cannabinoid distillate, a tasteless, odourless cannabis concentrate best suited for infusing premium value-added products….
6. Supreme Cannabis (FIRE, TSX), approaching its 2018 highs, announced this morning that it expects its previously announced Oil products line to be introduced to adult-use consumers in select Canadian markets starting next month…Supreme plans to initially ship oil products to select markets before expanding distribution of its cannabis oil line to additional provinces which is expected by the end of June…each bottle will contain a proprietary blend of highly purified cannabis oils and terpenes derived from plants grown by 7ACRES…“Premium oils require premium cannabis,” stated Supreme CEO Navdeep Dhaliwal…“Our formulation will leverage supercritical CO2 technology to produce a high-quality, purified cannabis oil which we reformulate with the naturally occurring cannabis terpenes from our 7ACRES high-end cannabis. The result is a unique, plant-based cannabis oil that carries the award-winning qualities of our flower into an oil product for consumers looking for a premium cannabis oil experience”…
7. The socialist government of British Columbia, the Green Monster, is so focussed on its anti-Oil agenda, it hasn’t had time (and won’t have time) to wreak havoc on the mining and exploration sector like it did in the 1990’s…keep in mind, the Green Monster has already stated emphatically that it will use “every tool in its toolbox” to kill the Trans Mountain Project…here’s what the government is up to now: The B.C. Court of Appeal is currently hearing a reference case that asks whether the government can amend its Environmental Management Act to create a permitting system for companies that increase the amount of heavy Oil they are transporting through the province…B.C. has argued the amendments are not intended to block the Trans Mountain pipeline, but rather to protect the environment from spills and require companies to pay for damages…however, the government’s real intent is very clear for any reasonable judge to see – Trans Mountain will be directly and significantly impacted by the proposed legislation…the motive is simply to obstruct the expansion…Trans Mountain is the only pipeline that transports liquid petroleum to the West Coast and the only pipeline to which the legislation would apply…meanwhile, gutless politicians are silent as 2 Wet’suwet’en Nation hereditary leaders plan to construct a protest camp to oppose TransCanada’s Coastal GasLink pipeline project, setting the stage for a new blockade in the northern part of the province…the Laksamshu clan, 1 of 5 clans within the Wet’suwet’en Nation, says, “We will be building permanent buildings on our territory in an effort to assert our precolonial rights and jurisdiction on our lands,” according to a quote in The Globe and Mail…
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With respect to CCW, do you think we would see a LOI or MOU anytime soon? Or are we still a ways from that still.
Comment by Tfred — March 22, 2019 @ 10:32 am
I’m expecting we’ll hear something important from CCW sooner rather than later, Tfred…Battery’s recent move is also evidence CCW is further along on things than many realize…
Comment by Jon - BMR — March 22, 2019 @ 11:01 am
Thought I would share with everyone…..the best looking chart in my Junior portfolio……….CVM.V
Comment by LarryC — March 22, 2019 @ 3:20 pm