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1. Gold has traded between $1,492 and $1,505 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is unchanged at $1,502…holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest Gold-backed exchange-traded fund, rose 0.8% to 851.91 tonnes yesterday…Silver is also flat at $17.08 with key resistance in the $17.20’s…the Gold-Silver ratio appears to have peaked recently, a technical development that is very bullish for Silver which should start to outpace Gold as both metals continue their primary uptrends over the next 12 months…Nickel has fallen 7 cents to $7.12 while Copper and Zinc are both unchanged at $2.57 and $1.02, respectively…Cobalt is steady at $14.29…Crude Oil has added 19 cents to $55.87 while the U.S. Dollar Index has retreated one-fifth of a point to 98.11…U.S. manufacturing growth slowed to its lowest in almost 10 years this month, the latest sign that the U.S. is feeling the affects of a slowdown in global growth…the U.S. manufacturing PMI (Purchasing Managers Index) was 49.9 in August, down from 50.4 in July and below the neutral 50.0 threshold for the first time since September 2009, according to data just released by IHS Markit…PMI surveys from Australia and the euro zone were also downbeat today…the euro zone PMI came in at 47.0 in August…Germany, the workhorse for the euro zone, saw its manufacturing PMI at only 43.6 in August…
2. Amid market volatility, escalating trade tensions, the threat of a global currency war, and slowing global growth, a group of central bankers has gathered in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for the 2019 Economic Symposium hosted by the Kansas City Federal Reserve…the meeting, which continues through Saturday, is the first time that investors, economists, citizens, and even the President of the United States will hear Fed Chairman Jerome Powell speak since the July FOMC meeting where he delivered the first interest rate cut since the Great Recession…Powell talks tomorrow in a much-anticipated address…Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker and Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan are both set to comment on the U.S. economy later today…
3. European central bank policymakers are concerned that growth is even weaker than earlier thought and a package of measures may be the best way to combat the slowdown, the accounts of the July 25 meeting showed today…with growth and inflation slowing for months, ECB President Mario Draghi has all but promised more stimulus as soon as September and a steady flow of dismal data since the meeting has only reinforced the case for more support…the accounts of the meeting showed options on the table for the ECB include a combination of a rate cuts, asset purchases and changes in the guidance on interest rates…“The view was expressed that the various options should be seen as a package, i.e. a combination of instruments with significant complementarities and synergies,” the ECB said…“Experience has showed that a package – such as the combination of rate cuts and asset purchases – was more effective than a sequence of selective actions”…
4. After topping $100 billion in Gold reserves in June, Russia purchased another 300,000 ounces or 9 tons of Gold in July, according to the latest data released by the Russian central bank…the total amount of Gold reserves rose 0.4% in the past month, reaching 71.3 million ounces or 2,218 tons as of August 1, compared to 71 million ounces or 2,208 tons as of July 1…the total value increased by 1.6%, rising to $101.9 billion, the central bank said…Russia has bought a total of 3.4 million ounces or 106 tons of Gold this year, adding substantial amounts each month…the country’s central bank bought 600,000 ounces in June, 200,000 ounces in May, 550,000 ounces in April, 600,000 ounces in March, 1 million ounces in February, and 200,000 ounces in January…during the last decade, Russia’s Gold reserves have gone from 2% to 19% as of the end of 2018 Q4, according to the World Gold Council’s (WGC) data…the WGC has been pointing to an overarching trend towards Gold, noting that central banks around the world purchased a total of 651.5 tonnes of Gold last year — the largest amount since 1971…that total is on track to be exceeded in 2019…
5. The Gold market appears to be taking a temporary breather as it holds critical support above $1,500 an ounce…however, market analysts at the World Gold Council say that the factors that drove Gold prices to a 6-year high are not going away anytime soon…at the start of the month, the WGC said that physical Gold demand hit its highest level in 3 years in the 2nd quarter thanks to continued unprecedented demand from central banks and growing investor appetite for safe-haven assets…the WGC also noted this month that holdings in global Gold-backed exchange traded products hit a 6-year high in July…“One of the strengths of the Gold market this year is that it isn’t reliant on inflows in any one area,” stated Alistair Hewitt, director of the WGC’s market intelligence group, in an interview with Kitco...”We are seeing inflows from the U.S., U.K. and Germany and the drivers in each of those markets are subtly different”…looking at the official Gold sector, Hewitt said that there is no reason to expect central banks to ease up on their Gold purchases anytime soon…WGC research noted that 9 central banks bought Gold in the 1st half of 2019…“We’ve seen an incredible year of central bank demand and that has been a significant positive factor for me,” he said…“Two years ago the only central banks that bought Gold were Russia, Turkey and Kazakhstan, and now you have seen just so many more central banks buying Gold“…
6. The Dow is 132 points higher through the first 30 minutes of trading…results from Nordstrom (JWN, NYSE) and Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS, NYSE) have added to a strong batch of retail earnings…in Toronto, the TSX is up 14 points…exactly 2 years after its debut, CannTrust Holdings (TRST, TSX) has fallen beneath its listing price of $2.50…the embattled pot company has lost two-thirds of its value since early July when it revealed it had broken Canadian regulations by growing cannabis in unlicensed areas of its greenhouse in Pelham, Ontario…the negative headlines have mounted since then…the Venture is up 2 points at 578…historically, August has been a volatile month for the Venture but it has ended on a strong note in 14 out of the past 15 years…no reason why that trend won’t continue this time around…Bonterra Resources (BTR, TSX-V), which closed a $32 million private placement earlier this week, is up 7 cents at $2.42…Kirkland Lake Gold (KL, TSX) added 2 million Bonterra shares to its holdings in that financing and now owns 11.32% of BTR’s currently issued outstanding shares on a non-diluted basis…Amex Gold (AMX, TSX-V) is off slightly at 91 cents in early trading after releasing a general update on progress at its Perron Project near Rouyn-Noranda…1 drill is dedicated to the Eastern Gold Zone (EGZ) at the moment, though other areas are in play as well…Amex is currently drilling deeper targets at the EGZ with a goal of intersecting the Low Grade Zone(s) as well as the High Grade Zone at EGZ with most drill holes…recent drilling (hole PE-19-37ext and PE-19–83) suggests the Low Grade Zone is increasing in grade and width and appears to be coming closer to the high-grade zone with depth and may potentially merge…the company also plans to complete wildcat drilling along strike with the objective of possibly identifying additional lenses of mineralization similar to the EGZ…several drill holes are currently in the lab and assays are pending…
7. Construction (finally!) is poised to restart on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion…Trans Mountain Corp. announced yesterday that by the end of the year, 4,200 people would be working on the pipeline project – jobs, of course, that climate change extremists were hoping to kill…Trans Mountain predicts the project will be in service, delivering 590,000 barrels of Oil per day from Alberta to the West Coast, by the middle of 2022…“Clearly this project has been subjected to numerous delays and setbacks over the past several years,” Trans Mountain President and CEO Ian Anderson said in a release…“With today’s announcement on the commencement of construction, I firmly believe that we are finally able to start delivering the significant national and regional benefits we have always committed to”…unless, of course, wacky Oil-hating environmentalists and politicians get in the way again…
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