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1. Gold has traded between the mid-$1,660’s and $1,690 so far today as overall market volatility continues…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is up $13 an ounce at $1,685…Silver is off 7 cents at $17.34…base metals are down slightly with Copper, Nickel and Zinc at $2.55, $5.75 and 89 cents, respectively…Crude Oil has tumbled $2.64 a barrel to $43.26…the price decline accelerated after Reuters reported a senior high-level Russian source said Moscow would not be prepared to approve a further reduction in production…the U.S. Dollar Index is also taking a pounding, down a full point to 95.96…declining U.S. interest rates and pressure on the greenback should keep Gold on a steady uptrend, says Credit Suisse…the metal has risen sharply since the Federal Reserve’s move on Tuesday to cut interest rates by 50 basis points in an attempt to limit economic damage from the spreading coronavirus…U.S. Treasury 10-year yields since have hit record lows…“We remind investors that one of the strongest historical relationships is between the Gold price and U.S. interest rates/USD,” Credit Suiise said…“As rates go lower and there is increased pressure on the USD, Gold should react positively, and we expect this effect to be longer-lasting than near-term coronavirus fears”…the Dollar Index is on pace for its worst weekly loss since February 2016 when commodities came out of a multi-year bear market…global Gold exploration spend fell by about $550 million in 2019, according to Mark Ferguson, director of metals and mining research at S&P Global Market Intelligence…

2. U.S. employers added 273,000 jobs in February and the jobless rate was 3.5%, matching more than a 50-year low, signs of continued labor market strength…most companies reported their February employee head counts before cases linked to the virus rose in the U.S. and other countries outside of China, triggering fears the epidemic would hit global and U.S. economic growth…some companies have expressed concern in recent days about the business impact of the virus and the global economic slowdown…however, while virus-related uncertainty could lead to a wider slowdown in hiring in future months, many employers are still reluctant to cut workers given the virus could soon pass and the labor market remains tight…jobless claims, a proxy for company layoffs, declined to 216,000 last week, a historically low level…average hourly earnings grew by 3% over the past year, in line with estimates, while the average work week, considered a key measure of productivity, nudge up to 34.4 hours…

3. The coronavirus death toll in the U.S. has climbed to a whopping 12 (all but 1 of the fatalities are from Washington state) with more than 225 cases reported around the country (mostly Washington and California)…that number is only a tiny, tiny fraction (0.0006% to 0.0008%) of the number of people who die in the United States every year due to the regular flu, but the mainstream media’s obsession with COVID-19 simply won’t go away and is making the economic impact worse than it should be (CNN will do whatever it can to sensationalize and try to boost its horrible ratings)…global coronavirus cases have increased to more than 95,000 with at least 3,280 deaths…however, the vast majority of those cases are still in China, where the virus originated late last year…in the 3 biggest hot-spots outside China, South Korea has nearly 6,600 cases with 42 deaths…Italy has more than 3,800 cases with 148 deaths, and Iran says it has more than 3,500 cases with 124 deaths…

4. The coronavirus will lead the world economy into its first contraction in a decade, some economists are warning…evidence in mounting that the virus (combined with the media’s coverage of it) is having a significant impact on global growth, Oxford Economics commented…“What began as a supply shock in China has morphed into something much more serious.  The effects of financial market weakness and the disruption to daily life around the world will trigger lower consumer spending and investment on top of the disruptions to the global supply chain”…Oxford, along with a growing number of other economists and market watchers, believe this will lead in the 1st quarter to the global economy’s first contraction since Q1 2019…notably, Oxford predicts a rapid rebound from Q2 on, but the “short, sharp shock” will cut growth for the year to 2%, “easily the slowest pace in the last decade”…

5. Another $4 billion runs away from Trudeau’s messed-up Canada: An ambitious $9 billion LNG project in northern Quebec is looking for a new lead investor after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B, NYSE) pulled out because of the current business and political climate in Canada…developer GNL Québec said yesterday an unidentified investor has chosen not to proceed with a “significant” financial commitment to the Energie Saguenay Project…though GNL Québec wouldn’t name the firm, Saguenay deputy mayor Michel Potvin identified it as Berkshire…Potvin, who heads the local investment agency known as Promotion Saguenay, said Berkshire – which is run by Buffett, the legendary U.S. investor – would have invested about $4 billion…“We did not need this, especially at this stage of the project,” Potvin told the Montreal Gazette in a telephone interview…“We’re not going to find $4 billion tomorrow morning, and we sure aren’t going to find it in the region.  So we have to roll up our sleeves”…the decision is based “on the political context that we’ve seen in Canada over the past month,” said Stephanie Fortin, head of community relations for GNL Québec…it’s too early to assess how the pullout will affect the project, she added…

6. The Dow has fallen 807 points through the first 30 minutes of trading following a nearly 1,000 point decline yesterday…in Toronto, the TSX has shed 433 points with the Gold Index off 6 points at 275…any weakness among producers continues to be a buying opportunity…the Venture is 7 points lower at 514…Ridgestone Mining (RMI, TSX-V), on the Venture for a couple of years, has come to life in the last 2 weeks since a large cross in the market on February 21…the company is preparing to commence a drill program at a promising Gold property in Sonora state…earlier this week, Ridgestone announced the appointment of Dr. Steven Weiss as the company’s chief independent technical advisor for its Rebeico Gold and Copper Project…Weiss has a highly successful track record in Mexico that included a decade with Glamis Gold and Goldcorp (he was Goldcorp’s Mexico Exploration Manager)…RMI is off 2 pennies at 27 cents but has been firming up gradually over the past week…Sona Nanotech (SONA, CSE), which rebounded strongly yesterday after a sell-on-news event Wednesday, has added 2 new members to its scientific team as the company works toward quickly unveiling a COVID-19 lateral flow test kit…Fiona Marshall oversaw the development of a rapid-response test development program during the 2013 Ebola outbreak, while Sandy Morrison (President of Quality Systems Atlantic) was involved in obtaining regulatory approval in Canada and the U.S. for the first rapid HIV assay…Darren Rowles, CEO of Sona, stated, “We are also pleased to report that our initial laboratory work is progressing well and as a result of our collaboration with GE, we expect to accelerate an aggressive pace in the development of this critical test”…the Venture added 8 new issuers last month, compared with 1 in the previous month and 6 in February 2019…the new listings were 5 capital pool companies, 2 mining companies and 1 real estate company…total financings raised in February 2020 decreased 24% compared to the previous month, but were up 110% from February 2019…there were 108 financings last month compared with 140 in January and 73 in February 2019…the Canadian Marijuana Index continues to get pummelled, now down by more than 80% over the past year…

7. TC Energy’s (TRP, TSE, NYSE) Coastal GasLink estimates that its B.C. pipeline project will pump $115 million over 25 years to 5 elected Wet’suwet’en band councils and generate more than $60 million in construction contracts for local indigenous businesses…that’s, of course, if the politicians don’t screw this up…5 elected Wet’suwet’en councils along the pipeline route would receive the cash distributions totalling $4.6 million a year, for 25 years…the 5 councils have supported the pipeline…a group of unelected and radical Wet’suwet’en “hereditary chiefs” oppose the pipeline project, saying they have jurisdiction over their unceded territory, not elected band councils on federal reserves under the Indian Act…the 20 elected band councils along the route, including the 5 elected Wet’suwet’en councils, have reached impact-benefit agreements with Coastal GasLink…on March 1, “hereditary chiefs” announced a tentative agreement with the federal and B.C. governments to expedite negotiations to implement rights and title for the Wet’suwet’en Nation over unceded traditional territory and recognize the hereditary governance system…

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