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1. Spot Gold has traded between $1,722 and $1,696 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific the yellow metal is up $1 an ounce at $1,702…Spot Silver is off 7 cents to $17.59…exchange-traded funds increased their holdings of Gold by 154 metric tons during May, taking holdings to an all-time high of 3,510 tons, the World Gold Council (WGC) stated this morning…in a monthly report on ETF Gold holdings, the WGC said year-to-date inflows of 623 tons now exceed the highest annual inflow ever, which was 591 tons in 2009…holdings by North American funds increased by 102 tons while those based in Europe added 45 tons, the WGC said…Asian-listed funds added 4.4 tons, while other regions had inflows of 2.6 tons…astute investors will continue to buy into any dips in Gold with the prospect of deeper negative real rates in an environment of massive amounts of monetary and fiscal support…base metals are steady with Copper, Nickel and Zinc at $2.48, $5.72 and 91 cents, respectively…Crude Oil is off modestly at $36.88 while the U.S. Dollar Index, under technical pressure which is good news for precious metals and the Venture, has slipped two-thirds of a point to 96.62…Las Vegas casinos reopened with The D and Golden Gate welcoming gamblers just after midnight…dealers are wearing masks; hand sanitizer is widely available; guests and workers are having their temperature checked…Steve Hill, president and COO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said demand is surprisingly strong with the city’s overall occupancy at 20% in spite of a number of resorts remaining closed…new CDC guidelines are raising concerns – instead of taking public transportation or carpooling, the CDC is now suggesting people drive to work by themselves if feasible and that corporations should provide incentives for employees to do so…
2. Filings for unemployment insurance claims in the U.S. totalled 1.877 million last week in a sign both that the worst is over for the coronavirus-related jobs crisis but that the level of unemployment remains stubbornly high…economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for 1.775 million new claims…the total nevertheless represented a decline from the previous week’s upwardly revised total of 2.126 million…filings under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program totalled 623,073…this was the first time claims came under 2 million since the week ended March 14…even as states reopen, claims in the millions are an indicator that the economic pain of the Wuhan COVID-19 crisis is still acute…continuing claims, which provide a clearer picture of how many Americans remain unemployed, totalled 21.5 million, a gain of 649,000 over the past week, also worse than Wall Street expected…the numbers came the day before the Labor Department releases its non-farm payrolls report for May…economists surveyed by Dow Jones are expecting a decline of 8.3 million and a 20.5% unemployment rate, more than double the highest previous level since the Great Depression…
3. Gold got a boost this morning when the European Central Bank (ECB) said it would vastly scale up its bond-purchase program to €1.35 trillion ($1.52 trillion U.S.), a move aimed at easing pressure on the region’s embattled governments and putting its stimulus effort in line with the Federal Reserve’s…the ECB’s decision, more aggressive than expected by analysts, should help to absorb much of the €1 trillion or more of additional debt that euro zone governments are expected to issue this year as they battle the pandemic…it comes amid growing concerns that the economic contraction in Europe will be even deeper than originally feared – significantly worse than in the U.S.- and won’t spare even stronger members such as Germany…the ECB sees economic growth falling 8.7% in the euro zone this year before rebounding by 5.2% in 2021, according to its latest economic projections…
4. Eric Sprott is coming into Galway Metals (GWM, TSX-V), taking $3 million hard dollar shares in a combined hard dollar/flow-through financing totalling $17.5 million announced this morning (no warrants attached to this PP)…the company is issuing up to 17.9 million common shares that qualify as charity FT shares at a price of 63.5 cents per share and up to 13.6 million hard dollar common shares of the company at a price of 44 cents per share…on Monday Galway announced that it had intersected 38.5 m (37.9 m true width) of 6.2 g/t Au, including 373 g/t Au over 0.50 m, in hole 100 on the westernmost section of the Richard zone at its Clarence Stream Project in southeastern New Brunswick…in addition, hole 101 (45 m from hole 100) cut the widest intersection yet at Clarence Stream, 85 m (76.9 m true width) grading 1.4 g/t Au…the Richard, George Murphy and Jubilee zones are all part of the same 2.5-km-long mineralized system…GWM is up 2 pennies at 57 cents in early trading…Monday’s news triggered a multi-year breakout above key resistance in the mid-40’s…
5. The Dow is unchanged at 26,270 as of 7:00 am Pacific…data compiled by LPL Financial showed the S&P 500 posted its largest 50-day rally in history…LPL’s research also indicated that stocks were higher 100% of the time 6 months and 12 months after the previous largest rallies on record…companies that stand to benefit the most under re-openings, those that bore the brunt of the market punishment earlier in the year, have led the major indexes higher over recent sessions…cyclical stocks including energy, financials and industrials posted some of the largest gains yesterday with those S&P sections up 3%, 3.8% and 3.9%, respectively…other reopening stocks, such as the airline group, rallied as well…the NASDAQ-100 index hit a new record high in early trading this morning, becoming the first major U.S. stock index to fully erase its losses from the Corona Crash…the index is made up of the 100-largest non-financial stocks in the NASDAQ Composite, including the likes of Amazon, Tesla, Netflix, Costco, eBay and United Airlines…in Toronto, the TSX is 18 points higher with the Gold Index trying to rally after dipping as low as 303 intra-day yesterday, down 18% from the April high of 370…exceptional support on this healthy pullback exists at the key 280 breakout level…the Venture has eased off 2 points to 558…Skeena Resources (SKE, TSX-V) announced this morning that the next phase of its infill and exploration drill program at Eskay Creek will start before the end of June…SKE has broken out above Fib. resistance at $1.29 on its long-term chart…Eskay Creek is going to be drilled like Swiss cheese summer…Auramex Resource (AUX, TSX-V) was halted pre-market this morning, pending news…AUX owns 100% of a large land position south of Eskay Creek in the Stewart Gold Camp including the past producing high-grade Georgia River mine…there is ample geological and geophysical evidence for a very large system at Georgia, also in close proximity to a deep sea port…CloudMD (DOC, TSX-V) has made the switch this morning from the CSE to the Venture…the warrants, which began trading Tuesday on the CSE, are also now trading on the Venture…North American infrastructure play Cematrix (CVX, TSX-V) has broken out to new all-time highs, touching 66 cents intra-day yesterday…
6. Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared a state of emergency in a region within the Arctic Circle in far northern Russia after 20,000 tons of Oil leaked into a river from a power plant…the spillage occurred on May 29 when the “Oil products” leaked from a tank in an industrial plant operated by a subsidiary of Norilsk Nickel, the world’s largest producer of Palladium and one of the largest producers of Nickel, Platinum and Copper…“The accident took place at the industrial site of the Nadezhdinski Metallurgical Plant, and part of the spilled petrochemicals, a considerable amount actually, seeped into the Ambarnaya River,” Putin said as he discussed the incident with officials yesterday, according to the Kremlin…he questioned the measures being taken to clean up the fuel leak that took place near the city of Norilsk in the Krasnoyarsk region, within the Arctic Circle…discussing how news of the spill emerged in the televised meeting, Putin was reportedly shocked to discover that local authorities had only learned of the incident from social media 2 days after it happened, and he admonished the region’s governor Alexander Uss, according to a report from Reuters…
7. With tens of millions of Americans unemployed, it’s no surprise that many are facing shortfalls when it comes to purchasing food for their families during the Wuhan COVID-19 pandemic…since February, 26% of Americans report they or a member of their household have gone without meals or relied on charities or government programs to obtain groceries, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s May healthy trcking poll of over 1,100 U.S. adults…that includes about 14% of adults who say they’ve cut down on the size of their meals or skipped them entirely because “there wasn’t enough money for food,” as well as 13% who report needing to visit a food bank or pantry for supplies…
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Jon what is happening to CCW the last few days. Seems like a lot of selling.
Comment by Don — June 4, 2020 @ 12:09 pm
Jon .. thoughts on AUX NR..?? cant JUST be a PP can it?? all day?? either that or they have no idea how to organize a thought!!:)
Comment by Jeremy — June 4, 2020 @ 12:33 pm
I love it, Don, I love any drop down to a 200-day rising SMA…rest assured, anyone selling this stock at these prices, knowing what’s going on at Castle East, has left a lot of money on the table…
Comment by Jon - BMR — June 4, 2020 @ 12:59 pm
Refer to my earlier posts, Jeremy…I’ve been thinking all along there is a big restructuring coming here…all good…
Comment by Jon - BMR — June 4, 2020 @ 1:00 pm
Jon, what, exactly, do you mean by “restructuring” with regard to AUX? A PP I can definitely see, but “restructuring” is usually a dog-whistle for a roll-back. They don’t have that many shares out, so I wouldn’t expect that. What – if anything – beyond a PP do you have in mind? Thanks.
Comment by Twaver — June 5, 2020 @ 7:02 am
What I’m hoping for, Twaver, and there have been rumors around this, is that we’ll see an entirely new group come in and run Auramex, funding it and preparing it for a major program this summer…that would be a very positive development…Lawrence Roulston would stay involved in some capacity, I hope, but the team would be beefed up significantly…could this involve a rollback? – quite possibly, but I’d have no problem with that…the key is to get this company moving with an aggressive program this summer…Georgia River is not your ordinary exploration property…it has exceptional potential…let’s see what’s announced, looking fwd to it…
Comment by Jon - BMR — June 5, 2020 @ 7:15 am
Thanks, Jon. I, for one, would have a problem with a rollback. I’ve got 500,000 shares of AUX, and I have almost never come out well in those situations. Plus, I believe they have well under 100,000,000 shares out – so such draconian measures are wholly unwarranted.
Comment by Twaver — June 5, 2020 @ 7:24 am
I, for one, certainly hope the restructuring does not involve a reverse split as I have 500,000 shares – and I can’t remember ever being on the winning end of such dilution. In addition, I don’t see the need for such drastic measures as I believe AUX currently has under 100,000,000 shares out. Better would be some promo – and maybe a couple initial holes – to get the share price up, followed by a small PP and more drilling. Then a bigger PP later at a higher price.
Comment by Twaver — June 5, 2020 @ 7:42 am
If rollbacks are done strategically, Twaver, they can work out tremendously well…often, of course, they’re not done strategically…in B.C., Skeena did a rollback and it worked out great…years ago Richfield Ventures did a rollback and then they made the biggest Gold discovery west of Ontario, getting taken out by New Gold for about $15 a share…if they’re done right, rollbacks can be extremely effective…one benefit is that they can reduce future dilution…
Comment by Jon - BMR — June 5, 2020 @ 8:03 am