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1. Spot Gold has traded between $1,743 and $1,727 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific the yellow metal is up $12 an ounce at $1,735… Gold inflows into ETFs continue but at a slower pace, while those for Silver have been “robust”…Commerzbank says ETF Gold inflows have averaged 1.5 metric tons per day this week, down slightly from last week’s figure of 1.9 tons, while the average for the current quarter is 5.6 tons per day…Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch added, “Silver ETFs have seen their robust inflows continue…yesterday saw inflows of another 90 tons, already making for a total of 212 tons this week”…an “unprecedented series” of Silver ETF inflows began 3 months ago when prices hit an 11-year low of $11.65 per ounce during the height of the “Corona Crash”…since then, Silver inflows have been just shy of 4,900 tons…“That’s equivalent to more than 2 months of global mining production,” Fitch pointed out…“Or to put it another way, two-thirds of mining production in the past 3 months went directly into ETFs. It is likewise remarkable to note that the ETF inflows of the past 3 months almost equate to the coin and bar purchases of an entire year”…Silver has shot up 34 cents to $17.70 as of 7:00 am Pacific…base metals continue to push higher with Copper, Nickel and Zinc at $2.65, $5.83 and 94 cents, respectively…Crude Oil has touched the $40 level, up $1.29 a barrel to $40.13, while the U.S. Dollar Index has slipped one-tenth of a point to 97.33…fears about a resurgence of COVID-19 are taking a backseat to continued signs of rapidly improving demand and a commitment by OPEC to hold the line on production…Canadian retail sales posted an historic drop in April from a full month of non-essential business closures and strict physical distancing measures, though sales rebounded in May based on preliminary data…receipts fell 26% in April compared with the prior month, Statistics Canada said this morning…in the first 2 months of the lockdowns, sales declined by more than a third when combined with the 10% drop in March…May looks to have seen a significant rebound, with the agency’s flash estimate predicting a 19% increase…the UK government’s debt exceeded the size of the UK economy in May for the first time in more than 50 years as borrowing surged to pay for Wuhan COVID-19 mitigation measures, according to official data published today…
2. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison didn’t name the country, but Communist China immediately comes to mind given the regime’s recent ramping up of intimidation tactics…Australia, which has very openly criticized the flawed World Health Organization (WHO), is under increasing cyberattack from a “sophisticated state-based cyber actor”, Morrison said…“Australian organizations are currently being targeted by a sophisticated state-based cyber actor. This activity is targeting Australian organizations across a range of sectors, including all levels of government, industry, political organizations, education, health, essential service providers and operators of other critical infrastructure,” he added…the threat has been constant and the frequency of attacks has increased “over many months. This is the actions of a state-based actor with significant capabilities. There aren’t too many state-based actors who have those capabilities”…
3. A key Chinese index has turned positive for the year, making it one of the few international stock benchmarks to show a gain for 2020, underlining the relative resilience of mainland shares…the CSI 300 index added 1.3% to close at 4,099 for a slight year-to-date gain of less than 1%…the Shanghai Composite, meanwhile, jumped 28 points today to close at 2,967, just 53 points below its 2019 close…China has benefited from being “first in, first out” when it comes to tackling the pandemic and recovering from its economic fallout even if it is now battling a small outbreak in Beijing…the index joins the technology-heavy NASDAQ Composite, which has rallied 10.8% over the same period…the Venture, a key leading indicator, has led all markets higher since the “Corona Crash”, similar to what occurred immediately following the 2008 financial crisis…those who say this rally from the March lows isn’t “real” will be ones scrambling later to jump in at higher levels…
4. Amex Exploration (AMX, TSX-V) has added 2 diamond drill rigs to its Perron Property, bringing the total drills on site to 6 rigs…these 2 additional drill rigs will be mobilized and operating on the project by mid-July with the company increasing its fully financed drill program from 100,000 m to 200,000 m following yesterday’s completion of a $17.5 million financing…4 drills are currently operating on the Eastern Gold Zone (EGZ)…2 of these drills are testing the depth extension of the High Grade zone (HGZ)…1 is currently testing the near-surface potential of the Denise zone, while the 4th is completing large diameter (PQ size) holes for the purpose of metallurgical testing…the 5th drill rig will also be deployed to test the HGZ at depth, while the 6th will resume exploration at the Grey Cat and Gratien zones now that the ground has dried sufficiently to allow access to the western portion of the property…Jacques Trottier, Executive Chairman of Amex, commented: “With the recently announced closing of our $15.75 million financing, Amex has elected to significantly increase the pace and size of its exploration program. We have had great successes this year on drilling the depth and strike extension of the HGZ and look forward to continuing the rapid advancement of this very attractive Gold system. We are also excited to resume drilling on Gratien and Grey Cat, where we have been intersecting robust grades over significant widths. In addition, we intend to test the potential of connecting the Gold zones at Perron. We will be exploring for additional zones both along strike of the known 2.7-km corridor of Gold mineralization as well as in between the known zones of mineralization”…AMX is unchanged at $1.50 as of 7:00 am Pacific…
5. The Dow, aiming for its 4th weekly gain out of 5, has climbed 206 points through the first 30 minutes of trading…Wall Street was encouraged by a Bloomberg report this morning that China will buy more corn, soybean and other agricultural products after purchases were derailed earlier this year due to the pandemic…however, Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren just gave a rather strange gloomy outlook on the U.S. economy as well as the pandemic, even cautioning against reopening the economy too quickly after the end of lockdowns aimed at containing the virus…his comments may throw some cold water on today’s equity rally and further boost Gold…casino operators are on the move in early trading after Penn National Gaming (PENN, NASDAQ) resumed operations at several locations…it has now reopened 31 of 40 properties…sports continue to slowly come back, with the Belmont Stakes horse race set for tomorrow…in Toronto, the TSX is 98 points higher…the TSX Gold Index has gained 5 points to 312…key resistance on the short-term chart is around 320…the Venture has added 3 points to 561 as it works its way through a resistance band between 560 and the upper 580’s…GT Gold (GTT, TSX-V) is on the verge of a technical breakout, up a nickel at $1.60 through the first 30 minutes of trading…the company is expected to release a maiden NI 43–101 resource estimate for Saddle North by month-end…a downtrend line going back to 2017 on the 3-year weekly chart for GTT intersects through $1.60…Skeena Resources (SKE, TSX-V) has hit a new high, up 12 cents at $1.67 as it prepares for a major new phase of drilling at Eskay Creek…Northwest B.C. will be hot again this summer, led by multiple plays including upstart Auramex (AUX, TSX-V) which is expected to soon close a $6 million private placement as part of a major reorganization…
6. Blockchain Holdings began trading this morning under its new name “TraceSafe” (TSF, CSE), with the company also announcing it has arranged a financing of up to $10 million led by Canaccord Genuity at $1 per share…each unit will consist of 1 common share and half a warrant at an exercise price of $1.50 for a period of 2 years…TraceSafe is a full suite of real-time location management services and contact tracing solutions enabled through advanced bluetooth beacons in a variety of form factors…the company’s leading cloud management solution ensures both user privacy and comprehensive administrative control…TraceSafe is deployed in mission critical quarantine applications around the world in partnership with leading governments…in addition to their government work, TraceSafe is developing leading edge solutions for Enterprise, Healthcare, and large-scale venue management…
7. Finally, some common sense in Canada regarding COVID-19: Students returning to school this fall should not have to wear masks or maintain physical distancing while at play, Canada’s largest children’s hospital argues in a new report that stresses the importance of getting young people back to class…the advice from the Hospital for Sick Children seems to veer toward a more relaxed approach than taken by some jurisdictions, especially in East Asia, as they re-opened shuttered schools…requiring masks could lead to more infection, not less, while separating children as they socialize outside the classroom would have negative psychological effects, says a guidance document SickKids released this week…it does urge keeping desks as far apart as possible and cancelling assemblies…children have suffered anxiety, depression and loneliness and faced greater risk of family discord and abuse during the lockdown, hospital experts told a virtual news conference…they said the psychological benefits of resuming in-person classes this September outweigh COVID-19’s risks, which they said can be lessened with measures like frequent handwashing and keeping sick students at home…“It has never been 100% safe to send children to school,” said Dr. Ronald Cohn, the SickKids CEO…“There’s always been a risk of contracting some infectious disease, whether it’s the flu, the Norovirus or other viruses. Children are at risk of being injured…and suffering mental and physical harm from bullying. But of course we can manage these risks and put mitigating factors in place to deal with them. This is exactly the kind of approach we have to take now”…
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