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1. Spot Gold has traded between $1,801 and $1,811 so far today…this is an early edition of 7 @ 7:00 to begin the new week…as of 6:00 am Pacific the yellow metal is up $8 an ounce at $1,806…Silver, also looking very strong as it outpaces Gold, has surged 40 cents to $19.08…Silver should top $20 very soon based on very constructive chart patterns…it’s “the new Gold“, according to strategists at Credit Suisse…“There are clear similarities between price action now and that of Gold last year”…the SPDR Gold Shares ETF has seen 15 straight weeks of inflows, the longest streak since its debut in 2004, boosting assets to $68 billion…holdings in total known Gold-backed ETFs stood at a record 104.3 million ounces on July 9, the equivalent of more than 2,956 metric tons…to put that massive sum into perspective, 2,956 tons is more Gold than any country on earth has in its official reserves, except for only 2: the U.S. (8,133 tons) and Germany (3,364 tons)…Copper is up 5 cents at $2.96…Nickel has slipped 11 cents to $5.99 while Zinc has gained a penny to 99 cents…Crude Oil is off 38 cents at $40.17 while the struggling U.S. Dollar Index has shed more than one-fifth of a point to 96.51…in Asia, the rally in Chinese mainland stocks continued as the new week began, taking the Shanghai Composite’s gains this year to about 12.5%…that is making the gauge one of the world’s best-performing major indexes in 2020…growing conviction that China’s economy is recovering from the Wuhan COVID-19 virus has encouraged investment in Chinese stocks from foreign institutions, and from the millions of individual investors that dominate trading in China…state media have touted the benefits of a “healthy bull market” before trying to temper over-exuberance by reminding investors to think long-term…China is expected to post the strongest growth of any major economy this year…the IMF projects that China’s GDP will expand 1% in 2020…not surprisingly, China’s Communist Party has turned COVID-19 into a competitive advantage and a weapon against the United States…Florida yesterday reported more than 15,000 new COVID-19 infections – the highest single day total to date for any U.S. state…Louisiana joined more than 20 other states Saturday in requiring residents to wear a face mask in public…the COVID-19 situation, and the media’s continued obsession with it, bodes well for Sona Nanotech (SONA, CSE) which recently released exceptional validation results for its Rapid Response COVID-19 test, expected to earn near-term approval from the FDA following a formal submission…SONA’s patented Gold nanorods are the key, and these nanorods – as opposed to the commonly used nanospheres in lateral flow – allow for very high specificity and sensitivity, with results in less than 15 minutes…Major League Baseball’s COVID-19 testing regime, run out of a repurposed drug lab in Utah, continues to experience problems…there have been multiple failures of that system already, with delayed results and missed tests that have caused several teams to scrap workouts because they could not be sure that players were virus-free…

2. With hospitals overwhelmed and oxygen shortages mounting, the South African government is imposing an alcohol ban and a nightly curfew in an attempt to defend its health system from a relentless rise in COVID-19 cases…the virus has spread so swiftly in South Africa in recent weeks that the country now has the 5th-largest number of active cases in the world…it is also generating the 4th-largest number of new daily cases, behind only the United States, Brazil and India…“The storm is upon us,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a speech to the nation last night…“Our nation is confronted by the gravest crisis in the history of our democracy”…as of last night, South Africa had recorded a total of 276,242 coronavirus cases, along with 4,079 deaths…many hospitals have been severely affected by cases among their doctors and nurses…more than 4,800 health workers had tested positive for the virus by the end of June, often forcing wards to shut down, the government disclosed last week…

3. Silver continues to outperform Gold and was the hottest precious metal last week, up 4.3%, thanks again to heavy inflows into Silver-backed ETFs…over the past 3 months the white metal has outperformed Gold by a factor of 2, jumping 33%…this has brought the Gold-Silver ratio down to 94.8, still historically very high…at a more normal ratio of 60:1, Silver would be trading at $30 – that time is coming…the Silver Institute has noted the “remarkably strong growth in Silver-backed ETPs, which have posted successive all-time highs this year, together with solid Silver coin and bar investment. As of June 30, global holdings reached a fresh all-time high of 925 million ounces (Moz) which is roughly 14 months of mine supply. The ETP growth in the first half 2020 of 196 Moz comfortably surpassed the highest annual inflow of 149 Moz set in 2009. North American listed funds accounted for some 90% of the ETP inflows since March”…

5. Investors and traders are watching the corporate earnings season in the U.S. and Europe for any signals about the shape and pace of economic recovery following the disruption caused by the pandemic…economists generally agree that the quarter ended in June was likely the worst of the downturn, but the extent of the damage is still unclear…the rise in cases in the U.S. has prompted renewed restrictions on business and social in some areas, and threatens to slow down the economy’s revival…PepsiCo (PEP, NASDAQ) unofficially kicks off the season for major U.S. companies when it reports earnings after the bell today, with Wall Street banks, airlines and other economic bellwether companies scheduled to release earnings later in the week…

6. Thirty minutes from the open, Dow futures are up about 200 points…futures extended their gains after Pfizer (PFE, NYSE) and German-based BioNTech SE (BNTX, NASDAQ) were granted fast track designation by the FDA for 2 of the companies’ 4 vaccine candidates against the Wuhan COVID-19 virus…JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley will report quarterly earnings this week…the July preliminary University of Michigan Sentiment Index reading comes out Friday and is forecast to edge up to 79.5 from the previous 78.1…U.S. consumer confidence has been improving as the economy reopens, even if erratically…a continued rise in sentiment would assuage fears about the recent spike in coronavirus cases…the Venture is aiming for its 12th straight winning session…Great Bear Resources (GBR, TSX-V) has returned to pre-pandemic levels of drill activity at its 100%-owned flagship Dixie Project in the Red Lake district of Ontario…Chris Taylor, President and CEO, stated: “At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we reduced our drill count from 5 to 3 rigs, and implemented a series of risk mitigation protocols which will remain in place, designed to protect our staff and local communities. I’m not very pleased to announce that we will return to 5 active drill rigs this moth, which amounts to a significant 67% increase in drill activity over recent levels. This will accelerate our grid drill program at the LP Fault, and allow ongoing simultaneous exploration of additional targets across the property”…approximately 180 of 300 planned drill holes remain to be completed in 2020 as part of the company’s fully-funded $21 million drill program…

7. Copper Mountain Mining (CMMC, TSX), which continues to gain traction, announced last week that it has successfully installed and commissioned the direct flotation reactors (DFRs) at its Copper Mountain mine in southern British Columbia, both on schedule and on budget…this represents the first stage of its mill expansion project which will bring plant capacity to 45,000 tonnes per day from 40,000 tonnes per day…the installation of the DFRs increases the efficiency and the capacity of the current cleaner circuit, which is expected to increase Copper concentrate grade from about 25% to 28%, resulting in lower concentrate transportation, smelting and refining costs…“We are pleased that the installation of the DFRs was completed on schedule and on budget,” commented Gil Clausen, Copper Mountain’s President and CEO…“The DFRs have been commissioned and turned over to operations. This is a testament to the great work of our operating and projects team. The DFRs are a low capital, high return project and we are already seeing improved concentrate grades. The next stage for the mill expansion project is the installation of the third ball mill. We have the ability to rapidly restart this stage as we have maintained long lead time expenditures and we also have the flexibility to accelerate the project as necessary. With the installation of the third ball mill, we expect production to increase by 15 to 18% as a result of higher throughput and improved recoveries”…CMMC closed at 73 cents Friday, just slightly below a long-term downtrend line going back nearly a decade…Copper Mountain’s revenue for Q1 was $49.6 million (CDN) from the sale of 17.9 million pounds of Copper, 6,364 ounces of Gold and 78,572 ounces of Silver, net of pricing adjustments…production guidance of 70 to 75 million pounds of Copper for 2020 remains on track…all-in cost guidance for 2020 is $2.20 to $2.35 (U.S.) per pound…the company will announce Q2 results in just over 2 weeks on July 29…

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