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Gold jumped as high as $1,728 this morning before pulling back…as of 9:00 am Pacific, bullion is down $3 an ounce at $1,717…Silver is off its highs but still up 7 cents at $32.34…Copper, which is looking much better technically, is up 4 pennies to $3.55…Crude Oil is 77 cents higher at $86.96 while the U.S. Dollar Index has gained more than a tenth of a point to 80.05…

U.S. Monthly Jobs Report Due Tomorrow, Obama Leads Romney In Three 3 Key Battleground States

The U.S. private sector added a better-than-expected 158,000 jobs in October, according to the first report employment data firm ADP released since it changed its methodology…economists had forecast October’s report would show a gain of 135,000 jobs, according to a Reuters poll…investors are anxiously awaiting tomorrow’s non-farm payrolls report – the monthly jobs report – which is expected to show 125,000 jobs added in October…of course it’ll be the last jobs report before Tuesday’s presidential election…meanwhile, the lastest NBC News/Wall Stree Journal polls show that President Obama narrowly leads Mitt Romney in three key battleground states (Ohio, Wisconsin and New Hampshire) less than a week before the election…

U.S. Consumer Confidence At Highest Level In More Than Four Years

U.S. consumer confidence rose in October to its highest in more than four years as Americans were more upbeat about improvements in the labor market, a private sector report showed this morning…the Conference Board said its index of consumer attitudes jumped to 72.2 from a downwardly revised 68.4 in September…it’s now at the highest level since February, 2008, though it came in slightly shy of economists’ estimates for 72.5…

Today’s Markets

Asian markets were stronger overnight with China’s Shanghai Composite leading the way, jumping 36 points or nearly 2% to 2104…China got a boost from some positive economic data and measures by some city governments to ease restrictions on the property sector…in addition, the state-run China Securities Journal reported that as many as six Chinese cities have sought to spur housing demand by making it easier to obtain funds for buyers that could, in turn, support land sales, a major revenue source for local governments…meanwhile, the Financial Times reports this morning that China’s central bank pumped a record amount of funds into the country’s money markets this week in an attempt to ensure that there will be ample cash in the economy to support the government’s push for more infrastructure investment…European markets closed sharply higher today while North American markets are also strong this morning…as of 9:00 am Pacific, the Dow is up by almost 150 points while the Venture Exchange has gained 5 points to 1319…

Barrick Continues To Battle Cost Overruns At Pascua-Lama

The cost overrun at Barrick Gold Corp.’s (ABX, TSX) Pascua-Lama Gold project, the company’s largest and most complicated endeavour ever, will be even greater than expected, the world’s largest Gold miner said yesterday…the massive project in the southern Andes mountain range between Chile and Argentina is now expected to cost as much as $8.5-billion (U.S) to build as it targets first production in the middle of 2014…that is even more than the approximately $8-billion Barrick estimated Pascua-Lama would cost to develop in July…

Barrick is off more than $3.50 a share this morning on the news which has pushed the TSX Gold Index lower more than 6 points lower at 340…but the Index is still looking very healthy from a technical point of view as John showed the other day, and help in this regard is coming from the likes of Agnico-Eagle Mines (AEM, TSX) and Yamana Gold (YRI, TSX)…

Yamana is in a powerful “Wave 5” move as John shows in the 2-year weekly chart below…

Probe Mines (PRB, TSX-V)

One of our favorite potential takeover candidates is Probe Mines (PRB, TSX-V) which has really been on fire recently…we’ve written about its promising Borden Lake deposit in northern Ontario on many occasions over the last year, and the market finally seems to be waking up to the opportunity after PRB got sold off to crazy levels over the spring and summer…Probe has doubled in value since early September, closing up 18 cents yesterday to $1.95 on over a million shares…below is an updated chart from John…while we remain very bullish on Probe overall, it;s important to note that the probability of a near-term pullback to unwind current overbought conditions has increased significantly in recent days…

Orko Silver Corp. (OK, TSX-V) Chart Update

Orko Silver (OK, TSX-V) broke above strong resistance yesterday and is up another penny as of 9:00 am Pacific to $1.69…

Huldra Silver Ramps Up Production At Merritt Mill

Huldra Silver (HDA, TSX-V), which just recently completed a $5.4 million financing, continues to make excellent progress toward full commercial production with its Treasure Mountain deposit near Hope, British Columbia…the commissioning of its 200-tonne-per-day Silver, lead and zinc crushing, grinding and flotation mill in Merritt began on August 7…the company, as reported in a news release this morning, is currently testing the mill by processing a 5,000 tonne stockpile of mill feed from Treasure Mountain development work in 1988…the mill is currently operating 24 hours per day, five days a week, with two days a week for maintenance and upgrades…Huldra expects to transition to a continuous around-the-clock operating schedule during the month of November and plans to begin shipping lead/Silver concentrate to a smelter on a regular basis beginning next Monday under the terms of its previously announced lead concentrate purchase agreement…the way Huldra has been able to fast-track production at Treasure Mountain is a testament to the skill of this company’s management team, and we see exciting times ahead for Huldra given the very high grades at Treasure Mountain and the opportunity for new discoveries at that property…we’ll have much more on Huldra next week…HDA got as high as $1.46 this morning but has since backed off to $1.39, a loss of 4 pennies for the day…

Rainbow Resources (RBW, TSX-V) Chart Update

As an important month of November kicks off for Rainbow Resources (RBW, TSX-V), John has a long-term chart update this morning that is quite encouraging, showing continued accumulation and a Slow Stochastics(14) indicator that has unwound from overbought conditions in August and September…in addition, the RSI(14) is holding steady at 52% – just above strong support…with drilling at both Gold Viking and Jewel Ridge in Nevada, and news expected soon from the recently completed 15-hole program at the International Silver Property, we see Rainbow moving forward aggressively and successfully on the exploration front…as of 9:00 am Pacific, RBW is up half a penny at 21.5 cents on light volume after a busy day yesterday…

Alliance Mining (ALM, TSX-V)

We’ve mentioned this one before as a very interesting speculative play, and this morning Alliance Mining (ALM, TSX-V) has announced that is has signed a binding letter of intent to acquire a strategic 50 square km land package in Mexico, primarily in the prolific and under-explored Uruachic district (Sierre Madre belt) of northwestern Mexico…we say prolific because that’s where Fresnillo PLC, traded on the London and Mexican stock exchanges, has reported a discovery of more than 9 million ounces of Gold (Orisyvo)…Agnico-Eagle Mines (AGM, TSX) and Golden Goliath (GGN, TSX-V) are also very active in the immediate area, a district that Agnico’s Sean Boyd has spoken very bullishly about…Alliance’s claims include the closest privately held claims to the Orisyvo deposit, and ground that adjoins the southern boundary of the Las Balos Property (GNG, AEM), which shows Alliance appears to have some clout behind it in this foray into Mexico…ALM has already positioned itself very nicely in Arizona with an attractive exploration package there…ALM ran up as high as 15 cents on the news this morning and has since backed off a little bit to 13 cents, a gain of 2 cents for the day on nearly 400,000 shares on the Venture…

Note: John holds a share position in RBW.  Jon holds share positions in RBW (increased yesterday), HDA and ALM.