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Gold continues to find strong support around current levels…it dipped as low as $1,640 overnight but is currently up $3 an ounce at $1,646 as of 5:25 am Pacific…Silver has gained 21 cents to $30.99..Copper is flat at $3.72…Crude Oil is up 9 cents to $97.10 while the U.S. Dollar Index has shot up nearly half a point to 80.54…

Q4 2012 Was Second Strongest Ever Quarter For Gold Demand

World Gold demand from October through December was the second strongest of any quarter on record and 2012 was the second-highest ever for a full year behind 2011, the World Gold Council reported this morning in its quarterly report on demand trends…fourth quarter demand rose 4% year-on-year to 1,195.9 metric tons, while the value of the Gold demand climbed 6% to a near-record $66.2 billion… growth in jewelry and central bank demand exceeded declines in the investment and technology sectors, the report said…“The strength in the fourth quarter was very much driven by a recovery in India,” said Marcus Grubb, managing director of investment for the WGC…Indian demand jumped 41% in October-December from the same period a year ago, helping the country maintain its role in 2012 as the world’s largest consumer, he said…full-year 2012 global demand dipped 4% to 4,405.5 tons from a record 4,582.3 tons in 2011…an increase in demand from institutional investors and central banks only partly offset a year-on-year decline in consumer demand, the report said…the value of Gold demand for 2012 hit a record of $236.4 billion during a year when the average price of Gold rose 6% to the highest ever at $1,669 an ounce…data for the report was compiled by the consultancy Thomson Reuters GFMS…

Barrick Gold Making Changes

Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX, TSX) is taking a massive writedown on its copper business, resulting in a $3.06-billion net loss in the fourth quarter, and signalling that it’s prepared to make major changes in the way it does business, according to a report from CP this morning…Barrick says it doesn’t plan to build any more new mines at this time and has put several mine expansions on hold…as a result, it’s cutting or delaying US$4 billion in previously budgeted capital spending and writing down the value of its copper business unit by US$4.2 billion after taxes…it’s also looking to reduce overhead costs by more than $100 million this year, although it didn’t provide details on how it will make those cuts…the company’s president and chief executive officer, Jamie Sokalsky, said investors are demanding fundamental change in the Gold industry…”Rising costs, poor capital allocation and the pursuit of production growth at any cost in the industry have led to declining equity valuations across the sector,” Sokalsky said in a statement…”Barrick highlighted the need for change last year, and we are increasingly taking strong action and re-focusing our business based on the principle that returns will drive production, production will not drive returns”..

Weaker Than Expected Economic Data Out Of Euro Zone

The euro zone slipped deeper into recession in the last three months of 2012 after its largest economies, Germany and France, shrank markedly at the end of the year…2012 was the currency bloc’s first full year since 1995 in which no quarter produced growth…economic output in the 17-country region fell by 0.6% in the fourth quarter, the EU’s statistics office reported today, following a 0.1% drop in output in the third quarter…the drop was the steepest since the first quarter of 2009 and more severe than the average forecast of a 0.4% drop in a Reuters poll of 61 economists…for the year as a whole, gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 0.5%…

CRB Index Updated Chart

John’s updated 2.5-year weekly chart for the CRB Index shows the Index is holding important trendline support around 300 after meeting resistance at 320 in September…the Venture Exchange performs best when the CRB Index is in a strong uptrend…the CRB’s breakout above a downsloping flag in August was a significant development…if the trendline support can hold, this would certainly be positive for the Venture…we’ll be keeping a close eye on this in the coming days…

Today’s Markets

There were firm gains in Japan and Hong Kong overnight, though China’s Shanghai Composite remains closed until Monday due to the Lunar New Year holidays…Australian shares hit a four-year high on strong corporate earnings…European markets are under minor pressure due to weak economic data as mentioned earlier…stock index futures in New York as of 5:25 am Pacific are pointing toward a mildly negative open on Wall Street…

The Venture Exchange enjoyed its highest volume day of the year yesterday, posting a 5-point gain to 1204…Orko Silver (OK, TSX-V) jumped 46 cents to close at $2.60 after receiving a takeover offer from Coeur D’Alene Mines Corp. (CDE, NYSE) that’s a little juicier than the one received from First Magestic Silver (FR, TSX) in December…the Venture also got a boost yesterday from a takeover offer for Sterling Resources (SLG, TSX-V) which jumped 36 cents on big volume to close at 83 cents…these takeovers, and previous ones in recent months, demonstrate how undervalued some Venture issues are at the moment…

Huldra Silver (HDA, TSX-V)

Huldra Silver (HDA, TSX-V) continues to make excellent progress toward full commercial production at its high-grade Treasure Mountain Mine near Hope, B.C., but weak markets recently have pushed the stock below the $1 level for the first time since last June/July…(Coeur D’Alene Mines holds a piece of HDA by the way)…on Tuesday, HDA announced it has increased its convertible debenture financing from $6 million to $10 million, which is a strong vote of confidence by investors in the company…concentrates from Huldra’s mill in Merritt are being shipped on a regular basis…full commercial production is expected to begin by the end of this first quarter…the high grades from Treasure Mountain make Huldra particularly attractive, and the project also holds tremendous exploration upside as much of the land package has yet to be drilled…John’s 2-year weekly chart shows strong support around current levels as the stock continues to base in a horizontal channel between 90 cents and $1…it closed up 2 pennies yesterday at 92 cents…

Cap-Ex Ventures (CEV, TSX-V) Updated Chart

John’s Fibonacci levels are often quite accurate and that has certainly been the case with Cap-Ex Ventures (CEV, TSX-V) which has retreated after climbing as high as 50 cents earlier this month…it closed down nearly a nickel yesterday to 31.5 cents, half a penny below the rising 50-day moving average (SMA) which should provide support…immediately below the 50-day, there is strong Fibonacci and chart support between 28 and 30 cents…

Note: Jon holds a share position in HDA.