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Gold is taking another beating today, hitting a 15-month low…as of 7:50 am Pacific, bullion is off $54 an ounce at $1,507 after dipping as low as $1,505…critical technical and psychological support of course is at $1,500, but even a close below $1,550 today would be a bearish development which suggests $1,500 will be breached, though perhaps only on an intra-day basis…holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest Gold-backed exchange-traded product, fell to 1,181.4 metric tons yesterday, the least since May, 2010…Silver is down $1.19 to $26.47…Copper is off 7 cents to $3.35 on concerns that demand from China may not be able to absorb rising global supplies…LME inventories climbed to 590,175 tons yesterday, the highest since September, 2003…interestingly, the Wall Street Journal is reporting this morning that two major commodities-trading firms (Glencore International PLC and Trafigura Beheer BV) have amassed much of the world’s Copper supplies in their warehouses, partly by paying to divert shipments away from other storage hubs…Crude Oil has lost nearly $3 a barrel to $90.79 while the U.S. Dollar Index is up one-tenth of a point to 82.29…

Cyprus Confirms It May Have To Sell Most Of Its Gold Reserves

Not surprisingly, it’s becoming increasingly evident that Cyprus may need a lot more bailout money than it was originally given…media reports this morning state the government will be asking for “technical and structural aid”, however, not an increase in the amount of bailout loans…euro zone finance ministers are meeting in Dublin…Cyprus also confirmed that it may have to sell most of its Gold reserves – “one of many options” – to raise about 400 million euros to finance its part of the bailout, according to Reuters…this follows a denial by Cyprus’ central bank on Wednesday which said no such plans were afoot…

Today’s Markets

Asian markets were off slightly overnight with Japan’s Nikkei average slipping 64 points to close the week at 13485 while China’s Shanghai Composite lost 13 points to finish at 2207…European shares are down moderately in late trading overseas, while North American markets are in the red through the first 80 minutes of trading…the Dow is down 47 points while the TSX has fallen 163 points as of 7:50 am Pacific…the Venture, meanwhile, is poised for its 10th consecutive weekly decline…it’s currently down 20 points at 1029…in this recent minor rally from last week’s intra-day low of 1018, the Venture has not been able to climb above its 10-day moving average (SMA) which continues to provide stiff resistance…a test of the 980 support level is becoming increasingly likely…

Below is a 9-month daily chart from John that shows very distinctly how the TSX has decoupled from the Dow and the S&P 500, especially since the beginning of February…the question is, what will happen to the TSX (and the Venture) if the U.S. markets go into correction mode?…the HXD (double short S&P/TSX 60 ETF), which we’ve been writing about recently, is looking very bullish at the moment and that suggests the Canadian markets have further to go on the downside…

GoldQuest Mining (GQC, TSX-V) and Richmont Mines (RIC, TSX)

GoldQuest Mining (GQC, TSX-V) and Richmont Mines (RIC, TSX) have each released drill results this morning from their respective projects, and we’ll review those in detail Monday…while this particular batch of results from GoldQuest – testing the northern and eastern boundaries of the Romero discovery zone plus the Escandalosa compliant resource to the south – were not impressive, new IP geophysics has extended the recently announced Guama trend (west of Romero) to over 3 kilometres in length and up to 2 kilometres in width…it remains open to the north and the south…two drill rigs will soon test Guama while more more drilling is being undertaken to further define Romero and test for other potential discoveries along the Las Tres Palmas trend…GQC is down sharply this morning, currently off 11 cents to 29.5 cents, slightly below its 1000 day moving average (SMA)…Richmont, meanwhile, has delivered more promising high-grade drill results from its newly-discovered deep zone at the Island Gold Mine in Ontario including 9.6 metres grading 13.6 g/t Au (true width)…three rigs are active on this project from underground drill stations…RIC is down 17 cents at $2.30…

St. Andrew Goldfields (SAS, TSX)

St. Andrew Goldfields (SAS, TSX) is on track to achieve its 2013 production guidance of between 95,000 and 105,000 ounces of Gold from its Holt, Holloway and Hislop mines as reported yesterday…this is one play for bargain hunters to keep in mind in the event there is further deterioration in the Gold sector…so far this year, the stock has traded in a horizontal channel between 40 and 50 cents…it’s down 2 pennies to 41 cents in early trading today…

Strategic Oil & Gas (SOG, TSX-V) Chart Update

Lomiko Metals (LMR, TSX-V) Chart Update

Lomiko Metals (LMR, TSX-V) is trying to cash in on the opportunities in the graphite and graphene space, and how successful they’ll be remains to be seen…securing financing will be the key…technically, the stock is showing some encouraging signs but this one is not for the risk-adverse…

Note: John, Jon and Terry do not hold positions in GQC, RIC, SAS, SOG or LMR.