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Gold hovered between $1,296 and $1,301 overnight before coming under slight pressure immediately after release of a stronger-than-expected U.S. Q2 GDP figure at 5:30 am Pacific…as of 5:45 am Pacific, bullion is down $6 an ounce at $1,293 but is underpinned by strong support in the $1,280’s…Silver is off 4 cents at $20.52…Copper has reversed and is up 2 pennies to $3.25…Crude Oil, at $101.48, has gained 51 cents while the U.S. Dollar Index has jumped another one-fifth of a point to 81.42…

This is a shortened version of Morning Musings due to an important B.C. property site visit beginning this morning…more on that early next week…our regular Morning Musings resumes tomorrow…

The Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decision comes later today – no major surprises expected as the Fed is seen reducing monthly asset purchases by another $10 billion to $25 billion a month…investors will be searching for clues as to when the Fed may begin to raise interest rates…

Just out – U.S. second quarter GDP rose much faster than expected in Q2, at an annualized rate of 4% vs. estimates of 3.2%…we’ll see if that influences Fed language later today…

U.S. private sector payrolls for July came in less than expected this morning…ADP reported that private businesses created 218,000 jobs in July, a solid number but slightly below the consensus estimate of 230,000 and well off from last month’s figure of 281,000…the Labor Department’s monthly non-farm payrolls report will be released Friday – consensus (prior to the ADP number) has the economy adding 225,000 jobs…

Conditions are “ripening” for a recovery in mine exploration spending, although this may not occur until later in the year due to seasonal factors, SNL Metals & Mining stated yesterday…the mining consultancy said its Pipeline Activity Index “recovered somewhat” in May after an all-time low in April, although it dropped back slightly in June…the industry’s aggregate market cap improved for the sixth month in a row, reaching $1.75 trillion, a 20% increase over December and the highest level since January 2013, said SNL…

Today’s Equity Markets

Asia

China’s wining streak was snapped overnight as the Shanghai Composite posted a slight decline, off 2 points at 2184…meanwhile, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei index scaled a new six-month peak today despite the release of disappointing data…industrial output dropped 3.3% in June from May, significantly below forecasts and marking the first decline in two months…

Europe

European markets are flat in late trading overseas…

North America

Stock index futures as of 5:45 am Pacific are pointing toward a strong open on Wall Street…yesterday, the Dow fell for the fourth session out of five…the TSX finished up a point yesterday at 15446…

Venture Chart Update

The Venture has traded within the 1000-1020 support band for 11 straight sessions, and tested Fib. resistance at 1020 yesterday before backing off slightly to close the day down 3 points at 1017…

This fresh 6-month daily chart from John shows modestly increasing buy pressure and a market strongly supported by a rising 50-day moving average (SMA) at 1006…resistance at 1020, 1027 and 1039 is much weaker than overall support in our view, making the probability of a game-changing breakout in August a near certainty as the bulls assert their control…

John has updates on three very interesting individual company charts this morning that also reflect the underlying strength of the Venture…

InZinc Mining Ltd. (IZN, TSX-V)

InZinc Mining (IZN, TSX-V) is an emerging mid-tier Zinc producer with its 100%-owned West Desert Project in Utah…a positive PEA was released in May, and excellent opportunities for resource expansion exist…importantly, the project benefits from all-weather road access, on-site grid power, proximity to natural gas pipelines and is just 90 km from multiple transcontinental rail networks servicing western U.S. ports and major North American markets…

Technically, what we see below is quite an amazing chart – a classic “cup with handle pattern” with a potential breakout above the cup looming…

Critical Elements Corp. (CRE, TSV-V)

We started looking at Critical Elements (CRE, TSX-V) again at the beginning of June when it was trading in the upper teens and showing some bullish chart patterns…the company reported in mid-May that it had started shipping samples of lithium concentrate to a number of users for analysis and validation of the product specifications…the concentrate samples have a low iron content, which is specifically required by certain users…validation of the Rose project material by some of the largest consumers of lithium concentrate with low iron content is part of the process of setting up potential long-term off-take contracts…

Technically, CRE formed a bullish ascending triangle, as we previously pointed out, and yesterday closed above resistance at 25 cents on strong volume…

Contact Exploration Inc. (CEX, TSX-V)

As reported Monday, Contact Exploration (CEX, TSX-V) experienced significant growth during its 2014 fiscal year ended March 31, with petroleum and natural gas revenues more than doubling and total assets increasing by more than 50% when compared with the 2013 year-end…net income was $2.8 million compared to $2 million the previous year and a loss of $4 million in 2012…so things are headed in the right direction…

A successful strategy with CEX over the last year has been to buy at or near the bottom of this impressive upsloping channel…

Note:  John, Jon and Terry do not hold share positions in IZN, CRE or CEX.