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Gold has traded between $1,281 and $1,288 so far today…as of 7:55 am Pacific, bullion is up $1 an ounce at $1,282…Silver has added 2 cents to $19.38…Copper is off 2 pennies at $3.18…Crude Oil has gained 30 cents at $94.16 while the U.S. Dollar Index is off from a 13-month high, down nearly one-quarter of a point to 82.43…

As demonstrated again this week, Gold has solid support in the $1,270’s but the challenge for the bulls to regain momentum over the near-term is to push the yellow metal back above $1,300 an ounce…this will take increased physical demand from Asia, in particular…holdings of the SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest Gold-backed exchange-traded fund and a gauge of investor demand, fell 0.4% to 797.09 tonnes on Monday from 800.08 tonnes on Friday…

TD Securities has increased its 2014 Gold, Copper and Palladium price forecasts, while slightly trimming its outlooks for Silver and Platinum…the Canadian bank increased its third quarter estimate for Gold by $35 an ounce to $1,295 and its fourth quarter estimate by $15 to $1,265…TDS also raised its Copper outlook by 6 cents a pound to $3.18 for the third quarter and lifted its annual forecast by 2 cents to $3.32 a pound…

Today’s Equity Markets

Asia

China’s Shanghai Composite recovered from a more than 2-week closing low in the previous session thanks to a rally in the aviation sector on reports that the country’s first large commercial passenger jet will be entering the final assembly stage…the index finished up 2 points at 2209…Japan’s Nikkei rose slightly overnight as well…

Europe

European markets are down slightly in late trading overseas…the euro edged off its lowest point in almost a year yesterday as Germany’s finance minister played down speculation over more ECB monetary policy easing in the coming months…a measure of German consumer sentiment showed its biggest drop in more than three years yesterday, while the impact of the Ukrainian crisis and tensions between the West and Moscow were visible in European company results…

North America

The Dow is up 7 points at 17111 as of 7:55 am Pacific…

The S&P 500 index notched its first-ever close above 2000 yesterday, a new milestone in the stock market’s relentless march higher…yesterday’s finish was the 30th record close this year for the index, which has gained 8.2% in 2014…the Dow, meanwhile, hit an intraday record of 17153.80 yesterday but failed to hold a record through the close…

Throughout the year, investors have shrugged off worries about rising interest rates, geopolitical tensions and even occasional concerns about the lackluster economic recovery…yesterday, investors were focused on M&A activity and a report showing U.S. consumers are more optimistic than they’ve been since 2007, helping drive the S&P up 2.10 points to 2000.02…it took 16 years for the S&P to gain 1000 points since breaking through 1000 for the first time in 1998, yielding a mere 6.2% annualized compound return, including dividends, from then to now (Gold has provided much healthier returns)…

Institutions have been the driving force behind the powerful move in the S&P since late 2012 as shown in this 2+year weekly chart (retail participation, curiously, has been rather muted)…the S&P has measured Fib. resistance at 2035…

As of 7:55 am Pacific, the TSX is off 18 points while the Venture is up a point at 1016…the Venture’s 20-day SMA has flattened out and appears poised to reverse to the upside after being in decline since mid-July…September is shaping up to be a potentially exceptional month…

Ascot Resources Ltd. (AOT, TSX-V) Update

We expect an exciting September/October on the exploration front in B.C. – news flow will be strong on several fronts, and investors should certainly expect a reawakening of the Sheslay district as intense activity on the ground in the last few months should translate into a harvest of results and even more drilling…

Further south, near Stewart, four rigs are turning at Ascot Resources‘ (AOT, TSX-V) Premier Property which commands attention…drilling is now focusing on the old Premier mine area…historic work and recent Ascot drilling indicate a system where mineralization is focused in a structural zone with widths ranging from 30 m to 150 m, with a known strike length of over 1,600 m and a dip length of up to 1,200 m…AOT has climbed for 8 consecutive sessions and found support intra-day yesterday at the Fib. $1.90 level after a brief pullback…as of 7:55 am Pacific, AOT is up 2 cents at $2.22…

Copper-Gold Porphyry Interest In B.C.

Interesting developments concerning Lorraine Copper Corp. (LLC, TSX-V) yesterday…the stock was halted 16 minutes into the session after a surge in price in volume, and resumed trading just over two hours later after the company announced the following:

“Lorraine Copper has received an expression of interest (our emphasis) from another company with respect to the Lorraine property in north-central British Columbia, which is held in a joint venture of Teck Resources (51%) and Lorraine Copper (49%t). As of this date, Lorraine Copper is not aware of any substantive progress with respect to that expression of interest.”  The stock finished the day up 3 cents at 9.5 cents on total volume (all exchanges) of nearly 2 million shares, after modest advances on lower volume the previous two sessions…

We’re bringing up Lorraine today because we view yesterday’s news as important in a broader context as it reflects heightened exploration interest in British Columbia in general, and the hunt for quality Copper-Gold porphyries in particular…one of those involved in that hunt is the legendary Robert Friedland who is rumored to be looking at several different situations in B.C. – Friedland-backed Kaizen Discovery Inc. (KZD, TSX-V), armed with more than $10 million in cash and a strategic Japanese partner (Itochu Corp., a leading trading house and supplier of metals to Japanese industry), commenced a Phase 1 drill program last month at a Cu-Au porphyry project south of Dease Lake, in between the Sheslay district and the Red Chris (Freeport-McMoRan of Canada Ltd. is financing this as part of an earn-in agreement)…Kaizen is also gearing up for a major drill program, expected to begin next month, at the Aspen Grove Cu-Au porphyry project located between the Highland Valley and Copper Mountain mines at the southern end of B.C.’s Copper-rich Quesnel Trough…

About Lorraine

Teck earned a 51% interest in the Lorraine property by spending $9 million on exploration through 2011…Lorraine has many characteristics common to other alkalic porphyries in B.C., and is also well-served by infrastructure including all-season roads, the Kemess power line corridor to the northeast, and the Canadian National Railway line to the southwest…the most recent resource estimate for Lorraine (2012) showed 6.4 million tonnes in the measured category grading 0.61% Cu and 0.23 g/t Au, and 28.8 million tonnes of inferred @ 0.45% Cu and 0.19 g/t Au (using a cut-off grade of 0.20% Cu)…one of the best holes in 2008 returned 0.64% Cu and 0.30 g/t Au over 159 m starting from 8 m…the deposit has considerable room for expansion, which is why there has been an “expression of interest”…the most significant Copper, Gold and Silver occurrences on the property occur within a 14 km x 5 km area covered by an IP survey in 2007…

Teck obviously sees potential in Lorraine, but they’re also very excited about the Kliyul Cu-Au Porphyry Project about 60 km to the northwest – more on that tomorrow…below is a map of this general area…

LLC 4-Year Weekly Chart – Excellent Example Of A Breakout Pattern

The reason for this chart this morning is that Lorraine is yet another example of a continuing pattern we’ve seen in Venture stocks over the last year, which is one reason we called a bottom in the Venture at 859…countless stocks have broken out above long-term downtrend lines dating back to 2011-2012…as you can see below, LLC did this at the beginning of the year, consolidated and then took off again to the upside…tomorrow we’ll post a chart of a stock with a similar pattern – a breakout above a long-term downtrend line followed by a consolidation in preparation for another wave higher…

Canada Zinc Metals Corp. (CZX, TSX-V) Update

Canada Zinc Metals (CZX, TSX-V) reported initial assay results (2 holes) yesterday from an 8-hole diamond drilling program recently completed at its northeastern B.C. Cardiac Creek Zinc-Silver-Lead deposit…it appears the company is expanding the boundary of the inner high-grade core, and the overall deposit dimensions…hole A-14-11 returned 5.6% combined Zn and Pb and 9.8 g/t Ag over a true width of 34.7 m from a downhole depth of 305.4 to 351.4 m, while A-14-12 – targeting the under-explored northwest up-dip edge of the deposit – intersected 5.3% combined Zn and Pb and 6.9 g/t Ag over a true width of 13.7 m from a downhole depth of 337.1 to 356.3 m…

Whether these numbers and speculation regarding pending results will drive CZX higher is anyone’s guess…prior to this summer’s program, CZX had outlined a NI-43-101 indicated resource of 12.7 million tonnes grading 8.4% Zn, 1.7% Pb and 13.7 g/t Ag, and an inferred resource of 16.3 million tonnes grading 7.4% Zn, 1.3% Pb and 11.6 g/t Ag (at a 5% Zn cut-off grade for each category)…

Technically, CZX is battling stiff long-term chart resistance in the mid-50’s and will require heavy volume to eat through that…as of 7:55 am Pacific, CZX is up 3 pennies at 57 cents…below is a 3-year weekly chart…

Ceiba Energy Services Inc. (CEB, TSX-V) Update

Ceiba Energy Services (CEB, TSX-V) has performed exceptionally well (up approximately 60%) since John’s breakout call in May…Ceiba provides specialized environmental services for companies in the energy sector and achieved record revenues for the quarter ended June 30…Ceiba’s challenges, like many companies, are managing growth and achieving profitability…

The chart continues to look very positive but we’ll be keeping a close eye on overbought RSI(14) conditions and Fib. measured resistance…CEB is up 3 cents at $1.11 as of 7:55 am Pacific…

Note:  John, Terry and Jon do not hold share positions in AOT, LLC, KZD, CZX or CEB.