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Gold has traded between $1,197 and $1,209 so far today…as of 8:45 am Pacific, bullion is up $7 an ounce at $1,205…Silver is flat at $16.28…Copper has added 4 cents to $2.74…Crude Oil is off 51 cents to $56.20 while the U.S. Dollar Index is down slightly at 97.64…

New trading rules in China have put downward pressure on global markets today (see below), though the Venture is holding up well as it attempts to conquer resistance at 707…

Silver stockpiles in China have surged this year as the country’s slowing economic growth has weakened demand for the precious metal, according to a state researcher, though Silver impressively gained 6% vs. the U.S. dollar in Q1… inventory monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange almost tripled to 341.5 metric tons April 9, the highest in a year, from 122.8 tons in the final week of 2014, according to weekly bourse data compiled by Bloomberg…stockpiles on the Shanghai Gold Exchange, meanwhile, have more than doubled this year to 263.97 tons on April 3, exchange data show…

Oil Update

Technically, what we’re seeing in WTIC at the moment is the expected continuation of a counter-trend rally that showed signs of intensifying after strong support was building at the $50 level, combined with a reversal to the upside in the 50-day moving average (SMA)…

WTIC has established an uptrend line from the March low on this 6-month daily chart…as long as that uptrend line holds, WTIC has a chance to break into the mid-$60’s (note the position of the declining 200-day SMA) before it meets stiff resistance and the Saudis decide to intervene aggressively again to prevent the North American shale industry from staging a rebound…so this rally should be viewed with skepticism as the fundamentals (and the technicals) don’t support the kind of recovery witnessed following the lows of 2009…

Certain members of OPEC keep pumping Oil as fast as rabbits can breed in order to maintain and increase market share while putting the squeeze on North American operators…Saudi Arabia produced 10.3 million barrels per day in the month of March, a 658,000 barrel-per-day increase over the previous month…that’s the highest level of production in 3 decades for the leading OPEC member (keep in mind, the Saudis’ target is not only North American producers, but arch-rival Iran)…on top of the Saudi increase, Iraq boosted output by 556,000 barrels per day, and Libya succeeded in bringing 183,000 barrels per day back online…OPEC is now collectively producing nearly 31.5 million barrels per day, well above the cartel’s stated quota of just 30 million barrels per day…

U.S. Dollar Index Updated Chart

It hasn’t been a good week for the U.S. Dollar Index which appears to have put in a double-top reversal pattern…that’s positive for commodities and the Venture…momentum in the greenback is waning, at least for the time being, and the Dollar Index does seem to be in the process of an extended correction as we’ve been maintaining for the last month…

Key near-term support is 96…analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch calculate that the number of disappointing U.S. economic reports relative to positive surprises has been greater in recent months than at any point since the expansion began in June 2009, and any additional disappointing data in the weeks ahead will certainly put the greenback under more pressure…the long-term trend remains bullish, given last year’s important breakouts, but a significant consolidation after a huge run-up since last summer is overdue…

Today’s Equity Markets

Asia

China’s Shanghai Composite shot up another 94 points or 2.2% overnight to close at a new 7-year high of 4288 as bets of further stimulus continued to buoy risk appetite..however, futures point toward the possibility of a sharp pullback in the Shanghai on Monday after China’s securities regulator, after today’s trading session, issued its strongest warning yet about the country’s soaring equity markets and tightened rules on margin lending…the country’s 2 stock exchanges also announced measures that will ease restrictions on short-selling…

Europe

European markets were down significantly today, thanks to the news out of China and concerns over Greece…the country’s international creditors this week signaled they are losing hope Athens will do what is needed to unlock bailout funds before it runs out of money…however, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told Reuters yesterday he was “firmly optimistic” his government would reach an agreement with its creditors by the end of April, despite friction over issues such as pension and labor reform…

North America

The Dow has tumbled 267 points as of 8:45 am Pacific…

Regardless of today’s drop, U.S. markets are being supported not only by very accommodating monetary policies, but record share buybacks which are helping to offset lingering worries about upcoming earnings reports…more than $100 billion in buyback authorizations were approved last month, according to Birinyi Associates, as corporate America continues to purchase its own shares at a record clip…based on that data, the total amount of buyback authorizations could reach $1 trillion this year, far surpassing the previous record set in 2007…this has been a strong underpinning factor for the market…March, in fact, was the third-strongest month ever for buyback plans, pushing the year-to-date figure to $257 billion or the highest dollar amount to a start of a year on record, according to Birinyi…

U.S. consumer prices increased for the 2nd consecutive month in March after falling through much of the winter, a sign that U.S. inflation may be stabilizing…

The CPI, which reflects what Americans pay for everything from sneakers to airline tickets, rose a seasonally adjusted 0.2% in March from a month earlier (in line with expectations), the Labor Department said today…that matched the increase the previous month, which was the biggest rise since June..excluding the volatile food and energy categories, so-called core prices also climbed 0.2%…compared with a year earlier, overall prices declined 0.1% while core prices have risen 1.8%…the Fed will be watching inflation numbers closely over the few months for evidence of an upward trend…

In Toronto, the TSX is off 46 points while the Venture is shrugging off weakness in the broad markets and is unchanged at 706…the Index tends to finish strong on Fridays, so a close above 707 resistance today would not be surprising…

Canadian retail sales ended a 2-month streak of deep declines in February, rising a better-than-expected 1.7% on stronger gas-station receipts and a pickup in activity at car dealerships…the February gain, the biggest in 8 months, was broad-based and represents one of the best showings to date among economic indicators for the 1st quarter – a period the Bank of Canada has said will show no growth due to the fallout from the decline in Crude prices…

Kootenay Silver Inc. (KTN, TSX-V) Update

Kootneay Silver (KTN, TSX-V) has a high-quality exploration play unfolding with its La Negra Silver discovery, contained within the Promontorio mineral belt…we all know how prolific Sonora is as a mineral region…the La Negra breccia discovery is situated approximately 6.5 km north of Kootenay’s flagship Promontorio Silver resource, and a 30-hole follow-up drill program commenced in late February with more encouraging results released just over 2 weeks ago…

As expected, KTN has been slowly gaining traction following a confirmed breakout above chart resistance and an ascending triangle…this bodes well for the balance of Q2 – significant gains could be in the works given how the fundamentals and technicals are matching up here…

This morning’s test of Fib. support at 44 cents should be viewed in the context of a primary uptrend with an attractive risk-reward ratio…

Equitas Resources Corp. (EQT, TSX-V)

A Nickel play readers may wish to investigate is Equitas Resources (EQT, TSX-V), a company that went through a restructuring late last year…it’s now preparing for a busy summer of exploration, and speculation should ramp up as a result…insiders control just over 50% of the 35 million shares outstanding…

The company’s key asset is the 25 sq. km Garland Nickel Property, 30 km south of the Voisey’s Bay mine…since the discovery of the Voisey’s Bay deposit in the early 1990’s, small parcels of Garland have been owned by 9 separate companies…this is the first time that this large property has been consolidated under 1 owner…after adding some technical and capital markets expertise, EQT has a decent chance of enjoying some success in the coming months…

Technically, a bullish bias is clearly evident in this 2+ year weekly chart – likely just a matter of time before an important breakout occurs above the 10-cent level…as always, perform your own due diligence…

Favorable Non-Resource Charts

As mentioned earlier this week, Cannabix Technologies (BLO, CSE, BLOZF, OTC) is showing signs of a potential near-term breakout above a pennant formation that started in February…the trading action has to be viewed as very bullish given the strong support that has formed above last year’s high, and the fact that pennants are continuation patterns that usually break out in the direction of the previous trend that started…BLO is up 1.5 cents to 44 cents as of 8:45 am Pacific…

VANC Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NPH, TSX-V) Update

VANC Pharmaceuticals (NPH, TSX-V) pushed above a short-term downtrend line this week and climbed to 60 cents before retracing to close at the 54-cent Fib. level yesterday…liquidity continues to be exceptional with average daily volume so far this month of nearly 5 million shares…

NPH is off 2 pennies at 52 cents as of 8:45 am Pacific…

Mezzi Holdings Inc. (MZI, TSX-V)

Another one for our readers’ due diligence…Mezzi Holdings (MZI, TSX-V) has pulled back to a strong support area, defined by Fib. levels and rising moving averages, after more than doubling to a new high of 26 cents last month…

MZI is unchanged at 18.5 cents as of 8:45 am Pacific…

Note:  John and Jon both hold share positions in BLO.