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Gold has traded between $1,223 and $1,245 so far today…as of 9:00 am Pacific, bullion is down $17 an ounce at $1,225…Silver has dipped 13 cents to $15.23…Copper is off slightly at $2.22…Crude Oil is 28 cents higher at $38.56 while the U.S. Dollar Index, which got clobbered yesterday after a dovish speech by Janet Yellen, is off its lows of the day but still down one-third of a point at 94.89…Yellen seems determined to “break the backs” of the dollar bulls and our updated Dollar Index chart this morning – critical for all followers of the Venture – suggests the Fed Chair will succeed in that endeavor…Yellen’s language early into her term helped bring about a record run in the greenback beginning in the summer of 2014…now she seems determined to beat the dollar back down in order to give the Fed more “wiggle room” to raise rates later this year or in 2017…

Although Yellen remained confident that the Fed’s next move would be to hike interest rates, she stressed yesterday that any move would be gradual…her words were clearly at odds with hawkish comments from several regional Fed bank presidents over the last week or so…any chance of an April rate hike is now completely off the table…

“Given the risks to the outlook, I consider it appropriate for the Committee to proceed cautiously in adjusting policy,” she said…Yellen is finally admitting that the return to the Fed’s desired 2% inflation target “could take longer than expected“…she added that this “might require a more accommodative stance of monetary policy than would otherwise be appropriate.”

Despite Gold’s reversal yesterday, holdings in the world’s biggest Gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Shares, declined for the first time in 2 weeks…

Based on information provided by the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Mineral Commodities Summary, the table of top 10 producing countries reveals that China is still comfortably occupies the #1 position followed by Australia, Russia, the U.S., Canada, Peru, South Africa, Mexico, Uzbekistan, and Ghana…the most growth in production, among the top 10, has been in Australia, China and Peru…Thomson Reuters GFMS releases its 2016 Gold Survey tomorrow which should provide more insight into production trends…

Gold 2.5-Year Weekly Chart

The current Gold chart underscores the very strong support at $1,200, and a weak U.S. dollar makes it seem unlikely that bullion will break down below that level…Gold’s 50-day moving average (SMA) is now $1,220, providing additional support…as long as that SMA continues to rise, momentum will be in Gold’s favor…

S&P 500 Technical Oddity

Despite the recent surge in equity markets, U.S. stocks are still several percent off their 52-week highs…interestingly, the S&P 500 has gone 10 months now without making a new high – the longest stretch since 2009…such a length of time with no new high has happened only 11 times in the last 50 years and 8 of those times occurred during a bear market…the 3 others happened during a consolidation phase that resulted in a breakout – the last time being more than 30 years ago…

Private U.S. Jobs Report Matches Expectations

Private U.S. companies are continuing to add jobs, with 200,000 new positions created in March…according to the latest count released this morning by payrolls processor ADP and Moody’s Analytics…the number was in line with Wall Street estimates…as has been the case throughout the post-recession economy, services led the way…the sector contributed 191,000 of the total, which actually represented a decrease from the 204,000 in February…today’s release comes 2 days ahead of the much-anticipated non-farm payrolls report from the Labor Department…economists expect the report to show growth of 200,000 jobs – 187,500 private positions – and the unemployment rate holding steady at 4.9%…

In today’s Morning Musings…

1.  NexGen Energy (NXE, TSX-V) hits a new all-time high on further expansion of the Arrow Zone at Rook 1…when will Cameco come calling? …

2.  How the Goldstrike camp in Utah is reversing the fortunes of Pilot Gold (PLG, TSX)…

3.  A 2-cent Gold junior with measured/indicated/inferred high-grade resources that could be coming back to life…

Plus more… to view the rest of today’s Morning Musings, login with your username and password, or click here to register and gain full access to this and other exclusive BMR content and features…