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Check back later this morning for today’s Morning Musings.

1. Gold prices have stayed within a $10 range today in relatively light post-Christmas/pre-New Year’s trading…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is flat at $1,138…next significant support below $1,130 is in the $1,090’s…the TSX Gold Index has climbed 5 points to 186 in early trading…

2. U.S. stocks recovered from one of their worst-ever starts to the year to finish at record highs, though the Dow is still trying to cross the magic 20,000 level with just 3 trading sessions left (including today) in 2016…as of 7:00 am Pacific, the Dow is down slightly at 19,921 after posting its 27th winning session out of 35 yesterday…Canadian markets have re-opened following the Christmas break…the TSX has climbed 52 points through the first 30 minutes while the Venture is 7 points higher at 735, just 2 points below its November close…

3. Crude Oil, enjoying its best December in 6 years, is holding near its 2016 high with a gain of 24 cents to $54.12 as of 7:00 am Pacific while the HOU (WTI double bull ETF) has crossed the $9 level on the TSX…Africa Oil (AOI, TSX), continues its surge, up another 11 cents to $2.65 in early trading…we’ll have an updated AOI chart in today’s Morning Musings…

4. Uranium stocks, which came out of their slumber in November, appear poised to continue to be a focus of interest to begin 2017…Energy Fuels (EFR, TSX), which slipped as low as $1.74 last month, climbed as high as $2.35 in early trading today after announcing that it has intercepted additional high-grade areas of Uranium mineralization at its Canyon mine, a fully permitted conventional underground mine being developed in northern Arizona…the new intercepts, including 28.5 feet of mineralization with an average grade of 2.41% eU3O8, further expand the mineralized zone at the mine which is the highest-grade Uranium project being developed in the U.S. today…meanwhile, Purepoint Uranium (PTU, TSX-V), which begins drilling shortly at its Hook Lake JV, is up half a penny at 13.5 cents…PTU neighbor NexGen Energy (NXE, TSX) is off slightly at $2.24…

5. Rise Resources (UPP, CSE), which began trading on the CSE in February through an IPO, reported this morning that it has closed a non-brokered financing at 20 cents per share for total gross proceeds (hard dollars) of $4.2 million while also announcing a new financing at 20 cents to raise an additional $1.5 million…Rise is in the process of completing the purchase of a substantial area of private land in the U.S. which hosts a significant historic Gold mine, and that purchase is expected to be finalized by the end of January…the project was a leading Gold producer in the U.S. and was in the process of a major production expansion before being suddenly shut down during the Second World War…Rise believes it can prepare a mineral resource estimate, exploration plan and a preliminary mine plan through processing historic data on the property within 2 months of the closing of the purchase…

6. Canadian Zeolite (CNZ, TSX-V) is down slightly in early trading at $1.14 but appears to have stabilized above the $1 level…this morning, the company issued news that reviewed its 2016 achievements while outlining corporate plans for 2017 including the pursuit of expansion opportunities in the U.S. and South America to meet the growing demand of Zeolite…we’ll have an updated CNZ chart in today’s Morning Musings…

7. Rob McEwen is the mining world’s top commander-in-chief for 2016, according to an extensive survey of its readers and viewers by Kitco News…”Currently, McEwen is the chief executive and chairman of his own company, McEwen Mining (TSE: MUX). A believer that management should be as personally invested in a company as its shareholders, he owns 25% of the outstanding shares of McEwen Mining; he receives no salary. This year, McEwen hit a major milestone by getting the stock (TSE: MUX) above $1 at the start of 2016. The company is now preparing to end the year with positive free cash flow, no debt and over $70 million in the treasury. As for a personal milestone, this January McEwen will be inducted into the Mining Hall of Fame. Past great feats include his appointment to the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian honor.  McEwen has donated in excess of $60 million, some of which went to the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the Toronto General Hospital and the Schulich School of Business, Toronto”…