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

1. Gold, on track for its best weekly performance since April, has traded between $1,247 and $1,257 (200-day SMA) so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, the yellow metal is up $6 an ounce at $1,253 as the greenback comes under renewed pressure…the Dollar Index is off half a point at 97.26…we’ll have an updated Gold chart in today’s Morning Musings – the bulls remain in firm control and it’s just a matter of time before bullion bursts through resistance at $1,260…holdings in SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest Gold-backed ETF, fell slightly to 850.71 tonnes during yesterday’s mini-pullback in Gold…base metals are all trading robustly this morning, led by Zinc, Lead, Nickel and Copper on a percentage gain basis…

2. Oil prices are firm again today and are headed for a 2nd week of gains on growing expectations that big Crude exporters will extend output cuts next week to curb a persistent glut in inventories…WTI is up 83 cents to $50.18 as of 7:00 am Pacific as it crosses the $50 barrier for the first time in 3 weeks…not surprisingly, the Saudis and Russians strategically stepped in immediately after Crude slipped below key support at $48, propping the market back up after a mini flash crash to just above next support at $43…meanwhile, the first decline in U.S. production in 13 weeks has also provided some support to prices this week…

3. Bitcoin broke through the $1,900 mark for the first time today, driven by global political uncertainty and key developments within the cryptocurrency world…the digital currency hit a fresh record high of $1,954 (U.S.) before pulling back slightly to $1,943 as of 7:00 am Pacific, according to Coindesk’s Bitcoin price index…the current level marks a nearly 7% rise from a week ago…Bitcoin’s market capitalization now exceeds $30 billion…a number of factors are responsible for Bitcoin’s rise, from increased trading in Japan (recently passed legislation allowed retailers in Japan to begin accepting Bitcoin as a legal currency) to debates over the future the Bitcoin’s underlying technology…

4. Brazil’s President Michel Temer is under investigation in connection with a sprawling corruption scandal, the country’s Supreme Court said yesterday, as opponents called for his impeachment and financial markets plunged in Latin America’s biggest country…the Ibovespa stock index closed 8.8% lower yesterday after declining as much as 10% earlier in the day, prompting the stock market to suspend trading for the first time in almost 9 years…the index has recovered about 2% today…meanwhile, Brazil’s real tumbled 8% yesterday in the currency’s biggest fall in more than a decade…the country’s central bank said it was monitoring markets to ensure proper functioning…

5. Governments that get greedy and raise taxes and royalties to increase their share of mining revenues and profits often scare away investors…Democratic Republic of Congo’s government (the DRC) plans to re-introduce legislation in parliament next week to revise the mining code a year after withdrawing it amid fierce opposition from mining companies, the mines minister told Reuters today…the government of Africa’s largest Copper producer, which also accounts for more than half of the world’s Cobalt supply, suspended consideration of the revised code in March 2016 due to low commodity prices…companies complained that increased royalties and shortened stability clauses would make their projects unprofitable…mines Minister Martin Kabwelulu did not say whether the legislation, aimed at boosting government revenues, would be identical to the earlier proposal…low commodity prices since 2015 have left the government in desperate need of cash and caused the franc currency to lose half its value since last year…the mining and Oil sectors account for about 95% of export revenues for the DRC…Congo’s Copper production jumped more than 20% in the 1st quarter of this year as prices recovered…the Chamber of Mines expects annual production to hit about 1.5 million tonnes in 2018, up from around 1 million in 2016…

6. The Venture will post its second straight weekly advance today with new support also indicative at 800…the Index is off 1 point at 800 as of 7:00 am Pacific…White Gold (WGO, TSX-V) came out with major news this morning, announcing a deal with Kinross Gold (K, TSX) that will increase WGO’s control of the White Gold district to 40% while also adding approximately 1 million ounces of Gold grading between 2.7 and 3.2 g/t on the Golden Saddle area based on historic estimates of Measured and Indicated resources on the White Gold Property…following the completion of the land package acquisition and an Agnico financing also announced this morning, Agnico and Kinross will each own approximately 19.9% of White Gold which will also have about $22 million cash on its balance sheet…WGO is up 14 cents at $2.14 through the first 30 minutes of trading…the TSX has climbed 118 points while the Dow has added 85 points…

7. Castle Silver Resources (CSR, TSX-V) has further bolstered its cash position, closing the first tranche of an previously unannounced hard dollar private placement for gross proceeds of $500,000 (2.5 million units at 20 cents)…the company says it expects to soon close the second and final tranche for up to an additional $250,000…the move comes just a couple of weeks after the company unveiled its unique Re-2OX hydrometallurgical process to create high-purity Cobalt powders for end-users in the battery sector…equipment and personnel have been mobilized to the Castle mine site in preparation for an extensive underground drilling and sampling program…

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