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1. Gold has traded between $1,255 and $1,263 so far today after yesterday’s surge triggered by further technical deterioration in the U.S. dollar which is poised for its biggest weekly drop in 10 months…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is off $2 an ounce at $1,257...Silver has retreated 10 cents to $14.63…Copper, Nickel and Zinc are all off slightly at $2.69, $4.89 and $1.16, respectively, while Cobalt has inched up from $25.06 to $25.40…Crude Oil continues its slide, down another 45 cents a barrel at $45.43, while the Dollar Index has bounced back modestly to 96.68…one of the keys to an improving Venture and commodity sector will be a lower U.S. dollar…Wall Street has never been spooked by U.S. government shutdowns but the liberal mainstream media is hyperventilating today at the prospect Washington is headed for at least a partial shutdown unless President Trump and Congress cut a deal…Trump, determined to fulfill the campaign promises he was elected on, is standing firm in his demand for a border wall with Mexico…last night, House Republicans passed a bill to keep the government running through February 8 and put more than $5 billion toward the President’s wall…however, 60 votes are required for passage in the Senate, which will convene at noon EST today, where Republicans currently hold only a 51-49 majority…Trump has signalled that he’s prepared to close down the government “for a very long time” if Democrats in the Senate torpedo the legislation…funding for a range of federal agencies is set to expire at midnight tonight…

2. China will ratchet up support for its economy in 2019 by cutting taxes and keeping liquidity ample, the official Xinhua news agency said following an annual meeting of top leaders amid a trade dispute with the United States…the government has launched a raft of measures, including reductions in reserve requirements for banks, tax cuts and more infrastructure spending, to ward off a sharp deceleration in the world’s 2nd-largest economy…further policy steps are expected…“The external environment is complex and severe, and the economy is facing downward pressure,” Xinhua said, adding that the government would maintain its proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy next year…China’s economic growth slowed to 6.5% in the 3rd quarter, the weakest pace since the global financial crisis…data last week showed surprising softness in November factory output and retail sales, indicating momentum is likely to be reduced further in the current quarter…the World Bank expects China growth to slow to 6.2% in 2019 from an expected 6.5% this year, as headwinds increase due to trade tensions with the United States…

3. The U.S. economy expanded at a solid 3.4% annual clip in the 3rd quarter, slightly slower than the previous estimate as consumer spending and exports were revised down a little bit…the Commerce Department says growth in the GDP, the economy’s total output of goods and services, was pegged at 3.4% after an earlier estimate of 3.5%…however, the still-strong performance followed a sizzling 4.2% advance in Q2 and a moderate 2.2% increase in Q1…the U.S. GDP performance for 2018 is easily on track to be the best in 13 years…maintaining that pace in 2019 won’t be easy…

4. Another lost Canadian opportunity, thanks to the climate change extremists who are in control of so much public policy in this country – Exxon Mobil Corp. has withdrawn its environmental assessment application for a $25 billion LNG export facility on the B.C. coast it proposed in 2015…B.C.’s NDP-Green coalition has made it clear that for the province to “live up to its Paris commitments” and “save the planet”, it won’t accept another LNG project beyond the 1 already slated to go ahead in Kitimat…yet another example of how professional career politicians in Canada, ideologically possessed by climate change, are destroying wealth and running the economy into the ground…have the likes of Trudeau, Horgan, Weaver and Notley ever had to meet a payroll in their lives?..

5. Fresh chaos in the Congo, which supplies nearly two-thirds of the world’s Cobalt:  A Presidential election in the “Democratic Republic” of the Congo (DRC), due to take place on Sunday, has been delayed until December 30th…the country’s electoral commission made the announcement, citing problems caused by a recent fire that destroyed 80% of the voting machines in the capital of Kinshasa…the delay to the election, already postponed repeatedly since 2016, will anger supporters of the DRC’s fractured opposition and dismay observers who hoped it would bring a measure of security to the country…it is also likely to raise tensions and could prompt significant protests…Corneille Nangaa, the head of the electoral commission, said officials have found enough voting machines for Kinshasa but had to get 5 million new ballots printed…Nangaa called on the country of some 40 million voters for calm…the DRC’s outgoing President, Joseph Kabila, refused to leave office at the end of his 2nd term in 2016 and only reluctantly agreed not to stand this time around…the country’s constitution limits Presidents to 2 consecutive terms…Kabila has been in power since 2001 and the election would be the DRC’s first democratic transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960…opposition candidates have warned any delay would be unacceptable…“The CENI (election commission) President said there will be an election, rain or shine, on 23 December,” said Martin Fayulu, one of the 2 leading opposition candidates.  “We cannot accept a change of Mr. Nangaa’s position today”…local media reported CENI had cited 3 reasons for the delay:  the deaths of more than 100 people in ethnic violence in the northwest this week, an outbreak of Ebola in the east and a shortfall in the number of ballot papers it had been able to distribute…the DRC refused international assistance with the organization of the election…this was despite the massive logistical challenge of a poll in a violent, unstable country the size of western Europe that has no proper road or rail system and a population of about 80 million people…

6. The Dow is up 109 points as of 7:00 am Pacific as it tries to reverse a sharp pre-Christmas slide…very strong support exists between 23,000 and 22,000, the bull market uptrend line going back 10 years on the Dow’s long-term monthly chart…the TSX is down 9 points while the Venture, which has declined in 17 out of the last 21 sessions, is flat at 537…historically, the latest dates in December for Venture lows have been the 21st (2000), 20th (2016) and the 19th (2013 and 2001)…each of those December lows was followed by a major January surge…nearly 20 years of Venture trading history, current sentiment levels and multiple charts indicate a sharp reversal out of extreme oversold conditions is imminent…a slap on the wrist for West High Yield Resources (WHY, TSX-V) which has agreed to pay $200,000 and send its officers and directors for training…unbelievable…the “penalties” come as part of a settlement agreement that the Alberta Securities Commission released yesterday…the ASC cited West High Yield for a controversial news release that the company issued on October 5, 2017…the release stated that a previously unknown private entiry, Gryphon Enterprises LLC, had offered to acquire 3 properties that WHY owned in B.C. for the price of $750 million (U.S.)…news of the deal sent WHY to a high of $3.80, turning the stock into a quick 10-bagger…in its settlement with the ASC, the company admitted that it failed to disclose important information, such as the fact that the buyer did not have enough money to complete the deal…

7. British Columbia’s Green Monster has suffered a setback:  Voters have overwhelmingly rejected a referendum proposal, pushed by the NDP-Green coalition, to change the province’s electoral system to a form of proportional representation…this attempt at trying to “fix” something that isn’t broken should never have been made in the first place – B.C. voters had already twice rejected a change in the system in 2 previous referendums, but so-called “democrats” in the province like the Green’s Wacky Weaver actually have no respect for democracy…“This was a flawed process from the beginning as the NDP stacked the deck to satisfy the Green Party and remain in power.  This was never been about improving our democracy, it was always about power and control,” stated B.C. Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson…“The rejection of Proportional Representation by the people of British Columbia demonstrates a clear desire to keep political power in the hands of voters”…the next test for the Green Monster will come early in the New Year when a by-election in the riding of Nanaimo, one that pits a local businessman against a career left-wing politician, could lead to the immediate fall of the coalition and a new election…

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