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1. Gold has traded between $1,276 and $1,284 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, Gold is up $1 an ounce at $1,284… Silver is off a penny at $15.33…very strong new support exists at $15…Palladium, which hit a record high of $1,434 an ounce last week on low inventories and rising demand, has dropped another $29 an ounce to $1,301 as a pullback continues…Copper is off slightly at $2.68…Nickel, continuing its bullish pattern, has added 2 pennies to $5.29 while Zinc is up a cent at $1.19…on-warrant Zinc stocks in LME warehouses are at their lowest levels since 2007…exacerbating fears of low availability of metal is LME data showing 2 entities between them hold most LME Zinc warrants…cash Zinc still commands a premium over the 3-month contract, suggesting nearby supplies are tight…Crude Oil has reversed higher, up 11 cents at $52.73 after some early morning weakness…the U.S. Dollar Index, meanwhile, has gained one-tenth of a point to 96.20…the European Central Bank left interest rates unchanged today and continued to say that rates would remain at current levels until after summer…“The Governing Council expects the key ECB interest rates to remain at their present levels at least through the summer of 2019, and in any case for as long as necessary to ensure the continued sustained convergence of inflation to levels that are below, but close to, 2% over the medium term,” the bank’s policy statement said…business growth in the euro zone all but stalled at the start of 2019 as consumer uncertainty, trade tensions and political woes meant incoming new work fell for the fires time in over 4 years, according to fresh data today…the slowdown has spread across both the services and manufacturing industries, with factory activity in Germany, the bloc’s powerhouse, also contracting for the first time in more than 4 years…meanwhile, Statistics Canada reports that retail sales in Canada fell by a larger than expected 0.9% to $50.4 billion in November…

2. Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself interim President in a defiant speech yesterday before masses of anti-government demonstrators who took to the streets to demand President Nicolas Maduro’s removal – a bold move that was immediately recognized by the Trump administration and a growing number of other Western nations including Canada…President Trump called on Maduro to resign and said the U.S. would use the “full weight” of its economic and diplomatic power to push for the restoration of Venezuela’s democracy…Canada as well as Brazil, Colombia and several other Latin American nations followed suit in throwing their support behind Guaido…“The people of Venezuela have courageously spoken out against Maduro and his regime and demanded freedom and the rule of law,” Trump said in a statement…Maduro responded by swiftly cutting off diplomatic relations with the U.S., the biggest importer of Venezuelan Oil, and said American diplomats had 72 hours to leave the country…“Before the people and nations of the world, and as constitutional President, I’ve decided to break diplomatic and political relations with the imperialist U.S. government,” Maduro told a crowd of red-shirted supporters gathered at the Presidential palace…“Don’t trust the gringos.  They don’t have friends or loyalties.  They only have interests, guts and the ambition to take Venezuela’s Oil, gas and Gold“…an economic disaster under Maduro has decimated Venezuela’s Oil industry, cutting its Crude output to near 70-year lows around 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd), from double that 3 years ago (climate change extremists should be ecstatic, though – Venezuela will help save the planet!)…destruction of the country’s Oil industry has devastated the overall economy…

3. U.S. Copper deposits have quietly drawn more than $1.1 billion in investments from small and large miners alike as Tesla (TSLA, NASDAQ) and other electric carmakers scramble for more of the red metal…4 U.S. Copper projects are set to open by next year – the first to come online in more than a decade – with several mine expansions also underway across the country, home to the world’s 5th-largest Copper reserves, according to the U.S. Geological Survey…the rising popularity of electric vehicles – which use twice as much Copper as internal combustion engines – and increasingly pro-mining policies in the U.S. while other nations exert greater control over their mineral deposits are driving the spending…“Fifteen years ago, U.S. mining was thought to be a dead industry, but now it’s a profitable area for us,” said Richard Adkerson, CEO of Freeport-McMoran (FCX, NYSE)…the Phoenix-based miner, which last month relinquished majority control of the world’s 2nd-largest Copper mine under pressure from the Indonesian government even though it will remain the project’s operator, is set to open a $850 million expansion of one of its Arizona copper mines next year…“The U.S. is really the core for our future growth,” Adkerson said…the U.S. is home to half of Freeport’s reserves…the buildouts are expected to boost U.S. Copper production by at least 8% in the next 4 years, according to data from the International Copper Study Group and DBS, with Excelsior Mining (MIN, TSX), Nevada Copper (NCU, TSX), Taseko Mines (TKO, TSX) aiming to open Copper mines by the end of 2020…

4. Ontario municipalities had until Tuesday night to opt in or opt out of recreational pot shops within their boundaries and 337, or about 81%, said yes, according to the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario…while Toronto and Hamilton did opt in, other large centres such as Mississauga and Markham were among the 77 municipalities that said no, dealing a blow to would-be pot retailers who wanted to tap their dense populations and relatively high income levels…recreational pot can only be bought in Ontario through a government-run website…private retail stores are set to open on April 1, but the provincial government limited the initial number to 25, citing cannabis supply shortages as a factor…

5. The Dow has fallen 72 points through the first 30 minutes of trading…futures were positive until Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in an interview with CNBC prior to market open that the U.S. is “miles and miles” from a trade deal with China…however, the market is taking those remarks pretty much in stride…in Toronto, the TSX is flat in early trading…Ontario Premier Doug Ford has been honoured as a “Red Tape Crusader” by the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses (CFIB), winning the “Golden Scissors Award“…the award is given every year to a politician, public servant or government that eliminates unnecessary bureaucracy standing in the way of small businesses…this year, Ford raised Ontario’s grade in the eyes of the CFIB, earning the province an A- for introducing Bill 47, which brought sweeping changes to labour legislation, and reduced red tape for small businesses…BMR can confirm that the Premier’s office has also gone to bat for companies in the exploration and mining sector – the McGuinty/Wynne years are thankfully over and Ontario’s exploration/mining sector is about to enter a new boom…Oceanagold (OGC, TSX) announced this morning that it has achieved 2018 consolidated production and cost guidance for the 7th consecutive year…annual Gold production came to 533,000…the Venture has retreated 2 points to 591 as of 7:00 am Pacific…

6. Pascal Biosciences (PAS, TSX-V) has come to life this morning, announcing that it has started human trials as it ramps up the testing of cannabinoids for its immune stimulatory program in cancer…furthermore, the company has filed an international patent application to protect this work for future therapeutic indications…since discovering cannabinoids that can stimulate the immune system, Pascal has extensively studied many different cannabinoids in a variety of immune stimulatory assays…more than 375 cannabinoids from numerous sources have been examined, including natural cannabinoids from Cannabis (known as phytocannabinoids), synthetic cannabinoids prepared by chemists, and endocannabinoids naturally found in the human body…specific natural cannabinoids have been identified that have potent activity in immune assays and also have a good safety profile…“Our laboratory experiments have been very encouraging and suggest a potential to enhance the activity of cancer drugs,” stated Dr. Patrick Gary, CEO of Pascal…“Human subject testing of cannabinoids has already been initiated.  We plan to test both healthy volunteers and patients with cancer.  Our first volunteer and our first patient with cancer have been treated to examine safety and pharmacology.  We will extend these studies during the coming year with a potent cannabinoid for determination of its immune stimulatory activity.  We will be testing cancer patients undergoing treatment with checkpoint inhibitors.  We believe this work will be of great interest to patients, oncologists, and companies focused on cannabinoid therapeutics”…PAS is up 6 cents at 31 cents through the first 30 minutes of trading…the chart has taken on a bullish tone with the 50-day SMA starting to reverse to the upside…

7.  This is Trudeau’s way of ending the black market in pot?…Quebec’s cannabis agency says it generated about $40 million in sales in its first 3 months of operation, but supply shortages are forcing the public retailer to reduce its expansion plans…the province expects to have 40 points of sale by March, 2020, 20% less than the 50 outlined in the original expansion plan…retail store shelves became empty soon after recreational cannabis was legalized on October 17, a situation observed across the country…the subsidiary of the Societe des alcools du Quebec cut back its hours of operation so that its 12 stores were open just 4 days a week…Jean-Francois Bergeron, President of the Societe quebecoise du cannabis, says it put the network’s expansion a bit on ice, which explains the network size being reduced to 40 stores…he also said more time is needed to adapt to the recommendations of the provincial government, including a prohibition on stores openings near community colleges and universities…while supply shortages continue, Bergeron said there should be an improvement by late spring when new volumes become available…

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