Gold has slipped below $1,250 and will may test a support band between $1,220 and $1,240, though oversold conditions are certainly apparent…as of 8:20 am Pacific, bullion is down $10 an ounce at $1,246…Silver is off 25 cents at $18.80…Copper is flat at $3.16…Crude Oil is 79 cents lower at $102.78 while the U.S. Dollar Index has retreated more than one-tenth of a point to 80.34…
Bullion is set for more than a 3% monthly drop with Ukraine-Russia tensions easing somewhat and more money pouring into global equities…Russia has pulled back most of its troops from the border with Ukraine, according to a U.S. defense official, as government forces continued a campaign to wipe out separatist rebels in the former Soviet Republic’s east…
Gold premiums in India almost halved this week on hopes the new government would ease restrictions on imports of the precious metal, while demand in the rest of Asia failed to pick up despite a drop in prices…Indian premiums fell to $30-$40 an ounce over the global benchmark, from $80-$90 last week, dealers told Reuters…
Check out the article by Mineweb’s Lawrence Williams this morning (“China and India Consuming More Gold Than The World Mines”) at www.mineweb.com…here’s the first portion of that story…“In opening last week’s precious metals forum in London, Bloomberg Industries Global Head of Metals and Mining, Ken Hoffman, kicked off with some of the latest stats which showed that China and India between them are consuming more Gold than the world is actually mining. The Bloomberg figures suggested that China was consuming Gold at a rate of 5.15 million ounces a month and India – even at a reduced rate through import restrictions – 2.85 million ounces a month, making a total of 8 million ounces a month. And these figures may even understate the case given the Bloomberg figures for China are based on Gold imports through Hong Kong and China’s own production, whereas Gold is also imported through other points of entry. Meanwhile Bloomberg calculates global new mined Gold output at some 7.44 million ounces a month making for a deficit of 0.56 million ounces a month.”
Copper Supplies Tightening
Copper is headed for a second straight monthly advance, amid indications that supply of the metal is constrained…stockpiles of Copper tracked by the London Metal Exchange plunged the most since 2005 in May, and the monthly drop was the 11th in a row, data from the bourse showed today…Copper for immediate delivery traded this week at the highest premium since May 2012 to the LME’s three-month contract…climbing prices for earlier deliveries usually indicate limited supplies…inventories of Copper tracked by leading exchanges slid 45% this year to the lowest since 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg…
Today’s Equity Markets
Asia
China’s Shanghai Composite fell 1 point overnight to close the month at 2039…China’s official PMI for May is due on Sunday…the figure is forecast to edge up to 50.6, according to economists polled by Reuters, which would be above April’s 50.4 reading…meanwhile, Japan’s Nikkei snapped a six-day winning streak but still ended the week 1.2% higher and posted its first monthly gain in five months…
Europe
European markets were mixed today to finish the month…on the data front, April retail sales in Germany grew at their fastest pace since July 2012 on a year-on-year basis…
North America
The Dow is down 22 points as of 8:20 am Pacific…
The S&P 500 hit another all-time high yesterday as investors shrugged off a weak GDP reading…revised GDP for the first quarter contracted by 1%, marking its worst performance in three years…
U.S. consumer spending fell for the first time in a year in April, but there are signs inflation is stirring, with an inflation gauge rising at its quickest pace since November 2012…the Commerce Department said this morning that consumer spending slipped 0.1% after rising by a revised 1% in March, which was the largest gain since August 2009…meanwhile, prices ticked up from a month earlier…the price index for personal consumption expenditures, which is the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, rose a seasonally adjusted 0.2% from March, and rose 0.2% excluding the volatile categories of food and energy…the price index was up 1.6% in April from a year earlier, and rose 1.4% excluding food and energy…that is up from March, when prices rose 1.1% from a year earlier, but inflation still remains well below the Fed’s 2% target – if you believe these inflation numbers…
Updated Dow Chart
A few concerns about the Dow, technically: New highs are occurring while buy pressure and long-term volume are declining as shown in this 2.5-year weekly chart…RSI(14), meanwhile, has been trending lower…that’s typically not the recipe for a sustained advance…in other words, a correction could be near at hand…corrections during this 2.5-year period, however, have been quite muted…the ADX indicator does show a weak bullish overall trend , and of course the moving averages are in bullish alignment…
The TSX is off 38 points as of 8:20 am Pacific while the Venture, which has held up well this week in the face of weakness in Gold, is down 4 points at 978…
Magor Corp. (MCC, TSX-V) Update
As a follow-up to our piece yesterday, more positive news out of Magor Corp. (MCC, TSX-V) this morning…from Texas to Dubai, this company’s technology is certainly gaining traction…in partnership with Cumulus Solutions Inc., Magor has won the opportunity to deploy its cloud-based Aerus service delivery platform (SDP) for a range of video and collaboration services throughout the State of Texas’s agencies, universities, counties, public school districts and other state funded entities…Cumulus and Magor bid on a competitive request for proposal that the Department of Information Resources (DIR) issued to supply transformational, cloud-based video and collaboration technology to the State of Texas…Cumulus was awarded a contract through DIR for video, voice, Web conferencing, webcasting and video room installation services…
“Aerus provides a scalable, cloud-based visual collaboration platform that offers a rich mix of services that will enable the broad group of organizations throughout the state of Texas to transform the way they interact with video and collaborate,” said Mike Pascoe, President & CEO of Magor. “Together with Cumulus, we look forward to delivering innovative, visual collaboration services across the state of Texas.”
MCC is up 4 pennies at 30 cents as of 8:20 am Pacific…
Alix Resources Corp. (AIX, TSX-V) Cuts Major Deal With Kalt Industries Ltd.
Alix Resources (AIX, TSX-V) has redrawn the map of the Sheslay district this morning, striking a deal with privately-held Kalt Industries Ltd. whereby AIX has acquired all of Kalt’s claims (235 sq. km) to add to its existing 90 sq. km package that includes North Cap East, North Cap West, Hackett North and Sheslay South Fork…this is more than just a property deal with Kalt, however, as well-respected entrepreneur Ryan Kalt has joined the Alix Advisory Board and is also investing directly into the company…the Sheslay district WILL heat up in a major way in the coming weeks as exploration and drilling ramp up, and AIX has strategically positioned itself to take full advantage of the geological and market opportunities…AIX is up a penny at 4 cents in early trading…
Updated TSX Chart
A 2.5-year weekly chart for the TSX shows a market very strongly supported by a rising 50-day moving average (SMA) and trading within an upsloping channel since last summer…the RSI(14) condition looks healthier than the Dow’s, but momentum is currently declining (it could reverse of course)…the TSX could fall a few hundred points to chart support and still remain within its upsloping channel…
North American Nickel Inc. (NAN, TSX-V) Update
We’ve been bullish with regard to North American Nickel (NAN, TSX-V) for quite some time as the fundamentals and technicals are nicely aligned…NAN has also beefed up its cash reserves with the company announcing two days ago that it has completed a $9.4 million non-brokered financing…we expect an exciting summer for NAN as it carries out aggressive drilling at its highly prospective Maniitsoq Project (Ni-Cu-Co-PGE) in southwest Greenland…
Technically, NAN has staged a confirmed breakout above 38 cents and the next major resistance is a band between 47.5 cents and 51 cents as you can see in this 2.5-year weekly chart…there has been a strong increase in buy pressure, replacing the sell pressure dominant since late 2012…NAN is off half a penny at 41 cents as of 8:20 am Pacific…
Blackbird Energy Inc. (BBI, TSX-V) Chart Update
After climbing as high as 31 cents in mid-May, Blackbird Energy (BBI, TSX-V) has backed off very close to its rising 50-day SMA (18 cents) where there should be very strong support as it also falls within the Fib. 38.2% and 50% retracement levels…below is a detailed 6-month daily chart from John…BBI is down half a penny at 21 cents as of 8:20 am Pacific…
Note: John and Jon both hold share positions in AIX while John holds a share position in MCC.
”We’re expecting an explosive summer in the Sheslay district with the strong
potential for new discoveries by our team and our neighbors”
I was reviewing the news, alot of inside that they are very confident in what they are doing!
So next news news should be grab numbers and drill target?
Comment by Martin — May 30, 2014 @ 8:11 am
Great deal for AIX. I haven’t spoken to Farshad, but I am thinking that they could be drilling as early as next week, seeing that the equipment is still on site. GLTA.
Comment by Johnny — May 30, 2014 @ 8:36 am
John and Jon, can you please tell us what your plans are for covering the Sheslay Valley in the coming weeks. I seem to remember that you have an interview with Farshad that you were intending to share with us.
Do you have any information or thoughts as to when the players concerned will be releasing results in the next couple of months. Thanks for the great coverage you have given us so far on this exciting area.
Comment by Tom — May 30, 2014 @ 9:07 am
Volume steadily increasing in PGX!
Comment by Martin — May 30, 2014 @ 9:26 am
Any idea why they have announced this deal on a friday, else than they don’t care!
Comment by Martin — May 30, 2014 @ 9:45 am
Martin, keep in mind there is a Resource Show in Vancouver Sunday-Monday. Perhaps that’s why.
Comment by Jon - BMR — May 30, 2014 @ 10:05 am
Jon,
Re: AIX, this is huge news IMO, not much reaction to the share price or volume though, I wonder if Kalt approached Aix or if AIX approached Kalt, with AIX already having the North Cap East and North Cap West, wonder if Kalt wanted that ground and lost out to Aix? So much going on, if GGI hits when they start drilling this is really going to be fun to watch, hopefully my brokerage account will be fun to watch too. Lol
Comment by Greg — May 30, 2014 @ 12:00 pm
Hi Tom, we’ve got plenty of things in the works with regard to our Sheslay Valley coverage including another area visit of course. And we still have a lot of material that we have amassed over the last number of weeks that we’re sorting through and organizing, including interviews with Farshad and Regoci. There is a lot of research involved in all of this as well, so please keep that in mind – we’re careful and thorough with whatever we post. Our take on the situation is that we expect Prosper to hit on these first step-outs from the Star which is going to be the next “game-changer” in the district. And shortly, they’ll have a second drill on the property at Pyrrhotite Creek – 4.5 km SW of the Star – which has all the earmarks of a major new discovery by itself (another “game-changer”) that the market has no clue about at the moment. Garibaldi is preparing to fire its guns all over the Grizzly, at the same time that it’s hitting high-grade at Rodadero in Mexico, while Doubleview will imminently be drilling more holes in the immediate vicinity of HAT-12 into (they hope) the heart of the Red Stock. As I’ve stated before, it would be a big mistake to underestimate Farshad. There is also of course plenty of activity with AIX and ABR, and an important discovery at the Hackett would not surprise me in the least. So what’s looming is huge – at the moment, yes, a bit of a lull in advance of the next set of results from the area which will rekindle the fires, but that’s when it’s time to be accumulating. Many reasons for encouragement.
Comment by Jon - BMR — May 30, 2014 @ 12:47 pm