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Gold has traded between $1,304 and $1,316 so far today…as of 8:40 am Pacific, bullion is up $2 an ounce at $1,311…Gold was off slightly during the overnight hours but got a lift on weaker-than-expected U.S. retail sales for July…Silver is off 13 cents at $19.79…Copper has retreated 4 pennies to $3.13, a 7-week low…Crude Oil is down 48 cents at $96.88…the Energy Information Administration said U.S. crude stockpiles surged by 1.4 million barrels in the latest week, at a time when Crude Oil production had averaged an estimated 8.5 million barrels per day in July, the highest level since April 1987…the U.S. Dollar Index is up one-tenth of a point at 81.62…

Given the crisis in Ukraine and deteriorating ties with the West, Russia has been aggressively accumulating Gold reserves…the IMF, in its recently released International Financial Statistics report, showed that the Russian central bank hiked its Gold holdings by 16.8 tonnes to 1,094.8 tonnes in June…between Q1 2009 to Q1 2014, Russia’s Gold reserves almost doubled, while India’s central bank increased its reserves 56% to 557 tonnes… China’s central bank, on the other hand, increased its Gold reserves 75% to 1,054 tonnes when it last stated official reserves in 2009, data showed…it is widely believed that China has accumulated larger – possibly much larger – reserves since…

Today’s Equity Markets

Asia

China’s Shanghai Composite gained a point overnight to close at 2223…in Japan, the Nikkei rebounded from earlier losses to chalk up gains for a third consecutive session, overlooking weak data that showed the economy contracting sharply in the April-June period…Japan shrank an annualized 6.8% in the second quarter, compared with a Reuters forecast for a 7.1% contraction, as a nationwide consumption tax that took effect in April caused household spending to tumble…many economists are sticking with the view that the fall would be temporary…consumption in May and June rose compared to a dismal April…

Europe

European markets were up modestly today, thanks to some upbeat corporate earnings reports…EU industrial production fell 0.3% in June versus May and was unchanged year-on-year…a monthly rise of 0.3% was expected…the EU’s second-quarter GDP estimate is due for release tomorrow and is expected to show a paltry growth rate of 0.1%…

North America

The Dow is up 99 points as of 8:40 am Pacific…U.S. retail sales were unexpectedly flat in July, pointing to some loss of momentum in the economy early in the third quarter…the Commerce Department reported today that retail sales, which had increased 0.2% in June, were held back by a second straight month of declines in receipts at auto dealers, as well as weak sales of furniture and electronics and appliances…July’s reading was the weakest since January…economists polled by Reuters had forecast retail sales, which account for a third of consumer spending, increasing 0.2% last month…

The TSX is up 7 points as of 8:40 am Pacific…Stats Canada surprised the markets yesterday by disclosing that it had made an error in last week’s key jobs report which showed a loss of 59,700 full-time jobs in July, and a gain of 60,000 part-time positions (well short of forecasts for net job gains of about 20,000)…the agency didn’t specify the mistake, saying instead that they would issue a new report this Friday…

The Venture is off a point at 998 as of 8:40 am Pacific…the Index has been trading in a very narrow range this month between its 100 and 200-day SMA’s…in a situation such as this, the rising longer-term SMA is the best clue that the Index is going to break higher…in this case, the 200-day is also accompanied by strong Fib. and exceptional overall chart support…

Graphene 3D Lab Inc. (GGG, TSX-V) has been a stellar performer since its debut Monday following an RTO…GGG is up again this morning, climbing as high as $1.20, after opening Monday at 40 cents…

Canadian Dollar Update

Like Gold, the Canadian dollar enjoyed a strong June before retreating last month when it successfully tested support at 91 cents…it’s now showing signs of perking up again, as shown in John’s 2.5-year weekly chart, which may mean another challenge of strong resistance at 94 cents…it’s too early to tell, but it’s possible an important bottom may have formed in the loonie at 88 cents in mid-March…

Canamex Resources Corp. (CSQ, TSX-V) Update

The market gave Canamex Resources (CSQ, TSX-V) a boost yesterday following an early session trading halt and mid-day news that RC hole B-1436 intersected 9.1 m grading 11.9 g/t Au (0.347 oz/ton Au) at the bottom of the hole from 228.6 to 237.7 m at the company’s Bruner Project in Nevada…the hole was drilled at the open northern extension of the Penelas East zone, and bottomed at 237.7 m in 25.9 g/t Au (0.755 oz/ton Au) material from 236.2 to 237.7 m…this suggests the potential presence of a new, deeper Gold-bearing breccia body…the high-grade zone intersected in hole B-1436 remains open to the west and north…B-1437 was drilled about 50 m to the north of B-1436 with assay results pending from that hole and others in the immediate vicinity…

Technically, what John sees with CSQ is the start of “Wave 5” in a 5-Wave Motive Phase…CSQ has overcome Fib. resistance at 19 cents, so speculation at the very least has good potential to take this higher over the near-term…

Gold Mountain Mining Corp. (GUM, TSX-V) Update

Gold Mountain Mining Corp. (GUM, TSX-V) is certainly worthy of our readers’ due diligence, and it’s also on the radar screen of Frank Holmes after his recent visit to the company’s 100%-owned Elk Gold Property near Merritt…

What’s interesting at the moment is that the company has resumed an open-pit bulk sample test…more than 3,000 tonnes of mineralized material have already been mined, as reported by GUM July 24, and the average grade of the mined material so far is approximately 19.1 g/t Au, representing 1,840 ounces of Gold with an attributed gross value of approximately $2.4-million (U.S.) at $1,300 per ounce…the average Gold grade for the bulk sample material immediately adjacent to the exploration drill holes exceeded the average Gold grade for the 13 drill holes by 4.28 times…

The company stated that the higher Gold grades in the mined bulk sample are believed to be due to the significant amount of pyritic gouge material recovered in many areas of the bulk sample pit that may have been lost during diamond drilling…pyritic gouge material can be washed away with drilling mud, and the Gold associated with the pyrite lost in the core sampling process…this hypothesis will be further tested with continued mining, additional sampling and testing of the mineralized bulk sample material…

Gold Mountain acquired a 100% interest in the 16,700 hectare Elk Project from Almaden Minerals (AMM, TSX) three years ago…at the time, a NI-43-101 Technical Report prepared by SRK Consulting gave a resource calculation of 563,000 ounces in the measured, indicated and inferred categories (200,000 tonnes measured at 8.77 g/t Au; 2,000,000 tonnes indicated at 3.82 g/t Au; 1,150,000 tonnes inferred at 7.13 g/t Au) using a 0.5 g/t and 5.0 g/t Au cut-off for in pit and below pit resources, respectively…exploration drilling by GUM since then has added strike length and depth to the known zones, and new Gold-bearing veins have also been discovered…

Below is an updated 2-year weekly GUM chart…this is quite encouraging and volume could pick up significantly on a potential breakout above resistance at 21 cents…after declining throughout 2012 and 2013, the 200-day moving average (SMA) flattened out at the beginning of this year and has finally reversed to the upside…chart support at 18 cents…

Blackbird Energy Inc. (BBI, TSX-V) Update

Blackbird Energy (BBI, TSX-V) continues to look very promising from a technical standpoint, especially with the formation of a bullish “W” in the RSI(14)…BBI has found strong support at its rising 100-day moving average since early this year with that SMA now at 22 cents (coincides with Fib. support) as you can see in this weekly chart going back to the summer of 2012…BBI has a balanced and growing asset base with producing oil and gas production and exploration and development projects in Saskatchewan and Alberta…as always, perform your own due diligence…

BBI is off half a penny at 25.5 cents as of 8:30 am Pacific…

Note:  Jon holds a share position in GUM.