Gold has traded between $1,227 and $1,269 so far today…as of 8:30 am, bullion is down $32 an ounce at $1,232 after a modestly better than expected U.S. jobs report this morning…Silver has retreated 64 cents at $16.58…Copper is down 4 cents at $2.56…Crude Oil has added $1.08 a barrel to $51.58 while the U.S. Dollar Index is up nearly a full point to 94.54…
Gold has been moving mostly in tandem with the greenback since November, though that trend is not evident today…it may reassert itself in the days ahead…after a very strong January, a retrace to the $1,240 area (the bottom end of a support band) is not surprising but it will be important for bullion to hold that level, otherwise a test of $1,200 support becomes increasingly likely…
China’s Gold output climbed 5.5% last year to nearly 452 tonnes, making the country the world’s biggest producer for the 8th straight year, the China Gold Association reported today…total consumption reached around 886 tonnes over the year, down 24.7% on a year earlier, the association said in a separate notice. “Although 2014 Gold consumption fell by a large margin, the (longer-term) trend of increasing demand has not changed,” the association noted, saying that last year’s fall came after a very rapid increase in Gold purchases in the second half of 2013 as a result of declining prices…
U.S. Jobs Report
U.S. employers hired steadily last month and workers’ wages picked up, suggesting the labor market is moving closer to full health more than 5 years after the recession…non-farm payrolls grew by a seasonally adjusted 257,000 jobs in January, the Labor Department reported this morning….and job creation was far stronger in prior months than previously estimated, with the government raising its estimates of new jobs in November and December by a combined 147,000…November’s reading of 423,000 jobs added marked the strongest month of private-sector hiring since 1997…strangely, it doesn’t feel like jobs growth and the economy are that robust…
The unemployment rate, calculated from a separate survey of households, climbed to 5.7% in January, up from December’s 5.6%…the rate rose because the labor force grew as more Americans searched for jobs, a positive sign…
Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser told CNBC this morning that he’d argue for raising interest rates sooner rather than later, especially after the release of this morning’s jobs report…the hawkish Plosser called the numbers “very good,” adding they’re another sign of a “fairly normal economy”…he said people need to stop thinking about the economy in “perpetual crisis”…perhaps the same applies for Canada…the Great White North added an impressive 35,400 jobs in January, far surpassing the slight gain that economists had been expecting…Stats Canada said this morning that most of the jobs were part time…but the strong figure was enough to tick the jobless rate down by one-tenth of a percentage point to 6.6%…
Household Debt Burden A Growing Problem In Canada
As Canada’s economy tries to find its footing after an unexpected slip, the country’s growing household debt burden is raising new concerns as it outpaces that of most developed countries…in fact, Canada had the second-biggest jump in household debt-to-income ratios of any country other than Greece between 2007 and the second quarter of 2014, according to a new study by the McKinsey Global Institute…
Canada and Australia along with a number of countries in northern Europe “now have larger household debt burdens than existed in the U.S. or the U.K. at the peak of the credit bubble,” according to the analysis…
The McKinsey Global Institute looked at 47 countries and identified seven with “potential vulnerabilities” in household debt that could lead to financial instability and a consumer spending slowdown: the Netherlands, South Korea, Sweden, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Canada…
Canadian Dollar Chart Update
Ultimately what will likely give the Canadian economy a boost, especially the manufacturing sector, is an even weaker loonie…and Canada is certainly not the only country in the world right now attempting to drive down its currency…
As you can see in this long-term monthly chart, RSI(14) recently hit its most oversold level in 20 years…back in 1998, when extreme RSI(14) conditions also materialized, the Dollar went into a recovery for 2 years before sliding again to a new low by late 2001/early 2002 (this, however, was not confirmed by the RSI(14), giving a classic buy signal on the new low)…
So we probably haven’t seen the low yet for the loonie in this cycle, though it’s possible the 78-80 cent support band may hold for now with the loonie then staging a rally (similar to the pattern in Oil)…
Today’s Equity Markets
Asia
China’s Shanghai Composite lost 2% overnight on worries over a raft of new IPO’s due next week…sentiment also fell after after state media firm Xinhua reported yesterday that the central bank’s recent RRR cut won’t mark the start of an aggressive easing stance, quoting a central bank official…
Europe
European markets were down slightly today after Greece’s talks with Germany over the future of its bailout program reportedly met with mixed success…
North America
The Dow is up 39 points as of 8:30 am Pacific…the TSX has added 23 points while the Venture has lost 2 points to 692…
TSX Chart Update
A “W” formation in the RSI(14) is typically a very accurate bullish signal, and that’s partly why we saw the distinct possibility of a breakout to higher levels in the Index this month…next measured Fib. resistance for the TSX is 15800, so a challenge of last year’s high appears to be in the works…
Cannabix Technologies Inc. (BLO, CSE, BLOZF, OTC) Update
What a steal this was late last year when the nervous nellies were foolishly dumping at a nickel…patience often does get rewarded in the market…
The uptrend in Cannabix Technologies (BLO, CSE), which took hold in November, started to accelerate last week after the company announced that its marijuana breathalyzer prototype is expected to be unveiled in the coming weeks…development has been proceeding as planned with the mechanical design, circuit board layouts, firmware and printed circuit board designs all nearing completion…
Cannabix is the front-runner in developing a much-needed marijuana breathalyzer for law enforcement and the workplace…
Technically, it appears a breakout will be confirmed today above resistance at 25 cents CDN (20 cents U.S.)…if that occurs, that level is expected to become strong new support on any potential pullback (BLO has advanced for 5 consecutive sessions entering today)…
BLO is up 3.5 cents at 28.5 cents on the CSE through the first 2 hours of trading today…below is an updated chart based on yesterday’s close on the OTC (U.S. dollars) as Stockcharts does not yet provide charts for CSE listings…
North Arrow Minerals (NAR, TSX-V) Update
Gold’s weakness today certainly demonstrates the importance of having a diversified portfolio of speculative opportunities, which is why we’re highlighting Cannabix and North Arrow Minerals (NAR, TSX-V) again this morning…on Monday, we’ll get back to Fairmont Resources (FMR, TSX-V) which is building an impressive aggregate business in Quebec…
With President and CEO Ken Armstrong, and Chairman Gren Thomas, among others, NAR features a highly respected management group and board responsible for the discovery of many kimberlites in Canada and Africa, including of course the Diavik mine in the Northwest Territories…
Significantly, North Arrow this month has broken above a downtrend line going back to last summer…in addition, the 50-day moving average (SMA) has now reversed to the upside, accumulation has replaced sell pressure as shown by the CMF, and RSI(14) is climbing an uptrend with plenty of room to still push higher at 63%…
On January 21, North Arrow reported that results from a 1,500-tonne bulk sample from its important Q1–4 kimberlite at the Qilalugaq Project in Nunavut are expected in April (the 12.5 hectare Q1–4 kimberlite is the largest diamondiferous kimberlite pipe in the eastern Canadian Arctic and 1 of 8 kimberlite pipes identified within the Qilalugaq Diamond Project…Q1–4 includes inferred resources as well as extremely rare yellow diamonds found in a sampling program)…
North Arrow is also gearing up for a drill program at its Pikoo Project in Saskatchewan which has delivered very promising early results…
NAR closed at 60 cents yesterday and it’s off 4 cents at 56 cents on light volume in early trading today…55 cents is new support as it was resistance (the top of a horizontal channel) from late October to late January…
Note: John and Jon both hold share positions in BLO. Jon also holds a share position in FMR.
BLO. Seems like we will challenge 0.32 (52 week high) soon.
Comment by Frank — February 6, 2015 @ 8:46 am
BLO: Wow!
Comment by Frank — February 6, 2015 @ 8:57 am
John – can this thing stay overbought technically since it is being driven by fundamentals??
TIA
Comment by Jeremy — February 6, 2015 @ 9:26 am
Hi Jeremy. This is Jon’s response to my question yesterday:….
Yes, great action in BLO…it’s not approaching overbought territory, it’s in OB territory if you look at the RSI(14) and RSI(2) on the daily, way up there…however, as we’ve seen in other stocks and markets, an overbought state can continue for a while…hoping we’ll see the prototype by the end. of Feb…exciting project…
Comment by Jon – BMR — February 5, 2015 @ 11:07 am
Comment by Frank — February 6, 2015 @ 9:41 am
Jeremy
Yes, for a time. You have to watch for reversal signs.
Comment by John BMR — February 6, 2015 @ 9:49 am
VGD.v mentioned here last weekend currently up 26% on the week, hopefully some we’re able to take advantage of the move in sp…cheers…z
Comment by zippy — February 6, 2015 @ 9:59 am
Thx Frank and John… John… what might be the telling reversal sign?? other than the prototype being unveiled and the sell on news thing..:)
thx mate…
Comment by Jeremy — February 6, 2015 @ 10:07 am
Jeremy, speculation is the name of the game now. Who knows how high it will go. If everything works out, we might get a run like taser did back in 2003-2004
Comment by chris — February 6, 2015 @ 10:43 am
Jeremy
Today we saw BLO move up to its previous high which is a Resis. level. I expect it to consolidate around here for a time to bring the O/B down. We saw it stall at 34c and vol. continued to increase but the SP did not. That is a good sign to watch for.
This stock is strong and I expect with the AGM, Gold property spinoff, patents pending and the launch of the prototype, and other news, we are going to see big moves again in the relatively near future.
Good luck
Comment by John BMR — February 6, 2015 @ 10:46 am
Regarding taser…taser opened at 0.31 on April 19 2003 and opened FEB. 17 2004 at 29.42. The only reason I lump taser together with blo is because both products already have (or will have in our case) a customer base- the police.
Comment by chris — February 6, 2015 @ 10:50 am
PAPER ALERT…after unloading again today, National Bank has almost run out of paper on GBB, according to our calculations. Similar situation to BLO when financing stock drove it down to a nickel in November. The best time to have accumulated BLO was when the paper was running out, and before it ran out. The paper is running out on GBB. If we’re right, and I believe we are, this should start gaining traction very soon. The volume is impressive.
Comment by Jon - BMR — February 6, 2015 @ 11:27 am
I was wondering about the same thing for GBB. Good to see big volume again today. Can’t wait for the last permit to show up in the mail box.
Comment by M. — February 6, 2015 @ 12:09 pm
It’s not just the permit. What I see coming together there is a significantly bigger resource, and perhaps rather quickly as keep in mind they announced they’re now incorporating over 400 historical ones into the existing data base. The LONG Bars Zone is about to get longer and better.
Comment by Jon - BMR — February 6, 2015 @ 12:13 pm
True but the permit is an important stepping stone before GBB can really move ahead with Granada.
Comment by M. — February 6, 2015 @ 12:25 pm
To move ahead in terms of production, yes – the CA is a must. A lot can happen also before then.
Comment by Jon - BMR — February 6, 2015 @ 12:30 pm
Hey all.. John – thank you… Chris.. we can only hope:) with only 32 mil Shares out, this thing could have some big legs..
Comment by Jeremy — February 6, 2015 @ 1:13 pm
How many weeks have it been Jon since that site visit? So long I forget. I can’t think of any other property other than Rodadero. Are you ever going to release information on the site visit?
Comment by Dan — February 6, 2015 @ 5:09 pm
if silence is golden we must have a gold mine.
Comment by kc — February 7, 2015 @ 4:00 am
When uncertainty surrounds us, maybe it would be proper to email
the BCSC showing our concern, that results expected for an extended
period of time, have not been delivered. I know with certainty that
results cannot be held, once released by the lab & i doubt, if the
lab can hold same at the request of a company, if so, let the BCSC
tell us..
Comment by bert — February 7, 2015 @ 7:46 am
Dan, Pull up a chair and watch it next week and then u will know.
Comment by Bob — February 7, 2015 @ 7:48 am
With the deal done with aem and probe shares, aem now has an extra 43 mil to spend, IMO aem and ggi are in talks regarding ggi’s Mexico holdings, Jon, your opinion on ymi, pls, it appears they are getting closer to warrent some attention, thanks.
Comment by Tombc — February 7, 2015 @ 7:58 am