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Gold has traded between $1,214 and $1,223 so far today…as of 9:15 am Pacific, bullion is down $3 an ounce at $1,219…Silver has edged 4 cents lower to $15.01…Copper is off 2 pennies at $2.18…Crude Oil is down 21 cents at $36.58 while the U.S. Dollar Index is off slightly at 94.56…

Hedge funds and money managers boosted their bullish bet in Gold in the week to March 29 to the highest since the end of 2012, according to U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released Friday…this occurred as the world’s largest Gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Shares, experienced its first net weekly outflow this year…the fund’s Gold holdings fell by 5.6 tonnes on a net basis to 818.1 tonnes last week, cutting its inflow for the year to 175.7 tonnes – still a highly elevated level…its last net weekly outflow was in the week to December 31…the decline followed a slide in Gold prices to their lowest in more than a month as uncertainty over the timing of U.S. interest rate increases prompted some buyers to take profits after Gold’s biggest quarterly price increase in more than 25 years…

No surprise – India’s Gold imports in February fell 34% compared with the same period last year, according to an Indian news agency today, as high prices and hopes for a cut in import taxes kept buyers away…for Q1, India’s Gold demand is expected to be down by about two-thirds from a year ago to its lowest in 7 years as sales were also curbed by a jewelers’ strike last month…Q2 should see a rebound…

U.S. interest rate futures suggested by traders are now betting that the Fed will next raise rates as soon as November, versus December ahead of the report…Wall Street’s top banks held firm to their expectation for a rate hike in June, according to a Reuters’ survey conducted Friday…

Oil Update

The global head of commodities strategy at RBC Capital Markets, Helima Croft, predicted in an interview on CNBC over the weekend that Oil will rebound following a scheduled meeting between OPEC and non-OPEC members on April 17th in the Qatari capital.  “As we look towards the April 17 meeting, I don’t think Saudi Arabia would even show up in Doha if there wasn’t going to be an agreement.  If Saudi Arabia freezes at their January levels, and that holds through the summer, that’s an effective cut of several hundred thousands of barrels a day,” noted Croft. 

“We still expect a recovery to $50“ by the 4th quarter, Croft added.  “One thing we are watching is mounting supply disruptions coming out of places like Nigeria and Northern Iraq. If those continue to mount, that could bring the re-balance into Q3. So we are watching those supply outages. If that eats into our overhang, we may get a recovery in Q3 to the 50’s as opposed to Q4.”

In today’s Morning Musings…

1.  How negative real interest rates are supporting Gold…

2.  NexGen Energy (NXE, TSX-V) pushes above $2 in its 8th straight winning session (updated chart)…

3.  Nemaska Lithium (NMX, TSX-V) jumps on release of an updated Feasibility Study with robust numbers for its Whabouchi Project in Quebec…

Plus more… to view the rest of today’s Morning Musings, login with your username and password, or click here to register and gain full access to this and other exclusive BMR content and features…