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Gold has traded in a range between $1,654 and $1,664 so far today…as of 8:05 am Pacific, the yellow metal is down $7 an ounce at $1,656…Silver is off 12 cents at $30.02…Copper is flat at $3.58…Crude Oil has gained 37 cents to $91.24 while the U.S. Dollar Index is up slightly at 79.67…

Today’s Markets

Japan’s Nikkei average climbed to a 21-month high overnight as the yen weakened further on rising expectations of aggressive monetary stimulus under new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe…the Nikkei climbed nearly 72 points to close at 10395…it’s now up 23% this year, its best yearly gain since 2005…China’s Shanghai Composite is gaining traction after breaking out above a down trendline that was in place for more than a year-and-a-half…the Shanghai gained 27 more points overnight to finish the week at 2233…

North American markets are under some mild pressure due to the uncertainty surrounding the “fiscal cliff” negotiations…a summit has been scheduled at the White House this afternoon between President Obama and top Congressional leaders, the first such gathering since mid-November…what seems most likely, however, is some sort of a deal in the first few weeks of January (the new Congress reconvenes January 3) when there’s a greater sense of urgency among lawmakers…the “fiscal cliff” is really no more than a “fiscal slope”, so the world is certainly not going to come an end January 1 if Congress and the White House can’t cut a deal by then…

The Dow is down 58 points as of 8:05 am Pacific…the TSX has lost 47 points while the Venture Exchange is down a point at 1196…

The Venture’s big accomplishment this month has been avoiding a new 52-week low despite tax-loss selling, weakness in Gold and the “fiscal cliff” hysteria stirred up by the mainstream media…the last 7 months or so should be viewed in the context of a healthy bottoming process with the market successfully re-testing its June low (1154) and showing tremendous support in the 1150 to 1200 range…below is a 7-month daily chart update from John…

Cap-Ex Ventures (CEV, TSX-V) Chart Update

Cap-Ex Ventures (CEV, TSX-V) has made impressive progress this year in drilling its Block 103 iron ore property near Schefferville, Quebec, but its share price has suffered in part due to a sharp drop in iron ore prices earlier this year (they are now rebounding)…an initial resource estimate from CEV is expected in the first quarter of next year with a preliminary economic assessment expected shortly thereafter…technically, there are signs that 2013 will be better than 2012 for CEV…at the moment the stock is forming a cup-with-handle pattern with strong support in the low 20’s…as of 8:05 am Pacific, CEV is up a penny-and-a-half at 27 cents…

Iron ore prices have risen 60% in four months, prompting one of the world’s biggest miners of the commodity to resume the multi-billion-dollar expansion it put on hold in September when prices crashed…the announcement by Fortescue Metals Group, the Australian miner, marks a dramatic U-turn from the pessimism of only four months ago, when its capital expenditure cutback was seen as a strong signal that the commodities super-cycle led by the industrialization and urbanization of China was all but over…the company announced yesterday that it would resume work in January to triple its production in a A$9bn expansion plan…iron ore, the main commodity used in steelmaking, is seen as a proxy for industrial activity and construction in China, which imports more than half of the world’s seaborne trade…the commodity is critical for the profitability of large mining groups and the world’s top steelmakers…the Financial Times reported yesterday that Colin Fenton, head of commodities research at JP Morgan in New York, warned in a note that it had “become fashionable” to predict the end of the commodities super-cycle because of the capex deferrals that followed the collapse in iron ore prices…he said that those calling the end of the super-cycle were confusing a temporary consumption slump linked to the shorter business cycle with the “conclusion of a multi-decade investment boom” in the natural resources industry…Fortescue, the world’s fourth largest iron ore miner, behind Vale of Brazil, and Anglo-Australian groups Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, is emblematic of the commodities super-cycle…the company was only founded nine years ago, but has become a top mining group as China’s demand for steel lifted the cost of iron ore from $14 a tonne in 2002 to more than $140 a tonne now…iron ore prices fell in September to a three-year low of $88 a tonne as the Chinese economy slowed, prompting steelmakers to run down their stocks rather than purchasing more raw materials…the price drop, from a record high of $200 a tonne in early 2011, was seen by many as a sign that the commodities super-cycle that propelled economic growth in Australia and other resource-rich countries, was over…since then, prices have rallied to hit an eight-month high of $140.75 a tonne yesterday…

Comstock Metals (CSL, TSX-V) Chart Update

A bottom-fishing opportunity for readers to consider at the moment is Comstock Metals (CSL, TSX-V) which has excellent support at 15 cents…it’s unchanged in early trading today at 18 cents…below is a 6-month daily chart from John…

Note: John, Jon and Terry do not hold positions in CEV or CSL.