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Gold continues to be under pressure today following the release of yesterday’s FMOC minutes that revealed some surprising dissension within the Federal Reserve as to how long QE3 should continue…as of 7:50 am Pacific, Gold is recovering but is still down $18 an ounce to $1,646 after slipping to $1,625 overnight – a 4.5 month low…traders likely have over-reacted to the Fed minutes, which has occurred in the past…technically, Gold has plenty of support around current levels and this morning’s employment report from the Labor Department shows the U.S. economy still has a long way to go before unemployment can fall to the Fed’s target level of 6.5%…doves including Chairman Ben Bernanke also still remain in the driver’s seat of Fed policy….the ever-expanding Fed balance sheet ($85 billion per month currently after December’s fresh stimulus) is of concern to some Fed members, though, and so it should be…they worry that, among other things, the Fed’s large and growing balance sheet could make it hard to tighten credit down the road if inflation heats up…what the the Fed does appear to be signaling to the market is that extraordinarily accommodative monetary policy is not something that will last forever…weaning the economy off the stimulus drip feed will likely be a very gradual process, however, that may not rock the markets too much…there are also many factors driving Gold and they are not likely to disappear anytime soon…

Silver nearly touched $29 an ounce overnight, its lowest level since August, but has since rebounded to $29.80, a 30-cent loss for the day…Copper is off a penny at $3.65…Crude Oil is 36 cents lower at $92.63 while the U.S. Dollar Index is essentially unchanged at 80.62…

Overall Venture Exchange volume remains light given that many traders/investors are still on holidays…we continue to be on an abbreviated postings schedule until Monday, January 7, when activity should begin to pick up…

U.S. Adds 155,000 Jobs In December

The Labor Department reported this morning that the U.S. economy added 155,000 positions last month as the jobless rate held at 7.8% (November’s jobless rate was revised slightly upward)…that number was pretty much in line with expectations and was very close to the average monthly job creation figure for 2012 of 153,000…it will take a considerable stretch of 200,000+ new jobs each month to bring the unemployment rate down significantly from current levels…that’s why the Fed is not likely to take its foot off the monetary easing peddle anytime soon…

Volatility Index- Interesting Chart

From time to time it’s interesting to take a look at the Volatility Index which recently spiked over media-inspired fears regarding the “fiscal cliff”…you’ll notice that near the end of last month, the VIX climbed all the way up to its declining 200-week moving average (SMA) around 23 where it met stiff resistance (it also met resistance at this SMA in the May-June period)…it has fallen dramatically this week…it’s good for stocks when the VIX is below 25…

Today’s Markets

Markets in Japan and China were higher overnight as they each played catch-up on their first trading day of the year…Japan’s Nikkei share average rose to a 22-month high (10,688) as a deal in Washington to avert the so-called “fiscal cliff” buoyed investor risk appetite and a weaker yen lifted exporters like Toyota Motor…China’s Shanghai Composite gained another 8 points to 2277…European shares were generally flat today while North American markets are up slightly…as of 7:50 am Pacific, the Dow is 3 points lower at 13388 while the Venture Exchange is down 4 points at 1222…

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

In December, we wrote about how an improving economic situation in China would be helpful to commodities in general including the graphite and iron ore sectors…some of those stocks began to move last month including Cap-Ex Ventures (CEV, TSX-V) which has risen more than 50% off its December and 52-week low of 20 cents…CEV closed at 32.5 cents yesterday and is up another 3.5 pennies as of 7:50 am Pacific to 36 cents, albeit on low volume…below is an updated 6-month daily chart from John…CEV has formed a very distinctive cup-with-handle pattern…RSI(14) is now relatively high at 72% (entering today), so CEV may need to take a breather soon to digest its recent gains and after reaching the mid-30’s rather quickly as John projected…any near-term pullback could be a good entry point for those who may have missed out on this one a few weeks ago in the low-to-mid-20’s…as always, perform your own due diligence…

TrueClaim Exploration (TRM, TSX-V) Update

There has been some interesting trading activity in Trueclaim Exploration (TRM, TSX-V) since the end of October when the stock crashed to 2 cents on record volume…the stock has rebounded sharply since then, and yesterday the company announced that Byron Coulthard, with an extensive background in mining and finance, has assumed the position of President and Chief Executive Officer with Brian Larsen added to the board of directors…the company intends to move forward aggressively with its Black Diamond Silver-Gold-Copper Property in Arizona and its Scadding Gold Property in Ontario, though we wouldn’t be surprised if they come up with something new to add to the mix…below is a 2.5-year weekly TRM chart from John showing short-term resistance at 8-9 cents…overall, though, this chart looks impressive and suggests that Trueclaim could make some noise in 2013 with new blood at the helm…

Note: John, Jon and Terry do not hold positions in TRM.