BullMarketRun.com

Gold appears to have enough technical momentum to push through near-term resistance at $1,700 this week…as of 5:40 am Pacific, the yellow metal is up $5 an ounce at $1,690…last week, Gold was able to overcome a down trendline in place since late November on the 6-month daily chart, and its EMA-20 has also reversed to the upside…other technical indicators are also looking positive, suggesting bullion could be ready to test its 200-day moving average (SMA) at $1,720…Silver is up 13 cents at $32.02…Copper is off a penny at $3.63…Crude Oil is down 37 cents at $95.19 while the U.S. Dollar Index is down slightly at 80.00…

The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) bought 650,000 ounces of Gold in December, its largest monthly purchase since September, 2010…the CBR’s policy is generally to maintain a Gold-to-FX reserve ratio of around 10% and as of year-end 2012, that ratio stood at 9.5%…meanwhile, a report by the Official Monetary and Financial Institution Forum (OMFIF) suggests that demand for Gold will increase as central banks of emerging economies become increasingly interested in bullion in the gradual transition out of a single global reserve currency system…

Silver reached a 1-month high last week Silver reached a one-month high as the U.S. Mint sold out of 2013 American Eagle Silver coins…the Silver coin sale will resume on or about the week of January 28,  once inventory is replenished…below are John’s updated Monday morning Silver charts…you can see on the short-term chart that Silver’s gain of $1.45 an ounce last week allowed it to break above a resistance band, which is now new support, and the EMA-20 which is now rising at $31.13…the next resistance level is $32.50…

Short-Term Silver Chart

Long-Term Silver Chart

What’s always interesting about John’s long-term Silver Chart is the position of the RSI(2) which has recently moved from just below 30 to 52%, reflecting Silver’s current momentum…this indicator is generally very reliable regarding the short-term direction of the market…it appears the RSI(2) is about to push higher…from a long-term perspective, “Wave 5” continues to develop with a Fibonacci target (no timeline) of $78 an ounce…

Today’s Markets

It’s Martin Luther King Day in the United States, along with the presidential inauguration, so U.S. markets are closed today which will impact trading activity on the TSX and the Venture…Asian markets were mixed overnight…in Japan, the Nikkei average lost ground on profit taking, with forecasts for aggressive easing this week by the BOJ already mostly priced into the market…the Nikkei closed down 1.5% to 10,748, moving further away from a 32-month high of 10,952 hit last Tuesday…China’s Shanghai Composite fell 11 points to 2328…European shares are mildly positive today…

U.S. Debt Ceiling Discussions

House Republicans this week will take up a bill to raise the U.S. debt ceiling for three months in an attempt to push the deadline to mid-April and force the Senate to pass a budget, Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Friday…the U.S. is on track to run out of borrowing ability by mid-February or March, according to the Treasury Department, and a three-month bill if passed in the House and Senate would “kick the can” a little further down the road, something politicians on both sides of the aisle in Washington are exceptionally good at…

Vancouver Resource Show

The Cambridge Resource Show at the Vancouver Convention Centre started yesterday and wraps up today…we’re checking things out and we’ll be posting material from the show as the week continues…Yukon Dan, as he’s called, is drawing plenty of attention with his Gold panning display and his passion for the industry – the first time he’s been at the Vancouver Show in several years…what particularly impresses us is his work in the classrooms of British Columbia and elsewhere, teaching students about not just Gold panning but the importance of mining in general…this is critical education students need, especially given the negative influences from the environmental lobby and many in the media…Dan’s efforts are sponsored in part by AME B.C. (Association for Mineral Exploration), New Gold Inc. and Teck Resources…

"Yukon Dan" is drawing plenty of attention with his Gold panning display at the Vancouver Resource Show.

Gran Colombia Gold (GCM, TSX)

The highly respected Frank Holmes gave a thumbs-up to Gran Colombia Gold Corp. (GCM, TSX) yesterday in an upbeat presentation on the markets…below is a 1-year weekly GCM chart from John…the stock has been under accumulation since last summer while trading in a horizontal channel…as always, perform your own due diligence…

Trueclaim Exploration (TRM, TSX-V) Chart Update

Trueclaim Exploration (TRM, TSX-V) continues to perform well, gaining a penny-and-a-half last week on strong volume to close Friday at 10 cents…there’s room for TRM to move higher over the short-term as shown in John’s 2.5-year weekly chart below…

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