Gold has traded between $1,664 – just below its 200-day moving average (SMA) – and $1,684 so far today…as of 7:10 am Pacific, the yellow metal is down $14 an ounce at $1,671…Silver, which hit a 5-week high yesterday, has backed off 43 cents to $31.80…Copper is down a penny to $3.65…Crude Oil is up 91 cents at $96.14 while the U.S. Dollar Index is flat at 79.96…
Today’s Markets
Asian markets were mixed overnight…China’s Shanghai Composite closed 18 points lower at 2303 despite manufacturing that confirmed a recovery in the world’s second largest economy was on track…the HSBC flash Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to 51.9 in January, the highest since January, 2011, and above the 50-point level that shows accelerating growth in the sector from the previous month…European shares ended mixed today, bouncing off their lows after a business survey showed the euro zone economy took a step closer to recovery this month as the rate of decline in the bloc’s private sector eased more than expected…Markit’s Flash Composite euro zone PMI, which surveys around 5,000 firms and is seen as a good growth indicator, jumped to 48.2 from December’s 47.2, beating expectations for a rise to 47.5…despite disappointing results from Apple and weakness in its stock this morning, North American markets are higher with the S&P rising above 1500 for the first time since December, 2007…the Dow, meanwhile, is up 81 points at 13861…the TSX has climbed 48 points while the Venture continues to fight the 1240 level…the CDNX is off 5 points at 1237…
U.S. Jobless Claims Fall To Lowest Level In Five Years
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell to its lowest since the early days of the 2007-09 recession, a hopeful sign for the sluggish labor market…initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 330,000, the lowest level since January, 2008, the Labor Department reported this morning…claims have now fallen for two straight weeks, suggesting that if employers are concerned tax hikes enacted this year will affect consumer demand, this is not leading to more layoffs…analysts polled by Reuters had expected claims to rise to 355,000 last week…
Dow Chart
RSI(2) is one indicator flashing a warning sign that the Dow is short-term overbought and needs to take a breather…the Dow has risen 10% since mid-November and is now at its highest level since late 2007…however, with RSI(2) at an extreme level as shown in John’s 9-month chart below, a near-term minor pullback is increasingly likely…
Soltoro Ltd. (SOL, TSX-V)
Silver bulls may wish to take a look at Soltoro Ltd. (SOL, TSX-V) which is building on a significant compliant resource at its El Rayo Silver Property in Mexico…recent interesting developments include a 350-metre hole (RAY12-152) that extended mineralization 70 metres down-dip from the nearest hole with a substantial increase in Silver grades thanks to the discovery of Silver-rich massive sulphides near the end of the hole below the Las Bolas deposit…the hole returned 91.3 metres grading 129 g/t AgEq…three additional drill holes are being completed to the north, south and below RAY12-152 to further test the scope of the sulphide mineralization at depth and along strike…below is a 2.5-year weekly chart from John that shows SOL is close to a potential breakout – keep an eye on that 60-cent resistance level…as of 7:10 am Pacific, SOL is off 2 pennies at 58 cents…
Huldra Silver (HDA, TSX-V) Chart Update
Huldra Silver (HDA, TSX-V), one of our favorites, has been struggling lately with the stock down for 8 consecutive sessions during which it has fallen from a high of $1.36 to yesterday’s closing price of $1.09…Huldra continues to work toward bringing its Treasure Mountain deposit near Hope, B.C., into full commerical production as reported by the company January 8…HDA expects to be running at the 200-tonne-per-day capacity in the near future after additional mill modifications are completed…below is an updated chart from John, showing very strong support just above $1.00…we view the current weakness as an opportunity given the chart support and progress on the ground in terms of an expected significant ramp-up in production at Treasure Mountain…HDA fell as low as 99 cents during the first 15 minutes of trading this morning but has since recovered to $1.03, down 6 cents from yesterday but today could mark an important bottom…
Note: John, Jon and Terry do not hold share positions in SOL. Jon holds a share position in HDA.
Do we need to loan terry some money. Doesn’t seem like he owns anything
Comment by OldMan — January 24, 2013 @ 7:30 am
I don’t think we’re going to see a breakout in the Venture especially since the Dow and SP500 are coming into overbought territory which means they are going to drop along with all the other indexs.
Time to go back into hibernation for a while. Perhaps Q3-Q4 will be the Venture’s turning point. I just don’t see any catalysts on the horizon which warrant “risk on” investing in the Venture at the moment.
Comment by Andrew M — January 24, 2013 @ 8:38 am
Jon, I am hoping as much as every other RBW investor, that results will be good at Nevada, and they very well may be. But, it is taking quite longer than anticipated to release results………..and usually not a good sign, unless something is delaying them. Your thoughts?
Comment by Dan — January 24, 2013 @ 10:57 am
Anyone else planning on visiting RBW at the PDAC Core Shack on March 3, 4 in Toronto?
Comment by Mike C — January 24, 2013 @ 12:29 pm
Anyone else planning on visiting RBW at the PDAC Core Shack on March 4/5 in Toronto? Heath, John, Jon?
Comment by Mike C — January 24, 2013 @ 12:32 pm
Metals stuck in range…how do you spell b o r i n g!!!
Comment by Hugh — January 24, 2013 @ 2:32 pm
They have more data from Jewel Ridge to go through than most people I think realize, not just 6 RC holes but sampling over a wide area as they reported earlier, plus of course new information they may have discovered related to historical data. So I suspect it’s a case of putting the big picture together which can be time consuming. I’m personally very confident about Jewel Ridge, given what’s known historically and the descriptions from the drilling that were provided.
Comment by Jon - BMR — January 24, 2013 @ 2:57 pm
What’s going to keep RBW from doing at Jewel Ridge like GBB has done at Gernada with their low grade deposit…drill, find, dilute with no appreciation in the stock price?
Comment by Rick — January 24, 2013 @ 3:45 pm
@jon. Bla bla bla. They could bring results out now. That’s what it’s all about. Results results results!!!! All this hits rival data has nothing what so ever to do with what the assays show on holes RBw drilled do they????
Comment by Heath — January 24, 2013 @ 4:57 pm
That comes down to management, Rick. GBB’s mistakes were not raising a big pile of money when they had the opportunity, at much higher prices, problems on the ground in terms of how the exploration was carried out, and then getting into a series of dilutive flow-through financings at lower and lower prices. The combination of those 3 factors will hurt any company’s stock price. So it’s often how you manage the asset, not just the asset itself. Some companies of course have done extremely well with low grade deposits, and they can be very profitable. One advantage RBW obviously has is location – costs are low and they’re in one of the best jurisdictions in the world. They also have a huge amount of historical data to work with which will save a lot of money in terms of exploration costs (flow through money of course can’t be used for Nevada which is good). They also have high grade opportunities in the Kootenays to complement the Nevada play, so there’s a nice balance for investors and more than one path for share price appreciation. I’m not trying to compare RBW with GBB because they are 2 totally different situations, only to answer your question, and I still very much like the potential of the Granada Property.
Comment by Jon - BMR — January 24, 2013 @ 5:35 pm
Hey John… CAN…. good move on declining volume.. a divergence yes???? what would be the interpretation of this…. no sellers???? or peeps selling into strength?? thx mate
Comment by Jeremy — January 25, 2013 @ 6:40 am