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There is relative calm in Cyprus today, as banks have re-opened with tight capital controls after being closed for nearly two weeks, so equity markets are breathing a sign of relief on this final trading day of the quarter while Gold struggles to stay above the $1,600 level…as of 7:25 am Pacific, bullion is down $7 an ounce at $1,598…Silver is off 12 cents at $28.57…Copper has fallen a penny to $3.44…Crude Oil is up 11 cents at $96.68 while the U.S. Dollar Index has retreated nearly one-third of a point to82.93…

Gold, down just over 4% this quarter, is set to post its first back-to-back three-month losses since 2001…holding in ETP’s contracted 6.9% this quarter…the Gold price would have declined more in this first quarter if it weren’t for strong physical buying out of Asia, in particular China…the fact China continues to accumulate aggressively on weakness below $1,600 has to be considered long-term bullish…

This is a shortened version of BMR Morning Market Musings due to the upcoming Easter long weekend…we wish each of our readers a wonderful Easter…our Week In Review And A Look Ahead will be posted Saturday, while Morning Market Musings resumes Monday…

Today’s Equity Markets

Asian markets were weaker overnight with the Japan’s Nikkei average falling 1.3% to close at 12336…for the quarter, however, the Nikkei gained an astonishing 19%…China’s Shanghai Composite was hit hard overnight, losing nearly 3% to finish at 2236 (down 1.3% for the quarter)..the country’s banking regular unveiled new controls on wealth management products in order to reduce risk…European shares are up modestly in late trading overseas…in North America, meanwhile, the S&P 500 has a good chance to finally post a new all-time closing high today (the record closing high from October, 2007, is 1565.12 while the all-time intra-day high is 1576.09)…as of 7:25 am Pacific, the S&P is up 1.64 points at 1564.49…the Dow, on track for an 11% gain this quarter – the best first quarter in 15 years – is up another 32 points at 14558…the TSX is off 41 points through the first 55 minutes of trading while the Venture is relatively flat at 1097…

U.S. Economy Expanded at 0.4% In Q4

Stronger business spending boosted still-slow growth in the U.S. in the final months of 2012, suggesting that companies are looking to expand despite uncertainty in Washington…the nation’s gross domestic product, a measure of all goods and services produced in the economy, advanced at a 0.4% annual rate between October and December, the Commerce Department reported this morning…economists were expecting an increase of 0.5%…the reading was the third for the fourth quarter of 2012 and was revised upward from last month’s reading of 0.1% growth…the initial report said GDP contracted slightly…last quarter’s GDP gain is the second-weakest reading since the current recovery began in the last half of 2009…the economy has now grown for 14 consecutive quarters…for all of last year, GDP advanced 2.2%…there are signs the economy has strengthened in 2013, with the housing market showing further improvements and the nation’s unemployment rate dropping…

Meanwhile, the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, but probably not enough to suggest the labor market recovery was taking a step back…initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 16,000 to a seasonally adjusted 357,000, the Labor Department said this morning…still, they remained in the middle of their range for this year…

Canadian Economy Grows At 0.2% In January

Statistics Canada reported this morning that the Canadian economy expanded by 0.2% in January, driven by manufacturing and reversing the contraction of 0.2% in December…yesterday, economists at Bank of Nova Scotia projected economic growth in Canada of just 1.6% this year, but 2.4% in 2014…they also forecast that the jobless rate won’t dip below 7% until next year…Scotiabank’s deputy chief economist, Aron Gampel, cited challenges in Canada related to housing and oil…

TSX Composite Index Chart Update

After a strong December and January, TSX momentum has been waning and a key support level to watch is 12600…below is a 2.5-year weekly chart from John…the likelihood of at least a modest pullback in the early part of Q2, which could open up some very attractive buying opportunities, has increased…the overall long-term trend, however, remains bullish and includes a rising 300-day moving average (SMA) around 12200…

Ainsworth Lumber Co. (ANS, TSX) Updated Chart

Red-hot forestry stocks are beginning to cool off, as predicted, and better entry points are possible during the second quarter based on seasonal fluctuations and as current overbought technical conditions unwind a little more…investors at the moment are quick to pounce on any dips as evidenced by the action in Ainsworth Lumber (ANS, TSX) yesterday…it fell as low as $3.72 intra-day, hitting John’s first Fibonacci level, and then rebounded to finish the day up 12 cents at $3.99…we’ll look at some more lumber stocks next week and levels that would look attractive on a sector correction…

Skyharbour Resources Ltd. (SYH, TSX-V) Chart

One of the companies trying to take advantage of the Patterson Lake South uranium play is Skyharbour Resources (SYH, TSX-V) which has enough cash in the bank at the moment (approximately $900,000) and seven early-stage properties totaling 400,000 acres to get the ball rolling as 2013 progresses…from a purely technical perspective, there is an opportunity here for speculative investors with the share price trading at 6.5 cents…note the 2-year downsloping flag on John’s 2.5-year weekly chart…a test of that resistance appears likely at some point over the next few months, and a breakout above it would of course be very bullish…as always, perform your own due diligence…

Note: John, Jon and Terry do not hold share positions in ANS or SYH.