BullMarketRun.com

Gold is being pushed lower this morning after failing to gain any momentum after recently moving above the $1,600 level…as of 7:15 am Pacific, bullion has retreated $16 an ounce to $1,583 and could certainly re-test the $1,550 area as we suggested over the weekend…Silver, which is at its cheapest compared to Gold since mid-August, is off 42 cents at $27.60…Copper continues to weaken, falling below the technically important $3.40 level and hitting a 7-month low…it’s currently down 4 pennies at $3.36…Crude Oil is down 65 cents at $96.42 while the U.S. Dollar Index is up nearly one-fifth of a point at 82.88…

TD Securities expects Gold to fare better than most other metals during this second quarter as U.S. economic data, it believes, will start falling short of expectations…the firm sees potential for a correction in U.S. equities with a “risk-off” mentality returning to the market…“This should continue to be a negative influence on base metals and the industrial precious metals, but Gold should benefit as it is considered a safe-haven asset,” TDS stated…“Also, a weaker recovery in the U.S. will focus attention back on a Fed that is happy to maintain its easing monetary policy regime and continue open-ended quantitative easing (QE) – another Gold positive”…

Updated Dow Chart

The fact the Dow is due for a correction is very evident in the 1.5-year weekly chart from John that shows an extended overbought RSI(14) condition…this can’t continue for much longer, though the Dow still has room to move a little higher with a Fibonacci analysis giving a “target” of just over 14700 – about 75 points higher than where the Dow is at this morning…very strong potential support exists at 14000…there’s still plenty of cash sitting on the sidelines, and the twin benefits of a recovery in the housing sector and an energy boom in the U.S. cannot be underestimated…in otherwords, any correction could be relatively short-lived unless something comes out of the blue from the euro zone, China or somewhere else…bulls do have history on their side…keep in mind that April has traditionally been the best month of the year for U.S. equities, which have posted an average monthly gain of 2.7% in the last 20 years…the Dow hasn’t logged a decline in April since 2005…

Earnings season begins shortly and this holds potential for tripping up the market on a short-term basis…according to a report in the Wall Street Journal this morning, 86 companies in the S&P 500 issued negative guidance as the first quarter drew to a close for what they expect to report in earnings for that period…just 24 issued positive guidance…at 3.58 negative updates for every positive one, that is by far the highest ratio since FactSet began tracking such data in 2006…according to Thomson Reuters, this is a ratio not seen since 2001…

Today’s Markets

The Dow has hit another all-time high in early trading today, thanks in part to a better-than-expected factory orders report…as of 7:15 am Pacific it’s up 75 points at 14652 while the S&P 500 is up 9 points at 1571, very close to its all-time intra-day high set October 11, 2007…Canadian markets continue to under-perform…the TSX is flat, due to lower commodity prices, while the Venture has slipped 7 points to 1083, a new 3.5-year low…Asian markets were mixed overnight with Japan’s Nikkei average, driven lower by a stronger yen, slipped another 131 points to close at 12003…the Bank of Japan begins a two-day policy review tomorrow with bold stimulative measures expected, but the Nikkei already factored a lot of that in with a 19% first quarter gain…China’s Shanghai Composite fell 6 points to 2228…European shares pushed higher today after slightly better-than-feared euro zone manufacturing data…Markit’s euro zone Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell in March to 46.8 from 47.9 in February, slightly better than a preliminary estimate of 46.6, with the Cyprus bailout crisis yet to take a toll on the region’s factory activity…unemployment data for the euro bloc was also released showing its highest rate since the union began in 1995 – 19.071 million people were out of work in February (12% of the workforce) in the 17 nations that use the single currency…the European Central Bank meets Thursday…

Lakeland Resources Inc. (LK, TSX-V)

Another early-stage uranium exploration play in the Athabasca basin to watch closely is Lakeland Resources Inc. (LK, TSX-V) which announced a month ago it’s in the process of negotiating a final agreement, expected to be concluded by April 30, for the purchase of eight properties that are considered by the company to be “significantly prospective and under-explored”…as part of the transaction, David Hodge will be appointed President and CEO of Lakeland which currently has approximately 22 million shares outstanding…the company says the deal for the uranium projects will involve about 7.5 million shares, some cash plus a royalty to the sellers…LK climbed to a 52-week high of 14 cents on the news March 1 before pulling back to test support near 7 cents…long-term moving averages are in bullish alignment…below is a 2.5-year weekly chart from John that gives us confidence that LK could be an out-performer this year…as always, perform your own due diligence…LK is up half a penny at 9 cents on light volume in early trading today…

Madalena Ventures Inc. (MVN, TSX-V) Chart Update

Madelana Ventures (MVN, TSX-V) is an interesting oil and gas play with steadily increasing cash flow that we first brought to our readers’ attention late last year after its acquisition of Online Energy Inc. which provided MVN with an entry into the domestic exploration and production space…it also gave MVN the opportunity to ramp production and cash flow while continuing to develop and grow its international assets and business plan…technically, the stock is looking healthy with the rising 100-day moving average, currently at 35 cents, providing support for the last several months…MVN closed yesterday at 36.5 cents…below is a 2.5-year weekly chart…

Note:  John, Jon and Terry do not hold share positions in LK or MVN.