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Gold dipped as low as $1,360 overnight but got a strong boost once a weaker than expected U.S. August non-farm payroll number (169,000 vs. an estimate of 180,000) was released at 5:30 am Pacific…as of 7:00 am Pacific, the yellow metal is up $18 an ounce at $1,386…the top of Gold’s previous resistance band ($1,350) has provided strong support…a couple of consecutive closes above $1,400 is what the bulls really need to start charging again…Silver continues to find support at $23, which it touched overnight, and it’s currently up 67 cents at $23.88…Copper has climbed 3 pennies to $3.25…Crude Oil is $1.24 a barrel higher at $109.59 as it edges closer again to $110 resistance, while the U.S. Dollar Index has fallen half a point to 82.13 on the weak jobs data…the greenback hit multi-week highs yesterday vs. both the yen and the euro…

Gold got hit hard yesterday for the 2nd day in a row, thanks to stronger than expected U.S. economic data (a survey from the Institute for Supply Management showed services industries in August posted their fastest growth since December 2005) and the growing belief that an attack on Syria for its use of chemical weapons against its own citizens may not occur…President Obama is so far losing the battle for votes in the U.S. Congress (could pass the Senate but the House is a major problem at the moment, according to numbers tabulated by The Hill) to authorize a strike against Syria…a “no” vote would be a major blow to his Presidency (no President has ever lost a Congressional vote for authorization of a military strike) and may actually make the world an even more dangerous place…Obama backed himself into a corner with his previous rhetoric on Syria that included talk of “red lines” that cannot be crossed, and he’ll end up appearing very weak if those words aren’t backed up with action…enemies of the West, including Iran, will be emboldened…Obama would have been wiser to use Teddy Roosevelt’s approach to foreign policy – speak softly and carry a big stick…when it comes to the troubled Middle East, not to mention the U.S. economy, one of Obama’s smartest moves would be to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline and focus on making America energy secure (with imports only from Canada and Mexico) by the end of his Presidency…on that issue, unfortunately, he’s also struggling as radical environmentalists have his ear…

The strike by some South African Gold miners appears to have ended after just 3 days of industrial action in pursuit of  higher wages, a union and major Gold producer both said today, according to a Reuters report…the National Union of Mineworkers launched the strike Tuesday night over wages…a day later, 2 junior producers signed agreements for lower than expected wage hikes, bolstering confidence the strike could soon be over…

Chinese Yuan Makes Top 10 Currency List

The Chinese yuan has rocketed into the top 10 of most frequently traded currencies for the 1st time, according to the Bank for International Settlements in its triennial survey of turnover in foreign exchange…in a rapidly growing global currency business, which the BIS said now generates $5.3 trillion a day in flows, up from $4 trillion in 2010, the yuan climbed to 9th place (Canada is 7th) from 17th 3 years ago…offshore trading in the currency drove this expansion, the BIS said in its report of the survey, which was carried out in April…the Mexican peso also regained a top-10 place, in 8th, for the 1st time since 1998, demonstrating the breadth of the rise in emerging market currencies…the Russian ruble, Turkish lira, South African rand and Brazilian real all also accounted for a bigger slice of global flows, albeit on a smaller scale…

Today’s Markets

The Dow is down 94 points through the first 30 minutes of trading…U.S. job growth was less than expected in August as the economy added 169,000 positions, raising new questions over whether the Federal Reserve will begin a pullback later this month on its historically easy monetary policy…the Bureau of Labor Statistics also said the unemployment rate dropped to 7.3%, due primarily to fewer Americans in the labor force (the labor force participation rate has slumped to 63.2%, a 35-year low)…of the more notable numbers from the BLS, previous months of solid job creation were revised substantially lower…

The TSX is off just 15 points at 12831 while the Venture is up 2 points to 950…

Asian markets were mostly higher overnight, though Japan bucked the trend as the Nikkei slipped 204 points or 1.45%…China’s Shanghai Composite surged to an 11-week high, gaining 18 points to finish at 2140 (its highest close since June 19)…

TSX Updated Chart

The TSX is at a critical point and the odds appear to favor an important breakout…a strong resistance band exists between 12800 and 12900…buy pressure is increasing, and RSI(14) at 61% shows increasing up momentum on John’s 6-month daily chart…

Venture-Gold Comparative Chart

It’s not often you see Gold drop by about $20 an ounce for 2 straight days while the Venture actually moves up a little…that’s what occurred Wednesday and Thursday, however, and what that demonstrates is impressive resilience on the part of the Venture and its current underlying technical strength…to us it also demonstrates strength in Gold…for the past 2 months, the Venture has remained within an uptrend channel as shown in John’s chart below…RSI(14), currently far from overbought at 60% on this 4-month daily chart, continues its gradual move higher as well…the Index is on track to test resistance at 970, and a confirmed breakout above that resistance would usher in a wave of fresh buying interest…

NexGen Energy Ltd. (NXE, TSX-V)

As regular readers know, we’re extremely bullish on the Patterson Lake South uranium discovery and some of the plays that are surrounding it…Fission Uranium (FCU, TSX-V), of course, is now taking over 50% JV partner Alpha Minerals (AMW, TSX-V) in an all-stock transaction valued at just under $200 million which makes perfect sense as the combined entity will be more appealing to a potential major…

A situation to also watch closely over the coming weeks is NexGen Energy (NXE, TSX-V) which is currently carrying out a 2-drill, 3,000-metre program on its Rock 1 Project immediately adjacent to and on trend NE from Fission’s high-grade discovery…the drill program is testing priority areas at shallow depth defined by overlapping geochemical anomalies, testing the northeast extension of the Patterson Lake South trend…the mineralized conductor corridor is interpreted to extend onto the southwestern zone of Rook 1…NexGen is well-funded, thanks in part to a recently oversubscribed private placement at 35 cents that raised $5 million…

NXE was as low as 22.5 cents in July before surging to 60 cents last month…it has been in a healthy consolidation over the last few weeks and closed yesterday at 49 cents, just above its rising 20-day moving average (SMA) which has been providing strong support…below is a weekly chart from John…there is Fib. resistance at 56 cents – after that, the next Fib. level is 77 cents…as of 7:00 am Pacific, NXE is up a penny at 50 cents…as always, perform your own due diligence…

Azincourt Uranium Inc. (AAZ, TSX-V) Chart Update

Azincourt Uranium (AAZ, TSX-V) recently attempted a breakout through the mid-30’s but got pushed back…however, the chart continues to look very promising and so do the fundamentals…AAZ has an option to earn a 50% interest in Fission’s Patterson Lake North Project…a VTEM max airborne geophysical survey, the initial component of planned exploration work this summer, was recently completed…drill targets are being prioritized for a 2014 winter program…

Aldrin Resource Corp. (ALN, TSX-V) Chart Update

Aldrin Resource (ALN, TSX-V) has been another favorite of ours in the Athabasca basin, and has almost doubled in price since we first brought it to our readers’ attention a few months ago…ALN started a field exploration program last month at its Triple M Property approximately 10 km southwest and on trend with the PLS discovery, in preparation for a winter drill program…next major technical resistance is at 18 cents, while strong support exists at previous resistance of 12 cents – half a penny below the rising 50-day SMA…