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Gold has traded between $1,230 and $1,249 so far today…as of 6:45 am Pacific, the yellow metal is down $1 an ounce at $1,240…Silver is up 2 cents at $19.98…Copper, at a 6-week high, is flat at $3.31…Crude Oil is relatively unchanged at $97.52 while the U.S. Dollar Index is up slightly at 80.16…

Investors are dumping Gold-backed exchange-traded products at the fastest pace since the securities were created a decade ago, mirroring the steepest price drop in 32 years…holdings in the 14 biggest ETPs have plunged 31% to 1,813.7 metric tons since the start of January, the first annual decrease since the funds started trading in 2003, according to data compiled by Bloomberg…the removals erased $69.5 billion in the value of the assets as prices fell by the most since 1981…ETP investments reached a record $148 billion last year, helping sustain the bull market that drove a more than sixfold increase in prices since 2001 by offering a way to own bullion without needing to store it…a further 300+ tons will be withdrawn next year, according to the median of 11 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg…it’s important to keep in mind, though, that China has effectively absorbed all of this year’s ETP selling…

Reuters reported this morning that India plans on keeping a tight leash on Gold imports despite a recent improvement in its trade deficit and lobbying by a bullion industry struggling with high premiums and a supply crunch…the government is worried that the country’s trade gap could worsen again and the already battered currency could weaken further if the Federal Reserve looks start tapering in the near future…wind of political change are blowing in India, however, and this could prove helpful to Gold in 2014…

The Fed and Taper Talk

The Fed’s two-day policy meeting begins today amid increasing speculation among many investors that the Fed is now more inclined to start scaling back its bond buying program given the budget deal in Washington and a labor market that continues to heal…Wall Street has indeed tightened its view of Fed policy in the months ahead and is now looking on average for the taper, or reduction in Fed stimulus to the economy, to come in February, according to the CNBC Fed survey for December…the expectation for February is two months earlier than the average in the CNBC survey in October, but most of the 42 respondents are actually more hawkish…a full 55% see the Fed tapering its bond purchases in January or December…that was the forecast of only 16% of respondents in October…

Today’s Markets

Asian stocks were mixed overnight…China’s Shanghai Composite fell 10 points to close at 2151, while Japan’s Nikkei jumped 126 points or nearly 1% to finish at 15279…

European stocks are modestly lower in late trading overseas despite some stellar data out of Germany…the closely-watched German ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment showed an uptick to 62.0 for December – its highest level since April 2006 and way above estimates of 55.0…

The Dow is flat after the first 15 minutes of trading this morning…the TSX is down 3 points while the Venture is also off 3 points at 888…the Venture has fallen on 8 consecutive Mondays, but with tax-loss season now virtually out of the way expect this market to strengthen as the week progresses…

Brigus Gold (BRD, TSX) Update

Brigus Gold (BRD, TSX) jumped 33% yesterday, closing at 84 cents on total volume of nearly 30 million shares, after Primero Mining Corp. (PM, TSX) launched an all-share, friendly $220 million bid for Brigus in which BRD shareholders will receive 0.175 of a Primero share for each Brigus share held, plus 0.1 shares in a newly incorporated company…this kind of activity is yet another example of the bargains that exist in this beaten-down sector…

CRB Index Updated Chart

A couple of key takeaways from this long-term CRB Index chart…first, have a look at the Slow Stochastics indicator…it’s in a bullish low position, similar to where it was when the CRB fell to important lows in 1999, 2001, 2009 and 2012…history tells us that a turnaround is imminent, and a rising CRB Index typically equates to a rising Venture Exchange…in early 2011, when everyone was bullish on the junior resource sector and buying everything in sight, the CRB SS indicator was flashing a warning sign as it was at an all-time high…right now it’s below 20 for just the fourth time in the last dozen years…RSI(14) is also bouncing up from support…

Barisan Gold Corp. (BG, TSX-V) Updated Chart

Barisan Gold (BG, TSX-V) has been very volatile since announcing an impressive drill hole result from its Upper Tengkereng prospect in Indonesia November 5…904 metres grading 0.41 g.t Au and 0.25% Cu, including 262 metres of 0.81 g/t Au and 0.49% Cu, deserves some serious attention – even if it’s in Indonesia…drilling continues as the company attempts to intersect the potassic core where even higher grades could exist…more results are expected early in the New Year, so speculation will keep this play active…strong technical support exists in the low 20′s…this one is not for the timid or the faint of heart, but certainly has the potential to produce some stellar returns if additional results are even better…as always, perform your own due diligence…the pullback from the recent high of 44.5 cents should be viewed in the context of a normal, healthy correction in the early stages of speculation…

Below is an updated 2+ year weekly chart from John…the technically overbought conditions that emerged in November, after the spectacular rise from under 10 cents, have gradually been unwinding – a positive development…very strong Fib. support exists between 15 and 21 cents, the “sweet spot” for accumulation as John pointed out earlier (as always, keep in mind that the Fib. targets aren’t price targets, just theoretical levels based on Fib. and technical analysis)…BG is off half a penny at 22 cents as of 6:45 am Pacific…

True Gold Mining (TGM, TSX-V) Update

True Gold Mining (TGM, TSX-V) has released encouraging results this morning from an independent feasibility study of its Burkina Faso Gold Project in West Africa, an area that has seen some interesting recent merger and acquisition activity…the study supports a technically simple open-pit heap leach project that offers low capital and operating costs, rapid payback (43.1% IRR) and strong financial performance at $1,250 Gold…

“The Karma Project stands out in the world of heap-leach Gold development projects,” explained Dwayne Melrose, TGM’s President and CEO…“With strong Gold grades, excellent infrastructure, low power and water requirements, strong recoveries from simple metallurgy and soft, free digging material, our operating and capital requirements are modest and our margins are high.  In addition, by design, the Karma Project has been engineered to provide flexibility to scale up and take advantage of the potential to deliver additional ounces as demonstrated by our exploration team’s efforts this year. The building blocks for a growth oriented gold producer are in place today, with a proven management team to lead us forward.”

The feasibility study supports a heap leach mine scenario from currently defined open-pit deposits containing 949,000 ounces of probable mineral reserves…the proposed Karma Project implementation schedule is over a period of 18 months with pre-stripping beginning 12 months prior to the first Gold pour, which is anticipated at the end of 2015…the project requires initial capital of $131.5 million (including onsite working capital and contingency) to support the construction of a mine and associated facilities…the mine would produce an average of 97,000 ounces of Gold per year over 8.5 years, with direct cash operating costs of approximately $591 per ounce…

Below is a 2.5-year weekly TGM chart…key resistance is 40 cents, and TGM is attempting to push through that today…as of 6:45 am Pacific, TGM is up 1.5 cents at 40 cents…

Wanted Technologies Corp. (WAN, TSX-V)

Many technology plays have been red-hot, and Wanted Technologies (WAN, TSX-V) is no exception as you can see from this 2.5-year weekly chart…WAN broke above a Fib. level yesterday and at some point seems destined for a vertical move but exact timing is uncertain as some consolidation may need to occur first…Wanted is headquartered in Quebec City with subsidiary offices in New York…it provides real-time business intelligence for the talent marketplace…it’s also the exclusive data provider for the Conference Board’s Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series™, the monthly economic indicator of hiring demand in the United States…only 24 million shares outstanding, and the company is making money…the market is developing an appetite for this stock and a strong year-end/Q1 move is certainly possible…as always, perform your own due diligence…WAN is up 6 cents at $1.38 through the first 15 minutes of trading…

Note: John and Jon both hold share positions in BG.