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Gold is surging higher today, thanks to weakness in the greenback and short-covering…as of 7:30 am Pacific, bullion is up $26 an ounce at $1,263…Silver has added 48 cents to $20.28…Copper is flat at $3.33…Crude Oil has gained 48 cents to $97.21 while the U.S. Dollar Index has slid two-thirds of a point to 80.58…Platinum has climbed to its highest level in more than two months ahead of a planned strike in South Africa that may interrupt production in the top producer of the precious metal…

Two significant Russian Gold miners – Petropavlovsk and Nord Gold – plan to cut production in 2014 as they focus on cost reduction after a slump in the Gold price…two other Russian Gold producers are also unlikely to support the country’s production growth: its largest Gold miner, Polyus Gold, has recently delayed the start of its key project by a year until summer 2015, while its rival Polymetal plans to keep 2014 production flat…more moves like these are expected by other Gold producers around the globe which should have a price-supporting effect…

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX, NYSE) CEO Richard Adkerson told analysts in a conference call yesterday that he continues to be very optimistic about Copper demand in China despite a slowdown in the economy.  “The size of the economy is growing to the extent that the somewhat lower percentages still translate into very substantial amounts of Copper demand. We are also realistic to know that there could be changes depending on how they manage the [Copper] inventories, how these financing transactions work and just how their whole activities go, but we are optimistic about it.  I think in general that the market is much more optimistic about it than they were a year ago.”

Growth in Copper mine supply over the next three years has been revised lower by 18% (1.1Mt) by the International Copper Study Group (ICSG)…this is equivalent to a year’s production at Escondida, the world’s largest Copper mine…the revision is because “significant delays are expected in many projects,” according to the ICSG, which is symptomatic of an industry under pressure to streamline spending…

CRB Index Updated Chart

The CRB Index continues to show technical strength in the early part of the year…the Index is moving higher after forming a strong base and climbing above a downtrend channel in place for about four months as you can see in this 1-year weekly chart from John…

Canadian Dollar Chart Update

The weakness in the Canadian dollar appears to be a deliberate strategy to overcome deflationary pressures and spur job growth, so expect additional weakness in the currency…the technicals support that view…RSI(14) on this 5-year weekly chart may challenge support around 30%…previous strong support at 94 cents is now resistance…

Today’s Markets

Asia

China’s Shanghai Composite slipped 10 points overnight to close at 2042…the HSBC/Markit manufacturing PMI unexpectedly fell to a six-month low of 49.6, indicating that the sector is contracting… in Japan, investors Investors shrugged off a Reuters poll that indicated business sentiment was set to improve for a third consecutive month in January…the Nikkei fell 125 points to close at 15696…

Europe

European markets are down moderately in late trading overseas, despite factory data for the euro zone that showed the manufacturing sector was stronger than expected in January…the manufacturing PMI for the currency union rose to a 32-month high in January, beating analysts’ expectations and providing further evidence the region is recovering…on a country-specific level, Germany’s manufacturing PMI rose to a 32-month high of 56.3, beating analysts’ expectations…

North America

The Dow is down 153 points through the first hour of trading…U.S. manufacturing growth slowed in January, according to data released by Markit…the TSX, aided by strength in commodities, has lost only 30 points, while the Venture is up 5 points at 985…

Venture Updated 3-Year Weekly Chart

It appears the Venture is gearing up for a “confirmed” breakout above resistance in the 970’s, thanks to renewed strength in Gold – we’ll see how the Venture finishes the week…below is John’s updated 3-year weekly chart..there is strong momentum in this Index as demonstrated by the RSI(14) which has broken out above all resistance encountered since the bear market began in early 2011…

Garibaldi Resources Corp. (GGI, TSX-V) Update

Garibaldi Resources Corp. (GGI, TSX-V) is showing signs of breaking out of a “flag formation” (as John’s charts indicated it likely would) and this has significant implications from a technical standpoint…keep in mind, not only is GGI the largest landholder among juniors in the Sheslay Valley area, but the company is also currently very active in Mexico with drilling continuing at its La Patilla Gold Property where each of the holes drilled to date, according to last week’s news, have cut “significant intervals of quartz veining similar to that which yielded” high-grade Gold values from channel sampling…both factors are playing into GGI’s strength at the moment…following Doubleview Capital Corp.’s (DBV, TSX-V) drilling discovery announced Monday at its Hat Property contiguous to the Grizzly, we have been conducting even more research into the Sheslay Valley district and we look forward to providing our readers in the coming days with fresh insight and a “Big Picture” view of what might be at stake here…as we’ve stated since last summer, the Sheslay area has the potential to rapidly develop into a world class Cu-Au porphyry camp with multiple deposits like “pearls on a string”, and the evidence for that continues to grow…

Below is an updated 3.5-year weekly GGI chart from John…quite simply, this is a very bullish technical picture with RSI(14) also breaking above a trendline at 62% and pointing higher…as we’ve stated repeatedly, Garibaldi has a big advantage over most of its peers when it comes to share structure – most companies have had to do cheap financings over the past couple of years just to stay alive – GGI hasn’t carried out a significant financing in five years, which also means there’s no warrant “overhang” with this stock…GGI is up half a a penny at 15.5 cents through the first hour of trading…

Gold Standard Ventures (GSV, TSX-V) Update

More positive drill results yesterday out of Gold Standard Ventures‘ (GSV, TSX-V) North Bullion Project in Nevada…the Gold deposit continues to expand laterally, and metallurgical results also show that the mineralization appears to be conducive to roaster processing…a maiden resource estimate is expected later this year…GSV is up 4 cents at 89 cents as of 7:30 am Pacific…

Adventure Gold Inc. (AGE, TSX-V) Updated Chart

An impressive move in recent days by Adventure Gold Inc. (AGE, TSX-V) – one of our long-time favorites with some excellent projects in Quebec, a strong management and geological team, and a healthy working capital position…it’s interesting to note in this 2.5-year weekly chart that AGE has broken above a downtrend line in place since late 2012…AGE is off 2 pennies at 18 cents as of 7:30 am Pacific…

Big North Graphite Corp. (NRT, TSX-V) Updated Chart

Big North Graphite (NRT, TSX-V) found technical support as expected recently between 6 and 7 cents, and showed renewed strength yesterday on total volume (all exchanges) of more than 2 million shares…below is an updated 2.5-year weekly chart from John…NRT is up half a penny at 8 cents through the first hour of trading…

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