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Gold weakened this morning after a moderately better than expected U.S. jobs report for February…bullion traded as high as $1,354 overnight (still stiff resistance around $1,350) but fell as low as $1,326 before stabilizing…as of 8:15 am Pacific, bullion is down $14 an ounce at $1,336…it still has a good chance of posting its fifth straight weekly gain as last Friday’s close was $1,329…Silver is 57 cents lower at $20.87…Copper is down sharply, with traders reacting to the first Chinese company default (Shanghai Chaori Solar Energy) and expressing skepticism about the country’s economic growth projections…Copper has slid 11 cents to $3.11, clearly an overreaction but that’s how markets behave sometimes…Crude Oil is $1.06 per barrel higher at $102.62 while the U.S. Dollar Index has reversed after dipping below 79.50…it’s now up slightly at 79.72…a test of critical support at 79 still appears to be in the works, however…

Physical demand for Gold does need to pick up in order for bullion to maintain its momentum…in China, premiums over spot prices were below $1 an ounce today, compared with over $20 an ounce earlier in the year…the recent drop in the value of the Chinese currency has also made Gold more expensive there…however, the yuan has rebounded sharply this week – its biggest weekly gain in over two years – after an unprecedented tumble since mid-February…this increased volatility in the yuan, and eventually less intervention, come as China’s central bank also pursues an ambitious plan to internationalize the currency and increase its use outside the world’s second-largest economy…the central bank has been aggressively accumulating Gold in recent years to back the yuan though China has not provided an update of its official reserves since 2009…

Technically speaking…Gold’s 10 and 20-day moving averages (SMA’s), at $1,336 and $1,316, respectively, have moved above the 200-day SMA at $1,305, a bullish sign…

Greenspan on Putin & Russia

Interesting comments from former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan on CNBC this morning…he said he’s pessimistic about the Ukraine crisis because it appears that Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to some extent to put the Soviet Union back together…

“Putin probably, almost certainly, thinks that one of the great disasters of the 20th century was the demise of the Soviet Union,” Greenspan stated in a “Squawk Box” interview.  “It’s very obvious that he’s trying to work its way back and maintain something similar to that sort of institution.”  He added, “I don’t see that we have the capability of preventing it – except, if we can affect their financial system significantly that it creates deterioration within Russia.”

An interesting fact – 10 of the world’s 100 richest people are from Russia, according to the latest Forbes Billionaires list…many of them are believed to have close ties to Putin, and they could be targeted by economic sanctions such as asset freezing if the Ukraine crisis deepens…

Today’s Markets

Asia

China’s Shanghai Composite fell 2 points overnight to finish the week at 2058…Japan’s Nikkei climbed 139 points or nearly 1% to close at 15274…

Europe

Major European markets were down significantly today, between 1% and 2%…

North America

The Dow is down 8 points as of 8:15 am Pacific…U.S. job creation ramped up somewhat in February, posting a better-than-expected gain of 175,000 despite expectations that weather would keep the count low…the unemployment rate edged higher to 6.7%…economists polled by Reuters expected the U.S. economy to have created 149,000 jobs in February, up from the initially reported 113,000 in January…

The TSX is flat as of 8:15 am Pacific while the Venture is holding up well despite Gold’s weakness and is off 2 points at 1037…Fission Uranium Corp. (FCU, TSX-V) has climbed another 10 cents to $1.55 after reporting results from four more holes at Patterson Lake South including PLS14-160 which returned 16.8 m of total composite off-scale radioactivity in 85.5 m total composite mineralization…Alix Resources Corp. (AIX, TSX-V) is one of this morning’s volume leaders, up a penny at 4.5 cents after reporting that it has doubled the size of its North Cap Project above the Sheslay, Grizzly and Hat properties in the Sheslay Valley to nearly 40 sq. km…AIX is forming plans to commence a work program shortly at North Cap West (contiguous to the Grizzly) and North Cap East (contiguous to the entire northern border of the Sheslay), and thawing conditions in the area should help in that regard…

Venture Chart – Critical Reversal In Advancing Issues

We have a very interesting chart from John this morning that demonstrates how the Venture has indeed REVERSED, that the bear market is over and a new bullish phase is well underway…some investors have been so scarred by the 65% drop from the early 2011 high to the late June 2013 low of 859, that their eyes just aren’t open to the fact that this market has indeed turned the corner…

There are many technical indicators supporting the view that the Venture is going to enjoy a robust 2014, including the moving average of advancing issues as seen below in a 10-year weekly chart…what this shows is how the weekly SMA-50 for advancing issues has reversed to the upside, just like it did about midway through 2009…it reversed to the downside in late 2007 and again in late 2011, and those were times to step aside from the market or at least be extremely cautious…the risk-reward ratio is now much more favorable given this very reliable indicator…many investors are often “behind the curve” when it comes to the start of a bear market or the beginning of a new bull market – they recognize the shift later than they should…the time to accumulate is NOW, in our view – don’t wait until the masses have their “light bulb” moment in a few months or you’ll be paying much more for the many stocks you might be looking at now…

Doubleview Capital Corp. (DBV, TSX-V) Updated Chart

Some bullish technical developments in Doubleview Capital (DBV, TSX-V) as shown in this new 3-year weekly chart from John…yes, the RSI(14) is rather high but can continue in this range for an extended period as witnessed in other discovery situations…what’s significant is the up momentum, the strong Fib. support at 23 cents, and the fact that DBV has been consolidating in a 4-week pennant…this type of formation is often followed by a breakout to the upside…the fundamentals support that potential outcome as a significant warming trend is moving into the Sheslay Valley, creating conditions suitable for drilling that DBV may exploit before the end of the month given the fact they’ve been able to raise money through the exercise of warrants…we’ll have more on DBV Monday…DBV is unchanged at 25 cents as of 8:15 am Pacific…

Bayhorse Silver Inc. (BHS, TSX-V)

A speculative opportunity readers should have on their radar screens in the event of any weakness is Bayhorse Silver (BHS, TSX-V) which has been reporting some bonzana-grade Silver assay results from sampling at its Bayhorse Silver Mine Property, a former high-grade producer, in eastern Oregon…the state is full of tree huggers/environmental radicals, so it’s not our favorite exploration and mining jurisdiction, but work is being performed at Bayhorse and the numbers are rather eye-popping to say the least – significant grades of Copper, Zinc and Antimony were also reported in the samples (check out the company’s news release Monday)…

Bayhorse’s 10-day SMA, currently at 13 cents, has been providing excellent support since late last year…chart resistance is at 20 cents (BHS hit a high of 20.5 cents Feb. 26)…below is a 3.5-year weekly chart from John…as of 8:15 am Pacific, BHS is down 1.5 cents at 16 cents…

Paramount Gold & Silver Corp. (PZG, TSX, AMEX)

When we see charts like this, we can’t help but be bullish on the overall outlook for Gold and Silver despite this morning’s weakness…Paramount Gold & Silver (PZG, TSX & AMEX) has been making progress on a couple of fronts (Mexico and Nevada), and the technicals are showing an important breakout in the stock even though PZG is off slightly this morning…Paramount has broken above a downtrend line, RSI(14) is climbing a nice uptrend and buy pressure has replaced sell pressure which had been dominant for much of the past year…a turnaround is in progress here as evidenced by this 2-year weekly chart…PZG is down 2 cents at $1.39 on the AMEX as of 8:15 am Pacific…

Note: John and Jon both hold share positions in DBV and AIX.