BullMarketRun.com

Gold is trying to find its footing after being knocked off stride yesterday with some aggressive selling in the wake of another EU summit that really didn’t resolve a whole lot (no great surprise)…also, much to the chagrin of the markets, the European Central Bank is so far holding back from ramping up its bond purchases…with some near-term chart damage having been inflicted on the yellow metal, now is the time for the physical market to step in with some bargain hunting – reports suggest this is happening in India and elsewhere – which will support the price…we’ve seen that occur during other periods of technical weakness in Gold throughout this spectacular bull run…“This pullback finally encouraged a response from the physical community,” Edel Tully, a respected analyst at UBS in London, wrote in a report this morning…“Market participants are placing a lot of importance on physical buyers to step in and put a floor under Gold…the physical response seen this week, though not yet enough to call a trend, should somewhat calm these investors”…

As of 7:00 am Pacific, the yellow metal is up $6 an ounce at $1,671 after dipping as low as $1,650 overnight…below is John’s Gold chart from December 8 that shows that Gold right now is simply once again testing a long-term trendline – so we see no need for panic at this point, though days like yesterday with a $50 an ounce drop are a little unnerving for many investors…keep in mind that a slight but brief drop below the long-term trendline could easily occur, which means $1,600-$1,625 can’t be ruled out in the near-term…Gold’s overall long-term bullish picture remains completely intact…

As of 7:00 am Pacific, Silver is up 40 cents an ounce to $31.69…Copper is unchanged at $3.47…Crude Oil is $1 higher at $98.76 while the U.S. Dollar Index is off one-fifth of a point to 79.44…the Federal Reserve is meeting today, so markets will be hoping for some sort of Christmas gift from Ben Bernanke…will he play the part of Scrooge today or Santa?…

Bloomberg reports this morning that European banks, under pressure from regulators to bolster capital, are selling some of their fastest-growing businesses to competitors from outside the region — at the expense of future profit and economic growth…

After giving some positive technical signals recently, the CDNX took an abrupt turn to the south yesterday as it shed a whopping 56 points, in sympathy with Gold’s drop and losses in New York and Toronto, to close slightly under 1500 at 1491…we still see a strong possibility of a rally as we pointed out over the weekend, though the drop below support at 1500 is a concern and raises risk…the Index is up 5 points in early trading at 1496…keep in mind, this is bear market until evidence suggests otherwise so it can have deceiving twists (like yesterday)…rallies can be expected to be sold into…

Atac Resources Ltd. (ATC, TSX-V) has received assays for the final 22 diamond drill holes from the Osiris and Isis East zones within the Nadaleen Trend and 10 scout holes from the Rau Trend located within the company’s 100% owned 1,600-square-kilometre Rackla Gold project in central Yukon…results from the Osiris shear included 44.2 metres grading 4.41 g/t Au (134.11 to 178.31 metres) in OS-11-082…meanwhile, 2 holes were drilled 50 metres apart to test a Gold-in-soil geochemical anomaly overlying the Isis carbonate sequence where it’s cut by the Osiris Shear structure…both holes returned solid results with 3.33 g/t Au over 33 metres in OS-11-040 and 3.13 g/t Au over 51.82 metres in OS-11-073…a series of “scout holes” to test soil geochemical targets within the Rau Trend returned only low-grade mineralization but more follow-up is required and will take place…the Osiris Shear system remains open at depth and at the north end for a 700 metre distance toward the junction with the Nadaleen Fault – the mineralizing feeder structure for the Conrad Zone…all 29 drill holes that intersected the Osiris Shear system in 2010 and 2011 encountered Gold mineralization with 20 drill holes intersecting better than 3.25 g/t Au across significant widths…ATC opened 14 cents higher this morning at $2.86…after the first 30 minutes of trading, it’s up a penny at $2.73…for patient investors, ATC looks attractive from a long-term perspective in the vicinity of its rising 1000-day moving average (SMA) where it’s very close to right now…ATC is one of several quality Yukon plays that should heat up again by next spring and summer, so now is probably a good time to consider some bottom-fishing on any additional weakness with at least a 9-month time horizon…

Seafield Resources (SFF, TSX-V) was halted prior to the open this morning, pending news from the company…

Cap-Ex Ventures (CEV, TSX-V) is off another 3 pennies to 87 cents…the stock has declined for six consecutive sessions entering today but on mostly fairly light volume…Slow Stochastics (14) show an oversold technical condition while RSI (14) may have found support around the 50 level…we continue to love the fundamentals as the company’s Block 103 property has the potential to develop into Canada’s largest iron ore deposit…Cap-Ex could be back on the march again soon, particularly following completion of the recently announced financing at 85 cents…

Canada Rare Earths (CJC, TSX-V) is holding strong and looking good at 60 cents after testing support in the low 50’s…