Gold is bouncing back today after finding support in the $1,665-$1,680 area…as of 8:30 am Pacific, the yellow metal is up $22 an ounce at $1,699…Silver is up 69 cents at $32.33…Copper has gained 3 pennies to $3.33…Crude Oil has strengthened to $97.52 while the U.S. Dollar Index is off slightly at 78.29…
The U.S. economy grew at a slightly slower pace than previously estimated in the third quarter, but weak inventory accumulation amid sturdy consumer spending strengthened views output would pick up in the current quarter…gross domestic product grew at a 2% annual rate in the third quarter, the Commerce Department said in its second estimate this morning, down from the previously estimated 2.5%…while the revision was below economists’ expectations for a 2.5% growth pace, the composition of the GDP report, especially still-firm consumer spending and the first drop in businesses inventories since the fourth quarter of 2009 set the platform for a stronger economic performance this quarter…some economists believe that numbers and trends so far suggest that fourth quarter growth could exceed 3% which would be the fastest in 18 months…the first quarter next year could be a different story, however, depending on the euro zone situation and if China’s economy doesn’t have such a gentle soft landing…
Investors remain jittery about Spain despite a landslide election victory by the centre-right People’s Party on Sunday…Madrid was forced to pay the highest interest in 14 years today on a sale of government debt…the average yield on a three-month bill more than doubled to just over 5% from almost 2.3% a month earlier…the interest paid on a 6-month bill also soared to over 5% from over 3.3% paid in October…there’s no quick-fix to the euro zone fiscal debt and growth deficit woes and the other major problem is that these countries don’t have the luxury of time to address many complex issues…this doesn’t have a good “feel” to it as we’ve been stating for weeks…what the final outcome is going to be is anyone’s guess but we have little faith in the politicians…markets don’t like uncertainty and they have more than they bargained for right now…
Interesting news from the Financial Times this morning…the number of property transactions in China’s largest cities has fallen to dangerously low levels, according to regulatory documents obtained by the Financial Times (property construction accounted for more than 13% of China’s economy last year)…in October, property transactions fell 39% year-on-year in China’s biggest 15 cities, according to government data…nationwide, transactions dropped 11.6%, accelerating from a 7% fall in September…the fall-off in transactions has affected developers’ cash flows and, in some cases, their ability to repay bank loans…rising defaults after a lending surge in 2009 and 2010, much of which ended up in the property sector, were cited by the International Monetary Fund this month as one of the Chinese financial sector’s biggest risks…
The CDNX fell through an important support zone between 1575 and 1600 yesterday…markets will take the path of least resistance, and the resistance band between 1600 and 1700 was simply too strong for the Index to overcome (immediately above 1700 is also a declining 100-day moving average)…the CDNX is currently up 1 point at 1556…the 300-day SMA is now beginning to decline and that’s a very troubling sign…at the minimum, a re-test of the October 4 low of 1306 could easily occur during the first quarter of next year…while there’s of course no guarantee of that happening, the downside risks in this market do outweigh the upside potential when one takes into account all technical and fundamental factors…yes, Gold can surge past $2,000 an ounce (which will be most helpful to those companies actually producing Gold) but we may not like the world we live in at that point…in otherwords, a scenario could unfold where we have significantly higher Gold prices and even more risk aversion as it pertains to the speculative juniors who are exploring for Gold…
Gold Bullion Development (GBB, TSX-V) has generally been a reliable “bellwether” for the CDNX this year and it certainly doesn’t appear ready to bust out to the upside at the moment…for now, GBB is trading in a horizontal trend channel between 17.5 cents and 21 cents…there are obviously risks to the downside (below 17.5 cents) if indeed the CDNX turns significantly lower over the next few months…it’s critical for GBB to complete its NI-43-101 resource estimate for the LONG Bars Zone as soon as possible but that may not occur until late winter/early spring…John examines the GBB chart below to see what it’s telling us right now…
GBB is up half a penny at 19 cents as of 8:30 am Pacific…on the producer side, John has an interesting chart this morning on Kinross Gold (K, TSX) which is up 39 cents to $13.26 after declining in 9 out of the last 10 sessions…this is a 10-year monthly chart, and look where the RSI is positioned – its lowest level since 2002, right before a dramatic jump in the share price…also note the trendline…Kinross is just above very strong support…there are different ways of interpreting a chart but this gives us a lot of encouragement that Gold’s next HUGE move will be up, not down…that’s the “big picture” view which is consistent with John’s Gold charts throughout the year…