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Gold has traded between $1,209 and $1,218 so far today…as of 11:00 am Pacific, bullion is down $7 an ounce at $1,210…Silver is off slightly at $17.15…Copper are Nickel are unchanged at $2.59 and $4.58, respectively…Crude Oil has slid $1.22 a barrel to $51.26 while the U.S. Dollar Index has rallied half a point to 100.92 after yesterday’s big tumble…

Expect traders to buy the dip in Gold…there has been a big jump this week in open interest in Gold futures, another sign that this move in the yellow metal has some traction to it…in today’s Morning Musings, we examine the latest chart for the TSX Gold Index as producers are looking particularly bullish with any modest pullbacks a gift…

Global trade likely grew just 1.7% last year, lagging world economic growth for the first time in 15 years and for only the second time since 1982, according to data from the World Trade Organization.  “Suffice it to say that weak growth or contractions in global trade are Gold-bullish,” stated HSBC, adding that globalization, trade and protectionism are the major themes at this week’s World Economic Forum in Davos…

Interesting – the popular Gold-tracking GLD ETF has risen in 13 of the past 15 sessions through yesterday, the first time it has done so since summer of 2011…

China’s Oil Production Enters Long-Term Decline

China needs Oil!! (lots of it for many more decades)..the country’s Oil production has entered a long-term decline, the government acknowledged yesterday, signaling that China will become increasingly dependent on imports…some of those, of course, would have been sourced from Canada’s Northern Gateway Pipeline had that important project not recently been rejected by the federal Liberal government…such a shame and thousands of good-paying jobs aren’t created!…

In releasing its latest 5-year plan for energy, a road map for the state-dominated industry, the government said domestic Oil production would fall 7% by 2020 versus 2015, to about 4 million barrels a day…the drop-off reflects a lack of recent investment in aging domestic fields by the country’s state-owned Oil producers, as well as their struggles to replicate the unconventional extraction techniques that have revived production in the United States…

Trudeau’s Town Hall Twilight Zone (And Racism)

As if his comments last week about how Canada needs to “phase out the Oilsands” weren’t bad enough, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is treating English Canadians in Quebec like second-class citizens as his Canadian Town Hall “promo” tour continues…in a classic example of how liberal “tolerance” and “inclusiveness” has its limits, Trudeau refused last night to respond in English to several questions put to him in English in Sherbrooke, Quebec, telling the town hall meeting that because he was in Quebec he would speak French (Quebec is bilingual, is it not?)…ironically, one of the English questions put to Trudeau was about the availability of English-language mental health services…that person deserved an answer in English (in whole or in part) but didn’t get one…the Sherbrooke event was Trudeau’s 7th town hall question-and-answer session since last Thursday but it was the first one he’s held in Quebec (if Trudeau is asked a question in French when he comes out west, will he reply only in English?)…the incident actually probably scored him some net political points in his home province…for a Prime Minister who constantly warns against “Islamophobia”, and can’t say the words “radical Islamist terrorism”, he seems to have no problem playing to Anglophobia (racism!) in a sneaky way in Quebec…more hypocrisy from the left, but most of the mainstream media in this country – part of the liberal elite establishment – are “blind” to that…

Meanwhile, celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary today officially declared his intentions to run for the leadership of Canada’s Conservative Party…he also pledged to become proficient enough in French to debate Trudeau in French in 2019 if he wins the Conservative race…

In Today’s Morning Musings…

1. TSX Gold Index update – how to profit from this upswing…

2. Heart of Gold Camp 2017 official coverage begins…

3. Granada Gold Mine (GGM, TSX-V) drills 14.5 g/t Au over 4 m at depth…

4. Doubleview Capital (DBV, TSX-V) firms ahead of results…

5. Daniel’s Den – new discovery for Africa Oil (AOI, TSX) in Kenya…

Plus more…click here to read the rest of today’s Morning Musings and all BMR exclusive content, through a risk-free Pro, Gold or Basic package, or login with your username and password…

Check back later this morning for today’s BMR Morning Market Musings.

1. Gold has traded in a narrow range so far today and is down $2 an ounce at $1,215 as of 7:00 am Pacific…Silver, trading above its 50-day moving average (SMA) for the first time in more than 2 months, is steady at $17.18 while the U.S. Dollar Index has recovered one-fifth of a point to 100.66 after yesterday’s plunge…

2. U.S. inflation has climbed above 2% on an annual basis for the first time since 2014…the Labor Department said its Consumer Price Index rose 0.3% in December, in line with expectations, and that lifted the annual rate to 2.1%…rising energy prices were the biggest driver of inflation last month…the energy index rose 1.5% in December, more than offsetting falling food prices…the core inflation index, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.2% last month, and was up 2.2% for the year…

3. The Philippines has cancelled the environmental permits of 4 more mining companies, Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Regina Lopez said today…the world’s top supplier of Nickel ore is reviewing hundreds of environmental compliance certificates (ECC’s) and among the latest to be cancelled are those for 1 Nickel producer as well as 1 Gold miner…last month, the Philippines revoked the ECC’s of 3 nickel mines as the anti-mining government intensifies its “crackdown” on the industry…

4. Crude Oil prices are under pressure today amid new worries over global supply…however, Crude is also still digesting the big gains it made last month and new support at $50 is very strong…earlier in the week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration projected that shale Oil production would increase to 4.75 million barrels a day in February…the body also revised upward its shale Oil production numbers for January to 4.71 million barrels a day from 4.54 million…

5. The Venture is up slightly at 797 through the first 30 minutes of trading…the TSX and Dow are both down marginally in early trading…interestingly, the gap between the Dow’s high and low prices over the past month is a miniscule 1.4% – the narrowest gap in data going back to 1957…

6. Otis Gold (OOO, TSX-V) is showing strength this morning, gapping up at the open and 3.5 cents higher at 30.5 cents as of 7:00 am Pacific on its best volume since mid-December…final assay results from a recently completed drill program at the company’s Kilgore Gold Project in Idaho are expected before month-end…during the first half of this year, Otis will be carrying out additional drilling and will also be updating the existing Kilgore resource estimate to reflect nearly 15,000 m of drilling over 65 holes completed since 2012…

7. Probe Metals (PRB, TSX-V) and Richmont Mines (RIC, TSX) are doing business with each other, a noteworthy fact since Richmont’s Beaufor mine is immediately adjacent to Probe’s flagship Val d’Or East Project in northwest Quebec…Probe has struck a deal with Richmont to acquire a 60% interest in RIC’s nearby Monique Property which ceased production 2 years ago and has a current Inferred resource of 107,500 tonnes at a grade of 4.88 g/t Au…Probe can earn a 60% interest in Monique by spending a total of $2 million on exploration over 4 years…the property is being added to Probe’s Val d’Or East package…

Gold has traded between $1,206 and $1,220 so far today…as of 10:30 am Pacific, bullion is up $10 an ounce at $1,213…Silver has jumped 30 cents to $17.08…Copper is off 3 pennies at $2.61…Nickel has retreated 5 cents to $4.56…Crude Oil is 52 cents higher at $52.89 while the U.S. Dollar Index has tumbled more than a full point to 100.45…

Comments on the greenback by President-elect Donald Trump weighed heavily against the Dollar Index today…in an article in the Wall Street Journal, Trump said the currency is “too strong” and its high value vs. China’s yuan “is killing us“…we highly doubt Trump made those comments flippantly…he has talked about winning on trade consistently over the last year, and it’s more difficult to win on trade when your currency is surging…Trump’s comments are the clearest indication yet that the new administration would prefer a weaker dollar (another “race to the bottom” in currencies?)…meanwhile, Trump also criticized part of the House Republicans’ corporate tax plan, known as a “border adjustment” (BAT)…analysts had largely expected the plan to tax imports and exempt exports, which would likely boost the greenback…

Gold is trading at near 8-week highs and appears to be gearing up for a challenge of its 200-day moving average (SMA) in the $1,260’s…

Chinese President Xi Jinping said today that globalization has powered worldwide growth and should not be blamed for the world’s problems…in an attack on anti-globalization rhetoric, Xi told a packed audience at the World Economic Forum at Davos, “It is true that economic globalization created new problems, but this is no justification to write off economic globalization altogether.  Rather we should adapt to and guide economic globalization, cushion its negative impacts and deliver its benefits for all countries.” 

Xi’s speech marked the first time a Chinese head of state has visited the Davos event where the world’s elites love to hang out…

Copper-U.S. Dollar Relationship

You may have noticed that Copper and the U.S. dollar have been moving nearly in lockstep recently, a phenomenon that many analysts have attributed to a rising appetite for the metal among Chinese investors seeking to protect their wealth against the risk that the yuan would depreciate sharply against other global currencies, primarily the greenback (Trump’s comments, however, could further cement our TA view that the Dollar Index has topped out for the time being around Fib. resistance at 104 and will now consolidate in a trading range below that)…in November, the correlation between Copper and the WSJ Dollar Index reached its highest level since 2007, according to FactSet data…Chinese speculators buying Copper in dollars on the New York and London exchanges are one reason why the metal and dollar have been moving together, analysts say…

In Today’s Morning Musings…

1. More proof of a big turn in the Uranium sector…

2. Richmont Mines (RIC, TSX) reports record production >100,000 ounces in 2016…

3. Savary Gold (SCA, TSX-V) delivers encouraging new drill results from Karankasso, prepares for start of a 2nd phase 90-hole program…

4. Daniel’s Den – the latest scoop on Kopin as it hits a new high…

Plus more…click here to read the rest of today’s Morning Musings and all BMR exclusive content, through a risk-free Pro, Gold or Basic package, or login with your username and password…

Check back later this morning for today’s BMR Morning Market Musings.

1. Gold is starting to become fashionable again…bullion touched a nearly 8-week high of $1,220 overnight and is up $13 an ounce at $1,216 as of 7:00 am Pacific thanks to a range of factors…Credit Suisse says it remains “constructive” on Gold prices, forecasting an average price of $1,338 per ounce in 2017…

2. The U.S. Dollar Index has plunged by more than a full point this morning after comments regarding the greenback by President-elect Donald Trump…in remarks to the Wall Street Journal published on its website last night, Trump said U.S. companies could not compete with China “because our currency is too strong. And it’s killing us”…meanwhile, Gold is also benefiting today from disappointing data from the New York region manufacturing sector while British Prime Minister Theresa May delivered a Brexit speech that pledged the UK to fully leave the EU’s single market by March 2019…sterling has enjoyed its biggest daily increase against the U.S. dollar since the 2008 financial crisis…

3. Optimism for U.S. economic growth has hit a 2-year high among those responding to the latest Bank of America Merrill Lynch Fund Managers Survey…the biggest bets among respondents are on banks, the U.S. dollar and real estate investment trusts, while some of the biggest areas of scorn are emerging market stocks, industrials and commodities (fund managers don’t always get it right)…a record level of respondents indicated small-cap stocks will outperform…

4. The Venture briefly touched 800 at the open this morning for the first time in 3-and-a-half months…through the first 30 minutes of trading, the Index is up 3 points at 798…the TSX is off 21 points while the Dow has fallen 52 points as of 7:00 am Pacific…

5. Evrim Resources (EVM, TSX-V) has made a high-grade discovery at its Ermitano Gold Project in Sonora, Mexico…Evrim and exploration partner First Majestic Silver (FR, TSX, AG, NYSE) reported assay results this morning from the first 4 holes of a planned 10-hole diamond drill program totaling about 1,000 m at the Ermitano West prospect located approximately 3.5 km southeast of First Majestic’s operating Santa Elena Gold-Silver mine…drill hole EW16–04 returned 18 m grading 11.4 g/t Au and 86 g/t Ag including 3.3 m grading 34.6 g/t Au and 242 g/t Ag…the results fit a classical epithermal pattern with low Gold and Silver grades at surface increasing at depth to economic grades where textures indicate a boiling environment within the vein…limited drilling shows a system open to the east, west and at depth…drilling is ongoing to complete a planned 10-hole program with further assays pending…EVM is up a penny at 24 cents…

6. Kirkland Lake Gold (KL, TSX) has drilled extensions of high-grade mineralization at depth and new high-grade intercepts, including a record result, from underground drilling at its Fosterville Gold mine in Australia…results from 20 underground holes totaling 6,471 m into extensions of the Lower Phoenix Gold system include the highest-grade drill intercept ever recorded at Fosterville. – 1,429 g/t Au over 15.15 m (estimated true width is 4.97 m) in hole drill hole UDH1817 (includes 21,490 g/t Au over 0.6 m)…Fosterville delivered record production of 151,755 ounces of Gold with a record mill grade and recovery of 7.55 g/t Au and 90.1%, respectively…9 rigs are currently in operation, focused on extending mine life…

7.  Mariana Resources (MARL, TSX-V) has released a robust PEA for the high-grade Hot Maden Gold-Copper Project in northeast Turkey…the base case mining scenario envisages total metal production of 2.6 million ounces of Gold and 142,000 tonnes of Copper over a total project life of 9 years…the post-tax discounted (8%) NPV, excluding pre-development exploration costs, is $1.37 billion (U.S.) while the post-tax IRR is 153% excluding acquisition costs…total CAPEX (initial + sustaining) is $261 million (U.S.) and the project features a short payback period of 2.1 years…metallurgical testwork, through flotation and concentration, completed to date on the high grade Main Zone mineralization has indicated high recoveries of both Gold and Copper…a Preliminary Feasibility Study is expected to be completed during Q3…a further 20,000 m of drilling is budgeted and planned for this new year…exploration drilling continues to focus on the discovery of new Gold-Copper resources at Hot Maden, especially to the south of the Main Zone…MARL is up a dime at $1.37 as of 7:00 am Pacific…

Gold has traded between $1,201 and $1,210 so far today…as of 11:00 am Pacific, bullion is up $6 an ounce at $1,203…Silver is flat at $16.77…Copper is off 3 pennies at $2.64…Nickel has fallen 15 cents to $4.61…Crude Oil is 27 cents higher at $52.64 while the U.S. Dollar Index is up more than one-tenth of a point to 101.56…

Inflation-adjusted yields on U.S. government bonds have tumbled over the past month, the latest sign of moderating market expectations for near-term economic growth as the Trump administration prepares to apply a fix to 8 years of over-regulation and over-taxation that have restrained the American entrepreneurial spirit…

So-called real yields, which subtract inflation readings from the 10-year U.S. Treasury note’s yield, have dropped to a recent 0.38% from 0.74% at their mid-December post-election peak…real yields tend to rise with a strengthening economy, so the surge following Donald Trump’s November 8 election signaled an assumption that a global expansion of economic activity was under way…the yield decline and a recent pullback in the greenback suggest that investors are reassessing how quickly an economic boost may gather steam…

“We Need To Phase Out The Oilsands” – Trudeau

The National Post reported this morning that the federal Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commission has launched an investigation into the circumstances of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s New Year’s holiday in the Bahamas, the first time a sitting Prime Minister has come under scrutiny by the independent parliamentary watchdog…

However, Canadians should be more concerned about this when it comes to Trudeau:  The former drama teacher is fluent in English and French but his fatal flaw is that he doesn’t speak the language of job and wealth creation at a time when American capitalism is about to return with a vengeance…

It’s an unfortunate fact that Canada’s competitiveness vis-a-vis the United States is going to erode with Trump in the White House and Republicans in control of Congress, particularly in the areas of taxation, investment, business regulation and energy policies, because of unwise choices made at provincial and federal levels in this country…that means a quick “change in direction” is critical or Canadians will have to accept a lower standard of living – “energy poverty”, perhaps, as a grandmother in messed-up Ontario so aptly described to Trudeau at a town hall meeting last week…how could there be such a thing as “energy poverty” in a country such as Canada that is so blessed with rich energy resources?…that’s a very good question and the answer lies in the twisted thinking of many Canadian politicians who have embraced climate change fanaticism, the new global religion headed up by false prophets…

Consider these comments Trudeau made Friday that have angered so many, especially in Alberta:  “You can’t make a choice between what’s good for the environment and what’s good for the economy.  We can’t shut down the Oilsands tomorrow. We need to phase them out.  We need to manage the transition off of our dependence on fossil fuels.  That is going to take time. And in the meantime, we have to manage that transition.”

Oh, really, we need to “phase out the Oilsands“?…while Canada continues to downplay its abundant energy resources and can’t even get pipelines built as countless politicians contribute to the false narrative of how our Oil contributes to the “destruction” of the planet, other countries like the United States are going in a different direction…meanwhile, the International Energy Agency predicts that global Oil demand is going to continue to grow until at least 2040!…

How has Canada lost its way as a nation?…

Oil Update

The United States keeps pumping Oil as fast as it can as the Trump administration gets ready to double-down on America’s energy advantage by loosening regulations and appointing a Secretary of State who’s an Oil Czar…

Goldman Sachs now says it expects year-on-year U.S. Oil production to rise by 235,000 bpd in 2017, taking into account wells that have been drilled and are likely to start producing in the first half of the year…U.S. Oil output is now at 8.95 million bpd, up from less than 8.5 million bpd in June last year and at similar levels to 2014…

In Today’s Morning Musings…

1. What Gold in Canadian dollars is telling us…

2. A northern Quebec exploration play with promise…

3. U-turn on the way for Clean Commodities (CLE, TSX-V)?…

4. Something’s brewing in Silver!…

5. Daniel’s Den – a unique Uranium play…

Plus more…click here to read the rest of today’s Morning Musings and all BMR exclusive content, through a risk-free Pro, Gold or Basic package, or login with your username and password…

Check back later this morning for today’s BMR Morning Market Musings.

1. Gold touched a high of $1,210 overnight and is up $6 an ounce at $1,203 as of 7:00 am Pacific…in a sign of healing in the Gold market, holdings in SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest Gold-backed exchanged-traded fund, have increased for the first time since the U.S. elections in November while hedge funds and money managers have raised their net long positions in COMEX Gold contracts for the first time in 9 weeks (in the week to January 10)…

2. Oil prices are quiet today, hovering just above $52 a barrel…Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said today that OPEC and non-OPEC producers are unlikely to extend their agreement to cut Oil output beyond 6 months.  “We don’t think it’s necessary given the level of compliance,” Falih said. “My expectations (are)…that the rebalancing that started slowly in 2016 will have its full impact by the first half.”

3. U.S. stock markets are closed today for Martin Luther King Jr. Day…the NASDAQ recorded its 6th record close of 2017 on Friday when it finished at 5,574…

4. The Venture is up slightly at 796 as of 7:00 am Pacific…Tinka Resources (TK, TSX-V) hit a 6-month high of 25 cents in early trading as the company prepares for the start of a major drill program at its 100%-owned Ayawilca Project, a large Zinc sulphide system in in the world-class central Peru Zinc-Silver belt…Purepoint Uranium (PTU, TSX-V) is up another half penny to 17 cents..

5. Marathon Gold (MOZ, TSX) has released results from the remaining holes of its 2016 drilling campaign at the Marathon deposit in the Valentine Lake Gold Camp, including a stellar intercept of 25.3 g/t Au (uncut) over 14 m that was highlighted by 310.35 g/t Au (uncut) over 1 m near-surface in drill hole MA-16–154…in addition, wide intervals of high-grade Gold were intersected in deeper sections of drill holes MA-16–153 to MA-16–156 and extended MA-15–034…best deep intercepts included 3.03 g/t Au over 18 m in MA-16–053, 2.64 g/t Au over 40 m in MA-16–154, and 2.84 g/t Au over 31 m in MA-16–156…MOZ is up a nickel at 71 cents as of 7:00 am Pacific…

6. Orex Minerals (REX, TSX-V) has exercised an option to earn a 55% ownership interest in the Sandra Escobar Project in Durango state, Mexico, and has formed a joint venture with Canasil Resources (CLZ, TSX-V) to move the project forward on a 55%-45% basis…interestingly, Orex has notified Canasil that it will not be proceeding with a second option to earn an additional 10% interest (for a total of 65%) which would have meant paying Canasil an additional $500,000 (CDN) and spending a further $2 million (U.S.) on exploration and development of the project over the next 2 years…

7.  Orca Gold (ORG, TSX-V) CEO Richard Clark commented this morning in a news release on Friday’s executive order signed by President Obama that lifted certain sanctions against Sudan.  “This announcement by the U.S. Government is a huge step for Sudan on its path towards political and economic re-integration with the West. The Government of the Sudan is to be congratulated for its efforts in working towards international acceptance and social and economic improvement for its people. We at Orca are pleased and excited to be part of that program of improvement. This move by the U.S. significantly changes the financial landscape for the development of our 2.2 million ounce Gold project at Block 14. We look forward to introducing our company to investors that up to this point have been restricted in investing in Orca and Sudan.”