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

1. Gold is at a 3-week high and on track for its biggest weekly rise in 2 months, trading between $1,244 and $1,251 so far today as it gains traction above resistance in the $1,230’s…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is up $6 an ounce at $1,250 – the 50 and 100-day SMA’s – while Silver has jumped 16 cents to $16.47…base metals are stronger with Copper, Nickel and Zinc all up about 1.5% at $2.71, $4.35 and $1.25, respectively…Cobalt is up slightly at $26.76…Crude Oil has given up early gains and is now down 41 cents at $46.51 while the U.S. Dollar Index has slipped another one-tenth of a point to 94.16…the Dollar Index may find temporary support at 94, but the primary trend is negative and a pummeling of the greenback is likely to occur during this 2nd half of Q3 based on technical factors that have remained consistent for the past several months…

2. Commerzbank reports that Russia’s central bank trimmed Gold purchases last month while China’s central bank remained on the sidelines.  “The Russian central bank continued to buy Gold in June, though not as much as in the previous month,” Commerzbank says. “By its own account, it purchased around 300,000 ounces of Gold, i.e. 9.3 tonnes.  The Chinese central bank appears to have discontinued its Gold purchases, on the other hand.  It did not top up its Gold reserves in June for the 8th consecutive month despite the fact that its currency reserves have meanwhile increased again, meaning that it would have had enough money to buy Gold.”  Is China now accumulating through sneaky ways?…the Russian central bank has been a Gold buyer virtually every month now for 2-and-a-half years…

3. The broader markets are under some mild pressure this morning but the Venture is aiming for its 5th straight winning session, albeit volume remains light…the Venture is up 1.5 points at 766 through the first 30 minutes of trading…Novo Resources (NVO, TSX-V), Liberty One Lithium (LBY, TSX-V), Garibaldi Resources (GGI, TSX-V) and Critical Elements (CRE, TSX-V) are the volume leaders among stocks within 20% of their 52-week highs…Castle Silver Resources (CSR, TSX-V) has pushed off strong support on news late Wednesday that a homogeneous sample (mini bulk sample) from a vein on the first level of the company’s Castle mine, a high-grade past Silver producer, returned 1.5% Cobalt and a surprising 5.7 g/t Gold…more sampling is taking place underground along with drilling from surface that’s reaching below the first and second levels of the mine…the TSX is off nearly 100 points in early trading…Canada’s inflation rate for June was the slowest since October 2015 on declines in energy and clothing, leaving price gains for the 2nd quarter below the central bank’s projection…Statistics Canada also said the average of 3 measures of core inflation picked up from a May rate that was the slowest since 1999…a separate report showed retail sales rose 0.6% in May, twice as fast as economists predicted…

4. Crude Oil has come under pressure this morning after Reuters reported that OPEC’s July Oil supply was set to rise by 145,000 barrels per day (bpd) compared to June, citing PetroLogistics, a company that tracks OPEC supply forecasts…the increase in Oil supply would push production above 33 million barrels per day…

5. Columbus Gold (CGT, TSX) announced this morning that it intends to spin out its mineral projects in the United States into a separate publicly traded company (Venture Exchange) to be named Allegiant Gold…the transaction is being undertaken to focus the efforts of Columbus Gold on its activities in French Guiana, while seeking to maximize the value of the U.S. properties, in particular the Nevada Gold projects, to shareholders by highlighting them in a separate public vehicle…shareholders of Columbus would receive one share of Allegiant for every 5 shares of CGT…a private placement will be carried out in conjunction with the listing of Allegiant…the new company would then launch resource expansion drilling at the original target of the Eastside Gold Project where the deposit remains open at depth, to the south and to the west…in addition, Columbus plans to undertake an unprecedented exploration program to drill-test up to 8 high-quality exploration properties (7 in Nevada) over a period of 12 months, beginning this fall…the 8 projects which were identified over the last decade by CGT’s exclusive exploration team host high-priority drill targets…

6. Canopy Growth (WEED, TSX) is raising another $25 million…the company has accepted a subscription agreement for a private placement of common shares with a single investor…the company will issue 3,105,590 shares at a net price of $8.05 per share, for aggregate gross and net proceeds of $25 million…the private placement will be completed before the end of the month.  “Investing in production capacity expansion is vital to maintain our existing leadership position in the global cannabis industry,” said Bruce Linton, Chairman and CEO. “This equity financing gives us additional resources so we can accelerate into the windows of opportunity that exist domestically and abroad, while inserting advisory expertise as we continue to lead a sector forward into new territory.”

7. The Venture is set to lose another strong performing stock since the 2nd half of last year…Aurora Cannabis (ACB, TSX-V) will ring the bell to open the TSX on Monday under the same symbol as it delists from the Venture.  “Aurora’s graduation to TSX reflects the remarkable commercial and operational progress we have made since listing on TSX Venture Exchange late last year,” stated CEO Terry Booth.  “We are achieving record yields at our Mountain View county production facility, progressing rapidly with the construction of our 100,000 plus kilograms per annum Aurora Sky facility at Edmonton International Airport, and are executing consistently on our national and international expansion strategy.”

The most popular recent BMR articles/videos…

How To Bring A Junior Resource Market To Life!

The Dramatic New Chase For A Nickel-Copper-Rich Massive Sulphide Deposit In The Heart Of A Famous Gold Camp

The Most Important Venture Development Since The New Bull Market Began

CSR Builds Momentum At Castle Mine

Check for an additional post later today and visit the BMR comments section during the day for updates and helpful information.

1. Gold has traded between $1,236 and $1,241 so far today…as of 1:30 am Pacific, in this very early edition of 7 @ 7:00 due to property visits, bullion is off $4 an ounce at $1,237 while Silver has slid 8 cents to $16.17…Copper and Nickel are both flat at $2.69 and $4.34, respectively…Crude Oil is unchanged at $47.13 while the U.S. Dollar Index has rallied more than one-tenth of a point to 94.89…

2. Wall Street keeps forging ahead as the major indexes keep hitting new all-time highs…the S&P 500 added 0.53% yesterday to a record close of 2,473 while the Dow was up 66 points to a new record of 21,640…meanwhile the NASDAQ posted its 9th straight winning session with a gain of 41 points for another new all-time high…3 major stock-market benchmarks in the U.S., Europe and Asia have avoided pullbacks this year, commonly defined as 5% declines from recent highs…never in at least the past 30 years have all 3 indexes – the S&P 500, MSCI Europe and MSCI Asia-Pacific ex-Japan – gone a calendar year without falling at some point by at least 5%…

3. Venture volume remains light but the Index posted its 4th straight winning session yesterday, adding a modest 2 points to 766…in the northern Ontario Cobalt Camp, CobalTech Mining (CSK, TSX-V) continues its rebound as we had anticipated as CSK gained another penny to 17 cents…the stock has turned into a play on First Cobalt (FCC, TSX-V) which is taking over CSK in an all-share transaction but FCC remains halted pending Exchange approval of filings related to FCC’s acquisition of Australian-listed Cobalt One…

4. Interestingly, Gold is starting to show up with high-grade Cobalt in northern Ontario as companies start reporting initial exploration results from summer programs…the other day, Cobalt Power (CPO, TSX-V) made a fresh discovery of an impressive area of outcrop at its Smith Cobalt Property featuring a swarm of veins in Archean volcanics…the first sampling (much more to come) returned 12.5% Cobalt, 82.2 g/t Ag and 5 g/t Au (channel sample across a vein)…meanwhile, in a stunning development late yesterday, Castle Silver Resources (CSR, TSX-V) reported 5.7 g/t Gold in a mini bulk sample from a vein on the first level of the Castle mine…82 kilograms (181 pounds) of material was crushed to –10 mesh and blended, producing a homogeneous sample that was then assayed and returned 1.5% Co, 5.7 g/t Au and 46.3 g/t Ag (Nickel assays pending)…more sampling and testing are being carried out to confirm the Gold content…Castle was a high-grade Silver producer going back to the early 1900’s but operators never assayed for Gold or Cobalt…CSR has also expanded its surface drill program to 2,000 m and has also commenced a work program at the Beaver Property near the town of Cobalt…extreme oversold RSI(2) conditions have emerged in the stock which closed at 19.5 cents yesterday before news hit the wire…

5. Crude Oil prices firmed up again yesterday thanks to a a report showing U.S. Crude and fuel stocks falling in the United States last week…over the past 15 weeks, U.S. Oil inventories have dropped 13 times, and in most cases the falls were more pronounced than expected…however, Crude inventories still remain near the upper half of the average for this time of the year…OPEC and non-OPEC producers are due to meet in St. Petersburg, Russia, next Monday to discuss the current situation in Oil markets with the Saudis determined to try to push prices higher…

6. The Bank of Japan, like the Federal Reserve, has consistently overestimated inflation expectations in recent years…more proof of that came today as the BOJ kept its monetary policy unchanged after a 2-day meeting while having to cut inflation forecasts for fiscal years 2017/2018 and 2018/2019…the central bank now expects inflation to be at 1.1% for the current fiscal year, down from its previous forecast of 1.4%…for the next financial year, it expects inflation to hit 1.8% instead of 1.9% but they”ll likely fall short of that target, too…on the economy, the BOJ sounded more upbeat, raising its GDP expectations for the current and next fiscal years to 1.8% and 1.4%, respectively…but that’s the best Japan can do after years of massive monetary and fiscal stimulus?…

7. One in 4 American jobs are at risk of being shipped overseas in the coming years and about half could be replaced by automation, according to Ball State University’s Center for Business and Economic Research. A new paper titled, “How Vulnerable are American Communities to Automation, Trade, and Urbanization?” combines several recent studies on employment trends to present a stark view of the future job situation for certain parts of the country…

The most popular recent BMR articles/videos…

How To Bring A Junior Resource Market To Life!

The Dramatic New Chase For A Nickel-Copper-Rich Massive Sulphide Deposit In The Heart Of A Famous Gold Camp

The Most Important Venture Development Since The New Bull Market Began

CSR Builds Momentum At Castle Mine