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1. Gold has traded between $1,189 and $1,197 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is flat at $1,190…Silver is up a penny at $14.77…precious metal investors will be closely examining tomorrow’s Fed minutes while also keeping an eye on the central bank’s annual policy symposium at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, later in the week…base metals are starting to firm up…Copper, Nickel and Zinc are all modestly higher at $2.72, $6.17 and $1.10, respectively…Cobalt is steady at $29.26…Crude Oil has shot up $1.53 a barrel to $67.96…the full impact of the Iran sanctions is not yet clear…while most of Europe’s energy firms are likely to fall in line with Washington, China has indicated that it will continue to buy Iranian Oil…how that goes over with the Trump administration remains to be seen…the Dollar Index is off another one-tenth of a point to 95.59…
2. President Trump is getting his wish, at least for a day – the greenback is retreating, with the Dollar Index now back below 96, a day after he said he’s disappointed with the Federal Reserve’s intention to keep hiking interest rates…since assuming office in January of last year, Trump has expressed his preference for a weaker currency, believing it makes U.S. exports more attractive on a global stage while he’s trying to make progress at lowering the trade deficit…in remarks yesterday to Reuters, Trump again criticized the Fed and said he was hoping that Chairman Jerome Powell would have leaned more toward cheaper money…he took his position a step further by saying other nations are manipulating their currencies, a sign that the administration may get more aggressive with those trying to undercut the dollar…
3. Exchange-traded funds have posted inflows of Gold again while Russia added more metal to official reserves last month, according to Commerzbank. “After Gold ETFs tracked by Bloomberg recorded outflows all of last week, they saw a marginal but noticeable inflow yesterday,” the bank says. “The Russian central bank likewise appears to have taken advantage of the low Gold prices and bought more Gold in July than in the previous months. By its own account, holdings were increased by 839,000 ounces or 26.1 tonnes. The last time the Russian central bank bought more Gold in one month was in November”…
4. BHP (BHP, NYSE, ASX), the world’s biggest miner, declared a record final dividend today after its underlying earnings jumped by a third for the year ended in June…investors can expect another handsome payday soon – the company has pledged to return roughly $10 billion to them after completing the sale of its troublesome U.S. shale assets…3 major assets – Iron Ore and Coal in Australia and a giant Copper mine in Chile – contributed three-quarters of BHP’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization last year as the company’s more focused approach pays off…BHP comfortably generated enough cash to reduce its net debt, fund its capital expenditure needs and pay that hefty dividend…meanwhile, the company is ploughing more investment into Nickel mine development and exploration in Western Australia, seeking to secure its own supply of a key material in batteries needed to meet booming demand for electric cars…BHP is building what is expected to be the world’s largest battery-grade Nickel sulphate plant on the outskirts of Perth and is boosting output to be “as self-sufficient as possible”…as well as sourcing from its own mines, BHP also buys Nickel concentrate from other miners…the move to secure more of its own supply comes as anticipated EV demand encourages other miners to go into sulphate production themselves…BHP’s Perth Nickel sulphate plant is expected to come on line from April 2019 with capacity to produce 100,000 tonnes of Nickel sulphate, accounting for some 22,000 tonnes of Nickel…the miner is making plans to double capacity…
5. The Dow has jumped 88 points through the first 30 minutes of trading…if one assumes the bull market on Wall Street began on March 9, 2009, when the S&P closed at a bear market low of 676, tomorrow the bull market will turn 3,453 days old, making it the longest bull market of all time (1 day beyond the one that ran from October 1990 and ended with the bursting of the tech bubble in March 2000)…the S&P 500 has gained 300% since early March 2009…in Toronto, the TSX is 61 points higher while the Venture, aiming for its 4th consecutive winning session, is up 3 more points at 689 as of 7:00 am Pacific…Gold Standard Ventures (GSV, TSX) has released results from 24 core holes at the Pinion oxide Gold deposit in Nevada…among the better intersections were 15.6 m of 3.26 g Au/t, 14.9 m of 2.35 g Au/t, 20.1 m of 1.36 g Au/t, and 84.8 m of 0.86 g/t Au on 3 different holes…the results continue to confirm lateral continuity to oxide Gold mineralization and resource expansion potential on the east side of the deposit…
6. Superior Gold (SGI, TSX), one of the top performing Gold stocks in 2018, has reported record quarterly production of 25,608 ounces of Gold, an increase of 46% for the same period in 2017, along with its highest quarterly Gold recoveries averaging 90%, an increase from 76% for the same period in 2017…All-In-Sustaining-Costs decreased 23% to $1,098 per ounce sold whiled the realized Gold price was $1,303 per ounce sold…Chris Bradbrook, President and CEO of Superior Gold stated: “We reached record production at the Plutonic Gold operations, since their acquisition in October 2016. Production during the quarter also represented a material increase relative to the 1st quarter of 2018 as underground mining activities returned to higher grade zones and ramp up of production continued to progress well at the Hermes Gold mine. Consequently, costs also decreased significantly relative to the prior quarter, resulting in a strong $5 million of cash flow from operating activities. Significantly, monthly production increased and costs decreased through the quarter”…
7. The National Post reported this morning that Canadian doctors remain divided about whether recreational cannabis should be legalized, with those opposed holding deep reservations over addiction and mental health, according to a survey of family physicians…the Post’s Derrick Penner wrote that at the cusp of the October 17 deadline for legalization, 47% of general practitioners oppose legalization, 32% support it and 21% remain neutral according to the survey of 235 family doctors conducted by MD Analytics. “It’s interesting that (the results were) so polarized,” said Rahim Shah, Vice-President of client services at MD Analytics. “The other interesting thing is that regionally, we didn’t notice any significant differences. That level of support, that level of opposition was relatively consistent across the country”…the results appear to mirror the concerns raised by the Canadian Medical Association in recommendations to government related to the legalization of recreational cannabis…the CMA said in 2016 that government adopt a “broad, public-health policy” approach, which it has maintained through its January recommendations to Health Canada on implementing Bill C-45…
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