April 3, 2019
April 2, 2019
7 @ 7:00
1. Gold has traded between $1,285 and $1,291 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is up $3 an ounce at $1,295…Silver is 4 cents lower at $15.03…Nickel is off 5 cents at $5.87, Zinc is unchanged at $1.34 while Copper has slipped a penny to $2.92…the Peruvian government has offered to end emergency measures authorizing the use of force in a remote Andean region if indigenous protesters lift their blockades of roads to Chinese miner MMG’s Las Bambas Copper mine, Peru’s Prime Minister said yesterday…Las Bambas produces about 400,000 tonnes of Copper per year, equivalent to about 2% of global output and 1% of Peru’s GDP…CME Group reports that metals volume averaged 592,000 contracts per day in March, down 13% year-on-year…still, the exchange operator reports a number of highlights, including record Copper options open interest of 68,000 contracts on March 25…average daily volume in precious-metals options rose 29% while Gold options average volume increased 33%…U.S. durable-goods orders fell in February after 3 straight months of growth due to a sharp decline in civilian aircraft orders, although the overall drop was smaller than expected…Bitcoin jumped suddenly today, reaching its highest level since late November as it added over $14 billion to its market cap in the last 24 hours and briefly touched the $5,000 mark…Bitcoin has been range bound for a while now…volume-led price action triggered algos on a breakout, driving the market up 15%…the World Trade Organization expects global trade growth to rebound in 2020 to 2018 levels after dipping this year to 2.6%, its lowest level in 3 years…the WTO cites the impact of rising commercial tensions and tariffs for the 2019 decline…the WTO’s forecasts, however, have been wildly off the mark at times…last September it said trade would increase by 3.9% in 2018 and 3.7% in 2019…
2. How convenient – just as the Trudeau Liberals roll out another piece of their deeply flawed “climate change” plan (a federally-imposed carbon tax in 4 provinces that have no equivalent policies of their own), out comes an alarmist report from Environment and Climate Change Canada that socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez could have written (“A lot of what the Green New Deal is, is about shifting our political, economic and social paradigm on every issue. Because we don’t have time to wait,” the darling of the Democrats said the other day)…Canada is warming up twice as fast as the rest of the world, according to the report, a situation that’s “effectively irreversible”…of course this ignores historical context (there have been alternating periods of cooling and warming), but there are also multiple advantages to warmer temperatures in Canada including dramatically increased potential for major new mineral discoveries that will create new wealth and provide the metals necessary for an expanding Canadian and global economy…over a billion people from India, China and elsewhere around the globe will be joining the ranks of the middle class over the next decade – where are the metals going to come from to power that growth if big new discoveries aren’t made?…
3. Marathon Gold (MOZ, TSX) has cut impressive Gold values over wide widths at significantly higher grade than the present block model through infill drilling in the main zone of its Leprechaun deposit in the Valentine Lake Gold Camp…these intersections include 6 m @ 25.78 g/t, including 1 m @ 147.5 g/t, starting just 6 m downhole in VL-19–679…2 other high-grade intervals were cut further downhole – 22 m @ 9 g/t starting at 152 m, and 22 m @ 11.8 g/t starting at 189 m including 3 m @ 38 g/t (true thickness estimated at 80%)…meanwhile, drill hole VL-19–680 cut 71 m @ 2.5 g/t including between 21 m and 92 m depth, including 4 m @ 9 g/t, plus a separate 3 m interval deeper in the hole grading 20.1 g/t Au (280 m to 283 m) at 80% true thickness…these 2 drill holes were collared along the upper edge of the Leprechaun deposit’s Main zone corridor, drilling down through the southwest dipping, stacked Gold-bearing quartz-tourmaline-pyrite veins which form the dominant vein orientation…“These new high-grade Gold intercepts are expected to add significantly to the next resource update for the Leprechaun deposit, not only by upgrading the inferred resources to Measured and Indicated resource categories but also at a much higher grade than is in the present block model,” stated Phillip Walford, President and CEO of Marathon…“The new drill holes are extending the high-grade Gold in width, strike length and down dip. The results are infilling between previously identified high-grade Gold in adjacent drill holes”…
4. The Dow is down 78 points through the first 30 minutes of trading…in Toronto, the TSX is up slightly while the Venture has retreated 3 points to 623..48North Cannabis (NRTH, TSX-V) has closed its previously announced bought deal financing at $1.36 per unit for total gross proceeds of approximately $28.75 million…Charlotte’s Web (CWEB, CSE), which released strong financials last week, has hit a new all-time high above $29 in early trading…National Action Cannabis (META, TSX-V) is gaining traction above its 200-day moving average (SMA) after trading mostly below it for the past 6 months…Crystal Lake Mining (CLM, TSX-V) has closed a $4.6 million financing, nearly 90% of it in hard dollars, to aggressively pursue an array of high-grade Gold and Copper-Gold porphyry targets at its 430 sq. km Newmont Lake Project in the Eskay region starting this quarter…significant glacial retreat has led to a promising grassroots drilling discovery at Burgundy Ridge that includes a Copper-rich intrusive unit with Silver, Gold, Cobalt and Zinc…Sable Resources (SAE, TSX-V) has drilled its best intercept yet at its Margaritia Project in Chihuahua state, Mexico – 117 g/t Silver (177 AgEq) over 37.5 m starting just 74.70 m downhole, including 400 g/t Ag, 1.07 g/t Au, 3% Zn and 1.1% Pb over 5.5 m (true width estimated at 90%)…
5. Cresco Labs (CL, CSE) is up for the 3rd straight session after announcing yesterday the largest-ever public company acquisition in the U.S. cannabis sector…Cresco is acquiring CannaRoyalty (OH, CSE), doing business as Origin House…the combination of Cresco Labs and Origin House will result in the premier distribution company serving California, the largest cannabis market in the world…prior to the deal, Beacon Securities analyst Russell Stanley stated that Cresco is “well positioned” to benefit from progress toward cannabis reform at the federal level south of the border: “With its origins in Illinois’s demanding regulatory environment, and demonstrated execution speed (1st to market in Pennsylvania and Ohio), Cresco has built a strong reputation in a short period of time. Including its recently announced (and well-timed) acquisition in Florida, this company now has interests in 11 states with an aggregate population of 151 million people. On a pro forma basis, it has 21 dispensaries open, and is licensed for an aggregate of 51. In our view, the company’s focus on branded products and distribution entrenches it firmly in the most lucrative and defensible points of the cannabis supply chain. Moreover, we believe this approach and well articulated marketing plan make the company a highly compatible acquisition target for major CPG companies”…the Cresco-Origin House deal, which is expected to close by the end of June, comes amid a flurry of M&A activity within the North American cannabis sector that appears to be warming up as pot companies eye consolidation to stand out in a crowded field…
6. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has set its first public hearing looking to legalize CBD in food and drinks for May 31…the agency wants data on CBD’s safety in food products and feedback on how it might regulate manufacturing, marketing and labeling, according to a notice posted this morning in the Federal Register… “The goal of the hearing is to obtain additional scientific data and other information related to cannabis and cannabis-derived compounds, both from botanical and synthetic sources, to inform our regulatory oversight of these products,” the agency said…the hearing will be at its headquarters outside of Washington, DC…CBD, short for cannabidiol, is a non-psychoactive compound found in the cannabis plant that promises to relax the body without altering the mind like THC…while the federal government legalized CBD that’s derived from hemp, a close cousin of marijuana, the FDA’s rules still currently prohibit companies and restaurants from adding it to food or drinks…
7. Manhattan real estate has just experienced its worst 1st quarter since the financial crisis, capping the longest losing streak for sales in over 30 years, according to a new report…a new “mansion tax” approved by New York state legislators over the weekend will layer another tax on the sale of multi-million-dollar homes and add further pressure to a market already under stress, according to real estate experts…meanwhile, the Green Monster in British Columbia is succeeding in its goal of making housing “more affordable”, at least for those living in Greater Vancouver where home sales just had their worst month of March since 1986…last month featured just a little over 1,700 transactions as a slowdown intensified, according to figures just released by the Canadian Real Estate Association…prices have dropped, though not evenly throughout the area, in an environment where there’s a significant gap between what sellers and buyers are expecting from the market…
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April 1, 2019
7 @ 7:00
1. Gold has traded between $1,288 and $1,298 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is up $3 an ounce at $1,295…Silver has added 7 cents to $15.16…Copper is up a penny at $2.95…Nickel has jumped 6 cents to $5.96 while Zinc continues to climb, up slightly at $1.37…Sumitomo, Japan’s 2nd-largest smelter, says it expects to produce 7.7% less refined Copper in its 2019-2020 financial year that starts this month…Sumitomo is also the country’s biggest Nickel smelter and expects its electrolytic Nickel output to rise by 2.3% this year to meet increased demand for cathode materials used in rechargeable batteries that power electric vehicles…Sumiotomo supplies the Nickel-Cobalt-Aluminum (NCA) cathode materials used in Panasonic’s Lithium-ion battery that powers Tesla’s Model 3 and Model X…Crude Oil is up 46 cents at $60.60 while the U.S. Dollar Index has slipped one-fifth of a point to 97.07…U.S. retail sales unexpectedly eased in February on declines in grocery stores and building materials, possibly a reflection of extreme weather conditions in parts of the country…the value of overall sales fell 0.2% after an upwardly revised 0.7% increase the prior month, according to Commerce Department figures released this morning…Saudi Aramco is by far the most profitable company in the world, according to financial data just disclosed by the state-run Oil giant in Saudi Arabia…the company made a whopping $111 billion in 2018…by comparison, Apple made $59.53 billion in fiscal 2018…
2. This is no April Fool’s joke – consumers in Ontario, Manitoba, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan got hit with more Trudeau Taxes today as part of the Liberal government’s insane effort to “save the planet”…the price of gas has gone up by approximately 4.4 cents a litre in those provinces this morning while home heating fuel, natural gas and propane have also been made more expensive thanks to this federally-imposed scheme that will be challenged in the courts and at the ballot box…this is just the beginning – the Liberals say they will increase the carbon tax from $20 a tonne to $50 a tonne by 2022 in the biggest scam a Canadian government has ever inflicted on taxpayers…Catherine McKenna, Trudeau’s Minister of Earth, Sun, Air and Water, says this “creates an incentive for people to consider, maybe I should look at a more energy efficient vehicle, maybe I should choose public transportation. You still get the money back at the end of the day” (Liberal rebate checks)…wow – that’s a direct quote…so no one really pays for this?…what about job-creating Canadian businesses?…of course we all know about Liberal math and promises – they said the federal budget would be balanced by 2019, a target they missed by only $20 billion…
3. The largest-ever public company acquisition in the U.S. cannabis sector occurred this morning as Cresco Labs (CL, CSE) is acquiring CannaRoyalty (OH, CSE), doing business as Origin House…the combination of Cresco Labs and Origin House will result in the premier distribution company serving California, the largest cannabis market in the world…the transaction represents a total consideration of approximately $1.1 billion (CDN) on a fully-diluted basis, or $12.68 per Origin House share…the combined entity will be one of the largest vertically-integrated multi-state cannabis operators in the U.S., a leading North American cannabis company by footprint, and one of the largest cannabis brand distributors…under the terms of the agreement, Origin House shareholders will receive 0.8428 of a Cresco share for each share held…the deal, which is expected to close by the end of June, comes amid a flurry of M&A activity within the North American cannabis sector that appears to be warming up as pot companies eye consolidation to stand out in a crowded field…
4. Base metals and equities are getting support today from data showing that China’s manufacturing sector enjoyed a surprise return to growth in March following government efforts to boost the economy…the Caixin/Markit survey, released this morning, rose to 50.8 in March (an 8-month high) from 49.9 in February…a reading above 50 indicates expansion…official manufacturing figures published a day earlier also pointed to a jump in activity…China’s official PMI data released yesterday showed manufacturing activity rose to 50.5 in March, up from 49.2 in February…the Chinese government has been rolling out stimulus measures including business tax cuts…
5. The Dow has jumped 172 points through the first 30 minutes of trading…Wall Street analysts are projecting a 3.9% earnings decline for S&P 500 firms in Q1, the first year-over-year decline since the 2nd quarter of 2016, according to FactSet…in Toronto, the TSX has added 56 points…pot stocks led Canada’s equity benchmark to its best 1st quarter since 2000…the Venture is off a point at 626 after posting its best March since 2016…Great Bear Resources (GBR, TSX-V) is doubling its current 30,000-m drill program at its Dixie Project in the Red Lake Camp to 60,000 m (fully financed)…a 3rd drill rig will be added…approximately 12,000 m of Phase 1 drilling still needs to be completed, so another 42,000 m are on the way…the 2 drill rigs currently on site will concentrate on defining and expanding the Hinge (DHZ) and Dixie Limb (DL) zones along strike and at depth…the 3rd rig will explore regional targets and also assist with the DHZ and DL drilling as required…timing of deployment of the 3rd drill rig is subject to completion of regional target definition…the company currently has $12 million in its treasury (plus $7.8 million in-the-money warrants)…the additional 30,000 m has a budget of $5.6 million…
6. Chemesis International (CSI, CSE) has entered into an agreement to acquire 19.9% of the outstanding common stock of GSRX Industries…through its various subsidiaries, GSRX is in the business of acquiring, developing and operating retail cannabis dispensaries in Puerto Rico and California…GSRX also operates one Pure and Natural retail kiosk and is in the process of launching 2 additional hemp based non-THC CBD retail store fronts in Tennessee and Texas…Chemesis has extensive manufacturing, processing and extraction capabilities, which ties together with GSRX’s ability to operate dispensaries and CBD stores…this will significantly expand Chemesis‘ footprint in strategic locations, specifically Puerto Rico, California, Tennessee and Texas for both THC and hemp based non-THC CBD products…as part of the agreement, GSRX has granted Chemesis a right of first refusal to manufacture GSRX’s current and future production requirements in all jurisdictions where Chemesis has production capabilities that will meet the demand of its location and product growth…GSRX also will ensure that there is dedicated shelf space for Chemesis‘ brands and products at each GSRX licensed THC dispensary and CBD store…recently GSRX raised its Q1 2019 consolidated revenue guidance to $2.7 million to $2.9 million (U.S.)…GSRX has 5 additional pre-qualified dispensary locations at various phases of development and construction for initial expansion in Puerto Rico…GSRX will issue about 11.7 million common shares to Chemesis, which is equal to 19.9% of GSRX’s outstanding total…GSRX has also granted Chemesis a pre-emptive right to maintain such ownership percentage…in exchange, Chemesis will issue 7.3 million common shares to GSRX…the shares exchanged under this transaction are subject to a mutual 36-month leak-out schedule…
7. In a bid to kick-start the long-stalled Keystone XL Oil pipeline, President Trump on Friday issued a new Presidential permit for the project after an Obama-appointed U.S. District judge in Montana blocked Keystone in November, saying the Trump administration had not fully considered potential Oil spills and other impacts (despite, of course, mountains of studies)…the White House says Trump’s move reinforces that the Presidential permit is indeed an exercise of Presidential authority that is not subject to judicial review under the Administrative Procedure Act…environmentalists, of course, see it differently, and they vow to continue their efforts to kill Keystone…meanwhile, another Obama-appointed judge is causing Trump problems in Alaska…a federal judge in that state has declared that the President’s order revoking a sweeping ban on Oil and gas drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans is illegal, putting 128 million acres of federal waters off limits to energy exploration…the decision late Friday by U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason was the 3rd legal setback last week to Trump’s energy and environmental policies…
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