BullMarketRun.ca

Visit the BMR comments section throughout the day for updates and helpful information!

1. Gold has traded between $1,561 and $1,575 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific the yellow metal has reversed to the upside, $6 higher at $1,572…holdings of Gold by physically backed ETFs have risen for 12 consecutive business days, according to BMO Capital Markets…holdings continue to rise as “portfolio positioning retains a defensive hedge amid coronavirus concern,” BMO said…yesterday these holdings climbed by another 112,000 ounces, taking net purchases this year to 1.65 million ounces…analysts also cited World Gold Council data showing that 61.7 metric tons of Gold were added in January, over half of which were by European funds…“This asset allocation annuity continues to support Gold prices…despite a relative lack of traditional retail consumers,” BMO said…Silver is off slightly at $17.73…Palladium has fallen $46 an ounce to $2,182…Copper is down 4 cents at $2.56…Nickel has lost 12 cents to $5.76 while beaten-down Zinc has dipped below $1 to 98 cents…Crude Oil has retreated 69 cents to $50.62 while the U.S. Dollar Index is unchanged at 98.48…the Democrats’ politicized impeachment strategy appears to have backfired big-time, and that has major implications for the markets through the remainder of 2020…new polling by Gallup reveals that President Trump’s approval rating is now at an all-time high of 49%…the poll was taken between January 19-26 while Trump’s impeachment trial was taking place…the Republican Party has also seen its approval rating skyrocket…51% of Americans now say they have a favorable view of the GOP – that is up from 43% in September and it’s the first time that a majority has expressed a favorable opinion of the Republican Party since 2005…on the other hand, only 45% say that they have a positive opinion of the Democratic Party – that is down slightly from September…this week we also learned that the Democrats, who are advocating unprecedented government intervention in the U.S. economy and of course a “Green New Deal” to “save the planet”, can’t even count their own votes in Iowa…

2. The globalist Trudeau Liberals appear to be gearing up for another blow against Western Canada and Oil and gas development in this country, all in the name of course of “saving the planet”…media reports say the government is preparing an “aid” package for Alberta in hopes of appeasing the province if the $20 billion proposed Frontier Oil sands mine is rejected by Cabinet later this month…as the mayors of Alberta’s 2 biggest cities were in Ottawa calling for fair treatment for the province, Reuters reported that approval for the project has become a major battle within the Liberal Party…“Rejecting Teck without providing Alberta something in return would be political suicide,” a source told Reuters…rejecting Teck, period, would be political suicide as it’ll be viewed as yet another attack against the West and Oil and gas development in this country by an economically incompetent federal government…it would create a Western backlash (and a backlash from North American and international investors) like the Liberals have never seen…options being considered in the “provincial aid package” include a cash injection to help clean up thousands of inactive Oil and gas wells abandoned by bankrupt companies…also under discussion is expanding the federal fiscal stabilization program that helps provinces deal with economic downturns…local infrastructure projects could also be in the mix…even the liberal Mayor of Calgary, Naheed Nenshi, urged the Trudeau cabinet to approve the mine and cautioned against an instinctual bias toward Eastern interests that would overlook the project’s benefits…“If this project is not one that the government can approve, then they should just admit that there’s a moratorium on all energy investment in Canada”…rejecting the project, which Teck says would eventually create 7,000 jobs, would be “a devastating signal for investors looking at Canada,” a spokesman for Alberta’s energy minister said…

3. This is long overdue: RCMP have arrested 6 opponents of a natural gas pipeline through northern B.C. after moving in yesterday and enforcing a court injunction around a key project worksite…it comes a day after the RCMP held a news conference pleding that officers would take a “light touch” when enforcing the B.C. Supreme Court order requiring that Coastal GasLink workers be given access to the area near Houston…the 6 who were arrested are more than just “opponents” and they belong in jail for an extended period – they are anarchists who refuse to respect the laws of the land (if you oppose these radical “First Nation” individuals you are labelled a “racist”)…their actions are illegal (in direct violation of a recent court order) and detrimental to the economy and the legal pursuit of resource development in this country…they want the United Nations to come to their defence…ironically, all of the elected First Nation groups along the pipeline route are in favor of the project, and are benefiting from it, so these anarchists/eco-terrorists are even hurting their own people…it’s time Canada stood up and took a very tough stand against this nonsense…

4. U.S. employers added a robust 225,000 jobs in January, much more than expected, and the jobless rate was 3.6%, signs that the U.S. labor market is positioned to fuel economic growth in 2020…wages increased 3.1% from a year earlier, a touch higher than December’s annual rise of 3% and the 18th consecutive month of gains 3% or better…economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had forecast job growth of 158,000, an unemployment rate of 3.5% and year-over-year wage growth of 3%…January’s payroll gain points to a continued healthy labor market in a U.S. economic expansion now in its 11th year…over the past 3 months, the U.S. economy added an average 211,000 jobs…strong jobs growth and solid but not runaway wage growth will be positive for stocks through the balance of 2020…

5. The Dow has retreated 208 points after a 4-session winning streak…the major averages hit new record highs yesterday, boosted by China’s decision to halve tariffs on $75 billion worth of U.S. products…in Toronto, the TSX has lost 64 points…the Gold Index is up another point at 263…the Venture, meanwhile, is off 1 point at 577…technically, the Venture continues to look healthy and it’s just a matter of time before a key breakout occurs above the critical mid-580’s…Venture volume averaged 140.6 million shares last month, up slightly from December but down about 7% from January last year…the total value of financings in January was up 24% from the previous month and up 59% from January 2019…yet another Venture company that thinks nothing of doing a cheap, dilutive financing that makes no sense and only a weak and lazy management team would allow – Fremont Gold (FRE, TSX-V) has increased its previously announced $1 million at financing at 6 cents, with a full warrant at 10 cents, to $1.47 million (24 million shares and 24 million warrants)…this destroys what was a fairly attractive share structure prior to the PP as only 54.3 million shares were outstanding…Canaccord Genuity’s Canadian capital markets revenue dropped 42% in the last 3 months of 2019 compared with the previous year, driven by a sharp decline in cannabis underwriting work…the Canadian Marijuana Index has fallen another 7 points to 183, its lowest level since October 2016…

6. Another sign of the times in the struggling cannabis sector: Aurora Cannabis (ACB, TSX, NYSE) CEO Terry Booth is stepping down and the company is laying off hundreds of employees…the announcement came just days before Aurora is due to report quarterly earnings…the layoffs will eliminate 500 full-time-equivalent staff, including 25% of corporate positions…the company also announced that it expects to take a $740 million to $775 million writedown on goodwill, and an impairment charge of between $190 million and $225 million…the moves are another sign of the reversal in the fortunes of Canada’s cannabis industry…Booth has led Aurora since 2013, overseeing the Edmonton company’s stunning transition, through a series of acquisitions, into Canada’s 2nd largest cannabis company by sales and third largest by market capitalization…over the past year, however, Aurora has struggled to live up to the expectations it set in the lead-up to the legalization of recreational marijuana…sales growth has faltered, and the company continues to burn through cash at a rapid rate…in November, it announced that it was stopping construction on 2 new facilities, including a 1.6-million sq. ft growing operation in Medicine Hat…Booth will remain on the Aurora board…Aurora’s stock has lost 80% of its value over the last year, a stunning decline for the 2nd largest pot producer in the country, a company that was once worth more than $10 billion…the licensed producer has been struggling with consecutive revenue declines, a high monthly burn-rate, soaring debt and depleting cash resources, having never struck a deal with a large multinational conglomerate that could have at least salvaged much of its short-term cash issues…

7. Canada’s government should fund initiatives like a proposed $1.6 billion project that would provide power and fiber optics to the country’s remote north and spur new business, said a Gold mining executive yesterday…Canada’s Infrastructure Bank on Wednesday signed an MOU to assess the project, which needs federal investment to get built and would run to Nunavut from Manitoba…“This has to be looked at as nation building,” said Agnico Eagle (AEM, TSX, NYSE) CEO Sean Boyd in an interview…Agnico, Canada’s largest Gold producer, runs 3 Gold mines in the Kivalliq region and is Nunavut’s largest private employer…“A big part of that funding has to come from the federal government to not only build the power line to benefit the current communities, but to look at it as a way to finally open up an area which has tremendous potential,” he said…Nunavut is a vast Arctic region – the size of Mexico – with a population of 36,000 mostly Inuit that separated officially from the Northwest Territories 20 years ago…though rich with mineral deposits, it suffers from a dire lack of infrastructure and all electricity is produced by diesel generators…electricity production for the territory consumes 55 million litres (15 million gallons) of diesel each year, and Agnico Eagle’s Nunavut sites require 80 million litres (21 million gallons)…“As we’re considering major projects and as we make new discoveries in the north, which we believe will be there, we need a cost structure that allows you to build those into meaningful businesses,” Boyd said…

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1. Gold has traded between $1,563 and $1,547 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific the yellow metal is up slightly at $1,554…no reason for Gold to dip below its solid floor of support between $1,550 and $1,520…Silver, with chart support beginning at $17.50, is unchanged at $17.56…base metals continue to recover…Copper has added 4 cents to $2.60…Nickel has jumped 14 cents to $5.95 while Zinc has added 2 pennies to $1.02…Cobalt prices have climbed by nearly $1 a pound in recent sessions, now at $15.76…Crude Oil has gained nearly $2 a barrel to $51.43 after media reports that scientists had developed a drug against the Wuhan coronavirus…the World Health Organization played down the media reports, saying there are “no known effective therapeutics” against the virus…confirmed coronavirus cases are near 25,000, claiming the lives of 490 people…despite media hype, the coronavirus is not spreading globally in any significant way…more than 99% of the cases are in China and most are concentrated in the Hubei province where the virus was first detected in the city of Wuhan…the U.S. Dollar Index is up one-third of a point at 98.29…Wall Street is reacting well this morning to a rousing State of the Union speech last night by President Trump, arguably the best speech (“The American Comeback”) of his young political career just as a new Gallup poll shows that his job approval rating is now at its highest level since he took office in 2017…“Jobs are booming.  Incomes are soaring.  Poverty is plummeting.  The years of economic decay are over”, Trump stated…with a strong U.S. economy, a failed impeachment effort and a botched Iowa Caucus to kick off the 2020 election cycle, these aren’t promising times for Democrats, who have also tilted way too far to the left…House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s frustration was clearly evident last night as she tore up her copy of Trump’s speech in front of the cameras as soon as the State of the Union address was over…it was a petty and classless move, and also very disrespectful to the country given how much of the speech focused on American exceptionalism and American heroes…Democrats have not been able to figure out how to effectively counter Trump…Wall Street knows it and that’s a major reason why equity markets will continue to track higher in 2020…

2. The U.S. has become a jobs-producing machine – the jobs market kicked off 2020 in grand fashion, adding 291,000 in private payrolls for the best monthly gain since May 2015, according to a report this morning from ADP and Moody’s Analytics…that was well above the 150,000 estimate from economists surveyed by Dow Jones and more evidence that the U.S. still is a good distance from full employment even with the jobless rate at its lowest point in more than half a century…the total also was a sharp gain from the 199,000 in December…growth came across a swath of industries…

3. The Federal Court of Appeal yesterday dismissed the case filed by Tsleil-waututh First Nation, Squamish First Nation and Coldwater Indian Band, who argued that Canada’s federal government failed to properly consult on the Trans Mountain Pipeline Project which would pass through their territories…however, these 3 indigenous groups and aligned radical environmentalists – on the wrong side of history – reiterated they are committed to breaking the law in their attempts to block the project which a majority of British Columbians and Canadians support…“We always said we’d do what it takes to stop this pipeline,” said Rueben George, manager of the TWN Sacred Trust and a member of the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation, 1 of 3 First Nations that filed the legal challenge…“We will take steps to make sure that Canada stays the way it is,” he added at a news conference…meanwhile, Dustin Rivers, a spokesman for and elected member of the Squamish Nation Council, stated, “We are deeply disappointed with the decision today.  B.C. has a long history of civil disobedience”…First Nations have 60 days to file an appeal…the Supreme Court should not even be willing to hear an appeal given the sharp wording of yesterday’s decision, which was rendered unanimously and ordered the indigenous groups to pay compensation to the defendants – the federal government, Canada Energy Regulator as well as Alberta and Saskatchewan…

4. Eric Sprott has beefed up his position in Ely Gold Royalties (ELY, TSX-V)…the company has cut a deal with Sprott to acquire his 0.5% NSR (the “Target Royalty”) on the Gold-producing Jerritt Canyon mine facility in Elko, Nevada, currently operated by a private Nevada limited liability company…Ely Gold already holds a per ton royalty interest on the Jerritt Canyon processing facilities that it acquired in a private transaction last year…in consideration for the Target Royalty, Ely Gold has agreed to pay $8 million CDN to Sprott, payable by issuance of 12,698,413 Ely Gold common shares at a deemed issue price of 63 cents per share…upon formal completion of the transaction, Sprott will hold approximately 16.2% of the outstanding Ely Gold shares on a non-diluted basis, and approximately 28.3% on a partially diluted basis….however, pursuant to a pre-existing agreement signed late last year, unless the TSXV accepts Sprott becoming a “Control Person” of the company, he has agreed not to exercise any portion of his warrants if, as a result of such exercise, his direct and indirect holdings would exceed 19.9% of the outstanding Ely Gold voting shares…the company plans to seek such an approval at its next AGM expected to be held on or before May 2020…ELY holds a 2% NSR on Wallbridge Mining’s (WM, TSX) Fenelon deposit…

5. The Dow has climbed another 321 points through the first 30 minutes of trading…in Toronto, the TSX has added 143 points while the Venture has gained 2 points to 575, just above a strong band of support from 570 to 560…technically, the Venture is looking very healthy and it’s just a matter of time before a key breakout occurs above the critical mid-580’s…Walker River (WRR, TSX-V) is this morning’s early volume leader after reporting very high-grade near-surface Gold intercepts from RC drilling at its Lapon Project in Nevada…highlights were 96 g/t Au over 13.7 m, 94.8 g/t over 6.1 m, and 364 g/t over 1.5 m (uncut values, 80% true width)…normally, numbers like that would send a stock through the roof, but a “management discount” has been applied here – weak management has been WRR’s Achilles heel for years…keep an eye on Chibougamau Independent Mines (CBG, TSX-V) over the coming weeks…the company is now commencing a new drill program at its C-3 Copper-Gold zone in northern Quebec…results last year included 7.7% Cu and 3.6 g/t Au over a core length of 9.2 m at a vertical depth of 450 m…drilling will test the down plunge of this zone…Ero Copper (ERO, TSX) is gathering steam after a 25% January slide, thanks to the hype around the coronavirus and plummeting Copper prices…this is not only a very profitable production story but one of the best exploration plays in the market…Ero is super-aggressive at pursuing new discoveries on its large-scale holdings in Brazil while it also features strong operational execution and peer-leading organic production growth via its 99.6% interest in Mineração Caraíba S.A. (“MCSA”), a long-established Brazilian Copper mining company with over 40 years of operating history in the Curaçá Valley…ERO is up 55 cents at $19.51 as of 7:00 am Pacific…

6. Merger and acquisition activity in the Gold sector rose in 2019 to the highest level since 2010, but a return to the widespread, costly deal-making of a decade ago is not likely given producers’ shift toward capital discipline, according to consultancy Metals Focus…further, roughly two-thirds of last year’s dollar volume was from just one deal – the Newmont Mining takeover of Goldcorp, the consultancy pointed out in a report yesterday…the value of M&A activity in the Gold sector increased to $18.2 billion in 2019, up 45% over 2018…this was still below the 2010 peak of $32.2 billion…without the $12.3 billion Newmont–Goldcorp merger, M&A deals last year totaled $5.9 billion, down from $7.2 billion in 2018…the number of total deals rose slightly to 89 in 2019 from 86 the year before…

7. Of the millions of NFL fans that watched Sunday’s 54th Super Bowl, many were looking to cash in on the Big Game thanks to the rise in sports betting in the United States…Bank of America says sports betting could reach 50% of the U.S. population by 2022…while sports betting revenue was about $950 million in 2019, estimates for the booming industry’s future range from $6 billion to $20 billion…“We think the success, adoption and technology behind online and mobile sports could be a catalyst for wider iGaming penetration, a notable shift for an industry that has thus far not been widely impacted by the Internet,” Bank of America research analyst Shaun Kelley said in a note to clients on Friday…sports betting and online gaming have been some of the hottest topics in investor conversations, Kelley said…daily fantasy sports company and bookmaker DraftKings reached a deal to merge with Diamond Eagle Acquisition Group (DEAC, NASDAQ) in December, allowing the company to become public while forgoing the typical IPO process…last Wednesday, casino company Penn National Gaming (PENN, NASDAQ) soared 12% when it announced it’s taking a 36% stake in digital sports media company Barstool Sports for about $163 million in cash…the deal, which values Barstool around $450 million, is expected to close this quarter…“We view this partnership positively and expect that it will quickly transform PENN into one of the major players in sports betting,” said Kelley…PENN also has a stake in Score Media & Gaming (SCR, TSX-V) which has been one of the top-performing Venture stocks since early 2018…

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1. Gold has traded between $1,577 and $1,556 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific the yellow metal has retreated $20 an ounce to $1,556…no reason for Gold to dip below its solid floor of support between $1,550 and $1,520…Silver, with chart support beginning at $17.50, has fallen just 4 cents to $17.61…base metals are picking up…Copper has rebounded 5 cents to $2.57 while Nickel and Zinc are both up slightly at $5.83 and $1.01, respectively…Crude Oil has added 64 cents to $50.75 amid hopes for new output curbs from OPEC and its allies to offset any potential drop in demand triggered by China’s coronavirus outbreak…the U.S. Dollar Index has gained more than one-tenth of a point to 97.94…Caucus Chaos, and Wall Street loves it…the political party that wants to bring the “Green New Deal”, “Medicare For All” and “Free Tuition” to America, exponentially expanding the role of government (never a wise choice), can’t even properly manage a caucus event it had 4 years to prepare for…in what is unquestionably a huge embarrassment for the Democratic Party, no results have been released yet from last night’s Iowa Caucus, the much-anticipated kick-off every 4 years to the Presidential elections…Republicans had no problem counting their votes – President Trump took 97%, and it’s hard to imagine he won’t knock out the discombobulated Democrats with a landslide victory in November…

2. China’s central bank could cut its key lending rate as well as banks’ reserve requirement ratios (RRRs) in the coming weeks to support economic growth, according to a report this morning from Reuters…this comes a day after the People’s Bank of China unveiled massive liquidity injection measures to the tune of more than 1 trillion yuan…with China’s Q1 GDP likely to fall sharply, due to the coronavirus outbreak, Beijing can be expected to respond aggressively with fiscal and monetary stimulus to get growth on track in Q2..this will generate a V-shaped recovery, led by the industrial sector, and that in turn is going to push oversold base metals back up sharply…

3. Enbridge’s (ENB, NYSE) Line 3 Pipeline replacement cleared important hurdles yesterday when a Minnesota regulator endorsed a revised environmental impact statement for the project…the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission’s decision, followed by its approval of a certificate of need and route permit, is a victory for Canadian Oil producers who have been forced to curtail production in Alberta because of a shortage of pipeline capacity…Enbridge shares have hit a nearly 3-year high…Line 3, built in the 1960’s, carries Oil from Alberta to Superior, Wisconsin…it carries less Oil than it was designed for because of age and corrosion…replacing Line 3 will allow Enbridge to double capacity to 760,000 barrels per day, driving the fossil fuel haters crazy…meanwhile, Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal is set to release its decision later this morning (10:00 am Pacific) on the latest challenge of the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion…4 First Nations from British Columbia filed court challenges after the federal government approved the project a 2nd time last June…a court hearing in December focused on the government’s consultation with the First Nations between August 2018 and June 2019…

4. Shorts have been burned on this one – Tesla (TSLA, NASDAQ) jumped again today, hitting a new record high above $900 in early trading as major shareholder Ron Baron forecast the company will top $1 trillion in revenue in a decade…“I just can’t believe this freaking stock.  It’s insane,” Roth Capital analyst Craig Irwin said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box”…“This is a big separation from those of us who like to pull out the calculators and look at reality”…this latest surge comes after Tesla climbed 19.9% yesterday, its biggest 1-day gain in 6 years…Argus Research raised its price target to a new Wall Street high of $808 a share (but even that price target is below where the stock opened this morning)…Tesla shares are up more than 80% this year through yesterday’s close, fuelled by analysts raising price targets to catch up to the stock and short-covering by investors betting against the shares…analysts still can’t keep up with the run…their average 12-month price target is $493, up from $334 in December, according to FactSet…

5. The Dow has climbed 445 points through the first 30 minutes of trading as overblown coronavirus fears subside…in Toronto, the TSX has added 145 points while the Venture has backed off 3 points to 572, just above a strong band of support from 570 to 560…Ely Gold Royalties (ELY, TSX-V), which holds a 2% NSR on Wallbridge’s (WM, TSX) Fenelon deposit, remains halted, pending news…Eric Sprott added 1 million shares of Balmoral Resources (BAR, TSX) yesterday at 47 cents, increasing his stake in the company to 9.1% (16.1 million shares) on a non-diluted basis…the market is not too excited about GoGold Resources’ (GGD, TSX) dilutive PP announced this morning…the company announced it’s raising $15 million through Sprott Capital Partners LP and PI Financial in a bought deal at 70 cents per share…each unit consists of 1 common share and a half warrant exercisable at a price of 85 cents a share, just 2 cents below yesterday’s close, for 2 years…GGD has plunged 14 cents to 69 cents…Calibre Mining (CXB, TSX) has drilled more high-grade intercepts at El Limon in Nicaragua including 11.85 g/t over 5.1 m, 18.65 g/t over 5.1 m, and 4.1 g/t over 20.3 (estimated true widths)…the drilling was successful in expanding Gold mineralization along the El Limon vein system, with high-grade intercepts returned from extensions below the current Limon Norte deposit…CEO Russell Ball stated, “A nice start to our exploration program at El Limon.  We ramped-up the program significantly in January and I am confident that our 2020 drilling campaign will deliver positive results in this world-class, low sulfidation epithermal district”…Nighthawk Gold (NHK, TSX) has drilled 12.7 m grading 8.5 g/t Au, including 2.85 m @ 33.7 g/t, at its Treasure Island Gold Project 11 km north of its flagship Colomac Gold Project, within the north-central portion of its 100%-owned Indin Lake Property in the Northwest Territories…drilling continues to define a wide band of consistent mineralization that spans a 750-m long section of the regional contact between metavolcanic and metasedimentary rock units within the eastern part of the 7-km-long Treasure Island…mineralization remains open along strike to the east and west and represents priority ground for future exploration…Ero Copper (ERO, TSX) is swinging back after losing nearly one-quarter of its value in January, thanks to the hype around the coronavirus and plummeting Copper prices…this is not only a very profitable production story but one of the best exploration plays in the market…Ero is super-aggressive at pursuing new discoveries on its large-scale holdings in Brazil while it also features strong operational execution and peer-leading organic production growth via its 99.6% interest in Mineração Caraíba S.A. (“MCSA”), a long-established Brazilian Copper mining company with over 40 years of operating history in the Curaçá Valley…ERO is up 49 cents at $19.15 as of 7:00 am Pacific…

6.  Palladium is pushing higher again, up $50 an ounce today at $2,265, and 1 of the undiscovered opportunities in the Palladium space is Transition Metals (XTM, TSX-V) with a market cap of only $9 million…this morning the company announced that it has staked 91 claims covering approximately 19 sq. km located east of Lake Nipigon in northwest Ontario…the property covers most of the Eva Kitto Intrusion, an early rift, mafic ultramafic body similar to those that host the Sunday Lake (Ontario), Thunder Bay North (Ontario), Tamarack (Minnesota) and Eagle (Michigan) Nickel, Copper and Platinum group deposits…CEO Scott McLean commented, “Robust Palladium and Rhodium metal prices have encouraged us to further expand our PGM portfolio.  Eva Kitto is a known mineralized intrusion with a number of similarities to our Sunday Lake and Saturday Night projects located closer to Thunder Bay.  The company now has excellent leverage to the rising PGM market with a bundle of projects, shareholdings of PGM focused companies and royalties”...the Sunday Lake Project is currently being drilled by Implats Canada which is following up on 2018 results that included 41.2 m @ 5.5 g/t PGM; 35.8 m @ 3.9 g/t PGM; and 42.9 m @ 3.4 g/t PGM; 61 m @ 2.2 g/t…XTM holds a 25% free-carried interest to feasibility…Transition holds more than 3 dozen projects covering all the major metals…

7. Of the millions of NFL fans that watched Sunday’s 54th Super Bowl, many were looking to cash in on the Big Game thanks to the rise in sports betting in the United States…Bank of America says sports betting could reach 50% of the U.S. population by 2022…while sports betting revenue was about $950 million in 2019, estimates for the booming industry’s future range from $6 billion to $20 billion…“We think the success, adoption and technology behind online and mobile sports could be a catalyst for wider iGaming penetration, a notable shift for an industry that has thus far not been widely impacted by the Internet,” Bank of America research analyst Shaun Kelley said in a note to clients on Friday…sports betting and online gaming have been some of the hottest topics in investor conversations, Kelley said…daily fantasy sports company and bookmaker DraftKings reached a deal to merge with Diamond Eagle Acquisition Group (DEAC, NASDAQ) in December, allowing the company to become public while forgoing the typical IPO process…last Wednesday, casino company Penn National Gaming (PENN, NASDAQ) soared 12% when it announced it’s taking a 36% stake in digital sports media company Barstool Sports for about $163 million in cash…the deal, which values Barstool around $450 million, is expected to close this quarter…“We view this partnership positively and expect that it will quickly transform PENN into one of the major players in sports betting,” said Kelley…PENN also has a stake in Score Media & Gaming (SCR, TSX-V) which has been one of the top-performing Venture stocks since early 2018…

Most Popular Recent BMR Posts

Video: How This Innovative Junior Is Winning The “Battery Arms Race” In Northern Ontario

“The Enemies Of Progress, The Radical Environmentalists, Are Ramping Up For A War In The Woods”

Why Are These People Smiling? – Their Stock Has Tanked 80%!

Turbocharged Nickel

Commodity Check!

The Template For The Next 10% Stake In Garibaldi Resources

Thunder In The Corridor!

The Nickel Mountain Magma Highway

Two Big Plays Emerge in B.C., Setting The Stage For A Summer To Remember

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

Northern Ontario Cobalt Junior Attracts Interest From Metal Trading Companies

The Most Important Venture Development Since The New Bull Market Began

Visit the BMR comments section throughout the day for updates and helpful information!

1. Gold has traded between $1,582 and $1,569 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific the yellow metal is off $14 an ounce at $1,575…while mainland China accounts for more than 28% of the world’s physical Gold jewelry, bar and coin demand (848 metric tons in 2019 according to the World Gold Council), Gold prices will get continued support from the demand for safety and falling U.S. Treasury yields, with the market pricing in a higher probability of a June rate cut from the Federal Reserve…ETF buying also remains strong while multiple global central banks continue to accumulate aggressively…Silver has retreated 36 cents to $17.65…solid support around $17.50…Copper, in extreme oversold conditions, is flat at $2.53 after suffering its worst month since 2015…long-term uptrend support, which held during the depths of the bear market in 2015, is in the mid-$2.40’s…Nickel, also coming off a bad month, is trading at $5.77 while Zinc is off slightly at $1.00…Crude Oil has fallen another 55 cents to $51.85 while the U.S. Dollar Index has jumped nearly half a point to 97.02…2 Canadian Oil pipelines face yet more regulatory scrutiny this week…today, a utilities regulator in Minnesota is set to decide whether a revised environmental impact statement on Enbridge’s proposed replacement for its Line 3 Pipeline is adequate…Enbridge is proposing the replacement of a pipeline that runs 1,100 miles from Edmonton to Superior in Wisconsin, with a new conduit that will carry 760,000 barrels per day of Canadian Crude to Midwest refineries…tomorrow, it’s Ottawa-owned Trans Mountain Pipeline’s day in court…the country’s Federal Court of Appeal is expected to rule on whether the federal government consulted and accommodated Indigenous people adequately before approving, for a 2nd time, the 590,000-bpd expansion of the Alberta-to-B.C. pipeline…

2. China’s stock market reopened today to the most savage wave of selling in years with most stocks falling by the daily limit after just minutes of trading…all but 162 of the almost 4,000 stocks in Shanghai and Shenzhen recorded losses, with about 90% dropping the maximum allowed by the country’s exchanges…health-care shares comprised most of Monday’s gainers on speculation they will benefit from the virus outbreak…the nearly 8% plunge on the Shanghai was the index’s biggest daily fall in more than 4 years…the Chinese yuan blew past the 7-per-dollar mark and Shanghai-traded commodities from palm oil to Copper hit their maximum down limits…the wipeout came even as the central bank made its biggest cash injection to the financial system since 2004 and despite apparent regulatory moves to curb selling…China reported 17,205 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus and 361 deaths through yesterday…outside of China the problem is much less severe with only 180 cases reported in 25 countries and territories spanning North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East…the coronavirus is also showing that it’s not as deadly as SARS, the outbreak in 2002–2003 with fewer cases (~8,000) that killed more than 800 people…

3. U.S. factory activity rebounded strongly in January after contracting for 5 straight months amid a surge in new orders, offering hope that a prolonged slump in business investment has probably bottomed out…the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said this morning that its index of national factory activity increased to a reading of 50.9 last month, well above the consensus estimate and the highest level since July….a reading above 50 indicates expansion in the manufacturing sector, which accounts for 11% of the U.S. economy…the improvement in the ISM data likely reflects ebbing trade tensions between the United States and China following President Trump’s Phase 1 trade deal…the U.S. economy under President Trump remains resilient and initial estimates are that China’s coronavirus outbreak may impact U.S. GDP growth in Q1 only fractionally, perhaps by one-fifth of 1 percentage point…there was no reason for Friday’s big sell-off on Wall Street other than mainstream media sensationalism…

5. The Dow has rebounded 286 points through the first 30 minutes of trading after Friday’s coronavirus overreaction sent the index tumbling 600 points…once coronavirus fears subside, resilient U.S. markets should be in a good position to hit new highs…the TSX has added 60 points while the Venture is up 1 point at 576…despite a sell-off in base metals and Oil, and renewed selling in cannabis stocks, the Venture is holding up well and features a strong support band between 570 and 560…high-grade Gold and high-grade Silver plays will remain in favor…Wallbridge Mining (WM, TSX) has added 2 pennies to 94 cents while neighbor Balmoral Resources (BAR,M TSX) is steady at key resistance of 47.5 cents…Ely Gold Royalties (ELY, TSX-V), which holds a 2% NSR on Wallbridge’s Fenelon deposit, continues to surge with a new all-time high in early trading of 80 cents…K92 Mining (KNT, TSX-V), which hit another new high of $3.98 during Friday’s session, is up 6 cents at $3.91…Fiore Gold (F, TSX-V) this morning reported quarterly production of 8,750 ounces of Gold (October through December) at its Pan mine in Nevada, though the company is still maintaining fiscal 2020 production guidance of 45,000 to 48,000 ounces…“Although total ounces recovered in Q4 2019 were lower than expected, management believes these ounces are simply delayed, and will likely be recovered over the coming months,” stated CEO Tim Warman…“Our full-year guidance for FY2020 shows a significant increase in Gold production over the previous year as the benefits of the crushing circuit are fully felt. Higher guided cash costs are related to the temporarily higher stripping ratios, which are expected to decline significantly in the 2nd half of the year”…GoGold (GGD, TSX) has reported net income of $535,000 (U.S.) on total revenue of $9.3 million (U.S.) for the 4th quarter ending December 31…all-in-sustaning costs were $14.59 per Silver equivalent ounce…Parral had another record production quarter and compared to a year ago revenue has more than doubled, driving the turnaround in cash flow from operations…mine optimization will positively impact Parral’s profitability in 2020…GGD is steady at 85 cents…

6. Of the millions of NFL fans that watched yesterday’s 54th Super Bowl, many were looking to cash in on the Big Game thanks to the rise in sports betting in the United States…Bank of America says sports betting could reach 50% of the U.S. population by 2022…while sports betting revenue was about $950 million in 2019, estimates for the booming industry’s future range from $6 billion to $20 billion…“We think the success, adoption and technology behind online and mobile sports could be a catalyst for wider iGaming penetration, a notable shift for an industry that has thus far not been widely impacted by the Internet,” Bank of America research analyst Shaun Kelley said in a note to clients on Friday…sports betting and online gaming have been some of the hottest topics in investor conversations, Kelley said…daily fantasy sports company and bookmaker DraftKings reached a deal to merge with Diamond Eagle Acquisition Group (DEAC, NASDAQ) in December, allowing the company to become public while forgoing the typical IPO process…on Wednesday, casino company Penn National Gaming (PENN, NASDAQ) soared 12% when it announced it’s taking a 36% stake in digital sports media company Barstool Sports for about $163 million in cash…the deal, which values Barstool around $450 million, is expected to close this quarter…“We view this partnership positively and expect that it will quickly transform PENN into one of the major players in sports betting,” said Kelley…PENN also has a stake in Score Media & Gaming (SCR, TSX-V) which has been one of the top-performing Venture stocks since early 2018…

7. The Canadian Marijuana Index, having fallen below 200, is trading at its lowest levels since 2016…meanwhile, 2 facts are emerging with regard to the legalization of cannabis in Canada…contrary to Justin Trudeau’s promise, the legalization of cannabis has not crushed the black market in Canada, and marijuana hasn’t proven to be the cash crop the government expected…cannabis excise tax revenues have come in at roughly only half of the Trudeau government’s original estimates…Stats Canada figures show that in the first fiscal year that marijuana was legalized (2018 – 2019) the feds took in $18 million in cannabis revenues, but had expected to take in $35 million…this year the government expected it would bring in $100 million, but now estimates it will see only $66 million…the Liberals believe that number will continue to rise to $135 million next year with a steady increase until $220 million in 2023, according to a response to a question on the House of Commons’ order paper…Stats Canada has also been tracking prices since before legalization and has found so far that illegal weed is falling in price, in order to compete with legal shops…there is also an approximately $4 per gram gap in prices with legal cannabis selling for around $10 per gram and illegal products selling for closer to $6…

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