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Check back later today for Daniel’s Den and visit the BMR comments section throughout the day for updates and helpful information.

1. Gold has traded between $1,314 and $1,325 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is down $6 an ounce at $1,317…Silver has retreated 14 cents to $16.43…Copper has slipped 3 pennies to $3.11…Nickel, after a powerful move Friday, has eased off 4 cents to $6.23…Zinc is down a penny to $1.47 while Cobalt is unchanged at a decade high of $38.33…Crude Oil is 48 cents lower at $61.56 while the U.S. Dollar Index is off slightly at 90.09…U.S. inflation worries have faded after data on Friday showed non-farm payrolls jumped by 313,000 jobs last month, but annual growth in average hourly earnings slowed to 2.6% after a spike in January that helped precipitate a correction in equities…Americans’ sentiment rose last week to the second-highest level since 2001, as the benefits of increased take-home pay from tax cuts outweighed concerns about stock-market volatility, according to the weekly Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index…CNBC’s Cramer is reporting this morning that Larry Kudlow, a CNBC senior contributor and a free trade advocate, is the leading contender to replace Gary Cohn as President Trump’s National Economic Council director…Canada, China and Hong Kong are among the economies most at risk of a banking crisis, according to early-warning indicators compiled by the Bank for International Settlements…speaking of China, the communist country’s rubber-stamp lawmakers yesterday passed an historic constitutional amendment abolishing a Presidential two-term limit that will enable Xi Jinping to rule indefinitely…

2. A new report by Fitch Group think tank BMI Research forecasts a decline in Canada’s global contribution of Nickel over the next decade with the country’s production growth rate averaging just 1.6%, the slowest of all major global Nickel producers…new discoveries in Canada are urgently needed…world Nickel production is expected to grow by an annual average rate of 3.5% through 2027, similar to the last decade, with Indonesia leading the way after having surpassed the Philippines as the largest global producer last year…the analysis presents Australia, which enjoys a stable regulatory environment and a solid project pipeline, as the second best-performing major producer…

3. Not surprisingly, there’s a stark difference between Canada and the U.S. in terms of how Oil rig activity is trending…according to energy services firm Baker Hughes, there were 796 active rigs in the U.S. last week…that’s an increase of 179 rigs or 29% over the past year…in Canada, 273 rigs were active last week which is down 13.3% from a year ago…of even greater concern is the drop in Oil rig activity in Canada just since the beginning of last month – down a whopping 69 rigs or 20.1%, according to CADOC (Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors)…that’s what politicians in this country are doing to the Oil and gas sector…

4. While metals’ sector investors gathered at PDAC last week, the Oil industry’s biggest names were at CERAWeek, the largest energy industry get-together in the Americas…a key turning point this year was the attendance of companies such as Alphabet and General Motors…their presence coincides with major discussions on how the Oil industry is funding research into big-data, cloud computing and applying new technology to its operations to cut costs and boost production…

5. A Barclays‘ analyst says Chinese data arriving in the coming days will set the tone for Copper’s short-term price as the market assesses demand indications from the world’s biggest consumer of the metal.  “We believe the Copper market is at a crossroads, with the next 4 to 6 weeks holding particular significance,” stated analyst Dane Davis.  “With China broadly maintaining macro momentum into the New Year, there is an open question whether that will be maintained with resumption of industrial activity in March and early April.  Supply and the ongoing pace of labor contract renewals (in Chile and Peru) are also under scrutiny…for the industry as a whole, labor harmony brings higher supply, a return to mined production growth, and, thus, the potential for weaker prices.”

6. The Dow is up 76 points through the first 30 minutes of trading…in Toronto, the TSX is 22 points higher…Aurora Cannabis (ACB, TSX) has been added to the S&P/TSX Composite Index…the Venture has slipped 2 points to 827 on weakness in some marijuana plays…Scythian Biosciences (SCYB, TSX-V), which soared to more than $34 in January, announced this morning that it has entered into a non-binding LOI to acquire a company pursuing medical cannabis opportunities in South America…Pascal Biosciences (PAS, TSX-V), in the midst of closing a $5.2 million financing at 40 cents, is unchanged at 48 cents as of 7:00 am Pacific…the company recently announced that it has identified molecules in cannabis that stimulate the immune system to destroy tumor cells…Canada Jetlines (JET, TSX-V) continues to fly high, touching $1.18 in early trading…Assure Holdings (IOM, TSX-V) is taking a beating after announcing the resignation of its Auditor and a director…on the CSE, MGX Minerals (XMG, CSE) says it has commenced optimization of charging and oxygen fuel generation functions for its Zinc air fuel cell battery as part of the mass production design phase…Kopin (KOPN, NASDAQ), a global leader in the wearable technology space, is up another dime in early trading to $3.60, its 8th straight winning session as it pushes above its 200-day moving average (SMA)…

7. The Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO), which is overseeing the sale and distribution of recreational cannabis in that province, has unveiled its Ontario Cannabis Store (OSC) brand…the Ontario Cannabis Store will be the name for the government agency as well as its physical and virtual retail shops…the OCS will be the only retailer in the province that sells this type of product legally…Ontario plans to initially open 40 stores, in addition to offering on-line sales…it said it will have 80 stores open by July 1, 2019, and 150 locations by the end of 2020…in contrast, there are 660 LCBO retail stores and 212 agency stores that sell alcoholic beverages in the province…that is a little more than half of the Ontario alcohol market…meanwhile, Canadians are paying just under $7 a gram for marijuana, on average, according to Stats Canada which received 17,139 voluntary reports, submitted on-line, on how much people paid for pot…

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