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

1. It’s “Fed Day” with the central bank widely expected to increase interest rates by 25 basis points in an announcement slated for 11:00 am Pacific followed 30 minutes later by a Janet Yellen news conference…the Fed will also issue new forecasts assessing whether the economic outlook has changed since the election…in terms of Fed “language”, which will be critical to Gold’s reaction, it’s hard to imagine that the central bank will adopt an overly hawkish tone – even following the Trump election victory – after an extended period of being so cautious and taking such a wait-and-see approach…

2. Gold is up $5 an ounce at $1,164 as of 7:00 am Pacific…the pressure on Gold in recent weeks leading up to today’s anticipated interest rate hike could be lifted, depending on Yellen’s tone, not unlike the situation that occurred a year ago after the Fed hiked rates for the first time in nearly a decade…the Venture is up slightly in early trading while the TSX Gold Index has added 2 points to 192…

3. U.S. retail sales barely rose in November as households cut back on purchases of motor vehicles, suggesting some loss of momentum in economic growth in the 4th quarter…the Commerce Department said today that retail sales edged up 0.1% after 2 straight months of strong gains…meanwhile, October retail sales were revised downward to show a 0.6% increase instead of the previously reported 0.8% rise…meanwhile, the index of U.S. producer prices for final demand rose by a seasonally adjusted 0.4% in November, about twice as much as expected…PPI minus the volatile food and energy components also climbed 0.4%, topping expectations for a rise of 0.2%…

4. Aurora Cannabis (ACB, TSX-V) and Radient Technologies (RTI, TSX-V) have signed an MOU to evaluate an exclusive partnership for the Canadian market with regard to the joint development and commercialization of superior and standardized cannabinoid extracts…as part of the MOU, Aurora will invest up to $2 million into Radient through a convertible debenture…the news has given RTI a big boost…it’s up 23.5 cents at 38.5 cents through the first 30 minutes of trading…

5. The Canadian government is giving itself until late 2018 or early 2019 to open up the market for recreational marijuana, based on a road map that will allow everyone over 18 to purchase pot from a variety of producers and retailers or to grow their own…a task force chaired by former Liberal minister Anne McLellan yesterday provided 80 recommendations to end the prohibition on marijuana that dates back to 1923, using a model similar to the one in place for sales of tobacco and alcohol…a senior federal official said the report has been well received inside the government and will have a large influence on the upcoming legislation to legalize marijuana, which will be tabled in Parliament in the spring of next year…

6. Ken Malhi, President of Cannabix Technologies (BLO, CSE), stated the following in a news release this morning following yesterday’s task force report:  “We welcome the recommendations from the task force members which speaks to the urgent need to identify and approve a scientific tool to collect court-approved evidence of marijuana-impaired driving. Cannabix is developing its Cannabix marijuana breathalyzer to help law enforcement and employers to enhance detection of marijuana impaired driving offences on roads at a time when marijuana is becoming legal in various jurisdictions. The report confirms that marijuana impaired driving poses an increasing risk to the public and law enforcement needs a tool that can be used at the roadside to collect court admissible evidence of impairment at the time of the test. The report is concrete validation of the work we have been doing at Cannabix in developing our Cannabix Marijuana Breathalyzer and being a leader and early mover in this space“…BLO is up 7 cents at 91 cents as of 7:00 am Pacific and we’ll have an updated chart in today’s Morning Musings…

7. Venture Oil junior Toro Oil & Gas (TOO, TSX-V) is up 167% in early trading on a 37-cent offer ($40 million value) from Steelhead Petroleum Ltd., a private ARC Financial Corp.-sponsored company…Toro averaged 748 barrels of Oil equivalent per day (boe/d) in production during the 3rd quarter of this year…