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1. Gold has traded between $1,209 and $1,217 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is up $4 an ounce at $1,211…holdings of Gold by global ETFs fell by 38.6 tonnes in July to 2,393.6 tonnes, the World Gold Council reported this morning…this, along with a 2% decline in the Gold price during June, pushed assets under management in Gold ETFs lower to $94 billion from $98 billion in June…Silver has added 9 cents to $15.54…base metals have firmed on short-covering amid optimism top consumer China will prop up its economy with stimulus measures and that the country’s currency is stabilizing…China Railway was reported in domestic media as saying China would boost its fixed asset investment in railways to 800 billion yuan ($117 billion U.S.) in 2018, an increase of 9.3% over its original plan…Copper is up 2 pennies at $2.78…Nickel, after dipping as low as $5.95 yesterday, is up 7 cents at $6.19…Zinc is a penny higher at $1.20 while Cobalt is off 95 cents at $29.03…Crude Oil has gained 33 cents to $69.33 while the U.S. Dollar Index has fallen one-quarter of a point to 95.10…
2. Oil prices are up modestly as re-introduced U.S. sanctions against major Crude exporter Iran are expected to tighten global supply…U.S. sanctions against Iran, which shipped out almost 3 million barrels per day (bpd) of Crude in July, officially came into effect at 12:01 a.m. EST today…“The re-imposition of U.S. sanctions on Iran remains the key (price) driver in the near-term,” ANZ said today in a note to clients…“Supply losses could range from 600,000 to 1.5 million bpd”…as a result, the bank said, “The Oil market should remain tight, despite OPEC increasing production to offset losses elsewhere”…many countries, including U.S. allies in Europe as well as China and India, oppose the sanctions but the U.S. government said it wants as many countries as possible to stop buying Iranian Oil. “It is our policy to get as many countries to zero as quickly as possible. We are going to work with individual countries on a case-by-case basis, but our goal is to reduce the amount of revenue and hard currency going into Iran,” a senior U.S. administration official said on Monday…whether the administration’s calculation – that it can, in effect, drive a hard bargain with Iran or weaken the regime so it retrenches – pays off will depend on how vigorously the sanctions are enforced and whether Iran is able to circumvent them…the sanctions will remain in effect, U.S. officials said, unless Tehran meets a dozen stringent demands, including that it cease its support for militant groups in the Middle East and end its enrichment of Uranium…
3. Global miner BHP (BHP, NYSE, ASX) 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”, asset president Eduard Haegel told Reuters on the sidelines of the Diggers and Dealers mining conference in Kalgoorlie…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…
4. The Dow has jumped 151 points through the first 30 minutes of trading…the S&P 500, meanwhile, has moved closer to a record high set earlier this year, boosted by strong corporate earnings that offset worries around global trade…in Toronto, the TSX is 66 points higher while the Venture is up a point at 703 as of 7:00 am Pacific…Sokoman Iron (SIC, TSX-V), last week’s big winner with a gain of 133%, is up another 13 cents at 55 cents in early trading today…SIC has almost turned into a 10-bagger since BMR’s July 18 piece, “A Cheapie Gold Play That’s A Walking Time Bomb“…Kraken Robotics (PNG, TSX-V) has hit a new high on news that it has has signed a co-operative research and development agreement (CRADA) with the U.S. Navy’s Naval Undersea Warfare Center – Division Newport…the CRADA covers the operation of Kraken’s high-speed actively controlled towed Synthetic Aperture Sonar, KATFISH, for multi-mission applications, including mine countermeasures…Galaxy Digital (GLXY, TSX-V), which made its Venture debut last Wednesday, is up 19 cents at $3.04 as of 7:00 am Pacific…Mike Novogratz is bullish on bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, but he wishes the timing of his crypto merchant bank’s listing on the Venture could have been better…“If I knew what I know now, knew the crypto markets were going to swoon as much, and it was going to take this long, I might have stayed private for another year or so and then gone public,” Novogratz said in a BNN interview…“But I don’t think it’s a mistake”…the bank will trade virtual currencies, invest in related companies, manage investment funds and advise clients on deals…
5. Gold Standard Ventures (GSV, TSX-V) is up modestly in early trading after releasing results this morning from 31 reverse circulation (RC) and 2 core holes at the Dark Star deposit on its 100% owned/controlled Railroad-Pinion Project in Nevada’s Carlin trend…4 holes in the northern portion of Dark Star intersected strong grades and impressive widths: 161.5 m of 3.3 g Au/t, 136.6 m of 3.4 g Au/t, 112.8 m of 1.4 g Au/t and 92.9 m of 1.2 g Au/t, respectively…these results continue to confirm the lateral and strike continuity of higher-grade Gold, and the openness of this system to the north, west and at depth…to date 19,726 m of infill, step-out and geotechnical drilling have been completed in 121 RC and core holes at Dark Star…results from 41 more holes are still pending…Jonathan Awde, CEO and Director of Gold Standard,commented: “This year’s drilling at Dark Star is transforming our understanding of the opportunities we have at Railroad-Pinion. We knew that, in Dark Star, we had an unusually high grade, oxide Gold occurrence and the new results have confirmed this conclusion. But this drilling is taking us well beyond the current resource limits at Dark Star and also beyond our expectations for the district as a whole. The deeper zones of oxidized high grade mineralization have surprised us. We are now revising the current program to further test the depth potential in those areas where the structural plumbing system appears to support it. The results could have important implications for the future development of the district”…
6. Before Apple (AAPL, NASDAQ) hit $1 trillion in market value last Thursday, becoming the first U.S. publicly traded company to do so, there was Chinese Oil giant PetroChina which reached the milestone more than a decade ago…it did not fare too well after that…PetroChina’s market cap hit $1 trillion in 2007 following a successful debut on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in November of that year…the company’s Shanghai-listed shares nearly tripled at the open that day, with its Hong Kong-listed shares following them higher…the rise gave the company a market cap of $1.1 trillion on both the Shanghai and Hong Kong exchanges…according to Reuters, PetroChina’s opening price in Shanghai valued the company at 60 x analysts’ forecasts for 2007 earnings per share, above the global average of 18 x for Oil companies at that time…it was all downhill from there, however…PetroChina’s market value plummeted to less than $260 billion by the end of 2008, representing the largest destruction of shareholder wealth in world history, according to Bloomberg…blame the financial crisis and a collapse in Oil prices…when PetroChina made its debut in 2007, Brent Crude prices were at one point above $140 a barrel…today they are about half that…PetroChina has not fared too well since the end of 2008, either…the company’s Hong Kong-listed stock is down more than 20% since the start of 2009…
7. How much more of this will we see?…a $6.5 million marijuana grow-op dismantled north of Toronto was using personal licences to grow medical marijuana as a cover to cultivate thousands of illegal plants, police allege…York Regional Police Service’s organized crime bureau executed a search warrant after stumbling upon the industrial-scale grow-op during a safety inspection with bylaw officers a day earlier…complaints had been made to the city about the pungent smell coming from the rural property, and dogs that were roaming loose…neighbours knew the property housed a medical marijuana grow-op, but figured it was legal because three Health Canada grow licences were taped to the front window of the home…during the inspection, it became evident to police that the grow-op – which spanned 22 industrial greenhouses – far exceeded the limits of those licences, which together allowed for a total of 875 plants to be cultivated at a time…officers seized 635 pounds of harvested cannabis and more than 4,000 plants in the raid, totalling a street value of $6.5 million…
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Comment by PatrickLamane — August 7, 2018 @ 8:45 am
This is exactly what happened in Colorado in regards to letting Mr. Joe grow Cannabis in his backyard. Let see how this plays out.
Comment by roychr — August 7, 2018 @ 8:51 am
My portfolio is awash in red again today. Is there going to be a turn around, before it’s too late that is? GGI, CCW, AIS.
Comment by Ed — August 7, 2018 @ 10:11 am
The license used to grow was under the MMPR FYI, not the ACMPR that almost all companies have today that are trading , here’s a link you should read
https://apollocannabis.ca/mmar-vs-mmpr-canadian-cannabis-regulation-simplified/
Comment by Sweetbabyjesus — August 7, 2018 @ 10:46 am
Ed, I think most people are feeling similar pain. Tough market out there and I think a lot of people have been selling stocks to chase the flavour of the day. Got to think with a 7 month selloff in the Venture, things are getting close to a major bottom soon though. CCW likely suffering a bit due to the rush into SIC and the mis-information some people may have about the Insider selling (which appears to be a non-issue). I think we have to be a bit more patient yet…..
Comment by broen — August 7, 2018 @ 10:59 am