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1. Spot Gold has traded between $1,918 and $1,944 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, Gold is up $28 an ounce at $1,942 on further weakness in the greenback…bullion has quickly rebounded from its biggest 1-day fall in 7 years on Tuesday, a healthy pullback that helped cleanse temporarily overbought conditions…ballooning government deficits, massive money-printing by central banks and an ultra-low interest rate environment amid worries over the continued economic fallout from the global pandemic should drive Gold significantly higher through the balance of 2020…a weak U.S. dollar, which is also breaking down on longer-term charts, is another major factor supporting record Gold prices…Silver has jumped $1.21 an ounce to $26.67…Nickel and Copper are down slightly at $6.37 and $2.87, respectively, while Zinc is steady at $1.07…Crude Oil is flat at $42.67 while the U.S. Dollar Index has declined nearly half a point to 92.97…the new path of the Wuhan COVID-19 virus suggests that complacency, shutdown fatigue and the lure of summer are combining to allow the virus to sweep through rural parts of the U.S. that had previously been spared, health officials say…despite that threat, however, Moody’s Analytics’ latest survey finds economists are predicting U.S. GDP growth, on average, will surge almost 20% this quarter, followed by 9.6% in the 4th quarter and 7.7% in the 1st quarter next year…the impact should benefit the entire stock market with economically sensitive stocks leading the way, particularly, industrials, materials, financials and small caps…just in – first-time claims for unemployment insurance last week fell below 1 million for the first time since March 21 in a sign that the labor market is continuing its recovery…the total claims of 963,000 for the week ended August 8 were well below the estimate of 1.1 million from economists surveyed by Dow Jones…
2. For the first time in months, the daily growth of new coronavirus cases in the U.S. has steadily fallen over the past 2 weeks, giving some hope to U.S. officials who proclaimed there were “signs of progress” in Southern states that were hit particularly hard…the U.S. has recorded an average of 52,875 new cases every day over the last 7 days, down 19% from an average of 65,285 new cases per day on July 28, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University…however, COVID-19 testing has declined as well, falling from a 7-day average of about 814,000 tests per day 2 weeks ago to about 716,000, a 12% decline, over the same 2-week period, according to data compiled by the COVID Tracking Project, a volunteer project founded by journalists at The Atlantic magazine…the decline in testing is particularly acute in some of the hardest-hit states with the worst outbreaks, which further skews the overall case numbers across the country…in Texas, for instance, new cases have fallen by 10% to an average of 7,381 a day from 8,203 2 weeks ago, based on a 7-day moving average…testing, however, is down by 53% over the same time frame…meanwhile, the percentage of positive tests has doubled over the last 2 weeks to about 24%, according to Johns Hopkins University…testing shortages in key states highlights the growing importance of Sona Nanotech’s (SONA, CSE) Rapid Response antigen-based test which is nearing formal submission to the FDA…
3. As Latin America continues to battle the coronavirus outbreak, some economies in the region are likely to experience a “record-breaking contraction” not seen since World War II, according to Goldman Sachs…Brazil has seen roughly 1,000 people die every day from COVID-19 for nearly 3 months, with no end in sight, and now has more than 100,000 fatalities, second only to the United States…Latin America and the Caribbean have become a new global epicenter of the pandemic with several countries in the region among those with the highest per capita infection rates worldwide…meanwhile, Mexico’s daily death rate has been stuck at about 600 for the past 2 months, putting the country over 50,000 deaths…roughly half of Mexico’s 32 states have repeatedly delayed plans to allow nonessential businesses to reopen, and in-person classes for the coming school year have been cancelled…
4. OPEC expects world Oil demand will fall more steeply in 2020 than previously forecast because of COVID-19, potentially making it harder for the group and its allies to support the market…in its monthly report yesterday, OPEC said that world Oil demand will tumble by 9.06 million barrels a day this year, more than the 8.95 million b/d decline expected a month ago…Oil prices have collapsed thanks to curtailed travel and economic activity…while some countries have eased lockdowns, allowing demand to recover, fear of new outbreaks has kept a lid on prices and OPEC expects this to persist…OPEC stuck to its forecast that in 2021 Oil demand would rebound by 7 million b/d, but it said the outlook was subject to large uncertainties that may result in “a negative impact on petroleum consumption” such as demand for air travel, more fuel-efficient cars and more competition from other fuels…”Almost all forecasters expect jet fuel in 2021 to struggle making up for lost demand. Gasoline demand will face pressure to return to 2019 levels,” OPEC stated…
5. The Dow is relatively unchanged through the first 30 minutes of trading…the S&P 500 entered today’s session just 0.4% below its all-time intra-day high set on February 19 after a 1.4% rally yesterday led by tech…the broader market index was even closer to its record closing high of 3,386.15…reaching an all-time high would mark the fastest reversal from a 30% drop on record…in Toronto, the TSX is flat despite a 7-point jump in the Gold Index…the Gold Index retreated to strong support around 360 this week (uptrend line + Fib.) and appears well-positioned for a fresh run higher after a more than 10% correction from the 417 intra-day high August 5…the Venture has climbed 9 points to 734…Vizsla Resources (VZLA, TSX-V), which completed a $30 million financing 2 weeks ago, has drilled 421 g/t AgEq over 6.75 m in a new discovery below historic workings at the San Carlos mine on the Animas vein corridor at its Panuco Project in Mexico…San Carlos is over 6 km east of the recent discovery at the Napoleon vein corridor…GoGold Resources (GGD, TSX) recorded revenue of $7.9 million (U.S.) in the 2nd quarter ended June 30 from the sale of 469,545 Silver equivalent ounces…“Parral generated cash flows of $2.2 million U.S. in the quarter which, despite an interruption to the operations due to COVID-19, paid for our general and administrative costs, some working capital, and a portion of our exploration costs at Los Ricos,” stated Brad Langille, President and CEO…“With the increase in metal prices we’ve seen since June 30, Parral will generate significantly more cash in the September quarter, and along with the additional cash we anticipate receiving from warrant exercises, our cash balance should significantly increase from the $17.5 million U.S. at June 30“…Parral’s all-in-sustaining costs in Q2 were $14.87 per Silver equivalent ounce, a decrease of 3% from quarter ending March 31, 2020…Northern Lights Resources (NLR, CSE), one of the most active stocks on the CSE the last couple of sessions, hit a fresh 21-month high of 10.5 cents in early trading…the company’s undervalued high-grade projects in Arizona (historic intercepts include 220 feet grading 0.25 oz/ton including 70 feet of 0.50 oz/ton) and Nevada (high-grade Silver-rich system with geological similarities to Hermosa/Taylor south of Tucson, Arizona, acquired by South32 for nearly $2 billion) are generating new interest as this bull cycle in metals intensifies…NLR, with only a $6 million market cap, is on a strong upward climb supported by its rising EMA(8), currently 8.5 cents…
6. Further to its IPO completed earlier this week, raising $27.3 million at a price of $1.30 per share, New Found Gold (NFG, TSX-V) has raised an additional $4.1 million from the exercise of an overallotment option…Collin Kettell, executive chairman of New Found, stated, “After 5 years of privately funded exploration expenditures in excess of $10 million, we have now advanced the Queensway Project to an exciting stage where we are a listed company. A 100,000 m drill program will be initiated shortly, backed by $72 million in working capital. In late 2019, we intercepted 19 m of 93 g/t Gold in the first hole of our maiden drill program at Queensway. We are excited to be embarking on this major drill program to follow up on this interval and to test the multiple targets as summarized in our prospectus”…NFG has a strong and supportive shareholder base including Palisades Goldcorp (33%), Eric Sprott (18%), Novo Resources (11%), Rob McEwen (7%), additional institutional ownership (8%), and management and insiders (4%)…91 million of NFG’s 141 million outstanding shares are subject to escrow of 180-day lockup agreements…
7. Benchmark Metals (BNCH, TSX-V) has provided high Gold recoveries from combined gravity and leach testing from 3 resource target areas (Cliffs Creek North & South, Dukes Ridge and Amethyst) at its Lawyers Gold-Silver Project in north-central British Columbia…recoveries for Gold ranged from 91% to 97%, while Silver recovered ranged from 59% to 92%…flotation testing (some with gravity pretreatment) from the 3 target areas have recoveries that range from 85% to 98% for Gold, and 39% to 97% for Silver…the metal recovery rate, or also known as the mineral recovery percentage, indicates what percentage of Gold and silver are expected to be recovered after the extractive process has taken place…the test work is an indication of future mineral processing plant performance based on the extraction process…CEO John Williamson commented, “The metallurgy results have provided exceptional recovery for both Gold and Silver using conventional technology. This is a major engineering milestone to rapidly advance the Project through project development towards a production decision. Ongoing metallurgy, drilling, baseline studies, engineering and permitting are all supportive endeavors for a near-term Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA). The strong Gold and Silver recovery rates will contribute to the economics of this Project”…
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