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Gold has traded between $1,667 and $1,676 so far today…as of 5:55 am Pacific, the yellow metal is up $1 an ounce at $1,674…Silver is off 14 cents at $31.68…Copper is down 2 pennies at $3.72…Crude Oil has slipped $1.45 a barrel to $95.15 while the U.S. Dollar Index is up one-third of a point to 79.83…

Hong Kong’s net Gold flow to mainland China jumped 47% in 2012 to a record high of 557 tonnes, indicating robust demand in China, which vies with India to be the world’s top Gold consumer…Hong Kong shipped 114 tonnes of Gold to China in December, also a record high for monthly exports…its total Gold shipments to China in 2012 jumped 94% from the 2011 total to over 832 tonnes, but imports also were six times higher at 275 tonnes, data from the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department showed yesterday…”It is not a surprise,” said Dan Smith, head of metals research at Standard Chartered…”Consumer and investment appetite was quite strong, and no one knows how much the central bank is buying”…investors are waiting for a research report from the World Gold Council due next week, which will show whether China overtook India last year as the world’s top Gold consumer…

Venture Exchange-TSX Gold Index

Below is a interesting 12-year monthly chart from John that compares the Venture Exchange with the TSX Gold Index during that time…the Gold Index has out-performed the Venture during most of this period, though recently the Venture has managed to hold up a little better – it’s down 10% from its September high vs. a 21% drop in the Gold Index…since the end of January, 2001, the Venture has gained only 25% while the Gold Index has climbed a more respectable 160%…this compares with a nearly 30% increase in the Dow during the same period…

Shanghai Composite Chart Update

China’s Shanghai Composite Index has been on fire since it broke out of a two-year downtrend in December (check out the dark blue line in John’s chart below), a pattern we hope repeats with the Venture Exchange…overnight, the Shanghai Composite posted a slight gain to close at 2434…it does face resistance, however, at 2450 – at which point it may need to consolidate and digest its recent sharp gains…

The Chinese New Year begins February 10, marking the Year of the Snake, which is a key shopping period…this year more than ever, the spending patterns of China’s 1.3 billion people are expected to be scrutinized as a measure of how the economy is fairing – not only as it recovers from last year’s slowdown, but also as it switches from a reliance on exports to consumption…”We think consumption will be one of the key drivers of the Chinese economy this year,” according to to Dariusz Kowalczyk, a senior economist at Credit Agricole in Hong Kong…”And the consumer should be stronger because of more confidence, faster economic growth and fast gains in incomes”…

Today’s Markets

Japan’s Nikkei Index jumped a whopping 3.8% or 417 points overnight to close at its highest level since October, 2008…the yen fell sharply on bets that the central bank governor’s decision to step down early will leave the door open for a governor eager for more aggressive monetary easing…European shares are mixed today…euro zone retail sales fell sharply in December, down 0.8% on the month and down 3.4% on an annual basis…other EU data released yesterday did continue to show slight improvement as the euro zone PMI rose to 48.6 in January from 47.2 in December…while stock index futures in New York as of 5:55 am Pacific are pointing toward a slightly negative open on Wall Street…the Venture Exchange closed at 1215 yesterday…the 50-day moving average has flattened out at 1210 and is providing support…

Corvus Gold (KOR, TSX) Chart Update

Corvus Gold (KOR, TSX) had a stellar 2012 but is off to a rough start in 2013, down over 20%…the stock closed yesterday at $1.33…the EMA-20 is declining for the first time in over a year…there is strong chart support, however, at $1.30 while the rising 200-day moving average is at $1.20 provides additional support…Corvus has made great strides with its 100% owned North Bullfrog Project which covers approximately 68 square kilometres in southern Nevada just north of the historic Bullfrog Gold mine formerly operated by Barrick…

Note: John, Jon and Terry do not hold share positions in KOR.