Gold has traded between $1,224 and $1,233 so far today…as of 7:35 am Pacific, bullion is up $1 an ounce at $1,227…Silver is down 2 cents at $19.51…Copper has touched a 2-week low, off 4 pennies at $3.29…Copper’s weakness today is due in part to a gauge of Chinese producer prices which fell for a 22nd straight month…Crude Oil is up 14 cents to $92.47 while the U.S. Dollar Index is down slightly at 81.00…
The world’s largest Gold-backed exchange-traded fund, New York’s SPDR Gold Shares, reported its first outflow of the year yesterday, of 1.5 tonnes, taking its holdings to a 5-year low of 793.121 tonnes…last year the fund saw an outflow of more than 550 tonnes, the first year its holdings had fallen since its launch in 2004…
Bloomberg reported today that Silver stockpiles on the Comex in New York have hit 176.28 million ounces, the highest in 16 years since July 1997…inventories have climbed for 7 straight sessions, the longest stretch since February, reflecting the slump in investor interest in Silver ETPs which is interpreted by some analysts as a bullish contrarian sign…Silver prices tumbled 36% in 2013, the worst year for Silver since 1981 and the biggest decline after corn among the 24 commodities tracked by the Standard & Poor’s GSCI Spot Index…
Today’s Markets
Asia
China’s Shanghai Composite closed overnight at its lowest level since August, down 17 points at 2028…a wave of initial public offerings has started, China’s first ones in over a year, which is putting supply pressures on the market…meanwhile, Chinese consumer inflation slowed to 2.5% in December (a 7-month low) from November’s 3% figure, coming in below Reuters’ expectations for a 2.7% gain…producer price inflation, a measure of the price of goods as they leave the factory gate, remained mired in deflationary territory, falling 1.4% in December year-on-year, the same as November…excess manufacturing capacity along with weak global commodity prices have weighed on producer prices in China…
Japan’s Nikkei average fell 241 points or 1.5% to close at 15880…
Europe
European shares are slightly lower in late trading overseas…the ECB has left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 0.25%…at a news conference following the rate decision, ECB President Mario Draghi stated that while a recovery is underway in the euro zone, it’s still too early to declare victory…he continues to insist that he does not see a deflationary threat at the moment…
North America
The Dow is off 24 points as of 7:35 am Pacific…the Labor Department tomorrow releases December numbers for new hiring and the jobless rate…
The Venture Exchange, which has posted 11 consecutive winning sessions and is trading above its 200-day moving average (SMA) for the first time since 2011, is up a point at 957…the TSX is off 4 points at 13611 but has staged a confirmed breakout above resistance at 13500…the next major resistance is around the 13800 level according to John’s 4-year weekly chart…
TSX 4-Year Weekly Chart Update
Barisan Gold Corp. (BG, TSX-V) Update
Barisan Gold (BG, TSX-V) reported solid initial results this morning from the fourth hole just completed at its Upper Tengkering Porphyry Prospect in Indonesia, though the stock is under selling pressure in early trading…UTD-004 was drilled to a final length of 1,465 metres…the hole was fully mineralized with the exception of an 82 m barren zone near the top of the hole (vs. two barren zones totaling 158 m in the previous hole)…a 202 m interval between 664 and 866 m returned 0.70 g/t Au and 0.40% Cu, not quite as spectacular as a 262 m intersection in UTD-003 (0.81 g/t Au and 0.49% Cu) but very respectable nonetheless…UTD-004 also returned the first meaningful molybdenum intercepts at Upper Tengkering…the 202 m interval in UTD-004 was 185 m to the east and 200 m deeper than the high-grade zones encountered in the second and third holes…assays are still pending for the final 475 m UTD-004…drilling of the 5th hole is expected to begin shortly…traders have done well on BG since November by buying into weakness and selling into strength…this is still a strong story given this morning’s news, and investors should expect continued volatility (and opportunities) in BG in the weeks ahead…BG is off 11.5 cents at 22 cents as of 7:35 am Pacific…
Corvus Gold Inc. (KOR, TSX) Update
Corvus Gold (KOR, TSX) reported drill results this morning from three additional holes along the northern extension of its Yellowjacket deposit at its North Bullfrog Project in Nevada, and one of those holes (NB-13-368) returned an impressive 33 m grading 4.14 g/t Au…it was 140 m along strike from previously reported NB-13-360 that intercepted 9.6 m grading 6.34 g/t Au…the high-grade Yellowjacket system has a current strike length of 600 m and remains open in all directions…importantly, assays from another 26 holes testing the strike extension of the Yellowjacket are pending…KOR is unchanged at $1.28 on light volume in early trading…
GoldQuest Mining Corp. (GQC, TSX-V) Update
Goldquest Mining Corp. (GQC, TSX-V) reported this morning that it has been granted the Descansadero concession, adjacent to its Romero Gold/Copper project, in the DR…the Company has also commissioned a 3,000 line km heli-borne geophysical survey covering its 100% owned Tireo Project, which includes the Descansadero concession and others that are under re-application…the geophysical survey is the first EM survey ever flown over this belt…the majority of the Tireo Volcanic Formation, on trend with Romero, has been unexamined to date…concurrent with the survey, the company has exploration crews completing focused mapping, sampling and ground magnetic surveys in high priority areas to help define drill targets…GQC is up a penny at 27.5 cents as of 7:35 am Pacific…
Mason Graphite Inc. (LLG, TSX-V) Chart Update
Mason Graphite (LLG, TSX-V) has been consolidating in recent days after more than doubling (51 cents to $1.07) between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve…below is an updated chart from John…two things are clear – a very strong support band exists between 50 and 60 cents, while LLG will meet resistance in the mid-80’s…it’s currently trading in between that range…overall, the trend remains bullish and this will be an interesting company to follow in 2014…
Madalena Energy Inc. (MVN, TSX-V) Chart Update
Madalena Energy (MVN, TSX-V) enjoyed a strong day yesterday, climbing 4 cents to close at 71 cents on total volume (all exchanges) of 5 million shares…intra-day, the stock hit a new 52-week high of 74 cents…it’s up another penny at 72 cents through the first hour of trading today…watch for a possible test of resistance around 81 cents, based on this 2.5-year chart from John, at which point MVN may need to consolidate…a significant gap is opening up between the current price and the rising 50-day moving average (58 cents)…
Contact Exploration Inc. (CEX, TSX-V) Chart Update
Another strong energy play we’ve been following is Contact Exploration (CEX, TSX-V) which is performing according to script after recently breaking out from a horizontal channel…from a technical standpoint, this is an excellent chart to learn from…note the strong uptrend support that’s also in place now – any pullbacks to that support should be good buying opportunities…CEX is up 1.5 cents to 34.5 cents as of 7:30 am Pacific…
Note: John and Jon both hold share positions in BG.
GXY looks primed and ready to go. Lots of risks but lots of rewards.
Also, how do you sign up for news ALERTS from the BMR website?
Thanks
Comment by SW — January 9, 2014 @ 9:35 am
Also, do you guys mind having a look at PHM and tell us what you think?
Thanks
Comment by SW — January 9, 2014 @ 9:39 am
Hi guys Happy New Year. What do you guys think of TEM? Tembo Gold. Just raised a bunch of cash and are drilling
Comment by Ed — January 9, 2014 @ 10:51 am
The other day the BMR fellows mentioned that they have positions in BG, but no mention of this, this morning, have they sold their positions in the mornings’ activities?
Regards,
bar
Comment by bar — January 9, 2014 @ 11:17 am
I’m holding my position and plan on picking up more. This has been volatile from the start and will continue to be, and volatility and volume create opportunities. Results this morning have kept the geological story intact. Hole 5 will generate interest. I’m not a big fan of Indonesia, so I haven’t bet the farm on this but it’s an interesting discovery play.
Comment by Jon - BMR — January 9, 2014 @ 11:25 am
I have also held my position and picked up more.
Comment by John BMR — January 9, 2014 @ 11:29 am
V.GGI 62.50%
V.HBK 5.00%
T.SAM 18.92%
V.IO -16.67%
V.TGK -66.67%
V.GTA 9.38%
V.KWG -10.00%
V.RBW 0.00%
V.FMS 88.24%
V.PGX 1.45%
V.GBB -12.50%
V.GMZ -25.00%
120.32 126.03 5.71 4.75
bmr members picks
Comment by gil — January 9, 2014 @ 1:57 pm
2014 stock picks
graphite2 up 27.55 stockingstuffer5 up 3.37 bmr20 up 2.42 percent
Comment by gil — January 9, 2014 @ 2:05 pm
SW, to get into our eAlert system, send email to: [email protected], put eAlert in the subject line and include your first name.
Comment by Jon - BMR — January 9, 2014 @ 11:08 pm
Tapered a little early?
U.S. economy adds just 74,000 jobs in December
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – The U.S. added just 74,000 jobs in December to mark the smallest increase since the start of 2011, suggesting that the nation entered 2014 with less momentum than a raft of other economic indicators had signaled. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, fell to 6.7% from 7.0% – the lowest level since October 2008 – but the decline appeared to occur mainly because more people dropped out of the labor force. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected an increase of 193,000 nonfarm jobs, with unemployment holding steady at 7.0% in December. Retailers posted the biggest increase in hiring in December, adding 55,000 jobs, and manufacturers also boosted employment, the Labor Department said Friday. Yet hiring was weak across most other sectors, reversing the broad gains seen in November. Average hourly wages, meanwhile, rose 2 cents to $24.17 while the average workweek dipped 0.1 hour to 34.4 hours. The civilian participation rate fell two ticks to 62.8%, matching a 35-year low. The employment gain in November, meanwhile, was bumped up to 241,000 from a first read of 203,000. October’s gain was unchanged at 200,000. The U.S. ended the year adding roughly the same number of workers as it did in 2012, based on the preliminary
Comment by Tony T — January 10, 2014 @ 5:37 am
Just to give you an idea how bad the market is. An
hour into the trading day and the volume for GGI
is 5K & guess what ? that was me, bought 5K at .125.
Why am i, a lowly person from Newfoundland, the only
person, willing to take a chance on GGI. A fool is
born every day, R !
Comment by bert — January 10, 2014 @ 7:25 am
The lull before the storm, Bert, your faith and patience will be rewarded. Perhaps investors will wake up over the weekend when they realize the Venture has traded up for 13 consecutive sessions (assuming it finishes higher today which seems likely). I don’t think there’s any question we’ve seen the bottom in the Venture, as John’s charts have been suggesting, but investors have a habit of looking through the rear-view mirror (a lot of destruction the last 2-3 years) and some of them will need a while yet before they realize the worst is truly behind us in the junior resource market and a new uptrend has started. I really believe this is the time to make a fortune in high-quality juniors if you’re looking ahead with some vision over the next 6-12 months, rather than staring in the rear-view mirror.
Comment by Jon - BMR — January 10, 2014 @ 7:46 am