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Gold has traded between $1,332 and $1,342 so far today…as of 7:45 am Pacific, bullion is up $5 an ounce at $1,339…Silver is 9 cents higher at $21.23…Copper is off a penny at $3.22…Crude Oil has retreated 79 cents to $102.54 while the U.S. Dollar Index is down slightly at 80.06…

India’s mammoth parliamentary election will start on April 7, authorities announced today, kicking off a race that pits charismatic Hindu nationalist leader Narendra Modi and his National Democratic Alliance (NDA) against the unpopular Nehru-Gandhi family’s ruling Congress party…the Gold lobby has put its support behind the reform-minded and business-friendly Modi, so it’s perceived that a victory by him may result in the loosening of restrictions on Gold imports which has fueled a black market in bullion in India and has negatively impacted the jewelery business there which employs thousands of people…

A total of 814 million people have registered to vote in India, a number larger than the population of Europe, making this the biggest election the world has ever seen…results are due to be announced on May 16…voting will be held in nine stages, staggered until May 12, to allow security forces to be effectively deployed during an exercise that has often been marred by violence, ballot-rigging and buying votes…

Today’s Markets

Asia

Asian markets were mixed overnight…Japan’s Nikkei climbed 176 points to 14898 while China’s Shanghai Composite slipped 18 points to finish at 2053…

China has sent its strongest signal yet that its days of chasing breakneck economic growth were over, promising to wage a “war” on pollution and reduce the pace of investment to a decade-low as it pursues more sustainable expansion…Reuters reported that in a State of the Union style address to an annual parliament meeting that began today, Premier Li Keqiang said China aimed to expand its economy by 7.5% this year, the highest among the world’s major powers, although he stressed that growth would not get in the way of reforms…in carefully crafted language that suggested Beijing had thought hard about leaving the forecast unchanged from last year, Li said the world’s second-largest economy will pursue reforms stretching from finance to the environment, even as it seeks to create jobs and wealth…after 30 years of red-hot double-digit growth that has lifted millions out of poverty but also polluted the country’s air and water and saddled the nation with ominous debt levels, China wants to change tack and rebalance its economy…it’s important to note, however, that at 7.5% growth China’s appetite for commodities will remain very strong…

Europe

European markets are mixed in late trading overseas…data showed today that rising exports and a gradual improvement in investments were behind the euro zone’s stronger-than-expected growth in the last quarter of 2013…the $9.5 trillion economy rose by 0.3% in the October-to-December period, a figure that compared to 0.1% growth in the previous three months, Eurostat reported…

North America

The Dow is off 20 points as of 7:45 am Pacific…ADP Research Institute reported this morning that the U.S. private sector added 139,000 jobs in February, less than the 160,000 estimated…despite the tepid results, and a large downward revision to January’s numbers, the data won’t likely move analysts to change their forecast for Friday’s widely-watched U.S. employment report from the Labor Department…another report this morning had the Institute for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing index for February coming in at 51.6 versus a 54 reading in January…

The TSX is off 2 points while the Venture has added 5 points to 1026 through the first 75 minutes of trading…Fission Uranium Corp. (FCU, TSX-V) reported stellar results this morning from 20 more holes at PLS…significantly, the results and location of these holes has merged two shallow depth high-grade zones (R780E and R945E) into one much larger zone…the easternmost hole in this merged zone also returned the best results out of the 20 holes, 86 m total composite mineralization in a 205-m section (107.0 m to 312 m), including 10.86 m total composite off-scale (greater than 9,999 counts per second) radioactivity…this bodes very well for further expansion to the east…FCU’s goal is to connect all zones identified along a 1.78 km strike length…the stock is up a nickel at $1.48 as of 7:45 am Pacific…

NexGen Energy Ltd. (NXE, TSX-V) is off 3 pennies at 46.5 cents after announcing that it has arranged a $10 million bought deal financing at 45 cents with a syndicate of underwriters led by Dundee Securities…John has an updated chart on Azincourt Uranium Inc. (AAZ, TSX-V) further down in today’s Morning Musings…

Garibaldi Resources Corp. (GGI, TSX-V) Updated Chart

John’s charts have been extremely accurate with regard to Garibaldi Resources Corp. (GGI, TSX-V), including the predicted breakout above the bullish flag formation in January that led to the 24-cent initial Fib. level (there are higher Fib. levels as this progresses), but it’s important to note that the stock has pulled back this week to chart, RSI(14) and Fib. level support…all three generally coincide with a rising 50-day moving average (SMA) at 17 cents as seen in the 6-month daily chart below…the 1,000-day SMA, interestingly, has flattened out at 17.5 cents and appears ready to reverse to the upside which would be a very bullish technical development…the 100, 200, 300 and 500-day SMA’s are all in bullish alignment…the main trend is exceedingly positive and that’s why accumulating on weakness has been a successful strategy with GGI ever since it broke out of a long-term downtrend in the early summer of last year…the “nervous nellies” tend to do the opposite – they have a bad habit of becoming fearful when a stock drops and they don’t buy when they should…

Given GGI’s strong fundamentals, including the fact the company is in the best financial position of any junior in the Sheslay Valley and controls the largest land package there with high quality multiple targets over a broad area, the best is certainly yet to come in our view from Garibaldi…the company also continues to be very active in Mexico where it has already demonstrated the ability to generate shareholder value…we expect the 1-2 punch of the Sheslay Valley and Mexico to make GGI one of the most exciting plays on the Venture this year…

Below is a 6-month GGI daily chart update from John…GGI is off 1.5 cents at 18 cents as of 7:45 am Pacific…

Ashburton Ventures Inc. (ABR, TSX-V)

Ashburton Ventures (ABR, TSX-V) has a couple of major factors in its favor including a very strategic 13 sq. km land package in the Sheslay Valley, the Hackett Project, much of which is contiguous to the entire eastern border of Doubleview Capital Corp.’s (DBV, TSX-V) Hat Property along a trend that dips southeasterly…get the picture?…DBV’s discovery holes HAT-08 and HAT-11 were collared approximately 1,000 m west of the Hackett border, and historical showings (B.C. Minfile reports) indicate mineralization trending toward the Hackett…a large gossan has been observed from the air over the western portion of the Hackett, and historical aeromagnetics have identified a magnetic high on the southern portion of the claims…the Hackett has been largely unexamined (no previous drilling) but it’s quite conceivable that any deposit on the Hat could extend to the east and cover at least a portion of Ashburton’s ground, or something totally separate may exist on the Hackett…with DBV in a position to potentially resume drilling later this month, interest in ABR should pick up significantly…yesterday, we spent some time as part of our due diligence with one of ABR’s geologists, and rest assured the company has no intentions of sitting back and playing a “closeology” game with the Hackett – it plans to go after this property hard and get on the ground as quickly as possible to prioritize drill targets…

In the meantime, ABR has carefully assembled three significant PGM-Ni-Cu projects covering over 250 sq. km in southwest Yukon, parts of which are contiguous to Wellgreen Platinum Ltd.’s (WG, TSX-V) Wellgreen deposit – one of the largest undeveloped PGM deposits in the world which has both open-pit and underground potential…ABR’s Ultra and Spy projects have some very interesting high-grade Platinum targets based on historical showings…at just 5.5 cents with only 36 million shares outstanding, the risk-reward ratio with ABR is highly attractive in our view…

Notable on this 2.5-year weekly chart is the heavy accumulation that began in ABR at the end of January…stock has been moving from weak hands into strong hands, and that’s always a bullish sign…

Abcourt Mines Inc. (ABI, TSX-V)

Abcourt Mines (ABR, TSX-V) has done a masterful job of managing its cash flow and steadily advancing its Elder Gold Mine near Rouyn-Norando, Quebec, toward commercial production…Abcourt also recently released an updated resource estimate for its past-producing Abcourt-Barvue Silver-Zinc Property, 50 km north of Val d’Or…

Technically, a significant development needs to be stressed here – there has been a confirmed breakout in ABI above a long-term downsloping channel…this is shaping up to be a strong year for Abcourt…below is a 2.5-year weekly chart…ABI is off half a penny at 8 cents as of 7:45 am Pacific as it tests the downsloping channel as new support…

Azincourt Uranium (AAZ, TSX-V) Updated Chart

Since April of last year, 33-cent resistance on Azincourt Uranium Inc. (AAZ, TSX-V) has been tested no less than nine times on a weekly basis and AAZ has not been able to sustain a weekly close above it…so when there is a breakout here (we believe it’s just a question of when, not if), watch out…AAZ hit an intra-day high of 34 cents yesterday on volume of more than 1 million shares before closing up 3 cents at 32 cents…it’s off a penny at 31 cents as of 7:45 am Pacific…AAZ and JV partner Fission 3.0 Corp. (FUU, TSX-V) commenced an 8-10 hole drill program at PLN in late January, and AAZ has also commenced work at its recently acquired uranium projects in the Macusani district of southeast Peru…

Magor Corp. (MCC, TSX-V)

One of our favorite tech companies is Magor Corp. (MCC, TSX-V) and we suggest readers check out the company’s news release yesterday as MCC is clearly making progress – in fact, “significantly exceeding expectations” – with its Aerus service delivery platform…patient investors could do extremely well with Magor, and we expect their business model to start delivering significant bottom line results during the second half of this year…

MCC is off a penny at 31 cents on light volume as of 7:45 am Pacific…below is a 1-year weekly chart from John…volume and buy pressure both need to pick up in order for MCC to start gaining traction again, but important support is holding at 31 cents…MCC has a strong story and (again) the best time to accumulate is on weakness when others are asleep at the switch…as always, with each and every company, perform your own diligence…

Note: John and Jon both hold share positions in GGI.  Jon also holds share positions in ABR and MCC.