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Gold has traded between $1,285 and $1,298 so far today…as of 7:45 am Pacific, bullion is flat at $1,293…Silver is up a nickel at $19.38 (see updated Silver charts at the bottom of today’s Morning Musings)…Copper is off 2 pennies at $3.14…Crude Oil has retreated 46 cents a barrel to $102.15 while the U.S. Dollar Index is up slightly at 80.08…

New figures from the World Gold Council this morning in its “Gold Demands Trends Report” show that the fundamentals of the Gold market remain robust with a return to the long-term average patterns of demand…Gold demand in the first quarter of this year was down just slightly (0.25%) compared to Q1 2013…jewelry demand (570.7 tons) rose 3% – the largest Q1 increase since 2005…China saw record first-quarter jewelry demand of 203.2 tons, up a whopping 10%, the WGC said…India’s jewelry demand was 145.6 tons, down 9%, a reflection of the duties placed on Gold there, but that obviously could change later this year with an election of a new government last week…jewelry demand was firm across the Middle East as a whole, the WGC said, and jewelry demand also rose in the U.S. and U.K…

Investment demand in the first quarter was 282.3 tons, down 2% from the 288.1 tons bought in the first quarter of 2013…the investment demand breakdown shows that ETF flows were essentially zero, while bar and coin demand fell 39% from year ago levels, down to 282.5 tons…outflows from European ETFs were offset by some inflows from U.S. ETFs during Q1 this year…ETFs, particularly in the U.S., are starting to rebound, and that’s a key point…

Central banks bought a net 122.3 tons in the first quarter, down from 130.8 tons bought a year ago, but “within the range of buying that has been in place for the last three years,” the WGC said…the bulk of the purchases were by the Bank of Iraq, which bought 36 tons in the first quarter, according to the WGC…

Total supply rose 1% to 1,048.5 tons, which includes both mine supply and recycling (recycling has been falling since peaking in 2009)…mine supply grew 6% in the first quarter versus last year, as new operations came on line, whether it was miners ramping up or coming on stream, the WGC said…Canada led the world in increased mine output, with continued growth at Detour Lake, Canadian Malartic and Young-Davidson mines…

Watch For Rebound In Indian Gold Demand

Gold consumption in India, the world’s second-largest user, will probably increase significantly in the second half as import restrictions are relaxed by the new government, according to the World Gold Council…some predictions are that demand will climb back to 1,000 tons this year which compares with 974.8 tons in 2013 and a record 1,006.3 tons in 2010…imports plunged 52% in the first quarter from a year earlier, the WGC said today…

The Bharatiya Janata Party, led by Narendra Modi, secured a majority of 282 seats in the parliamentary elections, the biggest victory for a single party since 1984, enabling it to pursue an agenda without being constrained by coalition politics, results showed last week…a move to ease curbs would improve supplies to jewelers before the main festival season, which begins in August and lasts until October…“India demand will pick up very fast this year,” Albert Cheng, the WGC’s managing director for Far East Asia, told a media briefing in Singapore today. “Indian people don’t buy Gold to speculate, it’s a necessity.”

Tim Hortons Inc. (THI, TSX)

A great Canadian tradition, Tim Hortons (THI, TSX), is celebrating its 50th anniversary today…nearly 8 out of 10 cups of coffee sold in Canada are poured at Tim Hortons; each year Tim Hortons serves 2 billion cups of coffee…approximately 15 per cent of Canadians (more than 5.3 million people) visit Tim Hortons daily…the first Tim Hortons‘ location opened in Hamilton on May 17, 1964…at that time, a cup of coffee and a doughnut cost 10 cents each…the four doughnuts on the original Tim Hortons‘ logo represented Tim Horton’s four daughters…over the past 50 years, Tim Hortons has served enough coffee to fill 2500 Olympic sized pools…if you were to line up the number of Timbits sold at Tim Hortons since the invention of Timbits in 1976, the line would span across 400,000 km of road – approximately the equivalent of all paved roads in Canada…since it opened its doors 50 years ago, Tim Hortons has grown to the largest publicly-traded restaurant chain in Canada…Tim Hortons currently has 4,524 restaurants in Canada, the U.S. and the Gulf Cooperation Council – 3,610 of these restaurants are in Canada alone…

Today’s Equity Markets

Asia

China’s Shanghai Composite reversed from earlier lows to eke out a slight gain overnight, rebounding from the previous day’s two-month low…fears of a glut of new IPOs were eased after the country’s securities regulators confirmed that there would be only 100 new market listings from June to the end of this year, a smaller figure than expected…Japan’s Nikkei’s climbed 69 points overnight to close at 14075…

Europe

European markets are down modestly in late trading overseas…as well as European Parliament elections this coming weekend, traders are also focused on what stimulus measures the ECB might announce at its next meeting in mid-June…

North America

The Dow is down 47 points as of 7:45 am Pacific…the TSX is up 26 points while the Venture is unchanged at 977…Prosper Gold Corp. (PGX, TSX-V) reported this morning that it has commenced a 10,000 m drill program at its Star Project in the Sheslay district…the first 4 holes are step-outs north, east, southeast and southwest of S024 drilled last summer which returned 0.37 % Cu, 0.24 g/t Au over 312 m…the drill will then move to the Star North and Star East targets, never previously drill-tested…a second rig will be brought to the property in mid-June to begin drilling the Pyrrhotite Creek area…meanwhile, news is just out on Doubleview Capital Corp. (DBV, TSX-V) which is returning to the Hat Property “immediately to prepare for a second 2014 drilling program” as they take aim at the Sheslay “Red Stock” discovered through the recently completed drill holes…

Venture 3-Year Weekly Chart

One of the key “takeaways” from this updated 3-year weekly Venture chart is the RSI(14) and how it’s near support as it edges closer to an uptrend line in place since last year…this 3-year chart has been highly accurate in terms of signaling important moves…buy pressure remains steady…note how the Venture broke above its long-term downtrend line at the end of last year after forming a double bottom reversal pattern…there’s every reason to believe that the strong support band from the February low around 940 through the 970’s will hold, setting the stage for an important breakout in Q3…

Balmoral Resources Ltd. (BAR, TSX) Update

Some exploration excitement is picking up in Quebec, led in part by Balmoral Resources (BAR, TSX) which gained 22 cents or 26% last week after reporting some impressive high-grade results from winter drilling at its Martiniere Property…plans for the summer 2014 drill program at Martiniere are currently being finalized, with drilling expected to resume in late June or early July…the focus will be on additional expansion and infill drilling along the northern segment of the Bug Lake Gold trend, additional testing of the newly identified steep along the southern extension, and testing of several other high-priority targets within the broader Martiniere Gold system…the important Sunday Lake Deformation Zone traverses the southern portion of Martiniere and is largely untested across the property which is centrally located within BAR’s 82 km Detour Gold Trend Project…

This morning, Balmoral confirmed the discovery of high-grade Ni-Cu-PGE mineralization associated with the previously reported net-textured sulphide zone in hole GR-14-25 at its Grasset Property…the net textured zone, one of four mineralized intervals in the hole, returned a near-surface intercept of 1.79% Ni, 0.19% Cu, 0.42 g/t Pt and 1.04 g/t Pd over 45.28 m…this interval is capped by, and includes, 1.1 m of massive to semi-massive sulphide which returned 10.6% Ni, 0.45% Cu, 2.04 g/t Pt and 5.23 g/t Pd, confirming the potential for high grade Ni and PGE values within the system…

Technically, BAR staged a confirmed breakout above 90 cents last week, ran as high as $1.09, retraced as expected to test the 90-cent area as new support, and then closed the week at $1.08…this morning it gapped up to $1.19 on the news and climbed as high as $1.25…note the new Fib. measured resistance level which BAR came within 4 cents of in early trading today…RSI(14) is at moderately overbought levels at 78% on this 1-year weekly chart, so that’s something to be aware of…some consolidation can be expected…BAR has been a tremendous performer this year, rising from just under 40 cents at the beginning of January…the primary trend is strongly bullish…look for support and accumulation opportunities at the 10 and 20-day SMA’s…BAR is up 9 cents at $1.17 as of 7:45 am Pacific…

Niogold Resources Corp. (NOX, TSX-V)

Niogold Resources (NOX, TSX-V) has been a strong performer in 2014 and is showing signs of a potential breakout as you can see in this 2-year weekly chart…NOX has a NI-43-101 resource and controls 130 sq. km in the prolific Cadillac-Malartic-Val-d’Or region where there are no less than six producing Gold mines, including of course Canadian Malartic…accumulation of NOX has been significant since late last year…NOX is up 2 pennies at 23 cents through the first 75 minutes of trading…

Honey Badger Exploration Inc. (TUF, TSX-V)

This is a new one we haven’t previously mentioned that readers may wish to check out as it could turn into an interesting summer play…Honey Badger’s (TUF, TSX-V) Sagar iron-oxide-Copper-Gold property in Quebec’s Labrador Trough region is showing potential, but the company will need to raise money…strong chart support is at 3.5 cents while Fib. resistance is at 5 cents…TUF broke above a long-term downtrend line, as a significant number of Venture stocks have, during the first quarter and volume has picked up considerably since then…worth keeping on the radar screen…TUF is up half a penny at 4.5 cents as of 7:45 am Pacific…

Silver Short-Term Chart Update

Importantly, Silver continues to find support just below $19 at and near the top of a downtrend line…this is similar to the Venture pattern during the fourth quarter of last year when it, too, found support at the top of a downtrend line…RSI(2) on this 3-year weekly chart hit extreme oversold levels recently and has recovered to 43%, while SS appears to be forming a bottoming pattern…combined with steady buy pressure, these are encouraging signs…the support band between $17.50 and $19.50 should therefore hold while the next major chart resistance is $22…

Silver Long-Term Chart Update

This 11-year monthly chart confirms that the metal has exceptional support just below $20…note that Silver has two downtrend lines it needs to break above…if and when Silver clears stiff resistance at $26, watch out – you’ll want to back up the truck and load up…

Note:  John and Jon both hold share positions in GGI, PGX and DBV.