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Gold has traded between $1,309 and $1,326 so far today…as of 8:00 am Pacific, bullion is down $6 an ounce at $1,321…Silver has bounced back after losses earlier this morning and is now up a penny at $21.16…Copper has added 3 pennies to $3.25…Crude Oil is 59 cents lower at $103.89…supply fears eased somewhat today after Libya declared an end to an Oil crisis that has cut exports from the OPEC member to a trickle…Libya’s acting prime minister stated that the government had reached a deal with a rebel leader controlling Oil ports to hand over the last two terminals and end a blockade, meaning around 500,000 more barrels a day available for export…some analysts say Libya will only get to about 40-50% of pre-crisis exports, while of course there are still concerns over Iraq…

UBS:  “Given the factors currently lined up against Gold – positioning, weak physical markets, and potentially strong employment – any sign of resilience in the face of stronger data will be an important signal that investors may be becoming friendlier to Gold.”

U.S. job growth surged in June with companies adding 288,000 to payrolls while the unemployment rate dropped to 6.1%, indicating that expectations for strong second half economic growth could be fulfilled…economists expected non-farm payrolls to grow by 215,000 in June and the unemployment rate to hold at 6.3%, according to estimates from Dow Jones…that compares to the initially reported 217,000 in May…heading into June, job growth had been averaging 197,000 per month…June marked the first five-month stretch of job creation in excess of 200,000 since the boom years of the late 1990’s…

U.S. stock markets are open for just half a day today in advance of tomorrow’s Fourth of July holiday, so this is impacting trading volumes today in both the U.S. and Canada…

Today’s Equity Markets

Asia

China’s Shanghai Composite gained 4 points overnight to close at 2063…activity in the country’s service sector expanded at its fastest pace in 15 months in June, according to a private survey by HSBC/Markit…Japan’s Nikkei average erased earlier gains, snapping a three-day wining streak, as investors booked profits after recent gains…yesterday, the Nikkei notched a new one-week closing high for the second straight day, briefly hitting a five-month peak…

Europe

European markets were up significantly today…the European Central Bank kept interest rates unchanged after its monthly policy meeting despite signs that the 18-country euro zone economy is losing momentum…last month, the ECB unveiled a raft of measures designed to shore up the recovery and prevent prices from falling…among the policies announced was a reduction in the ECB’s main interest rate to 0.15%…

Figures released today suggest the euro zone has started the summer on a fairly flat footing…retail sales, according to Eurostat, were flat in May while the June PMI Markit edged back to a six-month low…inflation, meanwhile, remains low – at 0.5%, far below the official target of around 2%…

North America

The Dow is up 67 points as of 8:00 am Pacific…U.S. markets will close at 10:00 am Pacific as Americans begin a long holiday weekend to celebrate Independence Day tomorrow…

The TSX has gained 39 points while the Venture is off 2 points at 1034 through the first 90 minutes of trading…

Venture 3-Year Weekly Chart Update

Below is John’s updated 3-year Venture weekly chart with a Gold comparative…the distinguishing features of this chart, of course, are the RSI(14) uptrend since last summer, and the breakout above the long-term downtrend line during the fourth quarter of last year…the Venture has also been out-performing Gold for the first time since the bear market began in 2011…

RSI(14) at 62% still has plenty of room to march higher – in fact, a very possible scenario we see unfolding during Q3 is extended overbought RSI(14) conditions (above 70%) during August/September, a mirror image of the extended oversold conditions that prevailed during the second quarter of last year…at a minimum, this would require the Index breaking out to the 1150 resistance area…

West Point Resources (BLO, CSE) Update

As expected, West Point (BLO, CSE) – the developer of the Cannabix Marijuana Breathalyzer for law enforcement – is drawing considerable investor attention on the CSE and in the media…after hovering between 14.5 cents and 20 cents during its first day of trading last Thursday, BLO – which has only 14.5 million free-trading shares – hit a new high again this morning (30 cents)…as of 8:00 am Pacific, BLO is up 2.5 cents at 29 cents on volume of over 700,000 shares…

BLO has announced that it has completed an oversubscribed private placement (four-month hold expiring Nov. 1) for total gross proceeds of $788,000…there’s an acceleration clause attached to that PP, so BLO is on track to raise an additional nearly $800,000 over the summer through the exercise of 10-cent warrants…BLO’s patent pending technology puts it at the leading edge of potential commercial development of a roadside marijuana breathalyzer that will provide rapid detection of THC…the device can also be useful for other practical applications, such as testing employees in the workplace, where intoxication by THC can be hazardous…keep in mind, the current alcohol breathalyzer market in North America is worth in excess of $3 billion…BLO is applying for a listing of its shares for trading on the U.S. over-the-counter markets…this is a very compelling story with a strong management team…

Magor Resource Corp. (MCC, TSX-V) Update

Another non-resource play we continue to follow with great interest is Magor Resource Corp. (MCC, TSX-V) which has come out with a flurry of positive news in recent weeks but is still flying “under the radar” of most investors…Magor is a “visual collaboration” company led by an all-star management group that includes some of the same key personnel that were at the helm of Newbridge Networks…MCC is gaining traction with its Aerus Service Delivery Platform  – just one example of its many practical benefits is how it’s allowing decision makers within law enforcement agencies to instantly convene and collaborate visually on real-time emergency response data…

Technically, MCC is looking much better than it has for some time…the 200-day moving average (SMA), which has provided stiff resistance the last few months, is now beginning to reverse to the upside…SS is showing steady up momentum, the ADX trend indicator is bullish, and RSI(14) appears poised to break out above resistance at 50 on this 1-year weekly chart…volume has recently picked up as well which is another good sign…MCC closed the last two sessions at 34 cents…as always, perform your own due diligence…

Great Prairie Energy Services (GPE, TSX-V) Update

There are several high quality oil and gas juniors, or companies servicing that sector, we’ve been tracking, and Great Prairie Energy Services (GPE, TSX-V) is one of them…GPE has more than doubled so far this year, and the company reported net income of $1.4 million on total revenue of $5.3 million for its first quarter ended March 31…

This updated 6-month daily chart for GPE shows a continuation of a powerful uptrend with a breakout this week above measured Fib. resistance at 52 cents…as of 8:00 am Pacific, GPE is down 2 pennies at 53 cents…

Pilot Gold Inc. (PLG, TSX)

Pilot Gold (PLG, TSX) continues to strengthen after finding strong support around the Fib. 50% retracement level at $1.20…PLG is a more compelling opportunity than ever in our view given the grades the company is reporting from its Kinsley Mountain Project in Nevada, and the kind of bullish environment we expect for quality Gold stocks during this third quarter…

PLG is up another 9 cents at $1.62 as of 8:00 am Pacific…

Roxgold Inc. (ROG, TSX)

Roxgold’s (ROG, TSX) high-grade Yaramoko Gold Project in Burkina Faso is worthy of our readers’ due diligence, and ROG has been a stellar performer in the market this year as the stock continues to follow an uptrend support line…

This chart is one of many examples of how the market for Gold stocks has indeed turned…ROG broke above a long-term downtrend line during the third quarter of last year, retraced and found support at the top of that downtrend line, and then started a steady push higher…

ROG is off a penny at 85 cents through the first 90 minutes of trading…

Midlands Minerals Corp. (MEX, TSX-V) Update

Midlands Minerals (MEX, TSX-V) has a lot of shares outstanding (about 200 million) but that also provides liquidity, and it’s a Venture deal trading under 3 cents that has a strong measure of quality to it (which can’t be said for most that are trading in that range or even higher)…

Midlands started Phase 1 drilling at its Parlozi Project in Serbia about a month ago…MEX, which had $3 million in cash and working capital at the end of March, optioned Parolzi from Reservoir Minerals (RMC, TSX-V) at the beginning of this year…Parlozi is a Silver-Lead-Zinc-Gold prospect with an historical (non-compliant) resource in an area featuring excellent infrastructure…the 1,500-m Phase 1 drill program has several objectives:

• Extend the validation of the historical resource, and the presence of both vein and carbonate replacement mineralization over wide intervals at the Parlozi prospect;
• Test the extrapolation from depth toward surface of the historical resource at the Parlozi prospect;
• Test the downdip extension of mineralization beneath the underground workings at the Plandiste prospect where the company recently released the analytical results of underground chip sampling, which provided a true width of 6.0 m grading 671 g/t Ag, 20.8% Pb, 0.13 Zn and 0.44 g/t Au);
• Identify additional targets for exploration drilling in Phase 2.

MEX 4-Year Weekly Chart

At 2.5 cents this morning, MEX has a market cap of $5 million but that still leaves room for good upside over the summer if speculation intensifies and drill results are good…John’s updated 4-year weekly chart shows new support at 2.5 cents (the rising 100-day SMA is 2.2 cents)…

Note:  John and Jon both hold share positions in BLO.