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Gold has traded between $1,304 and $1,312 so far today…as of 8:15 am Pacific, bullion is down $2 an ounce at $1,305…Silver is off 2 pennies to $20.95…Copper is unchanged at $3.19…Crude Oil is up 58 cents to $102.97 while the U.S. Dollar Index is flat at 80.80…

Geopolitical tensions continue to help keep Gold above $,1300 an ounce (its 100-day moving average is $1,304)…pro-Russian separatists have shot down two Ukrainian fighter jets over a town close to where Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashed last week, a Ukrainian defense ministry spokesman said, according to news reports overnight…two SU-25 planes were brought down near the town of Saur-Mogila, which sits close to the Russian border and is 20 km from Torez, where the civilian jet was brought down last Thursday, the spokesman said…Russia, meanwhile, is still reportedly massing troops on the Ukraine border while Fox News reported last night that senior U.S. intelligence officials have confirmed that the separatists are being trained in air defense systems at a Russian training facility in Rostov, near the Ukraine border…the officials also said that Russia has continued to help the rebels after the downing of the Malaysian civilian jetliner, providing additional tanks and rocket launchers…

Data from the China Gold Association confirms that physical demand in the country has softened from a year ago, according to UBS…the association reports that Gold consumption fell 19% year-on-year to 569.45 metric tons in the first half…Gold bar demand fell 62% to 105.6 tons while jewelry demand rose 11% to 426.2 tons. “These numbers aren’t surprising,” UBS says. “The H1 decline broadly fits into our own physical observations. Last year’s price decline clearly prompted a rush for physical bars, and the largely range-bound price action this year has not encouraged buyers.”

Today’s Equity Markets

Asia

China’s Shanghai Composite gained 3 points overnight to finish at a new one-month high for the second straight day, underpinned by a rally amid financials…Japan’s Nikkei average, however, erased earlier gains as investors booked profits after yesterday’s nearly 1% rally…investors showed little reaction to comments by central bank deputy governor Hiroshi Nakaso, who said that Japan would likely achieve 2% inflation around fiscal 2015…

Europe

European markets were up slightly today…not surprisingly, and despite U.S. and Canadian hopes, the EU – in a worrisome sign of appeasement to Vladimir Putin – failed to announce tough sanctions against Russia yesterday in response to its continued destabilization of Ukraine and its complicit involvement in the downing of the Malaysian airliner…the EU did announce it would widen the list of individuals and companies targeted by asset freezes and visa bans…

The Bank of England’s minutes from its July 10 meeting were released today…all nine members of the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee voted to keep the benchmark rate at 0.5% and keep its $640 billion asset-purchase program unchanged…

North America

The Dow is down 9 points as of 8:15 am Pacific...Apple posted profits late yesterday that beat expectations…Microsoft, meanwhile, reported revenues that were better than expected though its earnings per share were lower…

The TSX has gained 65 points while the Venture is up a point at 1012 through the first 75 minutes of trading…

New Venture Chart Confirms Inherent Strength

Below is a new Venture chart from John that provides some fresh insight into the inherent strength of this market, and how it’s poised to continue its overall uptrend this quarter…

This chart may seem complicated to some, but there are a couple of simple and key “takeaways”…

First, the volume in advancing issues is on the rise once again after a recent dip…note the overall uptrend in this indicator since the second quarter of last year…

Second, pay particular attention to the ROC (Rate of Change indicator)…this indicator is momentum in its purest form…it measures the percentage increase or decrease in price over a given period of time…think of it as the rise (price change) over the run (time)…in general, when prices are rising, there is strength in the market, as long as the ROC remains positive…conversely, prices are in a downtrend when the ROC is negative…ROC expands into positive territory as an advance accelerates, while it dives deeper into negative territory as a decline accelerates…

There is no upward boundary on the ROC…the sky is the limit for an advance…there is, however, a downside limit…securities can only decline 100%, which would be to zero…even with these lopsided boundaries, ROC produces identifiable extremes that signal overbought and oversold conditions…

What’s particularly interesting at the moment is that the ROC on this monthly chart going back to 2005 (check the circled areas in blue at the top) is accelerating rapidly – at 96%, it’s well below levels attained in previous years but it has broken out above resistance and a sharp rise is under way…this is very bullish – more evidence that the Venture is gearing up for a big move though it may not feel that way to some investors at the moment…patience is the key, and remember that the trend is your friend…

Below is a shorter-term version of the above…again, the ROC is giving very positive signals as to the underlining health of this market, and the volume in advancing issues has picked up considerably this month…

Calibre Mining Corp. (CXB, TSX-V) Update

Calibre Mining (CXB, TSX-V) is very active with excellent geological prospects in Nicaragua including the Eastern Borosi Project which was recently optioned by Iamgold Corp. (IMG, TSX)…Eastern Borosi hosts Gold-Silver resources in two deposits and a series of well-defined low-sulphidation epithermal Gold-Silver targets…a 3,400-m drill program is now under way as announced at the beginning of last week…the series of drill targets represent more than three kilometres of potential Gold-Silver-bearing structures within the tens of kilometres of potential structures which have been identified within this prolific district…

Earlier this month, CXB provided an encouraging update with regard to its Minnesota Gold Project JV in Nicaragua with B2Gold Corp. (BTO, TSX)…

Technically, John recently noted how CXB broke out above a 2-year downtrend channel – a very bullish development…RSI(14) at 62% continues to climb an uptrend line…sure enough, CXB has held up well and has traded between 7 and 8 cents over the last 10 trading sessions…it’s unchanged at 7 cents as of 8:15 am Pacific…

Canada Zinc Metals Corp. (CZX, TSX-V) Update

Canada Zinc Metals (CZX, TSX) had a strong move at the beginning of this year, became technically overbought and then retreated in very normal fashion to the Fib. 38.2% level which was also right around the rising 300-day moving average (SMA)…

CZX is yet another very interesting B.C. play…the company is a dominant landholder in the Kechika Trough (northeastern B.C.) featuring several known Zinc-Lead-Silver deposits including the company’s Cardiac Creek deposit which has a NI-43-101 resource…drilling commenced just over a month ago and the drill program was recently expanded as reported by CZX July 7…it’s expected to conclude by the end of the month…

CZX jumped 8.5 cents yesterday to close at 44.5 cents and is up another penny at 45.5 cents as of 8:15 am Pacific…

Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. (CEM, TSX-V)

Interesting drill results yesterday from Constantine Metals (CEM, TSX-V) – hole CMR14-54 returned 22.1 m grading 2.48% Cu, 4% Zn, 24 g/t Ag and 0.39 g/t Au in an intersection that represents a major expansion of the zone to depth at the company’s Palmer VMS project in Alaska…worth keeping an eye on as their 10,000 m drill program continues…CEM gained a nickel yesterday to close at 19 cents where it’s trading as of 8:15 am Pacific…

The current drilling is part of a $6.2-million (U.S.) budget for 2014 financed by partner Dowa Metals & Mining Co. Ltd. of Japan…Dowa is in the second year of an option agreement in which it can earn 49% in the Palmer project by making aggregate expenditures of $22-million (U.S.) over four years…

Below is a 2.5-year weekly chart from John…CEM is trading at levels not since seen 2011, a very bullish sign…there is measured Fib. resistance at 21 cents, followed by 31 cents (not shown on this chart)…

Phoenix Gold Resources Corp. (PXA, TSX-V)

Those who were on this one early have been very well as Phoenix Gold (PXA, TSX-V) has tripled over the last 12 sessions, and on decent volume…speculation and momentum have been carrying it higher after the company announced the start of a drill program at its Plumas Property at Battle Mountain, Nevada…Phoenix, which started trading in April after completing a qualifying transaction, stated that Plumas is an outcropping high-grade Gold mineralized system that is being drill-tested for the first time…

Below is a chart as requested by some readers…the technicals show that this still has room to advance but be careful, of course, in chasing stocks that have tripled in less than a month and, as always, perform your own due diligence…PXA climbed as high as 11 cents in early trading but is now down half a penny at 9 cents as of 8:15 am Pacific…

 Note:  John, Terry and Jon do not hold share positions in CXB, CZX, CEM or PXA.