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Gold has traded in a range of $1,435 to $1,444 today…as of 7:05 am Pacific, the yellow metal is up $2 an ounce at $1,441…Silver has hit a new 31-year high and is currently up 43 cents at $37.85 while the U.S. Dollar Index is off slightly at 75.77…crude oil is off 29 cents at $105.55…U.S. unemployment claims fell last month as expected with the four-week moving average dropping to its lowest level in two-and-a-half years…durable goods orders, however, were weaker than expected for January…the Comeback America Initiative, a deficit watchdog group funded by billionaire Pete Peterson, has released an index, done with master’s students from Stanford University, that ranks the fiscal sustainability of countries around the world…Australia, New Zealand and Estonia occupy the top three spots…Canada is 11th while the United States is near the bottom, 28th overall, followed by Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Iceland, Portugal and Greece…yields on Portuguese bonds hit a new euro-lifetime high today after the country’s prime minister resigned late yesterday and as reports said the country was expected to seek a bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund soon…Portugal’s parliament rejected an austerity program proposed by Prime Minister Jose Socrates’ government…EU leaders hold a two-day summit starting tomorrow but they are not expected to endorse a full package of measures to attack the sovereign debt crisis, despite the fact they had been expected to do so for months…Spain is also in a mess…a survey released today showed that Chinese factories have stepped up a gear this month while their price increases have slowed, indicating that the government has made some progress in taming inflation without unduly harming growth…the HSBC flash manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI), the earliest available indicator of China’s industrial activity, rose to a two-month high of 52.5 in March, up from a final reading of 51.7 in February…a figure above 50 points to expansion on the month…the flash PMI, designed to provide a preview of the final data which is due a week later, suggested that China’s manufacturing sector had yet to feel much, if any, impact from the disruption to global supply chains after Japan’s devastating earthquake…a surprise new oil windfall tax in Britain has damaged the prospects for several Canadian producers and raised concerns over possible copycat measures by other governments…it never ceases to amaze us how foolish governments can be and they certainly represent a constant threat to investors…the climb in the CDNX since the March 15 intra-day low of 2054 has been impressive to say the least as the Index closed yesterday at 2318 where its 20 and 50-day moving averages (SMA) have converged…we are still very cautious with regard to the CDNX for various reasons including the fact the 13% move over 7 days was on lighter than usual volume…some indicators have turned more positive and one cannot rule out the possibility that the sudden drop to 2054 was an anomaly and not the beginning of a deeper correction…we’ll continue to watch things closely today and tomorrow in advance of an updated analysis Sunday…the overall CDNX bull market certainly remains completely intact and sometimes the best strategy in this kind of environment is to avoid trying to time the market by playing the short-term moves…as of 7:05 am Pacific, the CDNX is up another 7 points at 2325…there is little to report on the individual stock front as activity is generally quiet across the board…Abcourt Mines (ABI, TSX-V) has been showing some strength in recent days and is currently up half a penny at 21 cents…this is a company with strong underlying fundamental value and we believe it’s only a matter of time before the market wakes up to that…Wildcat Silver Corporation (WS, TSX-V) delivered some solid results this morning from its flagship Hermosa Project in Arizona including 100 metres grading 153 g/t Ag…the company has four drills operating on the property…the stock is the third most active on the Venture so far this morning, up 28 cents at $2.23…Wildcat Silver has been an incredible performer over the last couple of months…we’re traveling today and we’ll be going into more detail on individual companies in the BMR stable tomorrow…