4. The Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors says the Canadian drilling fleet has shrunk from nearly 900 rigs in 2014 to 621 now, and will likely fall to less than 600 this year…some companies are moving rigs south of the border to chase brighter prospects in the United States…meanwhile, only 52% of the rigs in Canada’s fleet were active as of late January…climate change extremists in this country have no problem with Canada losing those good paying jobs with families getting hurt…
1. Gold has traded between $1,334 and $1,350 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, following a modestly better than expected U.S. jobs report, bullion has retreated $14 an ounce to $1,334…Silver has slipped 42 cents to $16.78…Copper is down slightly at $3.19 while Nickel has backed off 17 cents to $6.18 after a sharp run yesterday…Cobalt remains steady at $36.40, just 11 cents shy of a new decade high…Crude Oil has fallen $1.04 a barrel to $64.76 while the U.S. Dollar Index has rallied two-thirds of a point to 89.27…exchange operator CME Group reports that metals-trading volume averaged a record 763,000 contracts per day in January, up 45% from 525,000 in the same month a year ago…
2. The hot U.S. economy added 200,000 jobs in January, according to data released this morning by the Labor Department, with the unemployment rate dipping to a 17-year low while wages increased at the fastest pace since the recession…however, the report sent interest rates higher which has put additional pressure on stocks…the benchmark 10-year yield rose to a 4-year high of 2.85% this morning…yesterday, the 30-year yield broke above 3% for the first time since May…in other U.S. economic data this morning, consumer sentiment as measured by the University of Michigan’s survey was stronger than expected at 95.7 in the final January reading…meanwhile, a rather startling number from the Atlanta Fed got little attention yesterday from the mainstream media…its latest forecast calls for blockbuster growth numbers in Q1 in the U.S. with GDP expected to surge 5.4%…that would be the best quarter since the Great Recession ended in 2009…however, the Atlanta Fed’s tracker has shown to have reliability issues in the past due to the model’s sensitivity to the ISM manufacturing index…
3. Canada’s pipeline disaster is deteriorating into a national unity crisis in addition to a financial one as the country’s land-locked Oil is deeply discounted, resulting in lost revenue, taxes and royalties in the tens of millions of dollars a day, not to mention Oil stocks that are under-performing…meanwhile, in response to illegal and unconstitutional action by the new Oil-hating government of British Columbia that effectively blocks the already approved Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion (inter-provincial rail and pipelines are under federal jurisdiction), the most Prime Minister Trudeau has done so far is offer a promise that the project will be built…if the PM was really serious about supporting the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, he would act with the same eagerness, boldness and urgency he has with respect to the legalization of marijuana…unfortunately, we’re left with a country hamstrung by climate change extremism that cares more about getting pot to market than Oil to market…Alberta took its first retaliatory step against B.C. yesterday by suspending talks on the purchase of electricity from that province…in addition, there are growing efforts in Alberta to boycott a range of B.C. products…everyone should have seen this coming – the NDP usurped power in B.C. last spring by forging a deal with the Green Party and both signed an agreement that included a shared commitment to stop the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion…“Immediately employ every tool available to the new government to stop the expansion of the Kinder Morgan pipeline, the 7-fold increase in tanker traffic on our coast, and the transportation of raw bitumen through our province.” (Section 2, point “C” of the 10-page NDP-Green agreement)…Trudeau knew about that clause months ago but has so far failed to stand up to a challenge that’s not only a major B.C.-Alberta issue but pits B.C. against the federal government and Canada as a whole…
5. Over $100 billion was wiped off the global cryptocurrency market in the last 24 hours amid concerns over tighter regulation and worries that the Bitcoin price was manipulated on a major exchange…the total market capitalization or value of all cryptocurrencies in circulation stood at $405 billion early this morning, according to data from CoinMarketCap.com, which takes into account the prices of digital coins across a number of key exchanges…that’s a fall of $112.6 billion in value from the day before…the New York Times reported Wednesday that an increasing number of digital currency investors are worried the price of Bitcoin and other digital currencies have been inflated by cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, which is included in CoinDesk’s price index…Bloomberg reported that in December, the U.S. Commodity Futures and Trading Commission subpoenaed Bitfinex and a cryptocurrency company called Tether, which is run by many of the same executives…
6. The combination of cryptocurrency carnage and plunging cannabis shares has contributed to the Venture’s worst-ever start to the month of February…the Index, which climbed as high as 940 last month, has given up most of its gains since the big move began in early December, off another 28 points at 816 as of 7:00 am Pacific…resource stocks are holding up better and a shift to the resource side could be on the way…though the Venture has fallen below the 850 breakout point, it’s nonetheless underpinned by several layers of support not far from current levels…historically, February and December are the Venture’s two best months of the year…this February will likely end differently than it has started…
7. Markets are under pressure through the first 30 minutes of trading with the Dow off 283 points while the TSX has slipped 155 points into its most oversold conditions in more than a year according to the daily chart…big-name marijuana producers continue to take a hit…Canopy Growth (WEED, TSX), which has a $200 million bought deal deal at $34.60 scheduled to close next week, is down $2.84 at $24.78 as of 7:00 am Pacific…a lot of new capital has been issued in the marijuana and tech sectors over the last few months and the markets will have to churn through it…the Venture has retreated to 816 in early trading…both the Venture and the TSX are now very close to their rising 200-day moving averages (SMA), an area where turnarounds often begin…ML Gold (MLG, TSX-V) is bucking the trend so far, up half a penny at 23 cents after encouraging news yesterday that took the stock as high as 28.5 cents intra-day on total volume of more than 6 million shares…bargain hunters will be watching for any weakness in MLG in today’s overall market pullback as the company does appear to be inching closer to a legitimate Copper-Gold porphyry discovery at its Stars Project in central British Columbia…Gold Standard Ventures (GSV, TSX) has arranged a $20 million bought deal at $2.05 per share to advance its Railroad-Pinion Project in Nevada…
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Jon,
Don’t understand how 45 cents is fib support for CSR when we have been back under it for more than a week. Is it resistance again now?
Thanks
Comment by TradingAgent — February 2, 2018 @ 1:01 pm
Depends what kind of chart you’re looking at, TradingAgent…monthly, weekly and daily charts of course can all have some differences…and there’s more than one support area, too…the crazy broader markets are causing some gyrations – this will all pass soon enough…
Comment by Jon - BMR — February 2, 2018 @ 2:44 pm
Can you let give an estimation for end of this malarkey?
Comment by Shaun — February 2, 2018 @ 3:06 pm
I.e. We aren’t talking a full week of this right?
Comment by Shaun — February 2, 2018 @ 4:03 pm
Jon: a market correction based on your readings??
Comment by MERIDEX — February 2, 2018 @ 5:04 pm
Another big drop Monday morning, Shaun, accompanied by some panic, may very well produce a bottom – we’ll see…what you’d normally look for is that intra-day reversal, sharp move down followed by a quick turnaround…
Comment by Jon - BMR — February 2, 2018 @ 6:20 pm
Hoping we start seeing that sector rotation…would be amazing timing really for our fav resource plays. Not to state the obvious but it’s exciting to think about.
Comment by Shaun — February 2, 2018 @ 6:28 pm
What a red filled couple of days. Jon, About all the bought deals for financing, do the financial institutions still have to stand behind the price they negotiated (if the deal has been finalized), or is the price renegotiated? Thanks
Comment by donmac2117 — February 3, 2018 @ 6:36 am
Hi John and Jon, strong confluence restive at 42 for CSR. Granted the markets have been whacko this week. Will CSR finally post an update for assays and Re-2ox soon? Their Dec 8th NR alluded to more info by end of year….
Comment by Shaun — February 3, 2018 @ 11:39 am