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Check back later today for an additional post and visit the BMR comments section throughout the day for updates and helpful information.

1. Gold has traded between $1,330 and $1,345 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion has retreated $9 an ounce to $1,330…Silver is off 7 cents at $16.63…Copper is down 3 pennies to $3.21…Nickel has pulled back 12 cents to $6.11..Cobalt has hit a new decade high of $36.63…Crude Oil has added 7 cents to $64.22 while the U.S. Dollar Index has rallied another quarter point to 89.94, just below new resistance at 90…world stock markets nosedived for a 4th day running today, having seen $4 trillion (U.S.) wiped off from what just 8 days ago had been record high values…nonetheless, despite the mainstream media hype, this is what bull markets are all about – a sharp pullback such as this during a primary uptrend cleanses technically overbought conditions and sets the stage for a climb to new highs…underlying economic global conditions remain very strong, and the U.S. is seeing an acceleration in growth that it hasn’t experienced in many years…

2. Isn’t it heartening to hear that we can all trust the central banks and put our faith in fiat currencies?…overnight, Agustín Carstens, general manager for the Bank of International Settlements, warned that cryptocurrencies are becoming a “threat to financial stability. There is a strong case for policy intervention. As now noted by many securities markets and regulatory and supervisory agencies, these assets can raise concerns related to consumer and investor protection. Appropriate authorities have a duty to educate and protect investors and consumers, and need to be prepared to act,” Carstens said in a prepared statement.  “Most importantly, the meteoric rise of cryptocurrencies should not make us forget the important role central banks play as stewards of public trust. Private digital tokens masquerading as currencies must not subvert this trust. As history has shown, there simply is no substitute,” he added…Gold bugs, of course, would beg to differ with some of his words…

3. The 10-year U.S. Treasuries yield spiked to 2.88% yesterday, its highest level in 4 years and up 47 basis points since the end of 2017…that certainly spooked equity investors and contributed to the Dow’s biggest point dive in history, though in percentage terms yesterday’s decline was 4.6%…the 10-year yield has backed off this morning to about 2.77%…interestingly, U.S. interest rate markets are now pricing in only 2 Federal Reserve rate hikes this year, a big shift from only a few days ago when they were pointing to 3 or even 4 hikes…

4. Gold demand rallied in the 4th quarter of 2017 but still fell overall last year according to a report issued today by the World Gold Council (WGC)…despite Gold’s best annual price performance since 2010, overall demand slipped 7% to 4,072 metric tons during 2017, down from 4,362 metric tons reported in 2016.  “It’s not surprising to see overall Gold demand down given the backdrop of monetary policy tightening and strong equity markets in 2017, but the market is not in bad shape,” the WGC’s head of Market Intelligence, Alistair Hewitt, said in today’s news release…significantly, annual inflows into Gold-backed ETFs were down 63%, registering only 202.8 metric tons in 2017 after 546.8 metric tons in 2016…European-listed Gold-backed ETFs accounted for 73% of net inflows…if ETF suddenly intensifies this year, Gold could really take off…

5. The Dow plunged another 500 points at the open but has since recovered most of those losses, down just 135 points as of 7:00 am Pacific…Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts say that based on the 5.6% gain for the first month of the year, history suggests the S&P 500 is likely on its way to 3,000, perhaps 3,100, by the end of 2018…that’s at least a 14% gain from current levels…the TSX, which has fallen in 8 out of the last 9 sessions, is down another 75 points through the first 30 minutes of trading with RSI(14) at its most extreme level in at least 15 years on the daily chart…the Venture is up 5 points at 808 as of 7:00 am Pacific and is signalling that a turnaround in the markets is imminent…yesterday, the Index gapped down at the open and touched a low of 790 – 20 points above its rising 500-day moving average (SMA) – before rebounding back above 800…

6. The need for an effective marijuana breathalyzer for law enforcement, such as Cannabix Technologies (BLO, CSE) is working on, was more evident than ever yesterday during a news conference in which British Columbia Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth rolled out new marijuana regulations for the province including a 90-day driving ban that will apply to anyone caught driving while impaired by drugs…the province also said it will increase training for law enforcement officers to recognize impairment…with regard to the 90-day ban, Farnworth acknowledged that there are serious questions around the reliability of roadside tests.  “That’s in the Senate right now,” he said.  “It’s one of the areas I’ve said where we have real concerns about the equipment, the test that’s being used, when it will be ready and the training that’s going to be required,” he added…British Columbia’s new regulations could face court challenges due to a current lack of reliable technology that can determine whether a driver is drug-impaired, according to Sarah Leamon, a lawyer with Acumen Law Corporation.  “I think that if legislation is passed on, say, March 1, it’s going to be challenged on March 2,” Leamon said…saliva screening devices are being tested at law enforcement agencies throughout the country…while the devices can detect a drug’s presence, measuring impairment with them is a challenge, Leamon said.  “It can stay in your body for a longer period of time, depending how long you’re using it, how frequently you’re using it and, quite frankly, how much body fat you have.  So it can remain in your system for weeks, even months after use and, of course, you’re no longer affected by it.”

7.  Over half a trillion dollars of value has been wiped off the entire cryptocurrency market in just under a month, as the prices of popular digital coins plunge…on January 7, the market capitalization or value of the entire cryptocurrency market hit an all-time high of $835.69 billion, according to Coinmarketcap.com, a website that takes into account the prices of over 1,000 digital coins across different exchanges…in early trade today, the value of the cryptocurrency market had plunged to $278.53 billion, marking a more than $557.1 billion drop since the record high…it comes as virtual coins across the board take a hammering…Bitcoin briefly dipped below $6,000 for the first time since mid-November today…it’s still significantly higher than a year ago but down sharply of course from its all-time high of just under $20,000 last month just as Bitcoin futures were launched…Etherum, meanwhile, which hit an all-time high of $1,432.88 on January 13, traded just under $600 this morning, marking a near 60% decline in a few weeks…

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