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1. Gold has traded between $1,270 and $1,278 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is up $2 an ounce at $1,275 with strong support in the $1,260’s…holdings of the world’s largest Gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust, stood at 752.86 tonnes yesterday, a marginal increase from the previous day but still around their lowest levels in 6 months…however, overall Gold holdings in physically-backed ETFs have remained relatively consistent…Silver is up 4 cents at $14.99…base metals have pulled back modestly with Copper, Nickel and Zinc at $2.92, $5.73 and $1.30, respectively…Crude Oil has gained 8 cents to $63.84 while the Dollar Index has jumped one-third of a point to 97.30…Washington and Beijing have set a tentative timeline for the next round of talks and are aiming to conclude trade negotiations by early June, according to a Wall Street Journal report…more weak economic data out of the euro zone this morning – German flash manufacturing PMIs rebounded slightly but remained squarely in contraction territory, while manufacturing activity in France hit a 4-year low…

2. TD Securities remains optimistic regarding Gold even though the yellow metal has not been able to benefit lately from a dovish Federal Reserve.  “With many in the market dismayed and pondering what it will take to move Gold past $1,350/oz, if an uber-dovish Fed can’t do the job, we see interest growing from both the official sector and money managers in the cards,” TDS commented…“Growing risks that central banks may again need to follow a nonconventional monetary policy path, when the economy heads south, are additional fodder for the view that private-asset allocations would follow the official sector in increasing their allocations to Gold and precious metals.  For now, prices remain stuck in recent ranges”…

3. Retail sales in the U.S., which account for two-thirds of GDP, bounced back vigorously in March after a stretch of weak spending, another sign that 1st quarter growth was stronger than expected…in the largest monthly gain since September 2017, retail sales increased a seasonally adjusted 1.6% in March from a month earlier to $514.1 billion, the Commerce Department reported this morning…economists were expecting about a 1.0% jump in sales…outlays on cars and car parts, along with spending at gas stations, helped push overall spending in March…however, even after removing auto-related spending including higher gas prices from the mix, consumer spending still grew a solid 0.9% in March, higher than the 0.7% gain economists expected for this underlying measure…

4. Canopy Growth (WEED, TSX; CGC, NYSE) and Acreage Holdings (ACRG.U. CSE; ACRGE, NASDAQ) have struck a deal that grants Canopy the right to acquire 100% of the shares of Acreage, with a requirement to do so at such time as cannabis production and sale becomes federally legal in the United States (when might that be?)…Acreage shareholders enjoy some immediate benefits, however…following the approval of all shareholders as well as the Supreme Court of British Columbia, Acreage holders will receive an aggregate total payment of $300 million (U.S)…later, upon nationwide legalization of cannabis, holders of Acreage will receive 0.5818 of a common share of Canopy Growth…total consideration payable pursuant to the transaction is valued at approximately $3.4 billion (U.S.) on a fully-diluted basis, representing a premium of 41.7% over the 30-day volume weighted average price of Acreage on the CSE…“Today we announce a complex transaction with a simple objective,” stated Bruce Linton, Chairman and co-CEO of Canopy Growth…”Our right to acquire Acreage secures our entrance strategy into the United States as soon as a federally-permissible pathway exists.  By combining Acreage’s management team, licenses and assets with Canopy Growth’s intellectual property and brands, there will be tremendous value creation for both companies’ shareholders”…both stocks have responded well to the news and are up in early trading…

5. The Dow has added 63 points after the first 30 minutes of trading…in Toronto, the TSX is 32 points higher while the Venture has gained 2 points to 612…Midland Exploration (MD, TSX) has closed its private placement with BHP Billiton (BHP, NYSE) which acquired 3,444,000 Midland units at $1.70 per unit ($5,854,800)…each unit includes a full warrant exercisable at $2.05 for a period of 18 months…Midland, which now has 69 million shares outstanding, is unchanged at $1.30…the company started a 2,000-m drill program at its Mythril target in Quebec’s far north in late March to test geophysical, geochemical and geological targets over a distance of approximately 2 km…Azimut Exploration (AZM, TSX-V), also active in the area, has hit its best levels since 2016…Galway Metals (GWM, TSX-V) is up slightly after releasing encouraging fresh drill results from its Clarence Stream Gold Project in New Brunswick where it’s adding a 2nd drill rig…Aurora Cannabis (ACB, TSX) has confirmed that the public appeal process related to the German cannabis production tender has been completed, and the company’s contract with the German Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices has now been finalized…the approval will allow Aurora to begin construction of a new, state-of-the art, indoor cannabis production facility in Leuna, Germany in May 2019…the company anticipates completion within 12 months of ground breaking…

6. Ero Copper (ERO, TSX) has announced a series of impressive high-grade Copper intercepts from continuing exploration in the Pilar and Vermelhos districts, both part of its Vale do Curaca Property in northeast Brazil…24 drill rigs are currently operating throughout the Curaca Valley, including 11 within the Vermelhos District and 13 within the Pilar district…3 of these drill rigs are testing high-priority regional exploration targets…within the Vermelhos district, 13 holes drilled during the period highlight both extension and expansion of the previously modelled southern extent of the mineralization within the Sombrero orebody of the Vermelhos mine…significant results include hole FVS-326 that intersected 21.4 m grading 5.5% Copper including 9.2 m grading 7.6%; hole FVS-354 that intersected 17.0 m grading 6.76% Copper including 3 m @ 17.2%; and hole FVS-364 that cut 9.4 m grading 1.7% Copper and 24.6 m grading 7.6% Copper including 7.7 m grading 16%…these holes are significant as this area of the Sombrero orebody was previously modelled as small discrete lenses at the southern edge of the orebody, rather than as a more continuous high-grade extension of the mineralization of the Sombrero orebody…when combined with results of the recently completed regional airborne geophysical survey and data compilation programs, drilling continues to demonstrate significant potential for extensions of the Vermelhos mine along a north-northeast trending structure that, to date, has been interpreted to extend over 5.5 km…

7. Bureaucrats/politicians in the way again:  Scandium International (SCY, TSX) announced this morning that it has received notice from counsel for the New South Wales Department of Planning and Environment that, due to a “procedural issue” within the department, the company’s mine lease grant pertaining to the Nyngan Scandium Project in New South Wales, previously issued in October 2017, is invalid…the department has determined that its internal procedures failed to properly and fully consider an affected landowner’s “agricultural land objection” prior to the grant of the mine lease, as specified by applicable law…Scandium believes that the viability of the project is not dependent on land related to the current objection and can proceed based exclusively on surface rights owned by the company…however, it’s currently in ongoing discussions with the affected landowner, and is also in process of filing documents that could potentially address issues central to this matter…George Putnam, CEO of Scandium, commented, “The determination by the department as to the validity of the agricultural land objection has not been made, and remains at the heart of this matter.  The company (with counsel) has provided the department with extensive comments on the objection and will press for an early, accurate and fair decision in this regard.  The company remains committed to building the Nyngan Scandium Project, regardless of the decision by the department”…

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