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1. Gold has hovered between $1,284 and $1,288 so far today on this U.S. Memorial Day holiday…U.S. equity markets are closed and trading is light in the metals markets…as of 7:00 am Pacific, the yellow metal is up $1 an ounce at $1,285…hedge funds and money managers sharply reduced their net long positions in COMEX Gold in the week to May 21, according to latest data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission…Silver is 4 cents higher at $14.57…Nickel, which surged as much as 5% Friday to its best level in more than 3 weeks on Chinese short covering, is relatively unchanged at $5.60…Copper and Zinc are also flat at $2.68 and $1.23, respectively…Cobalt remains unchanged at $15.65…Crude Oil, coming off its worst week of the year, is off another 20 cents to $58.43 while the U.S. Dollar Index has climbed more than one-tenth of a point to 97.76…with both the U.S. and China avoiding any severe economic downturn so far, there’s little incentive for the 2 countries to strike a trade deal quickly, according to UBS Global Wealth Management…Tan Min Lan, Asia-Pacific head of chief investment office at UBS Global Wealth Management, predicts that any deal between the U.S. and China will likely only come “just before 2020,” Tan told CNBC’s “Street Signs” this morning…“It’s quite clear that trade tensions have re-escalated and at this point in time, there isn’t enough pain on either side for a deal to be imminent.  If you look at the United States, actually the economy is quite strong…on the China side, we know that it is able to at least stabilize the economy”…South Africa has become the first country in Africa to legalize cannabidiol use, following a change to its Medicines and Related Substances Act…

2. What’s with J.P. Morgan?…are they watching too much CNN?…the bank on Friday more halved its previous estimate on U.S. economic growth in the 2nd quarter to 1% (far too pessimistic) following data that showed a fall in durable goods orders in April…“The April durable goods report was bad, particularly the details relating to capital goods orders and shipments.  Coming on the heels of last week’s crummy April retail sales report, it suggests 2nd quarter activity growth is sharply downshifting from the first quarter pace”…the bank now sees it as basically a coin toss for the Federal Reserve to raise or cut interest rates, compared with its previous call for just a rate increase (just a coin toss? – if the U.S. economy were to post only 1% growth in Q2, the Fed most certainly won’t be raising rates)…“We had previously expected the next move from the Fed would be a hike, albeit at the very end of our forecast horizon in late 2020.  We now see the risks of the next move as about evenly distributed between a hike and a cut”…

3. British Columbia Premier John Horgan has been acting unconstitutionally in blocking the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, so why isn’t Justin Trudeau speaking up?…British Columbia’s highest court has concluded that the B.C. government’s proposal to limit the amount of heavy Oil flowing west to the ocean would be unconstitutional because only Ottawa has such oversight of the federally regulated Trans Mountain pipeline…Friday’s unanimous decision by 5 justices of the provincial Court of Appeal bolsters Alberta’s efforts to ensure the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion gets built…however, despite getting trounced by the courts so far, the Green Monster refuses to take no for an answer – Horgan’s goons responded to the decision almost immediately to confirm they will appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, a process that could extend the pitched legal battle beyond the federal election and into next year…the justices stated all governments can – and must – play a role in protecting the environment, but B.C.’s proposed amendments to its Environmental Management Act threatened to usurp the role of the National Energy Board, which had already “made many rulings and imposed many (environmental) conditions” as the body at the centre of the complex federal regulatory regime of such “interprovincial undertakings”…Alberta Premier Jason Kenney lauded the decision…

4. The Green New Deal comes to Quebec:  Quebec Premier Francois Legault says his government will move to electrify transportation systems, buildings and businesses in order to reduce Oil consumption in Quebec by 40% by 2030 (good luck)…he made the announcement yesterday as his party held a general council meeting in Montreal…Legault said his plan to electrify Quebec will require massive investments (the rest of Canada, of course, can help pay for it!) which he said could be unlocked by reviewing the management of the government’s Green Fund and by increasing funding for infrastructure planning (when a government picks winners and losers, watch out)…he said that from now on his government will only finance public transit projects that are electric and that are built mostly in Quebec (take money from the rest of Canada, especially the West, but impose trade barriers!), and will take steps to ensure that all new public buildings be powered by clean energy as of 2020…Legault also tasked his transport minister with 7 different projects, including the expansion of an existing subway line and a light-rail system being built in Montreal, as well as tramway projects for Quebec City and Montreal’s South Shore…

5. Federal Conservative leader Andrew Scheer has renewed his vow to establish clear guidelines for project approval and restore investor confidence as he outlined his energy vision for Canada during a visit to Calgary over the weekend…if elected this fall, Scheer said his party’s first order of business would be to cancel the carbon tax and subsequently repeal Bill C-69, end the B.C. shipping ban, establish clear timelines for regulatory approvals to ensure investor confidence, eliminate foreign interference in the approvals process and, finally, invoke federal jurisdiction when necessary…“We can pretend, as some do, that the world doesn’t need Oil and gas anymore but that’s simply not true,” said Scheer, after taking a swipe at the ruling Liberals’ record…“Before Justin Trudeau became Prime Minister, we had 3 private companies willing to invest more than $30 billion to build 3, nation-building projects that would have created tens of thousands of jobs and generated billions in economic activity,” he said, referring to Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain expansion, Enbridge’s Northern Gateway and Trans Canada’s Energy East pipeline…the Liberal government killed the Northern Gateway Project through northern B.C., while Trans Canada chose not to carry on with Energy East, which would have run through Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick…“Those companies continue to invest in pipelines elsewhere in the world.  Just not in Canada,” Scheer added…

6. American equity markets are closed for the Memorial Day holiday…the Dow has posted 5 straight weekly declines, its longest losing skid since 2011…the S&P 500 and NASDAQ recorded their 3rd straight weekly declines, their longest slide since December of last year…interestingly, the Venture has outperformed the Dow, S&P 500, NASDAQ and TSX over the past 5 weeks (the Venture is flat since Easter, off just 1 point) while the Dow, S&P 500, NASDAQ and TSX have lost 3.7%, 2.7%, 4.5% and 2.3%, respectively…historically, a period of outperformance by the Venture has been a bullish signal for not only the Venture but the broader markets in general…the Venture is flat in early trading while the TSX is 31 points higher…SGS Lakefield has produced a stunning 539 oz/ton (18,486 g/t) Silver flotation concentrate out of a 120-kg sample from Canada Cobalt’s (CCW, TSX-V) Castle mine tailings in Gowganda…such a high-grade, high purity flotation concentrate suggests CCW may be able to direct ship precious metal flotation concentrate from Castle to a smelter…the tailings, just 300 m from the mine, would be pumped down Shaft #3 where they would be converted underground into gravity concentrates through state-of-the-art spiral concentrators, already acquired by CCW…from there, the material would go through an on-site flotation process before shipment to a smelter…CCW is working closely with the Ministry of Northern Development & Mines to quickly amend CCW’s advanced exploration permit to allow for the tailings program…Colorado Resources (CXO, TSX-V) and privately-held Buckingham Copper announced this morning that they have received over $2.5 million in financing commitment letters with respect to the subscription receipt private placement of Buckingham being undertaken jointly with the proposed acquisition by Colorado of Buckingham…this pushes the 2 sides closer to a definitive agreement, followed by the necessary regulatory approvals, which will rescue Colorado from more than a year of inactivity and incompetence…

7. Snowpack levels are below normal over broad parts of the Golden Triangle, allowing for an extended exploration season with multiple companies putting “boots on the ground” over the next week or two…Garibaldi Resources (GGI, TSX-V) is expected to be the first company to start drilling in the Eskay Camp where temperatures have been reaching into the low teens under beautiful sunny skies…Garibaldi, Crystal Lake Mining (CLM, TSX-V), Metallis Resources (MTS, TSX-V), Etruscus Resources (ETR, CSE), Skeena Resources (SKE, TSX-V), Aben Resources  (ABN, TSX-V) and Tudor Gold (TUD, TSX-V) all have major programs lined up with targets more advanced than at any time since the district came to life again in 2016…

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