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1. Gold has traded between $1,418 and $1,430 so far today…as of 7:00 am Pacific, bullion is up $10 an ounce at $1,427…investors are continuing to pile into Silver exchange-traded funds, with ETF holdings since the start of June rising by more than the amount of metal normally mined throughout the world in an entire month…“Holdings in Silver-backed ETFs surged 818.8 tonnes yesterday, the biggest daily increase in data compiled by Bloomberg since 2006,” said commodities brokerage SP Angel…“Investors added to Silver ETFs for a 12th straight day, bringing total known assets to a record 18,315 tonnes”…the metal has been outperforming Gold lately, as reflected by a declining Gold/Silver ratio…Commerzbank noted, “It seems as if Silver was kissed awake 2 or 3 weeks ago when the technically important 100-and 200-day moving averages held firm.  Ever since, the price has been rising almost continuously”…analysts cited “unabated and very high buying” demand from investors…Silver is up another 20 cents to $16.57 as of 7:00 am Pacific…Nickel has jumped 19 cents to $16.61…Copper is up 2 cents at $2.72 while Zinc is a penny higher at $1.11…Crude Oil has climbed 50 cents to $57.36 while the U.S. Dollar Index has slipped one-tenth of a point to 97.61…

2. Russia’s Gold reserves topped the $100 billion mark in July as Gold prices rose and the country’s central bank continued to buy the yellow metal, according to the bank’s latest news release…the Russian central bank bought another 597,000 ounces or 18.67 tonnes of Gold in June, which put its total Gold holdings at 2,208 tonnes as of July 1 or $100.3 billion…Moscow has been actively buying up Gold this year, adding more than 96 tonnes since the beginning of 2019…Russia bought 200,000 ounces in May, 550,000 ounces in April, 600,000 ounces in March, 1 million ounces in February, and 200,000 ounces in January…during the last decade, Russia’s Gold reserves have gone from 2% to 19% as of the end of 2018 Q4, according to World Gold Council data…the WGC has been pointing to an overarching trend towards Gold, noting that central banks around the world purchased a total of 651.5 tonnes of bullion last year – the largest amount since 1971…“What is more interesting to understand in the case of Russia is not just these large numbers, but the trend.  Emerging market central banks have been buying Gold fairly consistently since 2010…because central banks are looking to diversify their reserves, they are looking for safety and Gold provides that to them,” World Gold Council director of investment research Juan Carlos Artigas told Kitco news at the beginning of April…

3. Cannabis sector’s “Bre-X moment?”:  CannTrust Holdings (TRST, TSX) took another tumble this morning after a report that executives knew the company was growing pot in unlicensed rooms well before before government regulators unearthed the violation…the company’s shares dropped as much as 20% at the open…the Globe and Mail report cited internal emails showing CannTrust Chairman Eric Paul and CEO Peter Aceto were informed about the breach approximately 7 months before Health Canada raised the issue…it’s the latest setback for the Vaughan, Ontario-based producer which has seen its shares drop by more than half since the company said July 8 that the federal regulator gave a non-compliant rating to its greenhouse in Pelham, Ontario, forcing it to halt sales of nearly 30,000 pounds of pot…the company was found to have grown the crop in 5 unlicensed rooms between October and March, and CannTrust employees were also found to have provided inaccurate information to the regulator…the company has launched an investigation into the breach and told the Globe and Mail that it expects to complete it within days…it filed a response to Health Canada on July 17, the company said earlier this week, and is awaiting the regulator’s response…Aceto said regulators were also inspecting the company’s Vaughan facility in addition to its Pelham greenhouse…investors are weighing the risk of CannTrust losing its growing license, with sales and shipments of its products on hold…for the benefit of the industry, Health Canada has to make an example out of CannTrust…

4. Vancouver police say they’ve busted a pair of illegal cannabis oil facilities, “shutting down a multi-million dollar drug operation”…Police said officers executed a pair of search warrants at the 2 warehouses in an industrial area, facilities they say were being used as “butane honey oil labs“…investigators believe operators used the labs to extract THC and produce high-potency oils and concentrates, which were sold to rogue dispensaries and on the black market…in a media release, VPD Const. Steve Addison described the facilities as “very large and sophisticated illegal operations.  Although cannabis can now be legally purchased from government-regulated and approved retailers, we will not tolerate anyone who tries to cash in by breaking the law and putting the public at risk,” he said…Police seized cannabis products including oils, balms, edibles, shatter and shake, in addition to lab equipment, said Addison…under the Cannabis Act, using organic solvents such as butane to extract THC is not allowed…Police say that’s because such solvents are highly volatile, and pose a danger of explosions…Addison said police expect to recommend multiple charges once the investigation wraps…

5. Great Bear Resources (GBR, TSX-V) has drilled 5.87 g/t Gold over 12.1 m (includes 0.60 m @ 73.3 g/t, true width estimated at 80%) at its 100%-owned Dixie Project in the Red Lake Camp…the high-grade cut in DL-049 confirms recently predicted high-grade structural Gold controls in the Dixie Limb zone…Chris Taylor, President and CEO of Great Bear said, “When I first heard of the Dixie Project almost 10 years ago, what we now call the Dixie Limb was the only known significant Gold zone on the property.  At the time, I was told it was a 4 g/t average Gold occurrence.  We now know that there are also higher grade Gold zones developed along the 600-m strike length of the target.  When we began defining a significant swarm of Gold-bearing quartz veins at the adjacent Hinge Zone, we analyzed drill data at the Dixie Limb and predicted that veins parallel to the Hinge Zone could also intersect it.  Our drilling has confirmed that steeply-plunging high-grade Gold occurs at and near these intersections, and that these intersections are priority drill targets within the Limb. We will continue to drill these zones to define their number, size, Gold endowment, and extent to depth”…

6. The Dow is off 97 points through the first 30 minutes of trading…the NASDAQ is on the cusp of a new all-time high as earnings from Texas Instruments lifted chipmaker stocks at the open and helped shake off regulatory concerns facing Big Tech…the earnings season is off to a good start…about a quarter of S&P 500 companies have reported Q2 earnings so far…of those companies, 78% have posted a better-than-expected profit, according to FactSet data…in Toronto, the TSX is 35 points lower while the Venture has added 3 points to 592 after a 6-session winning streak was snapped yesterday…Seabridge Gold (SEA, TSX) has secured a non-brokered private placement from a single purchaser for 1 million common shares of the company at a price of $17.02 per share for gross proceeds of $17.02 million…no commissions are payable on this transaction…who was it?…the PP is expected to close by the end of next week…Eskay Camp juniors are among the most active on the Venture this morning…Garibaldi Resources (GGI, TSX-V) is trading above $2 a share for the first time since September of last year…northwest of Nickel Mountain, Crystal Lake (CLM, TSX-V) continues to heat up after a confirmed technical breakout through Fib. resistance at 37 cents…CLM is preparing to drill at Burgundy Ridge, an exciting early-stage discovery aided by significant glacial retreat with multiple “hot spots” over a wide and expanding area…first-ever drilling last year with an RC rig (4 shallow test holes) produced broad intervals of Copper-Gold mineralization and included confirmation of a previously unmapped high-grade intrusive unit featuring 2.6% Copper plus other metals near the bottom of the last hole between 118 and 119.5 m)…surface sampling has returned high-grade Copper, Gold, Silver and Zinc…CLM is up half a penny at 39 cents through the first 30 minutes of trading…CLM neighbor Etruscus Resources (ETR, CSE), which has been flying under the radar after listing on the CSE earlier this year, has plenty of explosive upside potential…ETR is active on the ground and preparing for drilling at its Rock ‘N Roll Project…Tudor Gold (TUD, TSX-V) is a penny higher at 57 cents while Metallis Resources (MTS, TSX-V) has added 3 cents to 98 cents…

7. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said today that the Justice Department is right to be looking into Amazon’s practises as part of its anti-trust review of big technology companies…“I think if you look at Amazon, although there are certain benefits to it, they’ve destroyed the retail industry across the United States so there’s no question they’ve limited competition,” Mnuchin told CNBC’s “Squawk Box”…“I think it’s very good that the Attorney General is going to look into this.  I think it’s an important issue and I look forward to him reporting back to the President and hearing his recommendations,” said Mnuchin…the Justice Department stated yesterday that it’s opening a broad anti-trust review of big technology companies, sending shares of Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook lower in off-hours trading…the DOJ said it is looking into how major online platforms have “achieved market power” and how their practices may have “reduced competition, stifled innovation, or otherwise harmed consumers”...at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in May, Amazon chief Jeff Bezos said “large entities deserve to be inspected and scrutinized”…

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