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Gold has traded between $1,187 and $1,210 so far today with weakness setting in following the release of a much better-than-expected U.S. jobs report for November…as of 8:15 am Pacific, bullion is off $10 an ounce at $1,196…Silver is down 18 cents at $16.31…Copper is off a penny at $2.95…Crude Oil is down by more than $1 a barrel to $65.46 while the U.S. Dollar Index has surged two-thirds of a point to 89.28…

Gold is still on track for 1 of its best weeks of the year after rebounding from the $1,140 area intra-day Monday…in the physical markets, Chinese buying remains steady with premiums unchanged at about $1-$2 today…meanwhile, data from the Istanbul Gold Exchange shows that Gold imports into Turkey more than doubled year-on-year to 46.9 tonnes in November, its strongest monthly imports in more than 6 years…

This morning’s U.S. non-farm payrolls report for November has pushed the greenback to new multi-year highs, putting pressure on Gold but bullion has nonetheless shown resilience…U.S. employers ramped up hiring last month, continuing a stretch of robust payroll gains and keeping the economy on track to record its strongest year of job creation since 1999…non-farm payrolls rose a seasonally adjusted 321,000 last month, the strongest month of hiring since January 2012, the Labor Department reported…the unemployment rate, however, remained unchanged at 5.8%…hiring was broad across the economy, led by gains in the professional and business services sector…retail also saw 50,000 new hires heading into the holiday shopping season…in addition, revisions showed employers added a total of 44,000 more jobs in September and October than previously estimated…analysts polled by Reuters were expecting a jobs number of around 230,000 for November, so this morning’s figure caught markets by surprise…the dramatic move was well above the average of 224,000 a month over the past year…

Today’s Equity Markets

Asia

A very volatile session in China overnight as the Shanghai Composite swung both ways within a wide trading range of 165 points…at the end of the day, the index finished up 39 points or 1.4% at a new multi-year closing high of 2939…momentum is moving this market at the moment, and resistance at 3000 will likely be tested next week…

China’s ruling Politburo said it will maintain a “prudent” monetary stance and keep growth within a reasonable range in 2015, signaling it will hold off major changes at an economic policy meeting scheduled to begin next Tuesday…while China will see difficulties in 2015, economic growth is showing resilience and potential, giving the government plenty of room to maneuver, the official Xinhua News Agency reported today…China’s annual Central Economic Work Conference will set an economic growth target for 2015, expected to be around 7%…today’s language about a prudent monetary policy reiterated the government’s previous stance, suggesting there won’t be a major policy shift at that meeting…

Japan’s Nikkei average closed 33 points higher at 17920…

Europe

European markets are up sharply in late trading overseas…Germany’s Bundesbank has cut in half its 2015 growth forecast for the euro zone’s largest economy…the central bank also trimmed its growth estimate for this year…however, the central bank’s president said there were signs that current weakness would soon be overcome…

North America

The Dow, which more often that not responds well on “jobs report” Fridays,  is up 53 points at 17953 as of 8:15 am Pacific…

The TSX is 23 points higher after a large order from Goldman Sachs to sell a basket of Canadian stocks caused the index to tumble during the final hour of yesterday’s trading…the Venture, meanwhile, is off 4 points at 703 as of 8:15 am Pacific…

Richmont Mines (RIC, TSX) Update

We’re bullish on Gold stocks entering year-end and we encourage our readers to perform their due diligence on as many quality producers and explorers as possible…

Canadian-based producers are benefiting from the weak Canadian dollar and much lower Oil prices than they budgeted for…keep in mind, Oil prices account for a significant portion of a producer’s cost structure, so these savings are going right to the bottom line…

If you can find a producer that’s out-performing both Gold and the TSX Gold Index, all the better…1 excellent example is Richmont Mines (RIC, TSX) which is on track for a stellar 2015 that could reward shareholders very handsomely…Richmont has a 1 million ounce high-grade resource to exploit beneath existing workings at its Island Gold Mine in northern Ontario, and the company has already recorded adjusted net earnings of 19 cents per share through the first 9 months of the current fiscal year…any company with Richmont’s revenue and earnings momentum should be on every investor’s radar screen…

Richmont has widely outpaced both Gold and the TSX Gold Index in 2014 as you can see on this 10-year monthly chart…Richmont soared from current levels to more than $12 per share during 2011 when it was one of the hottest stocks on the entire TSX…history could repeat itself in 2015…

RIC is off 2 pennies at $3.78 as of 8:15 am Pacific…

Probe Mines Ltd. (PRB, TSX-V) Update

Another Gold stock with excellent potential for 2015 is Probe Mines (PRB, TSX-V) which continues to advance its multi-million ounce Borden Lake Project in northern Ontario toward the completion of a Preliminary Economic Assessment…PRB has managed to hold critical support around $2 since the second quarter of this year, and the 50-day moving average (SMA) has recently reversed to the upside after being mostly in decline over the last 6 months…

PRB, unchanged at $2.57 as of 8:15 am Pacific, has significantly out-performed the price of Gold since early 2013…

The Venture’s “39-Week Cycle” 

Why the Venture has carved out a consistent pattern of 39-week cycles is a mystery that we can’t explain…however, just because it’s a mystery doesn’t mean it should be ignored or dismissed…in fact, looking at where the current cycle is at, our readers should draw great encouragement from what appears to be emerging which is an imminent new uptrend…

Below is a chart going back to 2001 that shows how this this pattern has played out…it’s particularly noteworthy now because the current 39-week period is rapidly drawing to a close (before year-end)…“peaks” and “troughs” typically occur at the end of each of these cycles…if history is any guide, the Venture is very close to moving out of this current trough…

Highbank Resources Ltd. (HBK, TSX-V) Update

The first half of December is usually the best time of the year to shop for bargains on the Venture, and one that we’re immediately eying is Highbank Resources (HBK, TSX-V) which is on the verge of putting its Swamp Point North aggregate project near Prince Rupert into production…

There is no shortage of demand for Highbank’s aggregate – even before anticipated LNG business kicks in – and production is expected to gradually ramp up throughout 2015…keep in mind, the port of Prince Rupert is undergoing a massive infrastructure expansion already valued in excess of $40-billion…Highbank holds strategic advantages over any potential competitors, so we see a long-term value-creation situation here that one rarely finds in a Venture company…

Technically, HBK has landed at the top end of an exceptionally strong support band – the “sweet spot”, as we call it – as defined by Fib. support levels which you can see on John’s 2+ year weekly chart…recent weakness can be attributed to some selling to exercise warrants which expired at the end of November…

Highbank has been a strong Venture out-performer in 2014 and its 200-day moving average (SMA), currently at 22 cents, continues to rise…

HBK is up half a penny at 20.5 cents as of 8:15 am Pacific after dipping as low as 18 cents intra-day yesterday…as always, perform your own due diligence…

Note:  Jon holds a share position in RIC.