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Gold has traded between $1,224 and $1,243 so far today…as of 10:00 am Pacific, bullion is up $8 an ounce at $1,240…Silver has climbed 16 cents to $14.97…Copper is up 3 cents $2.15…Crude Oil has added 29 cents to $34.69 while the U.S. Dollar Index is flat at 98.32…

Agnico Eagle (AEM, TSX) CEO Sean Boyd told Kitco News in an interview yesterday that he sees significant changes in the Gold market taking place. “We were in a market where paper market was dominant. No one was focused on what was happening in the physical markets,” he said.  “But a lot of smart money is turning into Gold.”

Jewelers in India’s commercial capital began an indefinite strike yesterday to try to reverse a plan by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to introduce an excise tax, a 1% levy announced in Monday’s budget…India, of course, is the largest Gold market after China and the stoppage in Mumbai may spread…a 3-week nationwide strike in 2012 was successful in getting Modi’s predecessor, Manmohan Singh, to drop plans for an excise tax on Gold jewelry, although the government prevailed in imposing an import duty…

Fraser Institute Rankings

Australia is now the best investment jurisdiction in the global mining sector, according to the Fraser Institute in its latest popular annual survey…it rated 109 regions in total, and 3 Australian regions made it into the top 10 global ranking with Western Australia coming in 1st place…in Canada, Saskatchewan was once again ranked as the top mining region and came in 2nd place in the global survey…however, only 1 other Canadian jurisdiction cracked the top 10 – Quebec, which we find rather surprising given that province’s continuing regulatory delays and environmental politics…

The institute ranked the U.S. as the 3rd most attractive investment country in the world with 3 regions making into the top 10 list, only slightly behind Canada and Australia…Nevada came in 3rd in the global marketplace…however, it is probably Ireland that saw the biggest jump as it now lays claim to the 4th position, up 10 spots from 2014…rounding out the top 10 are Alaska in 6th place, Northern Territory (in Australia) in 7th, Quebec in 8th, Utah in 9th and South Australia in 10th…the companies that participated in the survey reported exploration spending of $2.2 billion U.S. in 2015 and $2.5 billion U.S. in 2014…click here to view the full Fraser Institute report…

In today’s Morning Musings…

1.  Very interesting updated charts for both the Dow and the TSX…

2.  Moody’s takes a dimmer view of China’s credit rating…

3.  Fresh chart explains the new energy behind Pure Energy Minerals (PE, TSX-V)…

Plus more…to view the rest of today’s Morning Musings, login with your username and password, or click here to gain full access to this and other exclusive BMR content and features…