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Gold has traded between $1,169 and $1,179 so far today…as of 10:30 am Pacific, bullion is off $2 an ounce at $1,171…Silver, at $16.98, has retreated 11 cents…Copper is up a penny at $2.63…Nickel is down 12 cents at $5.01…Crude Oil has jumped more than $1 a barrel to $50.78 while the U.S. Dollar Index has surged nearly a full point to 101.10…

Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest Gold-backed exchange-traded fund, dropped 0.72% percent to 863.67 tonnes yesterday…holdings have fallen more than 8% since the beginning of November…there were inflows into Silver yesterday, though…

Gold is under minor pressure today but it’s holding up well in light of another pulse higher in the greenback, triggered this time by the ECB’s decision to extend its bond-buying program (albeit at a modestly reduced rate) by at least another 9 months…the ECB will maintain its monthly purchase volume at 80 billion euros until March 2017 as planned, but will reduce it to 60 billion euros as of April…it kept all its interest rates unchanged…speaking at a news conference following the announcement, ECB President Mario Draghi said the decision didn’t constitute a move to “taper” or a gradual phase-out of the bond-buying program.  “Tapering has not been discussed today,” he said. “The presence of the ECB on the markets will be there for a long time.” 

That was all traders needed to hear to sell the euro and load up on more U.S. dollars…the extension of the program marks a further divergence between the world’s two most important central banks…the Fed is widely expected to raise short-term interest rates when it meets next week…

This Better Not Be Like The Herbert Hoover Rally!

After yesterday’s powerful advance, the Dow has posted gains in 18 of the past 22 sessions and 12 record closes since the election…the Trump rally in the Dow stands at 1,217 points or 6.6% through yesterday…the S&P and the Nasdaq, meanwhile, have risen 4.8% and 3.9% since November 8, respectively…

Significantly, the closely-watched Dow Transports broke out yesterday to its first record high since 2014…

While Trump is assembling an impressive team, and talking about a direction that’s pleasing to the ears of Wall Street traders, investors’ short-term expectations for the economy could be running a little ahead of where they should be…rejigging the American economy after 8 years of suffocating regulations and burdensome new taxes on businesses and individuals is going to make more than just a few months to fix…the real impact of the Trump Revolution may not be felt until sometime in 2018…

History certainly shows that an immediate post-election party on Wall Street doesn’t always translate to a near-term strong economy or stock market…in the most dramatic example, Herbert Hoover enjoyed a 13% market surge following his 1928 victory – just before the country plunged into the Great Depression…conversely, markets initially dropped after Obama got elected in 2008, but he was saved by extraordinary monetary policy measures in the wake of the Great Crash…

Trump To Unleash Oil & Gas Sector

In another example of how Canada and the U.S. are going in opposite directions on the regulatory front (not good for Canada from a competitive point of view), President-elect Trump is expected to nominate Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to serve as head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)…Pruitt has been a fierce critic of the EPA, and has been tied to the Oil and gas industry, which aligns with Trump’s desire to loosen energy regulations…

“Environmental protection, what they do is a disgrace; every week they come out with new regulations,” Trump said during one of many television interviews earlier this year…

Pruitt became the top prosecutor for Oklahoma, which has extensive Oil reserves, in 2011, and has challenged the EPA multiple times since, including in a pending lawsuit to throw out the EPA’s Clean Power Plan…the policy is the centerpiece of Obama’s climate change strategy and requires states to curb carbon output…

Oklahoma is ranked #1 in the Fraser Institute’s latest annual survey released this week on the top jurisdictions in the world for investing in petroleum exploration and production…as we’ve pointed out, that same survey has dropped Alberta to 43rd position out of 96…that is the most damning indictment yet of how politicians in that province, from “Progressive” Conservatives in recent years to the socialists now in power, have destroyed wealth in that province with horrendous policy decisions in the Oil and gas space and the economy in general…anger is understandably building among the electorate as evidenced by the chants at a rally this week of “Lock Her Up” in reference to Premier Rachel Notley…the collapse in Oil prices cannot be used as an excuse – every Oil-producing jurisdiction in the world has had to deal with that issue, and Alberta’s neighbor – with a very different mix of policies – has been able to vault to 4th in the Fraser Institute rankings…historically, it used to be the opposite – Saskatchewan once suffered under socialism while Alberta thrived…now the tables have been turned…question of the day, which also applies very much to investing – why is it there are so many people who either ignore history or simply don’t learn from it?…

Nickel Update

iPath Bloomberg Nickel Subindex Total Return ETN (JJN, NYSE)

Nickel has considerably more upside for 2017 as demonstrated by this morning’s updated chart for the iPath Bloomberg Nickel Subindex Total Return ETN (JJN, NYSE)…we initially posted a chart on the JJN in mid-July, shortly after the metal pushed past $4.50 a pound and was looking very bullish (“a profound change in the Nickel market” as we stated)…since then, the metal has climbed another 10%+ as investors see improved demand-supply dynamics…

There’s no question that Nickel has entered a bullish new cycle after plunging into extremely oversold conditions at the end of last year and early this year (JJN reflects the returns that are potentially available through an unleveraged investment in Nickel futures contracts, so the ETN will essentially move in lockstep with Nickel prices)…

Note the +DI/-DI bullish cross that took place in July…key near-term resistance is $14.78, 70 cents above yesterday’s closing price for this instrument…what we anticipate for 2017 is the JJN (at a minimum) testing the area between Fib. resistance at $17.71 and the long-term downtrend line which currently intersects through Fib. resistance around $20…that implies that Nickel prices will rise by at least another 25% to more than $6 a pound, perhaps significantly higher...they’ve already advanced >30% this year…

There is money to be made in Nickel!…

In Today’s Morning Musings…

1. Venture update – bargain hunter’s paradise…

2. The world is looking up again with Kopin!…

3. Updates on BLO, GGI, CEM and others…

Plus more…click here to read the rest of today’s Morning Musings and all BMR exclusive content, through a risk-free Pro, Gold or Basic package, or login with your username and password…