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Gold has traded between $1,318 and $1,328 so far today…as of 7:20 am Pacific, bullion is up $6 an ounce at $1,327…Silver is 16 cents higher at $21.63…Copper is up 2 pennies at $3.32…Crude Oil is off 47 cents at $106.36 while the U.S. Dollar Index is relatively unchanged at 81.72…

India continues with its futile effort to curb the country’s appetite for Gold…the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) has announced a new duty hike on imports of precious metals, but the country’s demand for Gold is likely to pick up later in the year due to seasonal demand (the festive Gold buying holiday Diwali is November 3), according to HSBC…duties on Gold, platinum and Silver rose to 10%, the 3rd hike this year…last month the RBI tightened the country’s bullion trade by requiring all nominated banks/agencies to keep at least 20% of imported Gold for the purpose of exports in customs bonded warehouses, leaving the other 80% for the use by entities engaging in the jewelry business or bullion dealers supplying Gold to jewelers…these restrictions with regard to Gold are an attempt by the RBI to fix the country’s current account deficit…some individuals and companies are reportedly finding ways around these measures, however…the love for Gold is deeply rooted in the Indian culture…

Euro Zone Growth Picks Up

The euro zone has emerged from the longest recession in its history with heavyweights France and Germany leading the way, according to data released today…the 17-member area grew 0.3% cent during the 2nd quarter, beating economists’ forecasts for 0.2% expansion and heralding a long-awaited return to growth for the 1st time since the end of 2011…the figures followed stronger-than-expected GDP growth in Germany, which recorded its most robust economic expansion in more than a year, while France confirmed that it was no longer in recession…

Today’s Markets

Asian markets were mixed overnight but Japan’s Nikkei average posted a gain of 183 points or 1.3% to close at 14051…China’s Shanghai Composite slipped 6 points to 2100…European shares are generally slightly higher in late trading overseas after growth data managed to beat expectations…

In New York, the Dow is off 53 points as of 7:20 am Pacific…the Wall Street Journal reported last night that the growing threat of a political stand-off over fiscal policy in Congress has some economists and market pundits predicting that this could limit the Federal Reserve’s drive toward slowing asset purchases in the coming months…“This is going to be an extremely noisy time in Washington – I think the rhetoric is going to be incredibly heated,” WSJ quoted says Ethan Harris, a senior global economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch…“Like everybody else the Fed probably hopes that the bark is worse than the bite but it has to be in their thinking,” he adds, explaining that the fiscal environment was “one of the reasons” he was betting on a December tapering move, even if he said the chance of real “disruption” to the government was only 20%…

The TSX is off 17 points to 12626 as of 7:20 am Pacific while the Venture is up a point at 926…

GTA Resources & Mining Inc. (GTA, TSX-V) was yesterday’s big mover, almost tripling in value (11.5 cents to a closing price of 31 cents) after an announcement updating its Auden Property adjacent to Zenyatta Ventures‘ Albany East Graphite Project…not surprisingly, it has pulled back somewhat in early trading today and is down 3 cents at 28 cents as of 7:20 am Pacific (after touching a low of 22 cents)…it’s an encouraging sign for the overall market that speculative money jumped in the way it did with this play yesterday…GTA has staked additional claims, expanding the size of Auden (initially acquired 3 years ago) to 27,000 hectares, and also reported that not only is it the largest single landholder in the area, but the only company other than ZEN to have known electromagnetic targets…Auden geology, according to GTA, is also favorable for hosting other commodities including platinum group elements and base metals…up until now, GTA has kept relatively hush about its presence next to Zenyatta (as an aside, sort of how Garibaldi Resources – GGI, TSX-V – has been quiet – so far at least – about its very strategic 170 sq. km Grizzly Property bordering Pete Bernier’s Sheslay Copper-Gold Porphyry Project in northwest B.C.)…

Zenyatta Ventures (ZEN, TSX-V) Updated Chart

So things are heating up with the Zenyatta “area play”, and big bids are also coming in for Brookemont Capital Inc. (BKT, TSX-V) as some of our readers have commented…so how about Zenyatta itself from a technical standpoint?…below is another ZEN chart update from John…everything continues to look very, very good…as of 7:20 am Pacific, ZEN is up 7 cents at $3.95…

TSX Gold Index Update

There are some really encouraging signs in the TSX Gold Index, adding credence to our belief that we could see some stunning 3rd quarter gains in select producers and juniors…an ascending triangle is forming in the TSX Gold Index, just as John noted in Copper recently…while buy pressure is still low, you can see that this is also the longest period of buy pressure witnessed in the 6-month daily chart…intense sell pressure has dominated most of this period…on Thursday, Friday and Monday, the Index gained a total of 15% before pulling back slightly yesterday to close at 187…as of 7:20 am Pacific, it’s up 5 points at 192…a confirmed breakout above resistance at 190 (and the top of the ascending triangle) would be a very bullish development, though exact timing of that of course is uncertain…the Index may need to pause for a bit to catch its breath before pushing higher, but the next major move definitely appears to be to the upside – consistent with the signs we’re also seeing in the Venture…

Note that the 50-day moving average (SMA), while still declining, is beginning to flatten out…a scenario that we see unfolding by the end of this month is a reversal to the upside in the 50-day SMA which would provide fresh fuel for a major new advance…the 50-day has been in decline since last November and has also provided stiff resistance until just recently…

The time to be bullish is when the masses are bearish, and vice-versa…below is a chart we showed recently when the TSX Gold Index was near its 2008 Crash low, and investors were still throwing their Gold stocks overboard…we’ve seen (and we’re still seeing) historic opportunities in this sector, and those who have been brave enough to get well-positioned in high quality situations during the incredible sell-off that we saw could be rewarded handsomely in the weeks, months and years ahead..

CRB Index Update

We’re seeing positive signs not only in the TSX Gold Index and the Venture, but also in the CRB Index which has formed a very obvious bullish “W” in this 6-month daily show below…there’s an important resistant band between 290 and 292.5 – watch this carefully…if our hunches are correct, within a couple of weeks we could see a breakout in the CRB and that would certainly bode well for the Venture…

Probe Mines Reports More Encouraging Results From High Grade Zone at Borden Lake

Probe Mines continues to define a significant high-grade Gold zone at its Borden Lake Project in northern Ontario…results from 10 infill holes in this area were released pre-market this morning, and included (in separate holes) 47 m @ 6.8 g/t Au…29.4 m @ 5.9 g/t Au…21.1 m @ 5.2 g.t Au…19.4 m @ 5.2 g/t Au…22.8 m @ 4.2 g/t Au…35.8 m @ 3.6 g/t Au…10.7 m @ 3.2 g/t Au…and 33.5 m @ 2.1 g/t Au…all intervals approximate true width…the mineralized zones are between 225 and 379 metres vertical depth…the hole that returned 21.5 m @5.2 g/t Au (BL13-431) was collared more to the northwest on Section 950m SE, suggesting an expanded strike length of the high-grade zone of up to 950 metres…all other results highlighted above were from Sections 1100m SE to 1300m SE…assays for the high-grade zone from Sections 1500m SE to 1900m SE are expected shortly…all 4 drills are currently focused on infill and expansion drilling on the high grade zone…Probe is off slightly through the first 50 minutes of trading today, down a nickel at $1.95…

Copper Fox Minerals Inc. (CUU, TSX-V) Update

Interesting news on Copper Fox Minerals (CUU, TSX-V) yesterday which gave the share price a 25% jolt to 65 cents…the company’s new JV agreement on the Schaft Creek Project with Teck Resources Ltd. (TCK, TSX) has given CUU the flexibility to pursue new ways of driving shareholder value, and a wholly owned subsidiary (Desert Fox Copper) will now immediately advance the company’s promising Van Dyke and Sombrero Butte Copper projects in Arizona that were acquired last year…CUU is also giving shareholders a tax-free distribution of 2.75 cents per share (ex-distribution date is August 16)…it’s interesting to note that in yesterday’s news release, CUU stated it sees “unprecedented current market value opportunities” in terms of potential projects available in the industry at the moment…

Last week, John indicated that from a technical perspective there was a high likelihood that CUU had bottomed out around the 50-cent level…we were waiting for a pullback after the sudden spike July 16 to 88 cents after the revamped deal with Teck was announced (by the way, Teck has also now commenced a 10,000 metre drill program at Schaft Creek)…below is an updated CUU chart…strong technical support in the 58-61 cent area…CUU is off a nickel at 60 cents as of 7:20 am Pacific…

BMO Research On China

China’s slowing economic growth is “the new reality” for the Asian nation, and that will affect commodity consumption, said BMO Research yesterday (source: Kitco)…the firm, which said that it recently completed a 2-week research trip to China, noted that most analysts now forecast 7.5% GDP growth for 2013…“Thus, a substantial rebound near term is unlikely, especially one driven by massive government spending,” they said…rather the government is likely to offer targeted spending for certain regions or sectors…“These announcements should, therefore, not be viewed as significant changes to the government’s general policy though commodity prices are nonetheless likely to move as headlines emerge on various ‘mini-stimuli’,” they said…BMO forecasts global commodities demand growth to slow materially over the medium term and for commodity prices to remain under some pressure near-term on the anticipation of oversupplied markets…the firm left its price forecasts unchanged and noted that Copper remains a preferred commodity for investors, “albeit within a challenged commodity complex”…in July, they forecast 2013 average Copper prices at $3.30 a pound…BMO Research predicted yesterday that China’s Copper consumption growth will be 4% this year while they pegged mine supply growth at 7%…