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Gold has traded between $1,240 and $1,250 so far today…as of 7:30 am Pacific, the yellow metal is up $4 an ounce at $1,246…Silver is down 4 pennies at $19.95…Copper is up a penny at $3.19…Crude Oil is off $1.03 a barrel at $94.41 after a strong advance yesterday, while the U.S. Dollar Index has retreated one-quarter of a point to 80.80 as the 81 level continues to pose a problem…

Bullish contrarian sign – Gold analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News are the most bearish since June…19 analysts expect prices to drop next week, nine are bullish and three neutral, the largest proportion of bears since June 21 – just as Gold was about to hit its yearly low…

China, set to overtake India this year as the world’s top Gold consumer, will start Gold swaps trading on the interbank market next week, giving more hedging tools for banks dealing in bullion….the Shanghai-based China Foreign Exchange Trade System will start Gold swaps trading on Monday with the Shanghai Gold Exchange responsible for related settlement and delivery, the National Interbank Funding Center said in a statement today as reported by Reuters…the start of Gold swaps trading comes as China is taking steps to open up its Gold market and increase financial investments…China’s central bank stated in September that it plans to raise the number of firms allowed to import and export Gold and also ease restrictions on individual buyers of the precious metal…

Germany, the world’s second biggest holder of Gold reserves, cut its bullion holdings by a tiny amount in October for the second time in five months, data from the International Monetary Fund showed today…Germany’s central bank sold 3.4 tonnes last month and now holds 3,387 tonnes of Gold, according to the IMF website…Turkey was the biggest buyer in October, adding 13 tonnes (China, of course, rarely discloses its Gold holdings – it last commented on its bullion assets in 2009, saying its central bank then held 1,054 tonnes)…global central bank buying reached a 48-year high in 2012 of 544 tonnes, but it has since moderated…it was down 25% year-on-year in the first nine months of this year, according to the World Gold Council…

Draghi Plays Down Deflation Risks

The head of the European Central Bank says harmful deflation is not taking hold in the euro zone despite concerns over the strength of the region’s recovery…Mario Draghi said yesterday in a speech in Berlin that the ECB’s decision to cut interest rates was “not because we see deflation risks materializing” (believe the opposite)…Draghi said inflation will gradually return to the ECB’s goal of just under 2% annually as the economic recovery gathers pace…Draghi and other central bank leaders are likely much more concerned about deflation than they are letting on – Gold’s action this year is certainly telling us that deflation is an issue – so expect stimulative policies to continue with central banks trying to become even more creative if inflation doesn’t start picking up…

Today’s Markets

Asian markets were mostly higher overnight…China’s Shanghai Composite slipped 9 points to close at 2196, but the weekly advance was 2.8%…Japan’s Nikkei average finished at a fresh six-month high for a second straight day, 15382…

European shares are mixed in late trading overseas…

In New York, the Dow – after closing above 16000 for the first time ever yesterday – is up 5 points through the first hour of trading…the TSX has added 36 points to 13511 while the Venture has shot up 9 points to 936 after posting its third-best daily gain (nearly 12 points) in two months yesterday…again, a now-rising 100-day moving average (SMA) is a very positive sign for the Venture…

TSX Chart Update

The TSX is now trading at resistance around 13500, based on John’s 4-year weekly chart below, so we’ll see if it has enough energy to push through this area in the coming days, or if it needs to pause and take a brief rest before its next attempt at another important breakout…the 20-day moving average (SMA), currently at 13400, has been providing strong support since July with the Index dropping just slightly below that level on only a few occasions…while a near-term minor pullback is certainly possible, the overall TSX pattern remains bullish…

Pretium Resources Inc. (PVG, TSX) Bulk Sample Surpasses Target Of 4,000 Ounces

Pretium Resources (PVG, TSX) announced this morning that it has produced 4,214 ounces of Gold from 8,090 dry tonnes of excavated material from the Valley of the Kings bulk sample program – already surpassing the target of 4,000 ounces from the entire 10,000 tonne sample…processing is on track and expected to be completed early next month…the final amount of Gold production will be announced at the end of processing and assaying, which is expected by mid-December…Pretium tumbled from more than $7 a share after independent consultant Strathcona Mineral Services Ltd. resigned from the bulk sampling program in early October in a dispute with Snowden Mining over how to reconcile the bulk sample with Snowden’s resource estimate…in our view, as we mentioned at the time, this was nothing more than a classic clash of geological egos but investors got skittish, and Pretium didn’t help its own cause by the way it communicated the news of Strathcona’s departure…

Below is a 4-month daily PVG chart from John that was prepared after the close yesterday, as we were hoping investors could see the opportunity around $3 a share which likely was an important bottom for this stock…as of 7:30 am Pacific, PVG is up $2.54 to $5.62 and well on its way back up the ladder…it has traded as high as $6.15 today…

Azincourt Uranium (AAZ, TSX-V) Update

Azincourt Uranium (AAZ, TSX-V) is expanding its uranium portfolio, announcing the acquisition of a private Peruvian company that holds 100% of the rights and interests in the advanced-stage Macusani and early-stage Munani projects covering nearly 15,000 hectares in southeastern Peru…AAZ will pay $500,000 in cash and issue 5 million shares for total consideration of $2 million…this will dilute the AAZ share structure by nearly 20%, but the deal does create a stronger foundation for this maturing exploration company…$12 million has been spent developing Macusani which has a NI-43-101 compliant U308 resource (October, 2011) of 5.7 million pounds in the measured category, 12.5 million pounds indicated, and 17.4 million pounds inferred…AAZ is off a penny at 28.5 cents as of 7:30 am Pacific…below is a 15-month weekly chart from John, showing a very favorable overall technical posture…as we’ve been mentioning, it’s reasonable to expect a breakout above the horizontal channel at some point over the next couple of months…

Fission Uranium Corp. (FCU, TSX-V) Chart Update

Fission has been looking stronger from a technical standpoint recently and should now have strong support around $1.15 where the 50-day moving average (SMA) has flattened out after a brief decline…FCU could have a powerful finish to the year…it’s unchanged at $1.18 as of 7:30 am Pacific…

LX Ventures (LXV, TSX-V) Updated Chart

Below is an updated LX chart from John as the stock continued its advance yesterday toward the 73-cent Fib. level which is now the major near-term resistance…LX opened at 73 cents this morning…after the first hour of trading it’s down a penny at 70 cents…

Note: John, Terry and Jon do not hold share positions in PVG, AAZ, FCU or LXV…