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Gold has been somewhat volatile today, trading between $1,252 and resistance at $1,275…as of 7:30 am Pacific, bullion is up $7 an ounce at $1,261…Silver is 40 cents higher at $19.91…Copper is flat at $3.22…Crude Oil is up 24 cents at $97.43…stockpile data and supply glitches have tightened Oil markets recently…the U.S. Dollar Index has been bouncing around and is currently down one-tenth of a point at 81.03…

Gold is performing very well when one considers the lack of demand from Asia due to the Lunar New Year holiday…

Concerns about the fragility of stock markets after a recent heavy sell-off has piqued some investment interest in bullion, with the world’s largest Gold-backed ETF, the SPDR Gold Trust, reporting a 3.9-tonne inflow yesterday…

Reuters reported this morning that Indian jewellers are stepping up imports of finished Gold jewellery from Dubai and Singapore, as a record high import tax on the metal and rising premiums demanded by sellers are choking bullion supplies in the world’s second-biggest consumer…importantly, cheaper imports of finished jewellery now pose a threat to local jewellery manufacturing units that employ more than 10 million workers, excluding retail store employees…hit by lower availability of Gold, a few Indian jewellery makers such as Gitanjali Exports are also thinking of raising capacities at their overseas manufacturing units…we believe this may put additional pressure on the Indian government to relax its Gold-import restrictions in advance of May’s elections…winds of political change are brewing in India, and that should be favorable for Gold…

Updated Copper Chart

Copper hit a two-month low on Monday but bounced back slightly yesterday to snap a nine-session losing streak, its longest since December 1995…the sell-off was attributed to expectations that weaker economic data and tremors in emerging markets will lead to lower demand for the metal…the market, of course, is sensitive to changes in the global economic outlook because of Copper’s widespread use in construction and manufacturing…

Even with a modest slowdown in the Chinese economy, however, this country’s strong appetite for Copper continues…stockpiles of the metal in LME warehouses have fallen nearly 50% since late June, and much of that Copper has been moving to China according to industry experts…Deutsche Bank says China’s Copper consumption increased 11% last year as companies ranging from power-cable makers to home builders continued to use Copper products at a brisk clip…these companies ramped up despite slower growth in the broader economy and the Chinese government’s efforts to keep a lid on credit…many of China’s biggest Copper users are state-controlled companies, which are less reliant on the loans types that are the focus of the government crackdown…a great example is State Grid Corp. of China, responsible for the maintenance and expansion of high-voltage transmission lines across most of China…the company plans to increase spending by 13% this year…

Below is a 2.5-year weekly Copper chart from John that shows important support has held despite the string of nine consecutive down days that ended Monday…Copper has been trading in a horizontal channel, mostly between $3.20 and $3.40, since last summer…

Today’s Markets

Asia

Japan’s Nikkei average gained 172 points overnight to close at 14180, after enduring its worst drop since June 2012 yesterday…China’s Shanghai Composite remained closed for the Lunar New Year holiday…

Europe

European markets are mixed in late trading overseas…business activity in the euro zone expanded at its fastest pace since June 2011 in January, according to fresh data released this morning…

North America

The Dow is down 72 points as of 7:30 am Pacific… private companies created 175,000 new positions in January, a bit lower than expected but consistent with the pace of job creation over the past two years, according to the latest report this morning from ADP and Moody’s Analytics…the government’s non-farm payrolls data for January will be released Friday…

The U.S. budget deficit is set to fall to $514 billion this year, down substantially from last year $680 billion) and the lowest level by far since President Obama took office five years ago, according to a congressional report yesterday…the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) credits higher tax revenues from the rebounding economy and sharp curbs on agency spending as the chief reason for the deficit’s short-term decline…but the budget experts see the long-term deficit picture worsening by about $100 billion a year through the end of the decade because of slower growth in the economy than they had previously predicted…now, what would happen in future years if the government had to pay higher interest rates than expected on its accumulated debt which now stands at just over $17 trillion?…

The TSX is off 40 points through the first hour of trading while the Venture is down 2 points at 945…Alix Resources Corp. (AIX, TSX-V) is trading briskly this morning, one of the volume leaders, after announcing the acquisition of 1700 hectares in the Sheslay Valley next to claims held by Doubleview Capital Corp. (DBV, TSX-V)…the B.C. Ministry of Mines web site shows intense staking activity in the Sheslay Valley in recent days as this play continues to build momentum…

Venture Updated Chart

The Venture is underpinned by very strong technical support between the 920’s and the 940’s as clearly shown in this 4-month daily chart from John…not only is their Fib. support, but moving average (SMA) support as well with the 200-day flattening out at 935, just below the 100-day SMA at 940…

Garibaldi Resources Corp. (GGI, TSX-V) Updated Chart

The healthy minor pullback in Garibaldi Resources Corp. (GGI, TSX-V) over the last two trading sessions, into a strong band of support between its rising 10 and 20-day moving averages (SMA’s), has been a terrific opportunity for investors in our view, a consideration of Garibaldi management as well it seems…last night they announced the granting of 1 million stock options at 20 cents per share, and that kind of thing is often a very positive sign…

With a strong portfolio of diversified assets in Mexico and British Columbia, and a healthy balance sheet, GGI is well-positioned for a breakthrough year – especially given the fact it holds by far the largest land package among juniors in the Sheslay Valley district of northwestern B.C. where the Grizzly is being rapidly advanced to the drilling stage…Doubleview Capital Corp’s (DBV, TSX-V) recently announced discovery, contiguous to the borders of the Grizzly, has reinforced the theory that there could be multiple Cu-Au porphyry deposits along many kilometres in the Sheslay, like “pearls on a string”, and that this area could easily develop into a world class mining camp given its location and highly prospective geology…in recent days, BMR has been consulting with numerous independent geologists and prospectors in advance of a major report on the Sheslay district next week…suffice to say, the Sheslay Valley is shaping up to be British Columbia’s #1 exploration play in 2014, putting all the companies in the Sheslay region in a very favorable position (explains the acceleration of staking/acquisition activity)…

Below is an updated 3.5-year weekly GGI chart from John…the first critical technical event in this stock occurred last summer when GGI broke above a long-term down trendline…the next critical event was a recent breakout above a bullish downsloping flag…this chart is consistent with the idea of a potential massive move to the upside in GGI, generated by the strong possibility of new discoveries in the Sheslay Valley from the drilling of at least three properties – the Grizzly, the Hat (Doubleview) and the Sheslay (Prosper Gold, PGX, TSX-V)…as always, perform your own due diligence…

Monster Lake Exploration Resumes

TomaGold Corp. (LOT, TSX-V) has started work on the Monster Lake Property, 50 km southwest of Chibougamau, Quebec, pursuant to an agreement that calls for Iamgold Corp. (IMG, TSX) to spend at least $2 million on exploration at Monster Lake in Year 1…the first phase of work, which begins immediately, consists of a high-resolution magnetic survey, to be followed by an initial program of at least 6,000 metres of drilling scheduled to commence during the second half of this month…

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

Fission Uranium Corp. (FCU, TSX-V) released assay results this morning from the final 20 holes of last summer’s drill program – noteworthy was the broad mineralization returned by the recently discovered R600W zone, and hole PLS13-109 (line 750E) which returned 4.22% U3O8 over 8.0 m including a higher grade interval of 11.1% U3O8 over 3.0 m…Fission’s winter drill program is underway…significantly, on January 27, the company announced that PLS14-129 (line 600E) returned the widest, strongest off-scale results recorded at PLS to date…FCU is off 2 pennies at $1.18 as of 7:30 am Pacific…important chart resistance is at $1.25 – a confirmed breakout above that area would be a very bullish development…

Reservoir Minerals Inc. (RMC, TSX-V) Update

Reservoir Minerals Inc. (RMC, TSX-V) is the perfect definition of a discovery play and we encourage our readers to perform their due diligence on this company and not dismiss the opportunity simply because RMC is trading around $6 a share…it has only 40 million shares outstanding, and reminds us a lot of how Richfield Ventures traded since rising from pennies in 2009 to more than $10 a share on a take-out by New Gold Inc. (NGD, TSX) in 2011…

Below is a 1.5-year weekly RMC chart – look at the impressive uptrend line…a correction at some point will almost certainly occur, as it does in all stocks, but the fundamentals underpinning this play are exceptionally strong as they were with Richfield…

Note: John and Jon both hold share positions in GGI.  Jon also holds share positions in PGX and DBV.