Global markets greeted the Chinese holidays on Thursday and Friday with relief following the capitulation of Chinese stock markets and the high volatility experienced by global equities and commodities in recent weeks. This capitulation continued early in the week on the back of China’s official manufacturing PMI index, which fell below the 50 mark in July; the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P500 and NASDAQ each fell 2.84%, 2.96% and 2.94% respectively in response to the news. After a period of relative calm, U.S. markets fell again on Friday, with the Dow Jones falling 2.5% to finish at 16,102 on Friday.  Meanwhile, the question of whether the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates continued following more positive economic data out of the U.S, with employment and housing both looking robust. However, concerns remain that an interest rate hike may add further fuel to an already highly volatile global equity market.  Closer to home, we note the S&P/TSX Venture has enjoyed a mild-rally since last week, rising to 553 from an intra-day low of 509 on August 24, 2015. This comes despite the volatility experienced in other indexes, and is a welcome reprieve for some long-suffering junior mining explorers. In commodities, both precious and base metals were down for the week, with gold (↓0.9%), platinum (↓2.5%) and palladium (↓1%) each finishing at $1,122, $993 and $582 per ounce respectively; silver was flat for the week, while copper (↓0.3%), nickel, (↓1.1%), lead, (↓4.4%) and zinc (↓1.6%) each finished at $2.32, $4.50, $0.75 and $0.81 per pound respectively. WTI crude prices rallied after plunging below the $40 per barrel mark last week, up 1.8% from Monday. Finally, The UxC Broker Average Price (BAP) of uranium rose steadily again this week, climbing over 1% to finish the week at $37.19 per pound.

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