I will have a full market summary out on Sunday but for now I found two of this afternoon’s Commitments of Traders (CoT) reports to be quite curious; small speculators have moved to a record short position in gold futures (net short 6,592 contracts for a notional value of roughly $818 million), while total speculative… Continue Reading
Ten days ago before all the recent fun started we penned a piece entitled “2008 Redux?”. The main point of this piece was to highlight the striking similarities between the current market and the lead up to the 2008 market meltdown. Most notably we just witnessed one of the worst months ever (September) for commodities… Continue Reading
A fantastic article on silver production was recently published by SRSrocco Report comparing financial results and production levels from the 12 primary silver producers to previous results. I won’t spoil it for you but the analysis reveals a couple of alarming trends for silver producers. The Primary Silver Mining Industry continues to suffer from manipulated low metal prices. However,… Continue Reading
While it’s big brother gold struggles to keep its head above the $1200/ounce mark, silver has cleanly snapped support and broken down to its lowest levels since Spring 2010: Click to enlarge SLV (Weekly) The breakdown from the descending triangle currently targets the $15-$15.50 area – it is important to note that, according to Bulkowski, breakdowns… Continue Reading
With one day left in the month, September is shaping up to be the worst monthly performance for the senior gold miners (both the GDX and HUI are down roughly 18.5% for the month) since the dreadful month of June 2013: Click to enlarge HUI Gold Bugs Index (Monthly) The gold miners are down 5 weeks in… Continue Reading
In 2008, Venezuela’s former President Hugo Chavez nationalized mining and energy assets in a failed attempt to gain control over his struggling economy. As a result, there are now 28 unresolved cases filed at the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) by companies seeking retribution for these actions, including the energy giant Exxon… Continue Reading
Past gold price bottoms have closely coincided with small speculators moving to a net short position in gold futures. As of Tuesday September 16th the small specs were still holding out with a net long position of more than 4,000 contracts and had actually increased their bullish bets in the previous week: Click to enlarge… Continue Reading
This morning gold has broken key support near $1240 and hopes for a head and shoulders pattern bottom are all but dashed: Click to enlarge The white oval is the ‘last stand’ area of support I highlighted earlier in the week – gold is currently at a level of ‘oversold’ (green ovals) that has historically… Continue Reading
Gold is under heavy pressure again this morning and a ‘last stand’ for gold bulls is fast approaching: Click to enlarge The gold futures chart shows a bearish engulfing candlestick forming today after last week’s breakdown from the large symmetrical triangle The $1240 level (support from early June) is now the last line of defense before… Continue Reading
Markets Tapped Out on Lackluster Economic Data: As Mining Sentiment Softens Mixed signals across multiple geopolitical forums, a building NATO response to the Ukraine Crisis, building ECB monetary stimulus of the Euro and tepid US economic data during the week have conspired to lead markets into the red for the week, and comes despite EU… Continue Reading
Unsurprisingly, Goldman Sachs’ head of commodities research, Jeffery Currie, told investors to short gold highlighting that the crises in Ukraine and Europe are supporting the price of gold but that the US Fed’s Policy shift would cause a sharp decline in the price of gold. Sound familiar? Currie is calling for a +$200 per ounce price… Continue Reading
The ECB openly entered the quantitative easing game (QE) this morning with a plan to purchase a “broad portfolio of transparent asset backed securities”. The chart below clearly illustrates why the ECB has finally hit the panic button with regard to QE: Click to enlarge Source: FT “Should it become necessary to further address risks of too… Continue Reading
After releasing partially completed results from their first vertically drilled hole (AR-14-30) last week, NexGen Energy (NXE:TSXV) announced the results of that completed hole this morning as well as results from two other drill holes that also intersected high-grade uranium mineralization in 50 metre step-outs on the Rook I project. Hole AR-14-30 which was drilled to test the vertical… Continue Reading
After today’s $23 decline gold is at a key juncture – here are the most important charts: Click to enlarge Gold (Daily) – testing bottom rail of downtrending channel Gold (Weekly) – H&S bottom with key support at $1240 Gold (Weekly) – break of multi-month symmetrical triangle targets ~$1050 There can be no doubt that gold is at… Continue Reading
Things never look that bad. Until they are. Like in India’s coal sector. Where recently, many analysts have been suggesting that demand is going remain subdued–as with the global sector in general. But for anyone watching the numbers the last few years, it’s been clear major problems are coming in coal supply here. And last… Continue Reading
