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Check back later this morning for today’s BMR Morning Market Musings.

1. Gold traded as high as $1,183 overnight but is down $4 an ounce at $1,176 as of 7:00 am Pacific after yesterday’s big move…bullion’s reaction to this morning’s mildly disappointing U.S. jobs report for December was muted…non-farm payrolls grew by 156,000 jobs, a number that missed expectations but was overshadowed by a sharp gain in wages…average hourly wages jumped 10 cents to $26, representing a 2.9% annualized gain…that comes a month after wages showed a modest decline…the U.S. Dollar Index has shot up half a point to 101.94…

2. Palladium is up another $10 an ounce this morning to $750, stretching its gains this week to 10.6%…base metals and Oil are flat as of 7:00 am Pacific…

3. The Venture is unchanged at 794 after an aggressive move through key resistance at 784 yesterday…follow-up to confirm a breakout will be important today and Monday…the Dow and TSX are both down marginally in what has been quiet Friday trading so far…

4. LiCo Energy Metals (LIC, TSX-V) has resumed trading after a 2-day halt as a result of a major acquisition announcement that’s considered a “reviewable transaction” by the Exchange…LIC is up 1.5 cents to 15.5 cents as of 7:00 am Pacific…LiCo has signed a non-binding LOI with Durus Copper of Santiago, Chile, whereby LiCo can earn up to a 60% interest in the Purickuta Lithium Project in Chile’s Salar de Atacama, the world’s largest and purest active source of Lithium…the LOI, when superseded by a definitive option agreement, will require LiCo to make certain cash payments totalling $8.4-million (U.S.), issuing 5 million shares, and making certain work and development commitments during the term of the option agreement…

5. Deveron UAS (DVR, CSE) is cashing on a legacy asset…DVR has tendered 100% of its shareholdings in Boreal Agrominerals Inc. for a $960,000 cash offer from a private Canadian company to be split into 3 separate tranches…$90,000 has already been paid…$360,000 is due in 6 months and the balance ($510,000) is payable within 12 months, unless the parties agree to extend that payment date to the second anniversary of the deal…DVR, which has just 17.2 million shares outstanding, will use the process to further develop its service-based drone business focused on the agricultural sector…the stock is up 6 cents to 28 cents as of 7:00 am Pacific…

6. It has been more than 3 months since MX Gold (MXL, TSX-V) has provided news on its flagship Willa-MAX Project in southeast British Columbia, but in the meantime the company has entered into significant deals to acquire two other projects…the latest deal, announced last night, is extremely dilutive and seemingly pricey as it involves issuing 40 million MXL shares for 100% ownership of WestKam Gold’s (WKG, TSX-V) Bonaparte Property near Kamloops…

7. The BMR Top 50 Opportunities List finished with a gain of 118% at the end of 2016, vastly outperforming the markets…by comparison, for the same time frame after the Top 50 List was unveiled in early December 2015, the Venture surged 47%, the TSX climbed 14.4%, the Dow was up 10.7% and the NASDAQ added 4.7%…Gold rose 6%…the top performing individual stock in 2016 on the Top 50 List was Cordoba Minerals (CDB, TSX-V) which soared 461%…the best-performing resource stock on the Top 50 List for the 4th quarter of 2016 was Garibaldi Resources (GGI, TSX-V) with a 93% gain following confirmation of the first magmatic Ni-Cu-PGE-AU-Co massive sulphide system in northwest British Columbia’s prolific Golden Triangle…the top non-resource plays on the Top 50 List for the 4th quarter were Cannabix Technologies (BLO, CSE), up 138%, and Canopy Growth (CGC, TSX-V), up 126%…