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Gold has traded between $1,177 and $1,198 so far today…as of 7:45 am Pacific, bullion is up $7 an ounce at $1,190…Silver is 4 cents higher at $16.14…Copper is flat at $3.05…Crude Oil has added 88 cents a barrel to $75.46 while the U.S. Dollar Index is off one-tenth of a point at 87.63…

If the Swiss Gold referendum passes, it’ll be as much of a shock as 50% of the United States having snow on the ground the other day…according to the latest poll numbers, Switzerland’s “Save Our Gold” initiative doesn’t have enough support to pass on Nov. 30…according to results released yesterday, only 38% of the Swiss population supports the Gold referendum…if passed, the initiative would force the Swiss National Bank to boost its Gold holdings to 20% of its official reserves, repatriate all of its Gold and not sell any of its holdings…47% of those polled said they will vote “no” while 15% are undecided…the referendum, which was spearheaded by the Swiss People’s Party, must garner 50% of the popular vote and also pass in the majority of cantons, which represent the different regions in the country…even a narrow defeat, however, would underline the enduring appeal of Gold…

Holdings in Gold-backed exchange-traded products fell 1.9 metric tons to 1,616.7 tons yesterday, the lowest since May 2009, data compiled by Bloomberg show…

As usual, some astute observations on the Gold market from Mineweb’s Lawrence Williams (www.Mineweb.com):

“Medium term it may be that options are becoming more and more limited for keeping the market depressed. Gold continues to flow from West to East with the big recovery in Indian demand coupled with continuing high levels of withdrawals from the Shanghai Gold Exchange as the key elements in this. Although whether Indian demand has recovered to overtake China’s over the past two quarters as World Gold Council figures might suggest, and which has been reported as fact by much of the media, given SGE withdrawal figures have been running at such high levels of late we think is not a true picture of the real situation, but in combination India and China are taking in Gold at back to peak levels.

“Demand is also seen as high in a number of other countries in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere in Asia, while Russia and some of the old FSU countries are adding to their Gold reserves thus taking even more metal off the markets. It is hard to see where all this volume of Gold is coming from as it certainly substantially exceeds new global Gold output.

“Gold in backwardation too also suggests that supplies of physical metal in the West are becoming more and more limited and the logic of shorting gold may be about to disappear. There has been the suggestion that the recent fall in the Gold price down to $1,130 has been a bear trap to catch the short traders out.”

Wall Street Banks & Commodity Markets

From The Wall Street Journal this morning…a U.S. Senate report on commodity-market activities at big Wall Street banks accuses the firms of being so powerful they were able to influence prices, gain trading advantages and put the broader financial system at risk by entering volatile businesses such as Uranium trading and Coal production…the report said the banks often exceeded regulatory limits on the size of commodity holdings, including Copper and Oil…it portrays banks straying far beyond their traditional business lines to dabble in lucrative but risky activities that posed legal and financial threats to the firms…the findings are likely to put additional pressure on the Federal Reserve as it considers whether to restrict or reduce Wall Street banks’ role in physical commodity markets…a 2-day hearing on the report begins today…

Today’s Equity Markets

Asia

Markets in China and Japan were relatively unchanged overnight…China’s factory activity stalled in November as output shrank for the first time in 6 months, a private survey showed today…the HSBC flash PMI for November clocked in at the break-even level of 50, which separates expansion from contraction, compared to a Reuters’ estimate for 50.3 and following the 50.4 final reading in October…

Meanwhile, global investors have so far taken up just a fraction of the daily quota allowance for buying Shanghai-listed firms through a new trading program that began Monday…

Europe

European markets are off modestly in late trading overseas on some disappointing economic data…

North America

The Dow is off 7 points as of 7:45 am Pacific…a slew of economic data out of the U.S. this morning including the highest reading since 1993 in the Philadelphia Fed’s manufacturing business outlook…however, Markit’s flash PMI for October came in weaker than expected…existing home sales, meanwhile, have hit a 1-year high…

The Labor Department reported this morning that falling gasoline prices offset rising shelter and medical costs last month, keeping consumer prices steady…the CPI, which measures how much Americans pay for everything from pet food to medical care, was unchanged in October compared with a month earlier…when excluding volatile food and energy categories, prices rose a seasonally adjusted 0.2% – slightly more than expected…from a year earlier, consumer prices were up 1.7%, the third consecutive month at that level…

How will the Fed respond to an environment in which unemployment continues to fall, but inflation remains muted or actually falls?…unemployment has declined faster over the past 2 years than than Fed officials projected, falling to 5.8% in October from 7.8% when QE3 started in late 2012…renewed downward pressure on inflation is a more recent development and something Fed officials are still trying to assess….the Fed’s preferred measure of consumer inflation has been running below the central bank’s official 2% objective for nearly 3 years…

The TSX is up 67 points, back above the 15000 level, while the Venture is flat at 782 as of 7:45 am Pacific…

TSX Updated Chart

The TSX is testing resistance at 15000 which represents a gain of 10% from the October low of 13647…interestingly – and this is why it’s so important to keep a close eye on RSI and other technical indicators – the plunge in the Index started after RSI(14) fell below an uptrend line in place for more than a year…the recovery commenced after RSI(14) touched previous support on this 5-year weekly chart…

CRB Index Updated Chart

The CRB Index is still struggling to push above a downtrend line in place for several months…oversold conditions have certainly emerged, so it’s likely just a matter of time – probably sooner rather than later – before we see a strong commodity bounce…the bearish trend is weakening…

NioCorp Developments Ltd. (NB, TSX-V) Update

NioCorp Developments (NB, TSX-V) continues to make progress with its high-grade, large tonnage Niobium Project in Elk Creek, Nebraska…  the company is currently carrying out additional infill drilling to elevate the resource to the measured and indicated category…NB is also working on optimizing metallurgical recovery, while a feasibility study is also being initiated (Niobium has physical and chemical properties similar to those of tantalum, it’s a rare and a soft transition metal primarily used in the production of high-grade steel such as that used in gas pipelines)…

Technically, NB has gradually unwound an overbought condition that emerged in May and has been consolidating within a horizontal flag…a breakout at some point above this flag appears very possible…as always, perform your own due diligence…

NB is up 3 cents at 65 cents as of 7:45 am Pacific…

Ceiba Energy Services Inc. (CEB, TSX-V) Update

Ceiba Energy Services (CEB, TSX-V) performed exceptionally well after a major technical breakout in May – at least until September when overbought conditions became extreme and a significant pullback ensued…Ceiba provides specialized environmental services for companies in the energy sector and achieved record revenues for the quarter ended June 30…Ceiba’s challenges, like many companies, are managing growth and achieving profitability…

Keep in mind that stock from a $16 million bought deal financing during the summer (23 million non-flow-through shares at 70 cents) becomes free-trading next week…

Technically, CEB appears to have landed on strong support at the 50% Fib. retracement level around 60 cents which also happens to coincide with the 300-day moving average (SMA)…it would be encouraging if support could hold there…

CEB is up 3 cents at 69 cents as of 7:45 am Pacific…

Slyce Inc. (SLC, TSX-V) Update

Slyce (SLC, TSX-V) jumped as high as $1.19 November 10, a significant advance from the 90-cent level as per John’s November 3 chart that clearly outlined a bullish pattern…

Slyce, formerly Oculus Ventures, was a solid performer on strong volume in October despite the Venture’s temper tantrum…the company’s strategy is to position itself as a pivotal player in the emerging visual web by providing its technology to retailers, brands, app developers and digital publishers, enabling their apps to recognize products for instant purchase…Slyce will provide its technology in exchange for integration, licensing and per search fees, percentage sales splits and big data provision and analysis…the company is currently working with a growing list of Fortune 1000 brands and companies as well as multiple innovative developers…

John’s updated 6-month daily chart shows a healthy unwinding of overbought RSI(14) conditions since the Nov. 10 “spinning top” candle…the primary trend remains bullish with well-defined support and resistance levels…

SLC is unchanged at $1.02 as of 7:45 am Pacific…

Note:  John, Terry and Jon do not hold share positions in NB, CEB or SLC.