Good afternoon
markets are still extremely nervous…no fun!
The strong labor market in the US is showing up: Personal consumption ( + 4% ) driving a stronger than expected 3.5% growth rate last Quarter. Business investment growing by much less at 0,8%, while inflation pressures very subdued only. Bond markets very strong, once again…
Unfortunately, metals weak today - the US$-strength is not helping, and macro fears are driving them down.
Amazon/Google are dragging US markets down, even though some companies like Intel, Tesla ( Larry Ellison is shareholder! ) and Twitter are going the other way.
Evolution - got permit for the exploration decline at Cowal. Remarkable, how quickly tehse things can be processed in Australia! The first exploration holes can be drilled 3 month after work has started - so we could see first results in Q1 2018. I guess, though, that it might take a little longer, as the recent high grade drilling results are from an area, which will only be drilled further down the track.
Panoramic - interesting enough, the largest shareholder bought another 1% of teh company. He is a private invidual, so no reason to prop up the share price. I wonder what his motives are?
Bellevue Gold - the company announced an exciting resource increase from the are aof the old gold mine with the same name near Leinster in Western Australia - right in the middle of mining country. The discovery of a new lode propelled the resource up by 550.000oz at 22g gold/t, to a total of 1.04 mill oz at 12.3g. The company is run by Steve Parsons, who´s image since running Gryphon Minerals ( and over-promotingit substantially ) is a little bit mixed. There seems to be a lot of upside, still - some people are reminded of Kirkland´s Australian gold mine, which surprised everyone again and again. The diluted market cap is already 220 mill A$…but it looks to be well justified. The company easily raised 15 mill$ at 0,34 A$ yesterday, and has some smart , institutional shareholders. They are worth watching, I think.
Have a nice weekend - I will escape these frustrating markets for a week. The only area of some green spots is gold - but even the HUI got hammered yesterday!
Ws