Thursday, January 14, 2010

TSX opens lower after weak U.S. data

CANADA STOCKS-TSX opens lower after weak U.S. data

TORONTO, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Toronto's main stock index could open lower on Thursday after unexpectedly weak U.S. data hurt investor sentiment.

U.S. stock index futures turned negative after data showed claims for first-time job benefits rose more than expected last week, and retail sales unexpectedly fell in December. [ID:nN13117317] [ID:nN14170396] [.N]

Before the data, Canadian energy producers had been expected to get a boost from rising oil prices. But the price of crude pared gains after the U.S. number.

Canadian stocks closed higher after a choppy session on Wednesday after two days of losses.

Here is some of the news that may affect the market:

OIL REBOUNDS

Oil rose towards $80 a barrel after dropping to 2010 lows the previous day as expectations for rising demand growth in the world's top energy consumer the United States shored up prices. [O/R]

GOLD SLIPS

Gold eased slightly in Europe as the dollar firmed a little against the euro ahead of a European Central Bank policy decision later in the session, curbing interest in the metal as an alternative asset.[GOL/]

BARRICK SUES TO BREAK UP DEAL

Barrick Gold Corp is suing to halt Goldcorp Inc's planned acquisition from New Gold of a 70 percent stake in the El Morro copper-gold project in Chile, which Barrick is also trying to acquire. [ID:nN13225887]

CANWEST SWINGS TO PROFIT

Canwest Global Communications Corp , which has filed for bankruptcy protection for parts of the company, reported a first-quarter profit on Wednesday due to a large gain from the sale of its interest in Australia's Ten Network Holdings. [ID:nN13113732]

KIRKLAND LAKE IN PRIVATE DEAL

Canadian gold miner Kirkland Lake Gold Inc said on Wednesday it has entered into a bought deal private placement with underwriters that could see it raise up to C$25 million ($24.3 million) by selling share-and-warrant units, its second private placement since August. [ID:nN13222298]

CANADA'S RESEARCH ROUNDUP

Following is a summary of research actions on Canadian companies reported by Reuters on Thursday. [RCH/CA]

* RBC raises Cogeco Inc price target to C$41 from C$35; rating "sector outperform"

* Raymond James cuts Canadian National Railway Co to "market perform" from "outperform"

* Raymond James cuts Stantec Inc to "market perform" from "outperform"

* Raymond James raises SNC Lavalin Group Inc target price to C$58 from C$55

* Raymond James cuts Wajax Income Fund to "market perform" from "outperform"

* RBC raises Delphi Energy Corp price target to C$2.25 from C$1.80, rating "outperform"

($1=$1.03 Canadian) (Reporting by Claire Sibonney; Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson)

Pescod Talks about...

VENTANA GOLD
(T-VEN)
$8.05 +0.43
GALWAY RES.
(V-GWY)
$1.44 -0.03
VICTORIA GOLD
(V-VIT)
$0.84 +0.07
There’s some interesting drilling results out from some
mining exploration companies today and some of the re-
sults have to be described as spectacular. Ventana Gold for
instance, announces results that are both of a step out na-
ture and infill drilling, but some of the holes such as 93
metres of 15.8 g/t and 72 metres of 9.7 g/t is the kind of
stuff you can only dream of finding. Which is the good
news of course.
In the meantime, Ventana is locked into this itty-bitty
problem with owners of the property that were quite con-
tent with what they were being paid before, but now that
things seem to be going so well, suddenly want a lot more.
Funny how that happens.
In the meantime, Galway Resources is drilling right beside
Ventana and is expected to announce some drilling results
on their project some time in the next ten days. Suddenly,
those look quite interesting.
Meanwhile, Victoria Gold came up with another good hole
as well. A huge one of 284 metres starting virtually right
from surface and averaging about 2 1/2 g/t. Which is the
good news. The bad news? Well, there is a ton of stock
out…
************************************************************************
PEREGRINE DIAMONDS
(T-PGD)
$2.36 +0.24
LITHIC RESOURCES
(V-LTH)
$0.49 +0.07
BRETT RESOURCES
(V-BBR)
$2.21 +0.19
Just the other day we were getting into some of the top
picks of John Kaiser and some of them are having quite a
day today, such as Brett Resources, his number one pick
in the gold sector.
Meanwhile, Amazon Mining should have results out on
its drilling in Brazil any time soon, but time for some up-
dates on some of his other top picks.
Peregrine Diamonds is a stock that just flew for him a cou-
ple of months ago, has settled back recently, but going into
the coming year it is one of his top selections when we
visited with him a week ago. He writes, “Peregrine Dia-
monds is gearing up for a $13.5 million two-stage explora-
tion program for its Chidliak diamond project on south Baf-
fin Island in 2010….Peregrine and its joint venture partner
BHP Billiton announced details about the program which
will see BHP vest for 51% after spending $22.3 million in
2009-2011. Assuming the entire budget is spent, Peregrine
will have to chip in (only) about $1 million for the 2010 sea-
son…”

“The program underlying the budget suggests that
BHP is eager to assess the scale of the Chidliak field be-
fore spending big dollars on bulk sampling…” Kaiser, in
his Bottom Fishing Report writes, “Drilling is expected to
start in April. During the March-June stage, they will fly a
large airborne geophysical survey and conduct extensive
ground geophysical surveys on potential drill targets….”
He continues, “Price target for 2010 is the $5-$10 range
as further evidence builds that a world class diamond field
comparable to Ekati/Diavik Is present on south Baffin Is-
land.”
Another of Kaiser’s favorites when we cornered him
over a week ago was what we would have called “a
cheapie with a chance” and it’s almost doubled in the past
week. So it might be a little late mentioning it, but that’s
Lithic Resources. Lithic has a lot to do with the theme Kai-
ser sees for a year down the road...and that’s that zinc,
which currently may be in slight over-supply is going to
face several of its significant mines being exhausted or
shutting down production and suddenly zinc, instead of
being an over-supply, will become quite scarce and he
thinks the metal will fare quite well.
Tiny Lithic is actually a cheap two-way play and the
stock that he was suggesting back at $0.10 has already
had a run, but the Crypto project also has significant in-
dium content and he suggests that rare earth may be
worth a chunk of change down the road as well.
Kaiser writes, “Accordingly, we are converting the bot-
tom-fish buy recommendation into a Spec Cycle
Hold...with a price range of $0.75-$1.00 as a reasonable
target for later this year if Lithic gets the financing for its
2010 program and zinc maintains a price above $1.00 per
lb.” Kaiser continues, “Bonus upside would come if
Crypto’s indium content starts to attract security of sup-
ply interest from indium end-users, or if the exploratory
drilling that will be part of the 2010 program reveals a sig-
nificant high grade silver system beneath the Utah work-
ings, deep drilling beneath the zinc skarm freshes out the
previously encountered high grade moly system, and,
perhaps most importantly for the mine development sce-
nario, the eastward extension of the zinc skarm minerali-
zation boosts the overall zinc-indium resource.”
Kaiser continues, “The big question will be whether or
not Lithic’s Crypto project achieves sufficient credibility
to justify taking the project through feasibility in 2011….”

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