- November 10, 2023
- Posted by: John Arcena
- Category: Uncategorized
Markets are consolidating the gains that have been made since the beginning of the month, and the uptrends look intact. Canadian markets are now up almost 2% year to date, while US markets have gained almost 25%.
On Thursday morning Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that he and his fellow policymakers are encouraged by the slowing pace of inflation but are unsure whether they’ve done enough to keep the momentum going. He said in his prepared speech, “The Federal Open Market Committee is committed to achieving a stance of monetary policy that is sufficiently restrictive to bring inflation down to 2 percent over time; we are not confident that we have achieved such a stance,”. This created wild volatility in the markets as the popular belief is that the Fed is done, it seems that they are not yet willing to admit that is the case, having made too many statements that turned out to be wrong. The US dollar continued to creep upward during the week and was stronger following the Chairman’s remarks.
Commodities were lower this week. Gold failed to break through the $ 2,000 mark and fell back to $1,937, as Silver tumbled to $ 22.25. Copper, while up from the mid-October new low for the year, dropped back to $3.63/lb., Nickel made a new low for the year at $8.10/lb. on lagging demand. Battery materials continued to be weak, and Lithium made a new low for the year at $21.07/kg. EV sales are not growing at the projected high rates as financing costs of the higher-priced vehicles are making them less attractive to auto buyers. Oil was also under pressure, down to $75/bbl. (WTI) before recovering to $76.50. Uranium continues to hold over $73/lb.
The excess volatility is preventing any predictable trends from developing and shares are making wild swings much larger than justified. Watch where the money starts flowing in the next few weeks. Those will be the sectors to be in for next year.
It has been an interesting and productive week for our clients, and we are pleased to present to you our round-up of their news released between November 6-10, 2023.
On November 6, 2023, Sokoman Minerals Corp. (TSXV: SIC) (OTCQB: SICNF) filed the Information Circular for use at the Annual General and Special Meeting of Shareholders of the Company and any adjournment thereof to be held on November 30, 2023 at 10:00 a.m. (PST) at 2110, 650 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 4N8 the following purposes:
- To receive the Report of the Directors;
- To receive the financial statements of the Company and the Auditors’ report thereon for the years ended June 30, 2022, and June 30, 2023;
- To fix the number of directors at five;
- To elect directors for the ensuing year;
- To appoint auditors for the ensuing year and to authorize the directors to fix the remuneration to be paid to the auditors;
- To consider, and if thought fit, to approve, with or without amendment, an ordinary resolution to re-approve the Company’s Stock Option Plan; and
- To transact such further or other business as may properly come before the meeting and any adjournment thereof.
Shareholders of record at the close of business on October 23, 2023, are entitled to vote or to have their shares voted at the Meeting.
View the Notice of Meeting, or the Management Information Circular.
On November 7, 2023, Canadian Overseas Petroleum Limited (CSE: XOP) (LSE: COPL), announced changes to its Board of Directors.
Mr. Atul Gupta has been appointed as a Non-Executive Director effective November 2, 2023. Mr. Gupta will assume the role of chairman of the Nomination Committee and the Reserves Committee and will sit on the Audit Committee. Mr. Gupta is a petroleum engineer with over 40 years of experience in the oil and gas sector. Mr. Gupta has been Executive Chairman for Nostrum Oil & Gas Plc, Chairman for Seven Energy International Ltd., Managing Director at Hindustan Oil Exploration Co., Ltd., Principal at Petrofina SA, Principal at Charterhouse Petroleum Plc, Chief Executive Officer of Burren Energy Plc and Principal at Monument LLC. Mr. Gupta has a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cambridge and a degree in Petroleum Engineering from Heriot-Watt University.
Mr. Robert Chenery has stepped down from his role as director after 19 months on the Board. The Company expressed to thank Mr. Chenery for his service and contribution to the Company.
On November 8, 2023, Canadian Overseas Petroleum Limited (CSE: XOP) (LSE: COPL), announced the issuance of 42,504,744 common shares pursuant to a conversion of Bonds and share settlement of Conversion Payment amounts.
31,545,741 common shares have been issued at a price of USD$0.0317 per share pursuant to the conversion of $1.0 million principal of 2028 Bonds by a Bondholder. Following these conversions, COPL’s outstanding Bonds include:
- 2027 Bonds principal outstanding: $12.4 million (62 bonds) 4 Bondholders
- 2028 Bonds principal outstanding: $12.0 million (60 bonds) 3 Bondholders
The Company also issued 10,959,003 common shares on 9 November 2023 pursuant to the share settlement option exercised by a Bondholder for settlement of $0.2 million of Conversion Payment amounts due pursuant to previously converted 2028 Bonds. The number of common shares issued for settlement of these Conversion Payments is based on the lowest 5-day VWAP following the election of the share settlement option for the Conversion Payments. Following these issuances of common shares, the Company will have a total of 890,973,473 common shares issued and outstanding.
In accordance with the usual practice, applications for the listing of these shares for trading, on the London Stock Exchange’s main market for listed securities, will be made within the next 12 months.
On November 10, 2023, Tenet Fintech Group Inc. (CSE: PKK) (OTC Pink: PKKFF) released selected statistics related to overall activity on the Cubeler® Business Hub in China as the Company’s Tenoris3 data science subsidiary, which will leverage and transform data coming from the Cubeler® Business Hub into unique AI and analytics-based product offerings, prepares to officially launch its website.
Since it was first launched in China in 2018, through the end of October 2023, the Cubeler® Business Hub has helped facilitate loans and credit worth over CAD$3.5 billion for over 100,000 Chinese SMEs. Retail businesses, particularly those operating online stores and benefiting from the Company’s program dedicated to retail shops on the JD.com platform, garnered most of the credit awarded on the platform with approximately CAD$1.7 billion or 47.9% of the total amount. Businesses operating in the oil and gas sector accounted for the second largest amount with a little over CAD$1.1 billion or 30.9%, followed by manufacturing businesses at about CAD$691 million or 19.73% to round out the top three sectors. While companies operating in those three industrial sectors had the largest appetites for the platform’s financing services, businesses operating in a wide variety of other industries, including technology, professional services, construction, shipping and transportation, hospitality services, restaurants, and entertainment services, also benefited from the Cubeler® Business Hub’s ability to bring them pre-qualified credit offers in exchange for access to their businesses’ operations data.
Tenet has been putting a lot of emphasis over the past 18 to 24 months on its ability to gather data from businesses operating in various industries and regions in China as opposed to the revenue the Company has been generating from the transactions the Cubeler® Business Hub has helped facilitate. As the expected launch of the Tenoris3 website, which will highlight how Tenoris3 will monetize data from the Cubeler® Business Hub, is fast approaching, the Company released today’s statistics to allow its shareholders to more easily make the connection between what they will observe on the Tenoris3 website and the start of Tenet’s transition from a transaction-fee based revenue model to a predominantly recurring-subscription-fee based revenue model.
On November 6, 2023, Visionstate Corp. (TSXV: VIS) was discussed in an extensive post on X by Activist Investor and Stock Trader Edward Vranic, CFA. who stated in his Canadian Smallcap Investment Blog, “I am convinced that WANDA™ can Sell, and I am Going to do Everything in My Power to Make Sure that it Does”.
Mr. Vranic does an in-depth review of WANDA™ and the potential that he sees for its deployment beyond the current use.
Read the full review HERE.
On November 9, 2023, Visionstate Corp. (TSXV: VIS) announced a multi-location contract with a large post-secondary institution.
Under this agreement, Visionstate will implement its WANDA™ software for fleet management, revolutionizing the institution’s vehicle management processes. This installation will serve more than 500 users across multiple locations, streamlining the check-in/check-out procedures for fleet vehicles and digitizing the storage of crucial information on the WANDA™ portal.
Traditionally, paper-based check-in and check-out procedures often resulted in challenges such as misplaced paperwork, missed check-ins, and incomplete records. This installation will resolve these issues by creating a seamless, digital system for fleet management, ensuring transparency and accountability. Another aspect of this collaboration is the potential for predictive maintenance, by digitally monitoring the usage and maintenance of the fleet vehicles over time, WANDA™ software will gather valuable insights. These insights will enable the institution to proactively address maintenance needs, reduce downtime, and optimize the performance and longevity of its fleet.