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Year-end repositioning and tax loss selling were apparent across many markets this week. Some of the excess market enthusiasm needed to be worked off, and profit-taking is usually a good thing as it provides the fuel for further upward moves into the next year. Here comes Santa Claus!!!
Forecasters were widely expecting a jumbo interest rate cut after Canada’s unemployment rate jumped to 6.8 percent in November, up from 6.5 percent a month earlier. Canada’s inflation rate was two percent in October. On Wednesday, Bank of Canada (BoC) Governor Tiff Macklem reduced the benchmark overnight rate by 50 basis points to 3.25%, bringing it to a level that they believe is no longer so restrictive for growth and at the upper bound of the “neutral rate” range. US President-elect Donald Trump’s threat to place 25% tariffs on goods the US imports from Canada is “a major new uncertainty,” Macklem said. Analysts expect BoC to keep making large cuts to its key rate next year.
Rate cuts in Canada and the EU will likely allow the FED to go with a 25-bps reduction next week. On Wednesday, U.S. headline and core CPI inflation rates for November were 2.7% and 3.3% annually, hotter than forecast and exceeding the Fed's 2.0% inflation target, still heading in the right direction but not there yet. Money moved away from risk, sinking commodities and lifting the USD. Stocks drifted lower on S&P, Dow, and NASDAQ after a mid-week bump.
Gold prices were up above USD$2,720/oz early in the week on reports of China’s central bank's return to buying but are lower again in early trading today to the USD$2,658/oz support level. U.S. producer price inflation came in hotter than expected. Premium-priced M&A activity continued in precious metals as Agnico bought O3 Mining in an all-cash deal, and SSR Mining bought 2 US gold mines from Newmont.
The U.S. dollar strength is pushing base metal prices down. China's weakness and failing stimulus programs continue but with financial problems and political uncertainty in the largest EU economies. Copper is still near its two-month low at USD$4.06/lb. today. Nickel is near the low for the year at USD$7.12/lb. Critical minerals and battery minerals remain struggling. Lithium is ending the week at USD$10.53/kg, while Cobalt has remained at an eight-year low of USD$11.02/lb. for 3 months. Dealmaking is also seen in the industrial metals industry, as Teck Corp is investing USD$15 million in exploration at Grid Metals’ Mawka nickel project in Manitoba. There continue to be reasons for optimism in the Metals mining sector.
It has been a busy week securing flow-through financings for several of our Canadian exploration companies. Flow-through shares permit the issuer corporation to transfer the resource expenses to its investors. This is an attractive way for investors to shelter other income by using the expenses that “flow” to them from the issuer corporation. There is still time to participate in this effective way to reduce one’s taxes.
We are pleased to present our round-up of the news released between December 9-13, 2024.
Mining
On December 11, 2024, Nuinsco Resources Limited (CSE: NWI) announced a non-brokered private placement of flow-through common shares and common shares. Under the Private Placement, the Company could issue up to 100,000,000 Flow-Through Shares and/or Common Shares, dependent on investor demand, priced at $0.005. The Private Placement is expected to close on or about December 26, 2024.
Proceeds from the sale of Flow-Through Shares will be used to advance the Company’s Prairie Lake critical minerals project located near Terrace Bay, Ont.; proceeds from the sale of Common Shares may be used for general corporate purposes.
Nuinsco’s primary focus is the Prairie Lake project, is a critical minerals asset hosting a 15.6 million tonne indicated and 871.8 million tonne inferred mineral resource. Metallurgical studies demonstrate that a clean phosphate concentrate, grading 26% P2O5 at 76% process recovery, with ample room for improvement, and a valuable rare earth element co-concentrate, can be reliably produced from the Prairie Lake feed (see news release dated March 13, 2024).
On December 12, 2024, Sokoman Minerals Corp. (TSXV: SIC) (OTCQB: SICNF) provided an update on the Moosehead Project. The previously announced Western Trend diamond-drill program is progressing well, with 1,325 m in 19 holes completed. The drilling is testing the area of the recently completed Western Trend Trench (Figure 1) which is the future site of the planned conventional (drill and blast) bulk sample. Thirteen (13) of the holes intersected visible gold-bearing quartz veins and vein swarms (Photos 1 and 2), as seen in the exposures in the trench. All assays are pending and expected early in Q1 2025. Drilling will continue until the Christmas break (December 19, 2024, to mid-January 2025).
Fintech
On December 11, 2024, Tenet Fintech Group Inc. (CSE: PKK) (OTC Pink: PKKFF) released a Q3 2024 Results Q&A Interview recording.
Tenet CEO Johnson Joseph answered shareholder questions and discussed the company's financial highlights, gave strategic updates, and spoke about the outlook for the Company into 2025.
To read the Q3 2024 Financial Statements, click here.
To watch the Q&A Interview, click here.
On December 13, 2024, Tenet Fintech Group Inc. (CSE: PKK) (OTCQB: PKKFF) announced that it began welcoming the first small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) clients of its bookkeeping service provider partner, Elite Times CPA Inc. ("Times CPA"), to the Business Hub platform.
Tenet recently granted Times CPA a master licence of Dext Software Ltd.'s bookkeeping automation platform, allowing Times CPA to not only use the Software, but to also offer the Software's many benefits to its SME clients as part of an offering that includes membership to the Cubeler® Business Hub. Times CPA has been actively promoting the benefits of the Software and the Business Hub to its SME clients with the objective of getting most of those SME clients registered on the Business Hub and using the Software by the end of 2024. Tenet expects the addition of many Times CPA's SME clients to the Business Hub to contribute to the SME data pool available on the platform to allow for the commercialization of the Company's first ie-Pulse macroeconomic indicator indexes.
Elite Times CPA Inc. is a Canadian accounting firm with offices in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver, providing various accounting, bookkeeping, tax preparation and consulting services to a diverse clientele of businesses operating primarily in Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia. Elite Times CPA Inc.'s clients include retailers, manufacturers, daycares, restaurants, import and exporters, IT service providers and more. For more information, please go to: https://timesaccounting.ca.
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