CHF WEEKLY ROUND-UP: October 21-25, 2024

Historically, the market performs best between November and March, but usually, that is on the back of weakness in September and October. This year it looks like onward and upward will continue at least through the first quarter of 2025.

On Wednesday, the Bank of Canada (BoC) claimed victory against high inflation, delivered a supersized interest rate cut of 0.50%, and signaled that its policy rate will likely continue falling in the coming months. This marks the fourth consecutive reduction since June and brings the central bank’s policy interest rate down to 3.75%. Canada’s inflation rate fell to 1.6% in September. Governor Tiff Macklem suggested that the Bank of Canada’s job has shifted from lowering inflation to maintaining it around the inflation target. However, the TSX drifted lower from its all-time high of two weeks earlier.

U.S. equity markets have also drifted lower this week, after hitting fresh all-time highs on Friday, but S&P 500 and NASDAQ are pointed higher this morning. The US presidential and congressional elections are not until November 5, 2024, and the too-close-to-call contest for the least unpopular is weighing on things. The next Fed Rate announcement is scheduled for November 6th. The U.S. dollar remains too high, as bond investors drive long interest rates up in the face of the Fed cut. The International Monetary Fund officials called the post-pandemic inflation defeated on Tuesday and raised projections for U.S. economic performance.

The Annual inflation rate in the Euro Area was revised lower to 1.7% in September 2024, resulting in growing expectations that the European Central Bank may deliver a half-point interest-rate cut in December. The People’s Bank of China kept the interest rate on the medium-term lending facility steady at 2%. Efforts to stimulate the Chinese economy have shown little benefit and financial officials believe more needs to be done to rebalance the economy as well as to tackle weak domestic demand and overcapacity.

Gold hit another all-time high on Wednesday after a five-day run and is consolidating in the USD$2,730/oz range this morning. Silver broke out above USD$33.00/oz, a 12-year high, and is holding at USD$33.50 this morning. With rising geopolitical risks and the reality that U.S. debt levels will not be reduced post-election, there is good reason to be bullish on gold and silver, and investors should add to their precious metals positions. Check out our client, Sokoman Minerals Corp., who is preparing bulk samples on their flagship Moosehead project. 

Base metals continued to weaken, with prices declining through October, driven down by lower Chinese manufacturing demand. Copper is USD$4.33, down USD$0.20 on the month. Critical and battery minerals are also struggling. Lithium and Cobalt are at 5-year lows. Check our clients in this sector Falcon Gold Corp. and Nuinsco Resources. 

The Energy metal Uranium has been buoyant this month, reaching up to USD$83.60/lb. The tight global uranium supply market could get even tighter in the short term. Kazatomprom, the largest uranium producer in the world (40% of global supply), has cut 2025 production plans, and there's still no production coming out of Niger. The supply deficit for 2025 is looking to be around 20 million pounds. Analysts have suggested that 2025 uranium prices in the USD$100 to USD$110 per pound range are possible and much higher in the longer term given the nuclear energy plans in major economies. Investors should be exposed to this growth opportunity, especially to explorers developing solid properties in stable uranium-producing areas such as Saskatchewan. We look forward to representing one or more excellent Uranium stories.

It has been an interesting and productive week for our clients, and we are pleased to present our round-up of their news released between October 21-25, 2024.

Mining

On October 18, 2024 – Falcon Gold Corp. (FG: TSXV) (3FA: FRA) announced that it has arranged a non-brokered private placement of up to 5,000,000 flow-through units at $0.04 per FT Unit and up to 2,857,143 non-flow-through units at $0.035 per NFT Unit for aggregate gross proceeds of up to $300,000.

Each FT Unit consists of one flow-through share of the Company and one-half of one share purchase warrant. Each FT Unit Warrant entitles the holder thereof to acquire one non-flow-through share at an exercise price of $0.08 per Warrant Share for a period of two (2) years.

Each NFT Unit consists of one non-flow-through share of the Company and one share purchase warrant. Each NFT Unit Warrant entitles the holder thereof to acquire one Warrant Share at an exercise price of $0.05 per Warrant Share for a period of four (4) years.

Fintech

On October 25, 2024 – Tenet Fintech Group Inc. (CSE: PKK) (OTC Pink: PKKFF) announced that it has appointed Liang Qiu to head the global development of the Business Hub. The plan is for Mr. Qiu to work with the product and development teams on platform features and elements such as data regulations in China, while Mr. Theroux will focus on the platform's overall infrastructure, scalability and security as it continues to expand to other markets.

Liang (Golden) Qiu M.Sc, CEO, Tenet China

"I couldn't be more excited for this new role," commented Mr. Qiu. "When we first launched the Business Hub in China several years ago, the vision was always to have it eventually operate as a global hub that would connect entrepreneurs from different parts of the world.” Tenet recently released beta versions of the Business Hub's advertising and networking modules in Canada and has been collecting feedback to improve some of the modules' functionalities before a widescale deployment of the new modules in Canada planned for November 2024. 

Save the date

Sokoman Minerals Corp. will be attending the Mineral Resources Review 2024 in St. John's 

Newfoundland and Labrador's Premier Mineral Exploration and Mining Conference and Exhibition.

When: November 5-8, 2024

Register here: https://mrr.cim.org/