Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE: WPM) exceeded its year end guidance in its production report released tonight

Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE: WPM) exceeded its year end guidance in its production report released tonight.

In 2019 gold equivalent ounces came in at 706,900, up from 690,000 forecast for the year.

The gold equivalent ounces was made up of gold at 406,604 oz, silver at 22,544 ounces and palladium at 21,993 ounces.

The 2020 forecast is for 685,000 to 725,000 gold equivalent ounces.

"In 2020, gold production is forecast to remain strong primarily driven by Salobo and San Dimas. Silver production in 2020 should be stable as growth from Peñasquito is expected to be partially offset by slight decreases at Antamina and Constancia due to mine planning. Palladium production is expected to increase in 2020 as the Blitz project at the Stillwater mine continues to ramp up," writes the company.

Looking five years ahead Wheaton Precious Metals expects production growth from Peñasquito, Constancia and Stillwater as well as the commencement of the Voisey's Bay stream in 2021. Wheaton will be entitled to receive from Vale an amount of cobalt equal to 42.4% of the Voisey's Bay mine cobalt production.

By Michael McCrae
For Kitco News

David

Gold has room to push to $1,600 in the short term UBS

A correction in equity markets due to shifting economic growth expectations could be the catalyst to push gold out of its narrow range, according to one market strategist.

In a recent report, Joni Teves, precious metals strategist at UBS, said that although gold is currently stuck in no man's land, there is potential for prices to push to $1,600 an ounce. The question is, for how long can prices hold that level?

For the short-term, Teves noted that investors shouldn't ignore gold's recent resilient strength.

"It is not so much a question of who is buying gold, but also who is selling it," she said in the report. "While many are not yet keen to chase it here, there is also no appetite to sell short or even let go of strategic positions that have been built. Sentiment is friendly and there is an underlying bias to be long."

Teves noted that gold continues to be a hedge against economic uncertainty is it remains highly negatively correlated to equity markets and base metals.

"This implies that gold prices have room to strengthen through $1,600 if economic data deteriorates significantly ahead," she said.

Currently, the biggest threat to the global economy remains the spreading novel coronavirus. The virus has infected 71,000 people globally, with most of the cases still in China. More than 1,700 people have died from the virus.

The full impact the virus will have on global growth is still unknown, but Teves said that UBS economists expect that any global economic weakness will be confined to the first quarter. She added that soft econ

Neils Christensen
Monday February 17, 2020 14:51

David

Gold poised for a weekly gain as virus fears lift safe-haven demand

* Gold on track for a weekly rise

* U.S. consumer spending slows

* China reports 121 new deaths and 5,000 new coronavirus cases

* Palladium up over 4% for the week so far

Gold prices rose to the highest level in more than a week on Friday, on track for a weekly gain, as investors bet on the safe-haven metal to hedge against the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

Spot gold rose 0.5% to $1,583.18 per ounce by 1:43 p.m. EST (1843 GMT), after touching $1,583.76, its highest price since Feb. 3. For the week, bullion has so far gained about 0.8%.

U.S. gold futures settled up 0.5% at $1,586.40.

“The coronavirus scenario is still unclear and the on-off headlines on the situation are making the stock markets volatile, forcing investors to take refuge in safe-haven gold,” said George Gero, managing director at RBC Wealth Management.

“Even with the virus gone, gold is expected to trade in the $1,550-$1,600 range as other uncertainties like lower interest rates across the major central banks, Middle East tensions and other political risks still exist.”

Chinese authorities on Thursday reported 121 new deaths and 5,000 new coronavirus cases in mainland China, and economists scaled back growth expectations for the world’s second-largest economy as they assessed the impact of the outbreak.

Global stock markets have had a volatile week as investors took and quit positions in riskier assets driven by the frequently changing headlines around China’s coronavirus outbreak.

Wall Street opened slightly higher, with gains kept in check by concerns about the economic hit from the outbreak.

Further supporting gold’s rise, U.S. Treasury yields declined after soft retail sales data amid virus concerns.

U.S. consumer spending appears to have slowed further in January, which raises concerns about the economy’s ability to continue expanding at a moderate pace.

“We still target a decline in U.S. Treasury yields, in addition to dollar weakness from a trade-weighted angle. We believe this gives gold a good risk-reward even if we see no further bouts in equity market uncertainty,” UBS analysts said in a note.

Among other precious metals, palladium fell 0.3% to $2,417.20 an ounce, but was on track to register its best week since the week ended Jan. 17, with a gain of more than 4%.

Silver rose 0.7% to $17.75 , while platinum fell 0.3% to $964.53

Reporting by Diptendu Lahiri in Bengaluru Editing by Richard Chang and Matthew Lewis

David

Gold, silver prices gain as coronavirus outbreak escalates

Gold and silver prices are moderately higher in midday U.S. futures trading Thursday. Some risk aversion is back in the marketplace late this week, as the coronavirus outbreak has escalated in China. February gold futures were last up $7.00 an ounce at 1,578.60. March Comex silver prices were last up $0.118 at $17.61 an ounce.

New cases of coronavirus increased markedly Thursday in China's Hubei province. There were over 14,800 new cases were reported Thursday in contrast to around 2,000 new cases reported Wednesday. Reports said there were around 240 new deaths in the region. Chinese health officials also widened their definition used to confirm cases. More than 1,300 people have died from the epidemic and the total number of afflicted in the Hubei province stands at over 48,200. The World Health Organization warned the recent reports about the slowdown in the spread of the virus should be treated with “extreme caution.” “This outbreak could still go in any direction,” the WHO said, regarding the status of the outbreak.

China’s businesses are being seriously impacted. There are reports of impending steel shortages and other supply chain disruptions. Auto sales in China are reported down around 20%. Global crude oil demand in the first quarter of this year is forecast to hit the slowest rate of growth in 10 years amid the coronavirus outbreak, according to the International Energy Agency. The IEA said “there is already a major slowdown in oil consumption and the wider economy in China.”

The ebb and flow of this matter as it relates to the marketplace continues—shifting between the front burner and the back burner of the marketplace on any given trading day.

The key outside markets today see crude oil prices firmer and trading around $51.50 a barrel. Meantime, the U.S. dollar index is slightly up in early U.S. trading and not far below this week’s multi-month high.

Technically, April gold futures bulls have the comfortable overall near-term technical advantage. However, they need to show more power to restart a three-month-old price uptrend on the daily bar chart. Gold bulls' next upside near-term price breakout objective is to produce a close above solid technical resistance at the February high of $1,598.50. Bears' next near-term downside price breakout objective is pushing prices below solid technical support at $1,542.80. First resistance is seen at today’s high of $1,581.70 and then at $1,590.00. First support is seen at today’s low of $1,568.50 and then at this week’s low of $1,564.40. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 6.5

March silver futures bears have the overall near-term technical advantage. A four-week-old price downtrend is in place on the daily bar chart. Silver bulls’ next upside price breakout objective is closing prices above solid technical resistance at $18.00 an ounce. The next downside price breakout objective for the bears is closing prices below solid support at $17.00. First resistance is seen at this week’s high of $17.825 and then at $18.00. Next support is seen at this week’s low of $17.435 and then at the January low of $17.28. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 4.0.

March N.Y. copper closed up 150 points at 261.45 cents today. Prices closed nearer the session high and hit a three-week high today. The copper bears still have the overall near-term technical advantage. However, recent upside price action now suggests a market bottom is in place. Copper bulls' next upside price objective is pushing and closing prices above solid technical resistance at 270.00 cents. The next downside price objective for the bears is closing prices below solid technical support at the February low of 248.75 cents. First resistance is seen at today’s high of 262.75 cents and then at 265.00 cents. First support is seen at today’s low of 258.15 cents and then at 255.55 cents. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 3.0.

By Jim Wyckoff

For Kitco News

David

There is no fear in the markets, but there should be, here’s why

-The market is already veering towards a recession, but stock markets are not responding accordingly, this according to Todd “Bubba” Horwitz of BubbaTrading.com.

“I think, we’re in the early stages of a recession,” Horwitz told Kitco News. “cheap money continues to fuel the markets.”

Gold and silver will both eventually move much higher, but in the short-term, metals will follow their trajectory, meaning gold will move higher and silver will lag, Horwitz said.

“Right now, silver is in a short-term downtrend…both gold and silver spiked to highs and since then, they’ve both come down. The difference is gold found some support around $1,560 April futures but is holding, and silver is continuing that downward trajectory,” he said.

Horwitz added that once the gold-silver widens, it would present a good opportunity for traders to buy silver.

“I think gold, I’m looking for $1,600 first, but I’m pretty confident that the $1,630 high that was made on that spike high will be taken out and then that will probably be a near-term top here,” he said.

By Kitco News
Wednesday February 12, 2020 19:34

David

Bitcoin Shows Same Buy Signal Seen at 2018 Bottom of $3,150

With Bitcoin collapsing by 5% in the past days, moving from $7,150 to $6,750 as of the time of writing this, traders have once again flipped decidedly bearish on cryptocurrencies.

They fear that this latest move under the key support of $7,000 will precede a strong capitulation event, one reminiscent of the collapse from $6,000 to $3,000 seen in late-2018.

What’s ironic, though, is that this latest drop has resulted in the Bitcoin chart printing a key bullish technical signal purportedly that was seen when BTC found a macro bottom in December 2018.

Bitcoin Indicator Prints Key Buy Signal

Thomas Thornton, a hedge fund services specialist and market analyst, recently posted the chart below to Twitter, showing that a Bloomberg chart of Bitcoin with the TD Sequential Combo indicator suggests that BTC’s current candle is on a “buy 13.”

13 candles, the TD Sequential suggests, are indicative of impending price reversals.

Not only is the 13 TD Sequential candle inherently indicative of a reversal, but such candles have also marked macro swing levels at least twice in Bitcoin’s history.

Per previous reports from NewsBTC, Tom Demark, the creator of the TD Sequential, took to Bloomberg earlier this year to talk about cryptocurrencies.

In his segment, Demark revealed that a 13 candle, which signifies a strong trend reversal, was registered by the TD Sequential when Bitcoin hit $20,000 in December 2017, and that another 13 candle, was seen when BTC cratered to $3,150 on December 14th. What’s more, a 13 candle was printed at the $14,000 top seen in June of this year.

The historical importance of 13 candles in terms of Bitcoin’s long-term price trends implies that BTC has finally bottomed and, as such, is ready to see a strong bullish reversal from here.

Not Only Positive Sign

This isn’t the only sign that suggests a reversion to a bull trend is likely. Per previous reports from this outlet, Adaptive Capital partner Willy Woo recently noted that on-chain momentum, which the popular analyst has long claimed is correlated with Bitcoin’s macro price trends, is “crossing into bullish” territory after a multi-month downturn.

With this in mind, he asserted that the “bottom is most likely in,” meaning that any move lower than the $6,500 plunge “will be just a wick in the macro view.”

Bear Factors Remain in Bitcoin Market

Despite these factors, there remain bearish wildcards in the cryptocurrency market, two wildcards in fact. These are the potential selling pressure from the PlusToken pyramid scheme and miner capitulation concerns.

Per previous reports from NewsBTC, the PlusToken cryptocurrency scam, which managed to procure billions worth of digital assets over its year or so in existence, has slowly been liquidating its proceeds on the open market, resulting in continual, excessive selling pressure.

There’s also fears that Bitcoin miners are selling their mined cryptocurrencies due to the fact that many miners are running unprofitable ventures.

Nick Chong

David

Chart Analysis – Bitcoin, Ethereum and Credits for October

The Current Market Situation

As of October 4th, crypto markets are still struggling to recover. Since its last sharp drop, BTC fails to retrace to $8500 level while many other currencies see significant losses. As of publishing time, BTC dominance remains around 67%.

BTC/USDT Daily Chart

On the chart, we can see that the price made a break of the lower resistance boundary of the “triangle with a flat bottom” formation in the zone of $9560-9580. At the same time, 157 SMA was broken, which confirmed the dominance of sellers. Now the price is trading around $8100-8250, at the border of the resistance of descending channel. Consolidation of the price indicates the current period of accumulation, interest of buyers and a potential return to the upper boundary of the descending channel to $9100-9200 zone. After the middle of the month, the price may rebound from the support level of the descending channel and return to the area of $??8900-9300, where there is a strong resistance. Also, the other day, the level of 8200 was traded and once again protected. The common mood is to fall, and we know that often the market goes against the majority. A lot of people are in shorts and this is an excellent point for growth (their stops and liquidation of positions, as was the case recently with longsters)

credits, cryptocurrency, market, analysis

CS/BTC 4H Chart

Against the background of a general market decline, the CS/BTC trading pair shows a positive trend in terms of growth in volumes and prices. On the chart, we can see that the price once again has rebounded from the support line in the zone of 0.0000105-0.0000110 BTC and is preparing for a retest of the resistance zone around 0.0000127-0.0000130 BTC. Breaking this zone will enable the price to go up to the zone of 0.000015-0.000016 BTC. The overselling of technical indicators, as well as fundamental news performance, can be an additional incentive for investors when deciding to enter a position.

ETH/BTC Daily Chart

On this chart, we see that the ETH/BTC pair is in a deep downtrend that has been going on for a year. However, the price has been able to demonstrate positive dynamics, pushing away from support in the zone of ??0.0155-0.0160 BTC, which is a historical low. Currently, the price is being traded to the midline of the descending channel, next to the 157 moving average. The downtrend to BTC indicates the possibility of diversification of investor assets and the potential growth of the ETH/BTC pair. An important resistance level is the zone 0.025-0.026 BTC, a break of which can signal a return to the zone 0.0308-0.0309 and the beginning of a new uptrend.

Fear & Greed Index

Currently, the Crypto Market Sentiment displays a “Fear-30” meter that correlates quite correctly with the general market situation and recent price movements. The investors are worried which means it is a signal for buying at an undervalue.

Martin Goldmann

David

Bitcoin price prediction – BTC/USD barely holding at the edge of a cliff â Confluence Detector

Bitcoin price prediction – BTC/USD barely holding at the edge of a cliff – Confluence Detector

Bitcoin futures contracts are likely to be banned from Britain’s retail market.

Bitcoin stares into the abyss after testing the $8,000 weak support area.

Bitcoin continues to lead the market in consolidation. However, a keen observation of the Bitcoin trend, one can clearly tell that the price has a high affinity to declines in the near-term. Its potential to hold above the critical $8,000 is almost non-existent. This follows a correction from an opening price of $8,231 and a bearish leg to $8,063.

In other news, Bitcoin futures contracts are likely to be kicked off the retail market in Britain if the consideration being made by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) sees the light of the day. Although matter came to light during a consultation on October 3, a ruling on it will have to wait until 2020.

Consequently, as mentioned above Bitcoin is hanging on a thread above $8,000. The confluence detector places the first support at $8,044 (weak support). Glancing lower, the only next viable support area is $7,792 as highlighted using the previous week low, pivot point one daily support three.

On the upside, huge resistance awaits the bulls at $8,297. The indicators converging in this zone are the simple moving average five one-day, SMA 10 one-day, Bollinger Band four-hour middle, Fibonacci 23.6% one-week and the Fibonacci 61.8% one-day.

On the brighter side, if the price manages to clear the resistance at $8,297 the remaining journey to $9,000 will be less bumpy except for a few hurdles at $8,549 and $8,969.

John Isige

FXStreet

David

Experts See Bitcoin Rallying to $20,000 Before End of the Year – Here are the Reasons

Bitcoin is down by over 40% from the 2019 high of $13,880. Any other asset plunging by 20% or more would have been in a bear market. But not the king of cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin has retraced by more than 40% in previous bull runs and many market participants are comfortable holding the cryptocurrency.

To prove our point, we asked experts what are their year-end target for the top cryptocurrency. We were surprised to see that many of them are bullish on bitcoin and believe that it will regain the all-time high of $20,000 before this year expires.

$10,000 Appears to Be the Conservative Target

Experienced traders are not fond of doling out extreme target prices. They believe that it encourages some retail traders to think of how much money they can make instead of protecting their capital. This strategy often leads to tremendous losses.

Hence, some traders gave us conservative price targets. For instance, Elliotician Benjamin Blunts sees bitcoin recovering $10,000. He said,

I think we can be back at $10,000 by year end provided we get a strong bounce from the $7,500 support zone on [the] daily.

Crypto trader Beastlorion supports the call of Benjamin Blunts. The analyst told CCN,

Well, between $10,000 – $12,000.

Michael Terpin, founder and chief executive of Transform Group, also chimed in. He said,

The price of bitcoin historically advances sharply two quarters before the halving and has also averaged triple-digit gains in the fourth quarter if you remove the corrective years following all-time highs. This Q4 should most closely resemble Q4 2015, which saw an 85 pct gain in the quarter, which would put the price of BTC at $15,400.

In addition, the widely-followed Trader Mayne is sticking to his call. When asked about his year-end target, the trader said,

$16,000.

It seems that technical analysts have a wide range in terms of their target price for bitcoin this year. On the contrary, those who look at the fundamentals seem confident that bitcoin will reach $20,000.

$20,000 Attainable Due to Bitcoin’s Growing Fundamentals

While poring over charts might give analysts a target between $10,000 and $16,000, those who focus on bitcoin’s strengthening fundamentals are looking at $20,000 or higher.

For instance, Sean Barger, managing director of CPUcoin, said,

I believe BTC will pierce $20,000 by the end of the year. There’s simply too much being built on BTC as the foundation for the universal world currency, and there are signs of deep adoption from enterprise and consumers alike.

Tomàs Sallés a financial writer at FXStreet supports Mr. Barger’s call. He said,

If [bitcoin] resists above $7,750 we could see [it] closing in the $17,000 zone or above historical highs and $20,000 price level.

Nick Hellman, the president of LearnCrypto, was ready to up the ante but he extended the timeline. He told CCN,

Let’s just say new highs before May of 2020, probably somewhere from $24,000 – $32,000.

For those who are not aware, May 2020 is when the next bitcoin halving takes place. This is an ultra bullish event that even a German bank sees the cryptocurrency trading at $90,000 after the halving.

Thus, if a financial institution sees bitcoin valued at $90,000 after the May halving, it may not be so far-fetched to think that the cryptocurrency could be priced at $20,000 before the turn of the calendar.

Disclaimer: The above should not be considered trading advice from CCN. The writer owns bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies. He holds investment positions in the coins but does not engage in short-term or day-trading.

Kiril Nikolaev @kirilnikk123

October 2, 2019

David

Precipitous 20% Bitcoin Price Plunge to $8,000 Caused by TradersÂ Data

Precipitous 20% Bitcoin Price Plunge to $8,000 Caused by Traders Data

Bitcoin hasn’t had the past ten days. Since the Sunday before last, the price of the cryptocurrency has shed some 15%, leaving many traders stumped as to what in the world took place to send digital assets plummeting.

Cynics of the Bitcoin market have suggested that the rally to $14,000 and the subsequent dump was “one final pump and dump” enacted by whales. Gold proponent Peter Schiff, for instance, claimed that this move is a precursor to a plunge to $4,000, potentially lower.

But, data has shown that it isn’t these whales causing Bitcoin’s recent volatility, it’s the short-term traders presumably looking to make a quick buck.

Bitcoin Drop Led by Traders

Coinmetrics recently published to Twitter a chart that tracked the “change in the number of Bitcoin by price at time of last on-chain movement” for September 20th to 29th.

As seen below, the industry analytics startup found that during the recent price decline, “there was activity from Bitcoin that last moved when prices were between $13,000 and $20,000”, implying that capitulation for those in the red “is complete”.

There were other optimistic signs. Two, in fact.

Firstly, quite heavy selling from Bitcoin last moved in the $10,000 to $12,000 range hints that the sell-off was a byproduct of “short-term traders that have weak long-term conviction”.

And secondly, as there was little profit-taking from long-term holders that accumulated under $8,000, meaning that this subset’s “bull market psychology remains unchanged.”

Cryptocurrency analytics firm Glassnode has corroborated this analysis. They found that the average age of moved coins over recent days “is between 20-30 days”, while the CoinDays Destroyed metric “hasn’t deviated significantly”.

This data can be interpreted as a sign that the “[price drop] was likely due to short-term holders,” which is partially proven by the massive volumes seen on BitMEX and other high time preference exchanges during this move lower.

Related Reading: Bitcoin Falls Below Stock-to-Flow Model, Will The Halving Be Front Run By Bulls?

The Accumulation Game

Short-term traders may have run for the hills, but HODLers, on the other hand, have been sticking to their guns.

According to an analysis completed by Twitter account “BitcoinEconomics.io”, accumulation by addresses it deems “companies”, “retail holders”, and “big holders” has been on a steady uptrend, even throughout the recent bout of volatility. They claim that this is a sign that the “outlook for Bitcoin looks great”.

What all these investors seem to be waiting for is Bitcoin’s next block reward reduction — known as a “halving” or “halvening”. You see, in May 2020, the issuance (inflation) of BTC will be cut in half as a result of baked-in facets of the Bitcoin protocol. Analysts say that this halving event, which equates to a negative supply shock, will boost BTC to fresh heights.

Due to this potential for upside, or at least the hype surrounding this narrative, investors are believed to be stacking satoshis (as they fondly call the game of Bitcoin accumulation) in anticipation of price upside.

Whether or not that upside comes to fruition, however, remains to be seen. But many sure seem to be betting on it.

Nick Chong

David