A Weekly Recap of All Things Resources to Friday, April 4th, 2025

‘That’s a Wrap’

By Rod Blake

As the brokers, investors, traders, and portfolio managers opened their terminals on Monday morning – they were all keenly aware that this week might go down as one of the prominent times in market history in that come Wednesday, April 2^nd – the U.S. Trump induced Retaliatory Tariffs were to come into effect.

The way I see it – there a very few times where a government/media focused event affects markets like the current tariff controversy has. Two that come to mind are the 1999 turn of the century computer clock fiasco, where the financial markets were predicted to freeze, and planes would drop from the sky when the clocks struck midnight on December 31^st. The second and more recent was in 2024 as the markets waited anxiously for the U.S. Fed to finally drop their key interest rate following the post Covid-19 run up in rates. In the first case – markets ground lower ahead of the event as investors went to the sidelines ahead of January 1^st, just in case things went really bad when the clocks turned to the new century – only to bounce back to normal on January 2^nd when the financial institutions opened normally, and planes stayed in the air. In the second case, the equity markets pushed higher and higher anticipating that a lower interest rate would have a positive effect on the bottom line of companies – and then kept grinding to new all-time closing highs because if one rate cut was good for equities then two or three had be better.

This week’s tariff event could go either way. Currently, equity investors are driving markets lower as they go to the sidelines ahead of the April 3^rd event. Will equity markets bounce back when businesses reopen on April 4^th if the tariffs are marginal – or will they continue to push lower if the tariffs are extreme and affect countries, companies and consumers alike? Stay tuned…

Early in the week –

Siemens Aktiengesellschaft ‘SIE-DE’ announced the German technology giant will invest about $150-million over 5-years to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) oriented battery facility in Oakville, Ontario.

Gold bullion rose to a new all-time closing high of US$3,132 a troy ounce (t oz).

Which no doubt encouraged investors to push the share price of New Gold Inc. ‘NGD-T & N.A’  up to a new 8-year closing high of $5.32 and –

Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. ‘AEM-T & N’ stock to reach a new all-time closing high of $155.91.

Crude oil rose to close at a new 5-week high of US$71.51 a barrel (bbl).

TSX Venture Exchange ‘TSXV’ daily trading volume reached a new 10-month high of 65.42-million shares traded.

Money continued to flow into the junior markets with Sitka Gold Corp. ‘SIG-V’ announcing a $10-million ‘Bought Deal’ financing. A Bought Deal shows confidence in the project as the financing firm pays the company for the securities “up front” and then re-sales them to the market.

Lithium continued to drift lower with the key battery mineral falling to a new 5-month closing low of US$10,134 per tonne (t).

American Lithium Corp. ‘LI-V’ shares’ fell to close at a new 5-year low of $0.38.

Uranium companies continued to have trouble finding bids with –

NexGen Energy Ltd. ‘NXE-T & N’ stock dropping to a new 1¾-year closing low of $5.92.

Sierra Metals Inc. ‘SMT-T’ shares’ rose by $0.06 or 7.79% to close at a new 1½-month high of $0.83 after Peruvian mining group Alpayana S.A.C. reiterated its desire to take over the Toronto. ON based junior miner.

Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. ‘IVN-T’ stock rose by $0.94 or 7.69% to $13.16 after the Vancouver, BC based miner filed a robust technical report on the company’s Platreef multi-metal mine in South Africa.

The closely followed Baker Hughes Petroleum Rig Count reported the number of active American drilling rigs fell by 2-rigs over the week to 590, down by 30-rigs from this time last year. Across the line – the number of Canadian active rigs fell by 10-rigs during the week to 153, up by 17-rigs from one year ago.  

The New Retaliatory U.S. Tariffs hit the equity, currency and commodity markets hard on Thursday and Friday.

Causing the CBOE Volatility Index or ‘VIX’ to surge up to a new 5-year closing high of 45.31.

The U.S. Dollar Index or DXY fell to a new 6-month closing low of 101.86.

Going the other way – the Canadian Loonie rose to close at a new 4-month high of US$0.7110.

Copper fell to a new 2-month closing low of US$4.37 a pound (lb).

Silver dropped to close at a new 3-month low of US$29.38 a troy ounce (t oz).

Zinc fell to a new 8-month closing low of US$1.21 a pound (lb).

Nickel fell to close at a new 4½-year low of US$6.67 a lb.

Crude oil sank to close at a new 4^2/3-year low of US$61.72.

Uranium was the only commodity with a gain on the week, while copper and silver fell the most.

 All of the North American equity markets were racing to the bottom going into the weekend.

For the Week – the DJI lost 7.86% to 38,315, while the S&P 500 fell 9.08% to 5,074, and the NASDAQ dropped 10.02% to 15,588. Up north – the TSX fell 6.32% to 23,193 and the TSX Venture lost 9.15% to 576.

The CBOE Volatility Index or VIX surged up 109.28% to 45.31.

With currencies – the Canadian dollar gained 0.46% to US$0.7015, while the U.S. Dollar Index ‘DXY’ fell 0.90% to 103.10. 

With commodities – gold bullion lost 1.59% to US$3,037, as silver fell 13.08% to US$29.63, while copper dropped 14.15% to US$4.37, and lithium lost 0.64% to US$10,134. Crude oil fell 9.51% to US$62.48, while natural gas lost 6.13% to US$3.83, while uranium gained 1.24% to US$65.15. With soft commodities – lumber lost 12.98% to US$590.

Overall – the CRB Commodities Index fell 1.07% to 369.