A Weekly Recap of All Things Resources to Friday, April 11th, 2025
‘That’s a Wrap’
By Rod Blake
As the brokers, investors, traders and portfolio managers fired up their terminals pre-opening on Monday morning, with the weight of the 10% haircut the equity markets had delivered the previous week seared into their minds, and staring a very negative futures market – they all had one question in common – why didn’t I sell earlier when I had the chance?
The way I see it – Bad Things Happen! Over 30 plus years in the brokerage business I saw many overextended equities or markets where clients had good paper gains but were hesitant on selling any portion of their holdings because – they might leave money on the table if the market went higher. This is when I would explain that bull markets usually climb a wall of uncertainty that may endure weeks, months or even years – and then end suddenly when a bad or unforeseen event triggered a sudden selloff. Some standout examples of bad things happening were the price of gold bullion suddenly dropping $113 overnight from US$850 to US$737 an ounce in January 1980, the market crash of October 1987, the Dot-Com Bubble bursting in March 2000, the financial meltdown of 2007, the sudden tsunami that hit the east coast of Japan in March 2011, the Covid-19 crisis of 2020, and now the extreme American Trump induced tariffs. Most of these events created overall market sell offs while the Japan tsunami caused the uranium market to collapse almost overnight. When gold turned in January 1980 it created a bear market for precious metals that lasted until gold bottomed at US$275 an ounce in 2000. I would use these examples of bad things happening to encourage my clients to lock in profits accordingly, and looking back, I think that most did. I wonder what percentage of current investors had locked in profits before last Thursday?
The North American equity markets opened Monday hard to the downside and by Tuesday – the S&P 500 sank to a new 1-year closing low of 4,983 while the Dow 30 and NASDAQ had dropped to close at respective new 1¼-year lows of 37,646 and 15,268.
Driving the CBOE Volatility Index or VIX up to a new 5-year closing high of 52.33.
The previous high close of the VIX was 53.54 at the breakout of Covid-19. It’s interesting how Donald Trump’s tariffs could cause almost as much economic fear as a world wide pandemic.
Up north – the TSX Composite and Venture Exchanges fell to respective new 8-month closing lows of 22,507 and 562.
Commodities were soft with –
Zinc falling to a new 8-month closing low of US$1.16 a pound (lb).
Nickel sinking to close at a new 4½-year low of US$6.41 a lb.
And Sherritt International Corp. ‘S-T’ shares’ closed at a new 4¾-year low of $0.13.
Lithium fell to a new 7-month closing low of US$9,715 a tonne (t).
Standard Lithium Ltd. ‘SLI-T & N.A’ shares’ sank to a new 17-month closing low of $1.55.
Copper closed at a new 3-month low of US$4.09 a pound (lb).
Capstone Copper Corp. ‘CS-T’ shares’ dropped to close at a new 16-month low of $5.37.
Cameco Corporation ‘CCO-T’ & ‘CCJ-N’ stock fell to a new 1½-year closing low of $52.24.
MAG Silver Corp. ‘MAG-T & N.A’ shares’ sank to close at a new 7-month low of $12.56.
Crude oil dropped to close at a new 4-year low of US$58.19 a barrel (bbl).
Helping Cenovus Energy ‘CVE-T & N’ stock to close at a new 41/3-year low of $15.14.
The key Baker Hughes Petroleum Rig Count reported the number of active American drilling rigs fell by 7-rigs over the week to 583, down by 34-rigs from this time last year. Up north – the number of Canadian active rigs fell by 15-rigs during the week to 138, down by 3-rigs from one year ago.
Enertopia Corporation ‘ENRT-C’ shares’ rose by $0.04 or 40.00% to close at a new 3-month high of $0.14 after the Kelowna, BC based alternative energy company provided a positive update on the company’s patent pending Oxyhydrogen Production, Storage & Utilization System.
Investors get whipsawed when the North American equity markets surged up from 5% (TSX) to 12% (Q) on Wednesday after the Trump administration announced a 90-day moratorium on their worldwide tariffs – only to give back about half of those gains Thursday on continued economic uncertainty.
Gold bullion rose to a new all-time closing high of US$3,237 a troy ounce (t oz).
Which no doubt encouraged investors to bid Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. ‘AEM-T & N’ and Lundin Gold Inc. ‘LUG-T’ stock up to respective new all-time closing highs of $163.42 and $48.85.
The U.S. Dollar Index ‘DXY’ fell to close at a new 13/4-year low of 99.76.
And the Canadian Loonie surged up to a new 5-month closing high of US$0.7212.
Gold bullion and silver led the commodity market higher on the week, while natural gas and lithium were the greatest drag.
After a hard drop, a recovery and a yo-yo week – all of the North American equity markets rallied going into the weekend.
For the Week – the DJI gained 4.95% to 40,213, with the S&P 500 up 5.70% to 5,363, and the NASDAQ ahead by 7.29% to 16,724. In Canada – the TSX rose 1.70% to 23,588 and the TSX Venture gained 6.94% to 616.
The CBOE Volatility Index or VIX fell 17.10% to 37.56.
With currencies – the Canadian dollar gained 2.81% to US$0.7212, while the U.S. Dollar Index ‘DXY’ fell 3.34% to 99.76.
With commodities – gold bullion gained 6.59% to US$3,237, as silver rose 8.91% to US$32.27, and copper gained 3.89% to US$4.54, while lithium lost 3.00% to US$9,830. Crude oil fell 1.60% to US$61.48, while natural gas lost 7.57% to US$3.54, and uranium fell 1.15% to US$64.40. With soft commodities – lumber lost 2.88% to US$573.
Overall – the CRB Commodities Index lost 5.96% to 347.