A Weekly Recap of All Things Resources to Friday, March 14th, 2025

‘That’s a Wrap’

By Rod Blake

As the brokers, investors, traders and portfolio managers looked over the performance statistics of the North American equity markets for the first week of March, one thing stood out above all of the rest. For the most part – all of the market gains for 2025 had been erased. The three American exchanges are now down on the year. The S&P 500 which struck a new all-time closing high of 6144, to be up almost 3% just a few weeks ago, was now below its year end 2024 level. Similiarly, the artificial intelligence (AI) fueled NASDAQ Exchange, which recently peaked at a new all-time closing level of 20,056, is also below where it started this year. The Dow 30, which held a 3.6% gain in mid-February, closed down on the year last Friday. Further north things look a little better – the TSX Composite Index which established a new all-time closing high of 25,808 at the end of January, for a 4% year to date gain, is down but still up marginally on the year. Only the TSX Venture Exchange – which peaked up some 8.4% on the year to 648 three weeks ago, is now at 614 –but still up about 2.7% in 2025.

The way I see it – it’s very rare that the TSX Venture Exchange outperforms its larger counterparts as understandably – the big money tends to migrate into the larger and more stable equities. The few times the Venture does outperform is either when there is a major mineral area play, a new product of focus, or when key commodities such as gold, silver and copper are at or near all-time highs. Today, we do not have an area play of note or a new product such a cannabis to focus on, so that leaves gold silver and copper. Probably over half of the listings on the venture are involved with these three metals in some way from grass roots exploration to development and even into production. For whatever reason – safe haven, electronics or electrifying the world – these three key metals are in vogue and look to stay there for some time to come. That said – spring to summer is usually a correction time for the Venture. But if the junior exchange can hold this level or at least stay above 600 through summer – then 2025 might be one of those years where the TSX venture Exchange has its time in the sun…

For the second consecutive week the North American equity markets sold off hard on the first day of trading driving the TSX Composite down to a new 2-month closing low of 24,203 while –

The Dow 30 fell to close at a new 6-month low of 40,814 and –

The S&P 500 and NASDAQ closed at consecutive 7-month lows of 5,522 and 17,303.

Driving the CBOE Volatility Index or ‘VIX’ to close up at a new 19-month high of 27.86.

And the U.S. Dollar Index ‘DXY’ down to a new 4-month closing low of 103.39.

Veren Inc. ‘VRN-T & N’ shares’ rose by $1.13 or 16.01% to $8.19 and the stock of Whitecap Resources Inc. ‘WCP-T’ fell by $1.36 or 14.55% to $7.99 after the two Calgary, AB based petroleum companies announced a merger of equals in a share & debt deal valued at some $15-billion.

This as the price of crude oil dropped to close at a new 6-month low of US$66.03 a barrel (bbl).

Going the other way – the price of natural gas rose to a new 3¼-year closing high of US$4.50 per 1-million British thermal units (mmBtu).

The key Baker Hughes Petroleum Rig Count reported the number of active American drilling rigs was unchanged at 592, down by 37-rigs from this time last year. Across the line – the number of Canadian active rigs fell by 35-rigs during the week to 199, down by 8-rigs from one year ago.  

Uranium continued to sell off – dropping to a new 1½-year closing low of US$63.65 a pound (lb).

Nickel rose to close at a new 4-month high of US$7.56 a pound (lb).

Copper closed later in the week at a new 10-month high of US$4.88 a pound (lb).

Zinc rose to a new 2½-month closing high of US$1.35 a pound (lb).

Eloro Resources Ltd. ‘ELO-T’ stock rose by $0.05 or 5.81% to close at $0.91 after the Toronto, ON based explorer released Drill Hole DSB-75 from the company’s Iska Iska Silver-Tin-Polymetallic Deposit in southwestern Bolivia that returned 135 metres (m) grading 157.47 grams per tonne silver (g/t Ag).

This as the price of silver rose to a new 4½-month closing low of US$33.81 a troy ounce (t oz).

Gold bullion closed at a new all-time high of US$2,987 a t oz.

Lumber rose to a new 2½-year closing high of US$661 per 1,000 board feet (mbf).

Copper and silver had the greatest gains with commodities over the week, while natural gas and uranium fell the most.

After another mostly negative week of trading – all of the North American equity markets once again staged a Friday rally to go into the weekend on a positive note.

For the Week – the DJI lost 3.07% to 41,488, while the S&P 500 fell 2.27% to 5,639, and the NASDAQ lost 2.43% to 17,754. In Canada – the TSX lost 0.91% to 24,533 while the TSX Venture gained 1.14% to 621.

The CBOE Volatility Index or VIX fell 6.85% to 21.77.

With currencies – the Canadian dollar gained 0.09% to US$0.6964, while the U.S. Dollar Index ‘DXY’ lost 0.09% to 103.69. 

With commodities – gold bullion gained 2.65% to US$2,987, as silver rose 3.85% to US$33.75, while copper also gained 3.85% to US$4.86, and lithium lost 0.15% to US$10,343. Crude oil gained 0.22% to US$67.22, while natural gas lost 6.62% to US$4.09, and uranium fell 1.55% to US$63.65. With soft commodities – lumber gained 2.80% to US$661.

Overall – the CRB Commodities Index rose 0.55% to 367.