Agoracom Blog

National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association and #KABN Systems North America enter multi-year exclusive partnership to promote Digital Identity in Canada

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 8:33 AM on Friday, February 14th, 2020
  • National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association of Canada (NCFA) and KABN Systems North America Inc. (KABN NA) announced a collaborative partnership to promote Digital Identity management and usage in Canada through a 3 year exclusive partnership launching at the 2020 Fintech and Financing Conference and Expo (FFCON20) to be held in downtown Toronto on March 23-24, 2020.

Digital Identity program to be launched at 20: RISE

TORONTO, ON / February 13, 2020 / The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association of Canada (NCFA) and KABN Systems North America Inc. (KABN NA) announced today they have formed a collaborative partnership to promote Digital Identity management and usage in Canada through a 3 year exclusive partnership launching at the 2020 Fintech and Financing Conference and Expo (FFCON20) to be held in downtown Toronto on March 23-24, 2020.

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With finance and fintech touching virtually every business and entity of people’s lives, the NCFA and KABN NA will be embarking on awareness and education programs on the value of having a secure, re-usable online identity that can reduce identity fraud and replace the need to show credentials every time you need to prove your online identity.

KABN Systems North America Inc. is a Canadian Fintech company that specializes in continuous online Identity Verification, Identity Management and Monetization and is currently in the launch phase of its digital banking and financial services platform, Pegasus Flyte.

KABN NA recently announced that it has executed Definitive Agreements with Torino Power Solutions (CSE:TPS), subject to all necessary approvals, Torino will acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares in the capital of KABN NA, which will constitute a fundamental change of the Company and that will result in a reverse takeover (the “RTO“) of Torino by KABN NA.

The theme for the 6th annual FFCON20 is RISE, focused on increasing the success and sustainability of Canada’s fintech and financial sector fostering partnerships between fintech companies and financial institutions, opening investment channels and connecting emerging talent with markets. KABN will be a prominent partner of this event and all other events that the NCFA presents over the next 3 years.

FFCON20 facilitates thought-provoking and relevant discussions, lively debates and personal networking for the cross-pollination of ideas and experiences. The two-day event also provides a variety of competitions where investors can find deal flow and companies can get direct access to prominent investors. FFCON20, at its core, brings markets to life and provides an open forum for collaboration between emerging companies and major stakeholders.

“Identity is a key component of the online fintech environment and consumers are becoming more aware of its value and vulnerability. We’re very excited to partner with KABN North America to educate consumers and businesses on the value of digital identity in the marketplace, how to protect it and how to manage it.” Craig Asano, Founder and CEO, NCFA

“We are excited to have the opportunity to partner and work with the NCFA and leverage their leadership in the Fintech sector and create leadership in the digital identity arena. KABN is focused on collaboration with industry stakeholders and supports educating North Americans about the value of digital identity, to create better use of our private data.” Ben Kessler, CEO, KABN Systems North American Inc.

For more information on FFCON20: RISE click here

The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. For more information, please visit: ncfacanada.org

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Kirsten Gillibrand’s new bill would establish a US data protection agency SPONSOR: #KABN Systems North America Inc.

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 8:28 AM on Friday, February 14th, 2020

SPONSOR: KABN Systems North America Inc. A Fintech platform focused on Verifying, Managing & Monetizing Online Identity. KABN’s mission is to create a world-class suite of products and services that support the decentralized market economy, globally enabling consumers to manage their digital identity and other data to create value-based relationships in the financial and loyalty services arena.

Kirsten Gillibrand’s new bill would establish a US data protection agency

The Data Protection Agency would enforce federal privacy laws out of the hands of the FTC.Issie Lapowsky

  • Members of Congress still haven’t written the rules of the road for consumer privacy in America. But on Thursday, Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand introduced a new bill that would at least appoint a traffic cop.

February 13, 2020

Members of Congress still haven’t written the rules of the road for consumer privacy in America. But on Thursday, Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand introduced a new bill that would at least appoint a traffic cop.

The so-called Data Protection Act of 2020 would create the country’s first data protection agency to oversee how privacy laws in America are enforced and guide Congress on the development of those laws. The agency would be empowered to impose penalties on companies that violate people’s privacy, taken them to court, field consumer complaints, and launch investigations.

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In a blog post, Gillibrand wrote that the country faces an inflection point similar to the post-9/11 days when the government realized it needed to shore up national security and established the Department of Homeland Security to do it.

“As our country and economy continue to evolve with the digital age, we face a national crisis as our personal data gets targeted — and not just for marketing by brands, but also to establish if we can access certain jobs, loans, or prices on products,” Gillibrand wrote. “Americans should be able to go to an institution that will look out for, and actively work to protect, their privacy and freedom.”

The agency would enforce current privacy laws and any future laws Congress passes and have rule-making authority to determine how those laws are carried out. Specifically, the agency would be able to conduct impact assessments on companies deploying “high-risk practices” with regard to data. That includes companies using data to profile people on a large scale. The bill also gives the agency the power to regulate consumer scoring in sensitive areas like housing, employment and education.

The agency would have subpoena power and the ability to take companies to court over violations of federal privacy law. It would also closely monitor large companies — both in terms of revenue and in terms of the amount of data they collect — and ask for reports from these companies, to ensure they’re complying with the law. Meanwhile, the agency would be tasked with guiding Congress on emerging technologies and representing the United States in international deals regarding privacy.

Today, the federal privacy laws that do exist, like the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and the Fair Credit Reporting Act, are enforced by the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC Act also prohibits unfair or deceptive practices, a law that the agency has used to punish companies like Facebook for their privacy scandals. But consumer advocates have always said the FTC lacks teeth, primarily because the agency can’t levy fines on first-time offenders. Some federal privacy bills that have been introduced recently, including one sponsored by Washington Democrat Sen. Maria Cantwell, would change that, creating a new privacy bureau within the FTC and giving it more punitive powers.

But Gillibrand’s bill aims to start fresh with a brand-new agency, which would assume much of the enforcement power from the FTC. Privacy groups like the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which worked with Gillibrand’s office on the bill, view this as a welcome change.

“The FTC has failed over and over again to protect American consumers,” said Caitriona Fitzgerald, chief technology officer and policy director at EPIC. Fitzgerald points to the consent decree the FTC reached with Facebook over privacy issues in 2011. That didn’t stop Facebook from committing subsequent privacy violations that ultimately led to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Last year, the FTC fined Facebook $5 billion, a penalty that Fitzgerald thinks was woefully inadequate. “The FTC did nothing to ensure this won’t happen again. And that’s only the latest example,” she said.

The agency Gillibrand seeks to create would be similar to the data protection authorities that oversee enforcement of the General Data Protection Regulations throughout Europe. The only difference is in the United States, there is no comprehensive data privacy law to enforce. The closest thing the U.S. has to GDPR is the California Consumer Privacy Act, which only concerns California residents. A new ballot initiative in California that seeks to rewrite CCPA would create an independent data protection agency, but that agency would still only protect Californians.

The avalanche of high-profile consumer privacy failures over the past few years has led to calls for a strong federal privacy law, including from the tech industry itself. Gillibrand’s proposal for a data protection agency is a response to that, but it stops short of proposing new limits on data use itself. In her blog post, Gillibrand pointed to an array of perceived privacy violations she wants to prohibit, from fitness apps sharing data with health insurance companies to Instagram giving advertisers access to data about its users. Her new Data Protection Agency would be able to do very little to stop that, unless Congress passed a law that said it could.

Fitzgerald says she thinks Gillibrand’s bill could be easily integrated into Cantwell’s comprehensive privacy bill in the Senate. Another comprehensive consumer privacy bill in the House that was introduced last year also calls for the creation of what it calls a “digital privacy agency.”

But some, like Mary Stone Ross, associate director of EPIC, say that even on its own, Gillibrand’s bill has value. Ross argues that it doesn’t matter what privacy laws Congress passes if there’s nobody who’s going to hold companies accountable. “On one hand it might seem a little backward, like you’re putting the cart before the horse, building the enforcement agency before you pass federal consumer privacy law, but in my mind it’s not,” Ross said. “I think the most important place to start is enforcement.”

Source: https://www.protocol.com/federal-privacy-agency-gillibrand-2645128272.amp.html?__twitter_impression=true

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INTERVIEW: Empower $CBDT.ca Signs Exclusive Content Deal To Further Convert Its’ Database Of 165,000 Patients $WEED.ca $CGC $ACB $APH $CRON.ca $HEXO.ca $OGI.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 5:57 PM on Thursday, February 13th, 2020

With 165,000 patients, Empower Clinics (CBDT:CSE) (EPWCF:OTCQB) has a database that almost every medical cannabis and CBD company would kill for.  Add in the fact patient visits increased 351% in Q4 and it becomes the kind of company small cap investors have been dying to find as they watch pretender companies melt away.

But it doesn’t end there.

CBD extraction has been a key element of the company’s vertical integration. Producing its’ own hemp-derived CBD products for its own massive patient list just makes sense. However, thanks to an LOI (moving towards definitive agreement) to JV with extraction experts Heritage Cannabis, the Company’s 5,000 sq ft facility in Oregon is also planning to serve big brand 3rd party partners in the USA .  Empower brings the infrastructure, Heritage brings the expertise and balance sheet.  The result is a match made in shareholder heaven with initial annual capacity of 6,000 Kg at ~ $US 5,000 per Kg, which adds up to $US 30,000,000 in potential revenue.

But It Doesn’t End There

The Company’s CEO, Steven McAuley is Six Sigma certified under the quality initiative of legendary GE chairman Jack Welch. We’ve never seen a Six Sigma certified CEO in the Canadian small cap markets. Never …. which also explains how McAuley has brought Empower so far in just 11 months.

If anyone understands digital, it’s McAuley. So it should come as no surprise the Company just signed an exclusive multi-year, multi-national licensing deal with EuroLife to license its “Cannvas.me” cloud based online education platform for the US and Mexico.  Amongst other things, Empower plans to integrate the education platform into its clinics across the United States to help further convert their 165,000 patient database to CBD and medical cannabis through proper education.  

The site also contains premium content for physicians who need to educate themselves and comes with millions of page views already, as well as, 15,000 opted in subscribers, which explains the $460,000 in licensing over 3 years – but $210,000 of that is Empower stock priced at $0.10 (125% above current market prices, which gives you an idea of the confidence EuroLife principals have in the future of Empower.

P.S.  The interview takes place from the floor of the Arizona Cannabis Expo, where Empower has multiple booths and an actual pop-up clinic to acquire new customers in real-time.  That’s what happens when you have a company run by a Six Sigma Certified CEO.

Grab your favourite beverage and settle in to watch what may be your next great small cap investment.

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Empower $CBDT.ca Signs Multi-Year Multi-National Licensing Deal with EuroLife $WEED.ca $CGC $ACB $APH $CRON.ca $HEXO.ca $OGI.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 4:18 PM on Thursday, February 13th, 2020
  • Empower Clinics to license online education technology to provide strategic value to their patients, retail locations, and to their expanding network of franchisees.

VANCOUVER BC / February 13, 2020 / EMPOWER CLINICS INC. (CSE:CBDT)(OTC:EPWCF)(Frankfurt:8EC) (“Empower” or the “Company“), a vertically integrated and growth-oriented CBD life sciences company is pleased to announce it has signed a letter of intent (the “LOI”) with EuroLife Brands Inc. (EURO) (3CMA) (EURPF) (“EuroLife”), a vertically integrated enterprise focused on the pan-European hemp, cannabinoid, and health and wellness sector, granting Empower an exclusive license of EURO’s “Cannvas.me” cloud based online educational platform in certain jurisdictions. The education technology is to be accessed by employees of Empower’s owned and franchised clinics, patients, and a network of nationwide retailers in the United States.

Under the terms of the LOI, Empower will be granted an exclusive license of the Cannvas.me platform in the United States and Mexico (expandable to other jurisdictions). It is envisioned that Empower will integrate and leverage the robust Cannvas.me platform with its burgeoning clinic network across the continental United States. The LOI contemplates a three-year term with a three-year renewable option. An annual $70,000.00 CAD licensing fee will be paid for the life of the proposed agreement, and the issuance of $250,000.00 CAD of Empower common stock at a price of $0.10 per share.

“This next phase in our partnership with Euro is the culmination of many months of collaboration to create access to the immense amount of educational content on the Cannvas.me platform.” said Steven McAuley, Chairman & CEO of Empower. “Empower, as thought leaders in the medical cannabis sector, need to lead consumer & physician education providing a branded curated experience starting with our 165,000 patients and then extending through our network of corporate and franchised clinics.”

“EuroLife’s SaaS based education technology platform will allow Empower Clinics to educate a consumer, retailer, and medical patient on an incredibly efficient basis,” said Shawn Moniz, Chief Executive Officer, EuroLife Brands Inc. “We look forward to working with Empower and their expanding clinic network in providing unencumbered access to our online technology solution.”

In 2018 EuroLife launched a consumer education portal for medical and recreational cannabis consumers. Through many discussions with industry stakeholders the management team discovered there was significant demand for a cloud-based education portal for licensed producers, retail dispensaries and other large to mid-sized companies in the cannabis sector. Executing on a renewed B2B technology model EuroLife recently delivered a redesigned budtender education portal for Aphria Inc. (see February 4, 2020 news release), the global cannabis leader with an unrelenting commitment to people, product quality and innovation. The portal allows Aphria to ensure retail employees across Canada are well-versed in Aphria’s line-up of adult-use brands and enabled with information to provide superior customer service.

ABOUT EMPOWER

Empower is a vertically-integrated health & wellness brand with it’s first hemp-derived CBD extraction facility under development, the Company produces its proprietary line of cannabidiol (CBD) based products and distributes products through company owned and franchised clinics, with wholesale partnerships, online channels and with new retail opportunities nationwide in the U.S. The company is a leading multi-state operator of a network of physician-staffed wellness clinics, focused on helping patients improve and protect their health, through innovative physician recommended treatment options. The company has commenced activity on how to connect its significant data, to the potential of the efficacy of alternative treatment options related to hemp-derived cannabidiol (CBD) therapies.

About EuroLife Brands Inc.

EuroLife Brands (CSE: EURO) (FSE: 3CMA) (OTCPK: EURPF) is a leading global markets cannabis brand empowering the medical, recreational and CPG cannabis industry worldwide through a data-driven CBD marketplace supported by exclusive and unbiased physician-backed cannabis education and detailed consumer analytics.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS:

Steven McAuley
Chief Executive Officer

CONTACTS:

Investors: Steven McAuley
CEO
[email protected]
604-789-2146

Investors: Dustin Klein
SVP, Business Development
[email protected]
720-352-1398

For French inquiries: Remy Scalabrini, Maricom Inc., E: [email protected], T: (888) 585-MARI

DISCLAIMER FOR FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release contains certain “forward-looking statements” or “forward-looking information” (collectively “forward looking statements”) within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release.Forward-looking statements can frequently be identified by words such as “plans”, “continues”, “expects”, “projects”, “intends”, “believes”, “anticipates”, “estimates”, “may”, “will”, “potential”, “proposed” and other similar words, or information that certain events or conditions “may” or “will” occur. Forward-looking statements in this news release include statements regarding; the Company’s intention to open a hemp-based CBD extraction facility, the expected benefits to the Company and its shareholders as a result of the proposed acquisitions and partnerships; the effectiveness of the extraction technology; the expected benefits for Empower’s patient base and customers; the benefits of CBD based products; the effect of the approval of the Farm Bill; the growth of the Company’s patient list and that the Company will be positioned to be a market-leading service provider for complex patient requirements in 2019 and beyond. Such statements are only projections, are based on assumptions known to management at this time, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements, including; that the Company may not open a hemp-based CBD extraction facility; that legislative changes may have an adverse effect on the Company’s business and product development; that the Company may not be able to obtain adequate financing to pursue its business plan; general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; failure to obtain any necessary approvals in connection with the proposed acquisitions and partnerships; and other factors beyond the Company’s control. No assurance can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will occur or, if they do occur, what benefits the Company will obtain from them. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements in this release, which are qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. The Company is under no obligation, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking statements in this release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable laws.

SOURCE: Empower Clinics Inc.

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Gold Projected to Beat the Market in 2020 SPONSOR: Labrador Gold $LAB.ca $RIO.ca $WHM.ca $SIC.ca $NXS.ca

Posted by AGORACOM at 3:47 PM on Thursday, February 13th, 2020

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  • Gold will outperform the S&P 500 Index in 2020. That’s one of several projections made by CLSA in its just-released “Global Surprises 2020” report.
  • The Hong Kong investment firm has an impressive track record when it comes to making market predictions—last year it had a 70 percent hit rate—so it may be prudent to take this one seriously.

CLSA’s head of research Shaun Cochran: “If investors are concerned about the role of liquidity in recent equity market strength… gold provides a hedge that could perform across multiple scenarios.”

Indeed, gold is one of the most liquid assets in the world with an average daily trading volume of more than $112 billion, according to the World Gold Council (WGC). That far exceeds the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s daily volume of approximately $23 billion.

The yellow metal, Cochran adds, can be particularly useful in an era of perpetually loose monetary policy: “[I]n the event that growth disappoints the market’s expectations, gold is positively leveraged to the inevitable policy response of lower rates and larger central bank balance sheets.”

As I’ve pointed out many times before, gold has traded inversely with government bond yields. The recent gold rally has largely been driven by the growing pool of negative-yielding government debt around the world, now standing at $13 trillion. Here in the U.S., the nominal yield on the 10-year Treasury has remained positive, but when adjusted for inflation, it’s recently turned negative, despite a strengthening economy. What’s more, the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet has begun to increase again. It now holds about 30 percent of outstanding Treasury debt, up from about 10 percent prior to the financial crisis.

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I can’t say whether gold will beat the S&P this year or next, but what I do know is that the yellow metal has been a wise long-term investment. For the 20-year period through the end of 2019, gold crushed the market two-to-one, returning 451.8 percent compared to the S&P’s 223.6 percent. That comes out to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.78 percent for gold, 4.03 percent for the S&P.

Manufacturing Turnaround Has Begun

U.S. manufacturers started 2020 on stronger footing, a welcome turnaround after contracting for five straight months. January’s ISM manufacturing purchasing manager’s index (PMI) clocked in at 50.9, indicating slight growth. Up from 47.2 in December, this represents the biggest month-over-month jump since August 2013, when the PMI increased to 55.4 from 50.9 in July.

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This may also mark the end of the recent manufacturing bear market, prompted by the trade war between the U.S. and China. Although relations between the world’s two biggest superpowers remain strained, to say the least, we’ve seen improvements lately that hint at better days. Both sides signed a “Phase One” agreement in mid-January, and last week, China announced it would be cutting tariffs in half on as much as $75 billion of U.S.-imported products.

The coronavirus is a new development that has disrupted global trade, but there’s reason to be optimistic, as the PMI makes clear.

To read my full comments on the coronavirus, and its impact on Chinese and Hong Kong stocks, click here!

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is a price-weighted average of 30 blue chip stocks that are generally leaders in their industry. The S&P 500 Stock Index is a widely recognized capitalization-weighted index of 500 common stock prices in U.S. companies. The Purchasing Manager’s Index is an indicator of the economic health of the manufacturing sector. The PMI index is based on five major indicators: new orders, inventory levels, production, supplier deliveries and the employment environment. Compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is a business and investing specific term for the geometric progression ratio that provides a constant rate of return over the time period.

All opinions expressed and data provided are subject to change without notice. Some of these opinions may not be appropriate to every investor. Some links above may be directed to third-party websites. U.S. Global Investors does not endorse all information supplied by these websites and is not responsible for their content.

U.S. Global Investors, Inc. is an investment adviser registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). This does not mean that we are sponsored, recommended, or approved by the SEC, or that our abilities or qualifications in any respect have been passed upon by the SEC or any officer of the SEC. This commentary should not be considered a solicitation or offering of any investment product. Certain materials in this commentary may contain dated information. The information provided was current at the time of publication.

SOURCE: By: Frank E. Holmes, Chairman/CEO/CIO of U.S. Global Investors, Inc.,

http://news.goldseek.com/USFunds/1581529365.php

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#Palladium rising while gold remains flat – SPONSOR: New Age Metals $NAM.ca $WG.ca $XTM.ca $WM.ca $PDL.ca $GLEN

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 3:19 PM on Thursday, February 13th, 2020

SPONSOR: New Age Metals Inc. The company owns one of North America’s largest primary platinum group metals deposit in Sudbury, Canada. Updated NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate 2,867,000 PdEq Measured and Indicated Ounces, with an additional 1,059,000 PdEq Ounces Inferred. Learn More.

Palladium rising while gold remains flat

Gary Wagner

It is a well-known rule of thumb that the safe haven asset class which includes gold typically trades with an inverse correlation to equities. There is an exception to that rule, and that is when the Federal Reserve eases their monetary policy with low rates and the accumulation of assets on their balance sheet to provide liquidity. This is because that action is considered bullish for both gold and U.S. equities. It seems that in this instance there is a unique divergence in the way gold and U.S. equities have reacted to statements made today by the Federal Reserve’s Chairman Jerome Powell.

In the run-up of 2008 to 2011 we had both U.S. equities and gold running to all-time record highs in unison as the Federal Reserve began their quantitative easing programs. Statements made by Chairman Jerome Powell up until today have been emphatic in his explanation of the slow and steady accumulation of $60 billion in assets each month not being a new round of quantitative easing.

That defensive posture and explanation by the chairman changed today when Chairman Powell said that the “central bank would use quantitative easing as a tool against the next economic downturn.” Although he did not go as far as saying that the recent asset accumulation was in any way a form of quantitative easing, today’s statement opens the door to increase asset accumulations aggressively if needed.

According to MarketWatch, “In testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, Powell said the Fed had two recession-fighting tools; buying government bonds, known as QE, and communicating clearly with markets about interest-rate policy, routinely considered as “forward guidance. We will use those tools — I believe we will use them aggressively should the need arise to do so.”

His testimony occurred on the same day that the U.S. Treasury announced that they recorded a $33 billion budget deficit in January. Analysts at Reuters forecasted that the deficit would only increase by 11.5 billion last year. More alarming than the underestimate by analysts was the fact a year ago the treasury announced a budget surplus of $9 billion.

U.S. equities all traded in record territory today is a direct result of data suggesting that there is a slowdown in the number of new cases of the coronavirus, now labeled as COVID-19 by the CDC. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 275 points today, and closed at a new all-time record high of 29,55.42. The NASDAQ composite also surged to a new all-time high of 9725.96, and the S&P 500 get a new record high at 3379.75.

At the same time, we saw gold trad fractionally lower on the day. As of 5 PM EST is currently trading down $1.30 and fixed at $1569 per ounce. With the exception of palladium all the other precious metals did close lower. However once again palladium was able to buck the trend as it gained over $63 in trading today and is currently fixed at $2329.

According to a report by Johnson Matthey one of the largest precious metals refiners in the world said that the palladium market “was in a supply/demand deficit of more than 1 million ounces in 2019, and the shortage is expected to be even worse in 2020.”

If the report by Johnson Matthey is accurate it could signal much higher prices and the possibility of palladium reaching as high as $2700 per ounce this year.

For those who would like more information, simply use this link.

Wishing you as always, good trading,

Source: https://www.kitco.com/commentaries/2020-02-12/Palladium-rising-while-gold-remains-flat.html

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Good Cheer for PM Sector Investors – The Completing Cup & Handle Continuation Pattern In GDX SPONSOR: Affinity Metals $AAF.ca $SII.ca $TUD.ca $GTT.ca $AMK.ca $OSK.ca $RKR.ca

Posted by AGORACOM at 2:25 PM on Thursday, February 13th, 2020
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Affinity_Metals_Corp_Logo.png

Sponsor: Affinity Metals (TSX-V: AFF) a Canadian mineral exploration company building a strong portfolio of mineral projects in North America. The Corporation’s flagship property is the Drill ready Regal Property near Revelstoke, BC. Recent sampling encountered bonanza grade silver, zinc, and lead with many samples reaching assay over-limits. Click Here for More Info

Whilst it must be frustrating for Precious Metals sector investors to watch Tech stocks continuing to “shoot the moon” while PM stocks have mostly done nothing, the chart presented below suggests that this situation won’t persist for much longer.

The 7-month chart for GDX shows it probably completing the Handle of a sizeable Cup & Handle continuation pattern. GDX has stayed above the support level shown as the Handle of the pattern has formed, which has allowed the earlier overbought condition at the start of the year to unwind and moving averages to catch up. Volume has eased over the past several weeks which is also a positive sign.

With respect to the timing of the next upleg, the valid Bowl pattern also drawn on the chart helps, for it shows that the price has consistently found support at the Bowl boundary since it started to form last August, and now that it is at it again, with the Handle of the Cup & Handle looking about complete, the time for a new upleg to start is believed to be at hand.

The longer-term 18-month chart for GDX shows what is meant by labeling the Cup & Handle as a “continuation pattern” rather than a Cup & Handle base, which of course follows a drop, for as we can see it has formed at a higher level following the steep runup last Summer. Calling it a continuation pattern means that it is believed to be a consolidation pattern that will lead to renewed advance. While it is expected to break to the upside shortly it should be noted that it would be an unwelcome development if it should drop below the low of the Handle, and also that a breach of the support shown at the lows of the pattern would be a seriously bearish development, although it is considered much more likely that it will soon break to the upside.


So, with the price at the right side of the Cup & Handle pattern, at the support of the Bowl boundary, at the rising 50-day moving average and at an important support level the time appears to be nigh for a new upleg to begin. In addition, the Bollinger Bands (not shown) are pinched together quite tightly suggesting that a big move is imminent and the dollar is in position to reverse to the downside after a run.

SOURCE: https://www.clivemaund.com/article.php?id=5269

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Posted in Affinity Metals, All Recent Posts | Comments Off on Good Cheer for PM Sector Investors – The Completing Cup & Handle Continuation Pattern In GDX SPONSOR: Affinity Metals $AAF.ca $SII.ca $TUD.ca $GTT.ca $AMK.ca $OSK.ca $RKR.ca

Next Tech Frontier – Can Graphene Change The World? SPONSOR – ZEN Graphene Solutions $ZEN.ca $LLG.ca $FMS.ca $NGC.ca $CVE.ca $DNI.

Posted by AGORACOM at 1:03 PM on Thursday, February 13th, 2020

SPONSOR: ZEN Graphene Solutions: An emerging advanced materials and graphene development company with a focus on new solutions using pure graphene and other two-dimensional materials. Our competitive advantage relies on the unique qualities of our multi-decade supply of precursor materials in the Albany Graphite Deposit. Independent labs in Japan, UK, Israel, USA and Canada confirm this. Click here for more information

Every age in the history of human civilisation has a signature material, from the Stone Age, to the Bronze and Iron Ages. We might even call today’s information-driven society the Silicon Age.

Since the 1960s, silicon nanostructures, the building-blocks of microchips, have supercharged the development of electronics, communications, manufacturing, medicine, and more.

How small are these nanostructures? Very, very small – you could fit at least 3,000 silicon transistors onto the tip of a human hair. But there is a limit: below about 5 nanometres (5 millionths of a millimetre), it is hard to improve the performance of silicon devices any further.

So if we are about to exhaust the potential of silicon nanomaterials, what will be our next signature material? That’s where “atomaterials” come in.What are atomaterials?

What are atomaterials?

“Atomaterials” is short for “atomic materials”, so called because their properties depend on the precise configuration of their atoms. It is a new but rapidly developing field.

One example is graphene, which is made of carbon atoms. Unlike diamond, in which the carbon atoms form a rigid three-dimensional structure, graphene is made of single layer of carbon atoms, bonded together in a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice.

Diamond’s rigid structure is the reason for its celebrated hardness and longevity, making it the perfect material for high-end drill bits and expensive jewellery. In contrast, the two-dimensional form of carbon atoms in graphene allows electron travelling frictionless at a high speed giving ultrahigh conductivity and the outstanding in plane mechanical strength. Thus, graphene has broad applications in medicines, electronics, energy storage, light processing, and water filtration. 

Using lasers, we can fashion these atomic structures into miniaturised devices with exceptional performance.

Using atomaterials, our lab has been working on a range of innovations, at various stages of development. They include:

  • A magic cooling film. This film can cool the environment by up to 10℃ without using any electricity. By integrating such a film into a building, the electricity used for air conditioning can be reduced by 35%, and summer electricity blackouts effectively stopped. This will not only save electricity bills but also reduce greenhouse emissions.
  • Heat-absorbing film. Some 97% of Earth’s water is in the oceans, and is salty and unusable without expensive processing. Efficiently removing salt from seawater could be a long-term solution to the growing global freshwater scarcity. With a solar-powered graphene film, this process can be made very efficient.

The film absorbs almost all the sunlight shining on it and converts it into heat. The temperature can be increased to 160℃ within 30 seconds. This heat can then distil seawater with an efficiency greater than 95%, and the distilled water is cleaner than tapwater. This low-cost technology can be suitable for domestic and industry applications.

  • Smart sensing film. These flexible atomaterial films can incorporate a wide range of functions including environmental sensing, communication, and energy storage. They have a broad range of applications in healthcare, sports, advanced manufacturing, farming, and others. For example, smart films could monitor soil humidity near plants’ roots, thus helping to make agriculture more water-efficient.
  • Ultrathin, ultra-lightweight lenses. The bulkiest part of a mobile phone camera is the lens, because it needs to be made of thick glass with particular optical properties. But lenses made with graphene can be mere millionths of a millimetre thick, and still deliver superb image quality. Such lenses could greatly reduce the weight and cost of everything from phones to space satellites.
  • Near-instant power supply. We have developed an environmentally friendly supercapacitor from graphene that charges devices in seconds, and has a lifetime of millions of charge cycles. By attaching it to the back of a solar cell, it can store and deliver solar-generated energy whenever and wherever required. You will be free and truly mobile.

Where to next?

It can take years for some of these laboratory technologies to reach fruition. To try and speed up the process, we established the CTAM Global OpenLab to engage with industry, academia, government and the wider community and to promote sharing and collaboration. The lab was launched earlier this month at the International Conference on Nanomaterial and Atomaterial Sciences and Applications (ICNASA2020).

The world is facing pressing challenges, from climate change, to energy and resource scarcity, to our health and well-being.

Material innovation is more vital than ever and needs to be more efficient, design-driven and environmentally friendly. But these challenges can only be solved by joint effort from worldwide researchers, enterprise, industry and government with a sharing and open mindset.

SOURCE: https://techfinancials.co.za/2020/02/12/next-tech-frontier-can-graphene-change-the-world/

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Barrick Gold Boosts Dividend by 40% After Earnings Beat Highest Analyst Estimate SPONSOR: Loncor Resources $LN.ca $ABX.ca $TECK.ca $RSG $NGT.to $GOLD $NEM

Posted by AGORACOM at 12:40 PM on Thursday, February 13th, 2020
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Sponsor: Loncor is a Canadian gold explorer that controls over 2,400,000 high grade ounces outside of a Barrick JV. The Ngayu JV property is 200km southwest of the Kibali gold mine, operated by Barrick, which produced 800,000 ounces of gold in 2018. Barrick manages and funds exploration at the Ngayu project until the completion of a pre-feasibility study on any gold discovery meeting the investment criteria of Barrick. Newmont $NGT $NEM owns 7.8%, Resolute $RSG owns 27% Click Here for More Info

On Wednesday, Barrick Gold Corp boosted its quarterly dividend by 40 per cent as it reported adjusted earnings of 17 cents a share for the fourth quarter, beating the highest analyst estimate.Barrick Gold

  • The company boosted its quarterly dividend by 40 per cent as it reported adjusted earnings of 17 cents a share for the fourth quarter, beating the highest analyst estimate.

Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s second-largest producer of the metal, will exceed its target of selling US$1.5 billion in assets by the end of this year, chief executive Mark Bristow said.

“We’re going to beat it,” Bristow said Wednesday in an interview following the release of the miner’s fourth-quarter earnings. “We still have some work to tidy up the portfolio.” The company has roughly US$450 million in sales to go to reach the US$1.5 billion mark, but expects to sell more than that this year, he said.

The Toronto-based company had announced the initial asset-sales target in the wake of its US$5.4 billion acquisition of Randgold Resources Ltd. last year. Barrick sold a number of assets in 2019 including a 50 per cent stake in its Kalgoorlie mine in Western Australia.

The sales have forced Barrick to narrow its five-year annual production range to 4.8 million to 5.2 million ounces. “This is our base plan and of course there are upsides that we’re working on.” In November, Barrick had said it expected to maintain its five-year gold production within a range of 5.1 million to 5.6 million ounces, based on its portfolio at the time.

The company plans to release 10-year production guidance at its annual general meeting later this year, Bristow said. Barrick is thinking about what the company should look like long-term, including its mix between copper and gold production.

In December, Bristow said Barrick may some day look into a possible merger with Freeport-McMoRan Inc., the largest publicly traded copper producer. On Wednesday, Bristow said that idea is still at a conceptual stage, but could include anything from a merger to the acquisition of Freeport assets. “Copper is the most strategic metal,” Bristow said.

On Wednesday, the company boosted its quarterly dividend by 40 per cent as it reported adjusted earnings of 17 cents a share for the fourth quarter, beating the highest analyst estimate.

Barrick is benefiting from rising bullion prices, reporting fourth-quarter revenue of US$2.88 billion that also topped analysts’ estimate. Spot gold averaged about US$1,483 an ounce in the fourth quarter, 21 per cent more than a year earlier, and the metal has extended gains this year as the coronavirus weighs on expectations for economic growth.

SOURCE: https://business.financialpost.com/commodities/mining/barrick-gold-ceo-expects-to-beat-1-5-billion-asset-sale-targe

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Deep Dive: Fake Profiles Threaten Social Media Networks – SPONSOR: Datametrex AI Limited $DM.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 11:45 AM on Thursday, February 13th, 2020

SPONSOR: Datametrex AI Limited (TSX-V: DM) A revenue generating small cap A.I. company that NATO and Canadian Defence are using to fight fake news & social media threats. The company announced three $1M contacts in Q3-2019. Click here for more info.

Deep Dive: Fake Profiles Threaten Social Media Networks

  • Fake profiles run rampant on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, accounting for up to 25 percent of all new accounts, according to some estimates
  • The damage these fake profiles inflict is incalculable, resulting in billions of dollars lost or even altering the course of world politics.

By PYMNTS

Social media has become an integral part of everyday life, with a recent study finding that there were approximately 2.77 billion social media users around the world as of 2019. This number is projected to grow to more than 3 billion by the end of 2021 — almost half of the global population.

A good portion of these users is not real, however. Fake profiles run rampant on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, accounting for up to 25 percent of all new accounts, according to some estimates. The damage these fake profiles inflict is incalculable, resulting in billions of dollars lost or even altering the course of world politics. Social media networks will need to step up their digital authentication games if they want to bring these fraudsters to heel.

How Fake Profiles Damage Social Media

Illegitimate social media profiles are strongly correlated with cybercrime, with researchers finding that bot-run fake profiles account for 75 percent of social media cyberattacks. Some of these crimes involve stealing personal information, like passwords and payment data, while others spread social propaganda or disseminate spam.

Social media networks are often negligent when removing fake profiles, too. Researchers at the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence conducted a study last year that tested the efficacy of Facebook’s, Google’s and Twitter’s fake profile detection protocols. The research team purchased 3,500 comments, 25,000 likes, 20,000 video views and 5,100 fake followers and found that 80 percent of their fake engagements were still online after one month. Approximately 95 percent of the remaining profiles were still online three weeks after the NATO team announced its findings to the public.

One might think that such an effort would cost a significant amount of time and money, but the study was relatively inexpensive. The researchers only spent €300 ($330) to purchase the comments, likes and followers — a Facebook ad of equivalent value would likely receive just 1,500 clicks. This makes fake profiles much more appealing to unscrupulous individuals and companies.

Fake social media profiles’ impacts became evident in the U.S. in 2016 when Russian hackers created thousands of fake Facebook and Twitter accounts to influence the former’s presidential election. These bots posted thousands of messages and fake news articles attacking candidate Hillary Clinton and sowing divisiveness within the Democratic Party, often promoting information from the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) email hack.

Social sites often listed hashtags like #HillaryDown and #WarAgainstDemocrats as trending, inadvertently giving these bots a loudspeaker and letting their messages punch far above their weights. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 2018 investigation found that these hacker groups had multimillion-dollar budgets — a far cry from then-candidate Donald Trump’s characterization of the DNC hackers as “somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds.”

Fake profiles’ threats are self-evident, but the solution to stopping them is not nearly as clear.

How Social Media Sites Can Fight Bots

Social media websites are reticent to disclose exactly how they identify and delete fake profiles — if fraudsters know too much about their prevention techniques, they will be able to circumvent them. Many brands, companies, advertisers and even congressional panels have demanded more information about how social media firms are working to stop the spread of fake profiles, however.

Third-party developers have also introduced solutions to curb the spread of illegitimate accounts, with many utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). Thousands of social media profiles are created every day, making human analysis of each new registration impossible. AI and ML could reduce analytics teams’ burdens by employing pattern recognition to determine the details that all true profiles share, such as the frequency of their posts or what pages they tend to like. Profiles that do not adhere to this pattern could then be flagged for human review.

Social media networks could also utilize facial recognition biometrics to authenticate new accounts, requiring users to submit selfies or live smartphone videos for review to determine if their profiles are legitimate. Many new smartphones, including Apple’s iPhone 11, come with this technology right out of the box, meaning consumers are already familiar with it.

Facial recognition biometrics have fallen afoul of privacy advocates, however. Facebook has long been using facial recognition to identify its users in photographs — a practice that many condemned as privacy infringement. The website shifted this system to an opt-in model last year to appease these privacy advocates, meaning it would likely be reluctant to adopt facial biometrics during onboarding.

There is no obvious authentication solution that can completely prevent fake profiles. Social media sites, advertisers and governments all agree that they do need to be stopped; however — the next step is agreeing how to do it.

Source: https://www.pymnts.com/authentication/2020/fake-profiles-threaten-social-media-networks/

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