Natural Gas and Copper Running Higher, FTZ, BFG, MRNA Puts

MRNA Q4 Tomorrow

U.S. producer prices increased solidly in January, offering more evidence inflation was picking up again. The producer price index for final demand rose 0.4% last month after an upwardly revised 0.5% gain in December, the BLS reported today. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the PPI rising 0.3%.

Natural Gas Prices Jumped Today

I believed the odds were high for a more normal winter this year and indeed it is. Winter storms are driving strong natural gas demand, with Arctic temperatures expected to persist through late February. Natural gas futures surged today solidly above levels traders were watching around $3.50. Prices look destined to break new two year highs.

Last Thursday's weekly EIA inventory report showed that US nat-gas inventories as of January 31 were -4.4% below the five-year average, the lowest level in over 2 years. Working gas in storage was 2,297 Bcf as of Friday, February 7, 2025, according to EIA estimates. This represents a net decrease of 100 Bcf from the previous week. Stocks were 248 Bcf less than last year at this time and 67 Bcf below the five-year average of 2,364 Bcf.

I believe the days of the low natural gas prices are over. With the colder winter, I think we could easily see 5 year lows in storage at the end of the winter season. And now with rapid growth in data centers gobbling up electricity, natural gas demand for electricity is rising in the summer months when these centers require the most cooling.

Copper Prices Popping and So Are Our Stocks

There is not much excitement in base metals other than copper. This should come as no surprise to readers here as we have been positioning ourselves for an expected run in copper. Late last week, copper broke out of a wedge pattern and today it is breaking first resistance making higher highs. I expect we are soon going to test $5.00.

And another one of our copper juniors popped this week

Fitzroy Minerals - - TSXV:FTZ, OTC: FTZFF - - Recent Price - $0.22

Entry Price - $0.15 - - - - - - - Opinion - buy

My last update was on Monday when I commented “The stock is probably also held down by the $0.15 per unit financing that was announced. Once this closes, the stock could easily move back above $0.20.”

I did hear the financing has closed. Volume has been much higher this past week and I expect we will see a test of resistance around $0.29.

Giant Mining - - - CSE:BFG - - - - Recent Price -$0.43

Entry Price $0.45 - - - Opinion – hold and buy on break out above $0.60

BFG recently announced engagement with Exploration Technologies Inc. to apply ExploreTech's AI (artificial intelligence) drill planning technology to Giant's Majuba Hill copper deposit.

In preparation for the coming drill program, ExploreTech will use its Engine AI and cloud computing platform in conjunction with Giant's expert geology team to optimize trajectory, target generation and resource definition. Majuba Hill has a wealth of exploration data that have been collected since the 1940s. ExploreTech will take into consideration the proposed 2025 drilling campaigns, along with previous exploration data. These data consist of over 80 previous drill holes and over 83,000 feet of drilling, along with the results of previous extensive surface sampling, geological mapping, geophysics, underground sampling, rigorous studies and analysis.

I am just suggesting to hold for now and see where the stock is when drilling starts. If it does break resistance at $0.60 it could jump a lot higher so a buy on that break out.

Moderna - - - - NASDAQ:MRNA - - - - - Recent Price $31.20

A heads up as the stock broke to new lows this week. Tomorrow they will report Q4 results and in past quarterly reports they have always disappointed as demand for the MRNA shots continues to decline. As in past quarterly reports, the stock could tank. We have a small gain with our January $25 Puts. If we get a several dollar drop tomorrow, you may want to take profits with those Puts.

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