US sharemarkets rose on Friday, supported by firm economic data and earnings results. So far, 406 companies of the S&P 500 have reported earnings and 78.6% of results have beaten expectations. China unveiled new tariffs on 5,207 US goods including Liquefied Natural Gas and aircraft. The Dow Jones index rose by 136 points or 0.5%, finishing 5 points from its highs. The S&P 500 index rose by 0.5% and the Nasdaq was up by 9 points or 1.1%. Over the week the Dow rose by less than 0.1%, the S&P 500 rose by 0.8% and the Nasdaq rose by 1%.

Global oil prices fell by up to 0.7% on Friday as investors focussed on on-going trade tensions between the US and China. Reuters reported that China's Unipec, the trading arm of Sinopec, has suspended crude oil imports from the US. Brent crude fell by US24 cents or 0.3% to US$73.21 a barrel and the US Nymex fell by US47 cents or 0.7% to US$68.49 a barrel. Over the week Brent fell by 1.5% and Nymex fell by 0.3%.

Base metal prices rose by up to 2.0% on the London Metal Exchange (LME) on Friday with zinc up the most while lead rose by just 0.1%. Against the trend, aluminium fell by 0.4%. Over the week metal prices fell by between 1.2-2.6% but zinc rose against the trend, up by 0.7%.

The gold futures price rose by US$3.10 an ounce or 0.3% to $1,223.20 an ounce. The spot gold price was trading near US$1,213 an ounce in late US trade. Over the week gold rose by US 20 cents. Iron ore rose by US$1.00 on Friday or 1.5% to US$67.45 a tonne. Over the week iron ore rose by US10 cents.

Friday 03 August - close. The Australian share market has closed slightly lower, dragged down by losses for the banks and the materials sector. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 6.1 points, or 0.1 per cent, at 6,234.8 points on Friday, while the All Ordinaries was down 1.3 points, or 0.02 per cent, at 6,326.4 points.

MOD Resources Limited (MOD.ASX, 44cps, m.cap A$101.9m with 231.5m SOI, Cash $17.3m, Copper Explorer /Developer)

• MOD has just released an outstanding intersection at A4 Dome (8km from 60Mt T3 Project): MO-A4-003D intersected 52m @ 1.5% Cu and 14g/t Ag from 232.2m downhole depth, with many high-grade copper assays up to 15.4% Cu
• This compares with MOD’s prior success when T3 was discovered in March 2016 (52m @ 2% Cu and 32g/t Ag)
• MO-A4-003D includes a high-grade intersection of 15.5m @ 2.9% Cu and 42g/t Ag, from 268.8m downhole depth. Bonanza grade assays for narrow individual veins (≤1m) throughout the 52m intersection include 7.8%, 8.4%, 11%, 11.5%, 12.2% and 15.4% Cu. The highest silver assay is 476g/t Ag which is associated with 15.4% Cu at the base of the 52m intersection (Figures 1 and 2).
• Vein stockwork mineralisation in MO-A4-003D, hosted in a sandstone sequence, remains completely open at depth and along strike at the 5km long A4 Dome
• Vein hosted bornite has also been intersected in hole MO-A1-002D at the A1 Dome, 26km east of the A4 Dome and is still drilling through mineralisation
• Confirms the exploration model using Airborne EM technology for targeting multiple domes, similar to T3, within the ~700km2 T3 Dome Complex
• The A4 Dome is one of many domes identified within the ~700km2 T3 Dome Complex
• MOD's Managing Director, Mr Julian Hanna commented “MO-A4-003D has turned out to be an extraordinary drill hole. It has intersected two zones of mineralisation in the early stages of drilling at the A4 Dome which shows strong similarities to the dome which underlies the T3 deposit .... When put into context with T3 and the ~7Mt of contained copper in other resources to the east of MOD’s extensive licence holdings, this one hole into the A4 Dome has again demonstrated the huge potential of this rapidly unfolding Kalahari Copper Belt ..... These latest results have confirmed Airborne EM as the breakthrough technology which our exploration team is using to great effect to find significant new copper in conductive domes with no previous drilling or soil anomalies to guide them.”
• In our view, one of the most exciting aspects of the MOD story is the exploration potential of its large land holding surrounding the T3 project. These latest results confirm the Kalahari Copper Belt as one of the most prospective regions for new copper discoveries globally and we look forward to further assay results as they are released to the market over the coming weeks
• Please contact the desk on +61 8 6169 2668 should you wish to discuss the results

Echo Resources Limited: (EAR.ASX, 22 cps, m.cap A$107.5m with 488.6m SOI, Cash $7.6m, Gold Explorer / Developer)

• Yandal Gold Project BFS released this morning, considers a two-stage project based on open pit mining and processing from two deposits producing 746koz over an 8.5 year life
• A revised Ore Reserve has been completed for the Orelia gold deposit following re-estimation of the Mineral Resource estimate:
• Key financial metrics include:

• EAR board has approved the BFS and, subject to obtaining suitable financing solutions and all required approvals, has conditionally approved development of Stage 1.
• Project financing has commenced with a variety of potential funding solutions being evaluated
• A link to full BFS can be found here