All's quiet on the market front. US markets in consolidation mode, TSX in the midst of its 2012 trading range, Venture slowly drifting down to test its summer lows, PMs languishing in no man's land. Bottom line: another bad week for PMs and juniors. But help may be just around the corner.

Shanghai was up over 4% last week, and looks like it may have finally put in an intermediate term bottom. Weekly MACD has given a new buy signal (although marginal so far). Weekly MACD signals are generally tradable about 2 out of 3 times. There are also positive RSI & MACD divergences on the weekly chart. Too early for confirmation, & no downtrend break yet, but it looks promising. The pattern for the entire year looks like a bullish falling wedge. Furthermore, there is a massive falling wedge pattern dating all the way back to mid 2010. If Shanghai can break its downtrend line, it could be in for a multi-month rally. This would bode well for Venture – and Venture could certainly use the help.

Right now, I'm thinking malaise continues for most or all of next week (probably still a little tax loss and portfolio embarrassment selling to be done), but then a typical seasonal run should start. I still plan to sell into strength early next year – I have some concerns about 2013.