- The metals get whacked in the early morning trade
- The electrical grid heals unexpectedly….
Good Day, and a Wonderful Wednesday to you! Well, last night marked 3 in a row for losses for my Redbirds… Pitching, which started the season unfamiliarly strong, has faulted lately…. UGH! I don’t know what got into me yesterday, but I relaxed and fell asleep and didn’t wake up until Jeopardy time! (That’s 4;30pm CDT) That’s way too long, but I’ve always contended that your body tells you when it needs to sleep, and I’ve learned to listen to my body!! Redbone greets me this morning with their song: Come And Get Your Love…
I was feeling very melancholy yesterday for some reason and started listening to some very old Hank Williams recordings… The saddest song every recorded is: I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry… If you don’t believe me, then look up the lyrics and bring up a YOUTUBE of Hank Willams singing it… I think you’ll be convinced…
My dad used to go through the house singing Hank Williams Songs, and when I first learned to play the guitar, I learned a Hank Williams song so I could play along while he sung….
Ok, enough of all that… I beat around the bush to start today, because we’ll stuck in mud… The dollar traders won’t take a direction until something real and concrete comes along… I feel like a broken record because for the last 3 days of Pfennig writing, I’ve said the same thing about the dollar…
Gold was up Monday, so that meant a down day for Tuesday… Gold lost $61 on the day and ended at $4,508… Silver, too was down and yesterday it was down 86-cents to close at $77.09…
I received this from Zerohedge.com yesterday and I’ll give it to in its entirety… “Wall Street still believes the system is stable.
The S&P 500 remains near highs, supported by passive inflows and confidence that central banks can maintain control.
But beneath the surface, the cracks are growing:
AI-driven layoffs are accelerating.
Debt levels continue exploding.
Inflation remains sticky.
And global liquidity pressures are quietly building.
That creates an uncomfortable reality for investors:
Modern markets increasingly depend on everything continuing to work perfectly at once—stable employment, stable credit markets, stable liquidity, and stable consumer confidence.
Gold operates differently.
Gold doesn’t require central bank credibility or perpetual earnings growth. It simply helps preserve purchasing power across time.”
Chuck again… This is exactly what I’ve been thinking myself! That Wall Street just doesn’t pay attention to all the cracks in the foundation… But all those naysayers regarding owning Gold will look back and wish they had bought some one day… And that’s all I have to say about that!
The price of Oil remained trading with a $92 handle yesterday, and the 10-year Treasury’s yield remained at 4.49%
In the overnight markets last night… Well, the dollar remained in the mud, but the SPTs have taken a few pounds of flesh from Gold & Silver already this morning… Gold is down $57 and Silver is down a whopping $2.55… Gold has lost the $4,500 level it has held for a while now, and on the technicals that means something bad for Gold is coming… I on the other hand sill believe that Gold is getting ready to explode higher, but that’s just little old me without tons of research at my fingertips to refer to…
The price of Oil slipped again overnight and trades this morning with a $90 handle… And the 10-year Treasury is still hanging out below 4.60%… This morning it trades at a 4.48% yield…
Well, I really went the whole 9 yards on Gold this morning… The reason? I truly believe that Gold is getting ready to go on a long upward trend again… So, I want you to be prepared for that!
One currency that doesn’t need the dollar to weaken overall to gain VS the dollar and that is the Chinese renminbi… I don’t know if you follow the renminbi’s price in the Market Prices roundup each day, so I’ll tell you what I think is going on here… China allowed their currency to weaken while the POTUS was there, and as soon as he left, the Peoples Bank of China allowed the currency to gain again… And this morning its trading at 6.78 and change…
And a rallying renminbi carries over to the Singapore dollar… As I’ve explained many a time in the past… These two countries compete for exports of pharmaceuticals and they can’t let one currency get out of whack with the other. So, when the renminbi rallies, the Sing dollar plays follow the leader and vice versa when the renminbi loses ground VS the dollar, so does the Sing dollar… Ok, I promise to not repeat this again, this is the last time I’m going down this road!
My friend and editor of the 5 Bullets newsletter, David Gonigam, had a recent survey of the electrical grid in the U.S. yesterday, he said that the grid showed that there were only a few places that were in trouble going into the summer… he mentioned that this report had reported a ton of problems in the past, so there apparently was some upgrade to the grids across the nation… I say, well, in other years, there were problems showing up on the survey, but none came to fruition, so that means that this year with a few problems shown, there’ll be blackouts… I’m just jaded that way…
The U.S. Data Cupboard yesterday had the Case/Shiller Home Price Index (HPI) for March and it was up .7%… A couple report ago there was a feeling that Home Prices would be sinking with the thought of rate hikes… But since then, home prices have gone back to rising… We also saw the stupid Consumer Confidence that sunk even with the stock market rising to new heights.
Today’s Cupboard is empty and we only have 3 Fed Heads out speaking today so nothing on the docket to view…
To recap… The dollar continued to wallow in the mud (I’m using that phrase because the dollar is a pig) but did gain 1 index point to close the day at 1,201…
For What It’s Worth… This came to me from long time reader, Bob… (thanks!) and it’s about how the bond market is gearing up for inflation… and it can be found here: The bond market is restless
Or, here’s your snippet: “The bond market is in a state of unrest. For now, policymakers in Washington are shrugging it off.
Yields on 30-year Treasury bonds — a government bond that underpins long-term borrowing — climbed to 5.10% on Friday. Earlier, they had surged to 5.2%, the highest level since 2007, when the financial crisis started taking root. It’s an identical story for 10-year bonds, which are connected to credit card debt, mortgages, and car loans. The yield on 10-year bonds are near 4.6%, their highest level in a year. These aren’t inconsequential movements: Even these small yield increases can add up to $2 trillion to the federal debt over 10 years.
Now bond traders are surrendering to the fear that inflation is here to stay, elevating the stakes for Washington policymakers steering an economy under mounting strain. Consumer confidence is plummeting to new lows as Americans struggle to pay more for gas, groceries, and other goods due to the fallout of rising energy prices from the Iran war. Any prolonged climb in yields will amplify the financial pain Americans are experiencing since consumer lending costs increase in tandem.
The bond market has acted as a brake on Trump before. In April of last year, the president acknowledged the bond markets had turned “yippy.” It became part of the reason he backed down from instituting global tariffs — at least for another few months. During this stretch, it hasn’t packed the same firepower that it did last year.”
Chuck again… nothing new, as I’ve talked about all this stuff previously, but wanted you to hear it from someone else!
Market Prices 5/27/2023: American Style: A$ .7133, kiwi .5881, C$ .7228, euro 1.1640, sterling 1.3439, Swiss $1.2721, European Style: rand 16.3582, krone 9.2738, SEK 9.2537, forint 304.87, zloty 3.6386, koruna 20.8612, RUB 71.01, yen 159.40, sing 1.2775, HKD 7.8336, INR 95.75, China 6.7813, peso 17.30, BRL 5.0337, BBDXY 1,201, Dollar Index 99.13, Oil $90.40, 10-year 4.48%, Silver $74.54, Platinum $1,934.00, Palladium $1,400.00 Copper $6.35, and Gold… $4,451
That’s it for today… Oh, Woe are the Cardinals… at the beginning of the year, I would have expected a losing streak, but after they surprised everyone with winning, a losing streak sticks out like a sore thumb! Day game today, so if it’s not raining I’ll be outside to watch the game… We got some torrential rain pours yesterday, so hopefully mother nature has gotten that out of her system! The Moody Blues take us to the finish line today with their song: Ride My See Saw… I hope you have a Wonderful Wednesday today, and Please Be Good To Yourself!
Chuck Butler