- Currencies get sold again on Tuesday…
- Crime doesn’t pay, once again…
Good Day… And a Wonderful Wednesday to you… Yesterday, I slept most of the day, because the night before, I was up all night, and I mean all night, with my jaw bleeding… I would get it to stop, fall asleep, only to be awaken 20 minutes later with it bleeding again. I finally got it to stop for the rest of the day, while I was then able to catch up on the sleep I missed the night before. Last night had no problems so thankfully, I’ll be ready to take on the world today! The great Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto greet me this morning with one of my all-time fave songs: The Girl From Ipanema…
On a side bar, the woman that sings the song on the recording with that sultry, sexy voice, is Gilberto’s wife, who had never sung in public before recording that famous song… There’s some music trivia for you!
Well, the dollar got bought all day long yesterday, with never a downward move… The BBDXY gained 4 index points on the day, and the currencies got taken to the woodshed once again… Gold was down most of the day yesterday, until near the U.S. Close when it rallied almost back to zero on the day… Gold did end up losing 10-cents on the day to close at $2,383.10. Silver got whacked yesterday losing 73-cents on the day to close at $28.17…
The price of Oil slid through the $85 handle yesterday, and ended up in the $84 handle… I don’t get what’s going on in Oil, with regards to missiles flying back an forth in the Mid East, between Iran an Israel… Maybe it’ll all be a tempest in a teacup, with Israel bombing Iran in Syria, and IrN bombing Israel… An eye for an eye, right? But something makes me believe that this could be the start of WWIII… I certainly hope not!
In the overnight markets last night… Well, bust my buttons, the dollar finally ran into a wall… The dollar got sold overnight, not by great shakes, but by 2 index points in the BBDXY… Probably profit taking from the looks of the currencies this morning, as they have not made any attempt to get out of the sick bed… The poor Japanese yen, has really fallen out of bed… One rate hike out of zero interest rate scenario apparently doesn’t the trick for a currency… hint, hint, BOJ… Gold is up $5 in the early trading today, and Silver is back on the rally tracks with a 34-cents gain to start the day… the prie of Oil is trading with an $84 handle this morning… I’m still not sure what to make of this weaker Oil price… And the 10-year is trading with a 4.665 yield this morning.
Well, I know, and you know that there has been on progress on Inflation this year, right? Well, get this, even the chief Fed Head, Jerome Powell sees inflation for what it is let’s listen in: “Fed Chair Powell says there has been a ‘lack of further progress’ this year on inflation… Nice of him to admit that especially after he got the markets all in a tizzy when he said just a month ago that he saw 3 rate cuts before year end… Boy, either a lot has changed with inflation, or… more likely: Inflation hasn’t moved, really I mean, moved downward for months now, and that’s why I called Powell out for his short sidedness, when he made that statement about rate cuts initially…
I find it funny, and not funny-ha-ha, that just the other day,it was reported, that energy is up 35% in the new year… Now how does that work when the BLS says that inflation is only 3.5%? And food prices are up 5.7% so far this year, and I could go on, but I won’t, I’ll just direct you to www.shadowstats.com, where John Williams computes inflation the same way they did it before Greenspan and Clinton chartered the Boston Co. to come up with ways that inflation could be lowered, and therefore interest rates could be lowered to allow everyone a chance to buy a house…
Well, even the Mexican peso hasn’t been able to withstand the dollar’s assault on the currencies… the peso is down 4.6% since it reached its high VS the dollar last week… The euro has fallen out of bed and trades with a 1.06 handle… Even the currencies that have higher interest rates than the U.S. sports, have been getting sold .. Currencies like Kiwi, rubles, A$’s are a few… As long as the percentage of loss in the currency isn’t greater than the yield then you’re still ahead with your currency investment…
Speaking of kiwi… longtime reader Bob, sent me this: “Reserve Bank considers the digital dollar: ‘NZ’s money must innovate to stay relevant “Oh no! say it ain’t so Joe! But if everyone else is going digital, you can’t be on the outside looking in… so to say…
Back to Gold for a minute here… The good folks at GATA sent me this article that appeared in The Telegraph, U.K. and was written by Ambrose Evan-Pritchard…. “A powerful force is stalking the world’s gold market. It is operating in the shadows.
None of the normal footprints are visible on the London bullion market or the Chicago Mercantile. Retail goldbugs have not been buyers: ETF gold funds have been shrinking since December. The crowd is piling into the Bitcoin scam instead.
Yet gold has smashed through a four-year barrier around $2,000 an ounce, rising in parabolic fashion since mid-February, and hitting an all-time high of $2,431 on April 11. Is somebody preparing for an escalation of the shadow Third World War?
Chuck again… the piece that GATA sent me was all I was able to read, as the article is blocked unless you have a subscription…
And then there was this on Gold from the Good Folks at GATA: “A growing number of bank clients are investing in gold using a deposit account that allows them to buy and sell the precious metal, whose price is surging due to heightened geopolitical risks and an increasing preference for safe haven assets.
The country’s four major commercial banks — KB, Shinhan, Hana, and Woori — ( in S. Korea ) collectively reported on Monday a total of 255,887 accounts in which depositors entrust cash to the banks that purchase an equivalent value of gold on their behalf following consultation.
Account holders have the option to possess the actual gold they have invested in or to wait for market prices to appreciate, enabling them to withdraw a greater cash amount than their initial investment.”
Chuck again… Ok… S. Korea has gold checking accounts, why don’t we have them in the U.S.? I’ll tell you if you have 20 minutes of time for me to explain everything from the beginning… Like when then Fed Chairman, Paul Volker talked about how the U.S. can’t allow Gold to become more popular than the dollar… I recall a time years ago, when I was at EverBank, and two traders from a Big NY Currency bank were in town and came to see me… They got right down to rubber that mees the road, when they asked me, “Do you truly believe that the U.S. Gov’t is behind the Gold & Silver manipulation?”… I then made them stay longer than they intended to stay, to listen to my whole investigative journalist story… I truly think they were sent to St. Louis by their bosses to get me to stop talking about manipulation… Well, they couldn’t! And the marketing people at EverBank tried to get me to stop talking about manipulaiton, and they couldn’t… No, wait! Maybe they did win that battle becuase I was the one that TIAA Bank told to leave, when they took over… Hmmm… I hadn’t thought about that in some time… Now, I’m really bummed out this morning…
The U.S. Data Cupboard has March Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization for our review this morning… I’ll remind you that this is an election year, and therefore the data most likely is trumped up even more than usual… And that holds true for these two prints today…
To recap… Well, the dollar keeps moving higher and higher, And just like when Gold was on a parabolic move higher until it wasn’t, the dollar will suffer that also, in time that is… Gold still can’t get its footing, and Silver got whacked yesterday… New Zealand is going to consider a digital dollar, which is central bank speak for: this is what we’re going to do and you can’t stop us!” And Chuck wonders if we are in th early stages of WWWIII? And The U.K. Telegraph article wonders that too…
For What It’s Worth… This is a follow up article that I ran a couple of years ago, when thee was a HUGE Gold heist at the Toronto airport in Canada… To date there’s been no news, so this was an interesting update, and it can be found here: Toronto Pearson Airport gold heist arrests to be announced | CTV News
Or, here’s your snippet: “Police say that arrests have been made in connection with a gold heist at Toronto Pearson International Airport one year ago.
The heist happened on April 17, 2023 and involved the theft of a “high-value container” from a holding cargo facility after it was taken off an Air Canada plane.
Police have released few details about the circumstances surrounding the theft beyond that.
But a lawsuit filed by Brink’s against Air Canada does shed some light on what is alleged to have happened.
In its statement of claim, Brink’s said that an unidentified individual gained access to Air Canada’s cargo warehouse after presenting phoney paperwork approximately 40 minutes after the plane carrying the goods first landed.
The statement of claim, which was filed on Oct. 6, 2023, says staff then handed over $2 million in U.S. currency and 400 kilograms of gold bars – currently worth about $21.1 million – to the alleged thief.
In a news release on Tuesday, police said that investigators will announce “details and arrests made” in relation to the investigation, dubbed Project 24K, at a news conference on Wednesday.”
Chuck again… Well kudos to the Canadian police for uncovering the people responsible for this heist! I had thought all this time that the perps had gotten away with their goodies… So, it’s good to hear that crime didn’t pay for them!
Market Prices 4/17/2024: American Style: A$ .6426, kiwi .5908, C$ .7242, euro 1.0640, sterling 1.2660, Swiss $1.0978, European Style: rand 19.0561, krone 10.9864, SEK 10.9679, forint 369.49, zloty 4.0902, koruna 23.3147, RUB 94.15, yen 154.68, sing 1.3622, HKD 7.8312, INR 83.53, China 7.2388, peso 16.99,BRL 5.2819, BBDXY 1263.80, Dollar Index 106.15, Oil $84.84, 10-year 4.66%, Silver $28.51, Platinum $968.00, Platinum $ 1,053.00, Copper $4.36, and Gold… $2,388.70
That’s it for today… My beloved Cardinals still can’t hit their way out of a wet paper bag, but they’ve won the last two and go the sweep this afternoon in Oakland… I finally get to go to the eye doctor tomorrow… My eyesight has gone to hell in a handbasket, and I’m sure a new prescription is in the cards… My eye is so weak right now, I even bought a 75-inch TV and I still can’t read the numbers on the bottom of the screen unless I get up close! UGH! Well, I slept through the night last night, thank goodness for small miracles! I very careful yesterday, not eating much, and not talking much, as to not risk having the bleeding return.. Neil Young takes us to the finish line today with his song: Four Strong Winds… I hope you have a Wonderful Wednesday today, and please Be Good To Yourself?
Chuck Butler