- The dollar remains stuck at 1,203…
- The SPT’s were asleep at the wheel yesterday for Gold & Silver
Good Day, and a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday to one and all! A rainy day yesterday here, and from the weather app that I use, we may as well get used to rainy days for the next week… But first, a no-rain day today, as The Cardinals play the rubber match in a day game at Busch! R.E.M. Greets me this morning with their great song: Losing My Religion…
Well, the dollar didn’t move one iota yesterday…. traders too a pause for the cause, and tried to figure out if the U.S. is going to attack Iran again, or are they going to pick up their guns and come home…
I read where the pundits think that the only way to get Iran to rid themselves of Nuclear Capabilities is to go on an all-out attack with ground troops… I sure don’t want to see that happen, call me a big sissy if you want, but I don’t see any good coming from that… I’m just saying!
Gold found a way to rally on the day and yesterday it gained $61, while Silver also followed Gold’s lead and gained $2.09… Gold & Silver have followed this day up and the next day down for some time now… with the down days coming more harshly…
The bond boys are really sending a message to the Fed Heads… Get serious about rising inflation and start hiking rates ASAP! The 10-year saw Fed interference yesterday with their yield control and the 10-year lost some yield… The 10-year ended the day yesterday with a 4.58% yield…
And the price of Oil gained $3 yesterday to close the day with a $107 handle… I read where some takers filled with Oil were allowed to pass through the Strait of Hormuz yesterday… Does that mean more will be on the way? I would certainly hope so, but then we never know, do we?
In the overnight markets last night… the dollar remained trading in the BBDXY at 1,203… The dollar hasn’t moved off the 1,203 figure at the closing for 2 days now… Up one day, down the next, holds true for Gold & Silver this morning… Gold is down $16, and Silver is down 94-cents to start the day today… The SPT’s must have asleep at the wheel again yesterday… I’m Just saying…
The price of Oil remained trading in the $107 handle overnight, while the 10-year Treasury’s yield saw the Fed Heads and their “yield control” leave and the yield bounced back to 4.61% overnight…
Gold & Silver have been sold recently on the thought that interest rates are going higher… And well, they should, but like I said last week, I don’t see higher interest rates as a long term down for Gold…
But I just can’t get my arms around the fact that traders haven’t picked up on the fact that the U.S. is going to have major problems financing their debt in the near future… Yesterday, CNB.com reported that Japan and China had led Global Banks in reducing their Treasury reserves to help defend their currencies that were being sold by the markets because of their newfound expense… Oil… Here’s the skinny: China reduced its holdings to $652.3 billion, down roughly 6% from February to the lowest level since September 2008, according to U.S. Treasury data released late Monday stateside.
Japan, the single largest foreign holder of U.S. government debt, shed approximately $47 billion to $1.191 trillion. This is getting serious, folks…
Well, the POTUS claimed, yesterday, that “a peace deal is close”… Well, I’m from Missouri, and they are going to have to show me that Iran has signed such a deal… But it would be good if done, for a lot of reasons, including that the risk assets like Gold, wouldn’t be on the chopping block any longer…
I’ve been mentioning Copper a bunch lately, and when it rallied to 6.60 last week I was leery of this move because Copper had gone past the overbought level on the RSI… (Relative Strength Index) which measures the strength of an asset… And when an asset goes past the “overbought” level in the index, it’s time to reorganize one’s thoughts about taking the asset even higher…
Copper is still in a negative supply situation, and that alone gives Copper backing to move higher, let alone the fact that Copper is an industrial metal that used in just about everything!
The U.S. Data Cupboard had the FOMC Meeting Minutes for us from their last meeting… And in them the Fed Heads discussed that the War in Iran had pushed commodities like Gold, to the forefront of investor’s needs… Remember, this meeting was a month ago, and that was before Gold got hammered daily… They also mentioned that Fed Fund Futures only showed that there’s a 30% chance of a rate hike this year… Now, that should help Gold recover a bit, since the thoughts of a rate hike have diminished…
But what are they waiting for? Inflation is rising NOW! I tell you, these Fed heads are economists and have never been in the real working economy… So, that tells you that they have no idea how normal people are coping with higher inflation…
Today’s Data Cupboard has the usual Tub Thumpin’ Thursday fare of the Weekly Initial Jobless Claims… the Data Cupboard has been basically empty all week, but tomorrow we will see the Leading Indicators for April, which have been negative for so long now that I look at the Data Calendar and think that Leading Indicators will be negative without even checking…
For What It’s Worth… Well, I talked above about the price of Oil being a real pain the side for consumers, and this article says, “you haven’t seen anything yet: and it can be found here: “Goldman Says Global Oil Stockpiles Falling at Record Pace on War – Bloomberg
Or, here’s your snippet: “Global stockpiles of crude oil and products are being drawn down at a record pace this month as the war in the Middle East drags on, curtailing supplies, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Visible inventories contracted by a record 8.7 million barrels a day so far in May, almost double the average pace since the conflict began, analysts including Yulia Zhestkova Grigsby and Daan Struyven said in a note dated May 20.
“Physical markets continue to tighten, as estimated oil exports through the strait remain at a very low 5% of normal,” they said, referring to the Hormuz waterway that’s subject to a double blockade by both Iran and the US.
Global energy markets have been upended by the conflict, which has led to an unprecedented supply shock. That’s spurred the rapid drawdown of holdings accumulated before the crisis, while governments have also coordinated releases from strategic reserves in a bid to rein in price gains.
International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol warned last week that commercial oil inventories were shrinking at an accelerated pace. The agency has also estimated that the market would remain “severely undersupplied” until October even if the conflict were to end soon.
About two-thirds of the draws in May were driven by a drop in so-called oil on water, with declines in exports outpacing a decrease in imports, the Goldman analysts said. The import slump was now “spreading from Asia to Europe,” they said, noting jet-fuel imports into Europe were 60% below 2025 averages.”
Chuck again… using up their respective reserves Is using them the way they were stored for.. For energy crises… Not to get the price of Oil down like the previous POTUS did… But by doing this, when the reserves run out, then what do the respective countries do?
Market Prices 5/21/2026: American Style: A$ .7124, kiwi .5854, C$ .7294, euro 1.1606, sterling 1.3424, Swiss $1.2691, European Style: rand 16.5594, krone 9.2424, SEK 9.3714, forint 310.40, zloty 3.6600, koruna 20.9410, RUB 70.71, yen 159.13, sing 1.2801, HKD 7.8349, INR 96.19, China 6.8026, peso 17.35, BRL 5.0000, BBDXY 1,203, Dollar Index 99.28, Oil $107.77, 10-year 4.61%, Silver $75.06, Platinum $1,935.00, Palladium $1,376.00, Copper $6.26 and Gold… $4,517
That’s it for today… My beloved Cardinals couldn’t find their bats last night and lost to the Pirates, thus setting up the rubber match game today…. Betcha don’t know where the ter “rubber match” came from? Well, it’s tied to lawn bowling (bocce ball, today) and when a bowler got his ball to run against the scoring ball it was a “rubber match”… And that carried over to baseball when there’s a 3-game series and the 3rd game will break the tie in wins between the teams… Clear? Yea, I know, clear as mud… Oh well I tried… Mungo Jerry takes us to the finish line today with his song: In The Summertime… I hope you have a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday today and Please Be Good To Yourself!
Chuck Butler