- The dollar goes right back to 1,220 in the overnight markets
- The bond boys are winning the fight
Good Day… And a Tom Terrific Tuesday to you! Well, who’s lame brain idea was it to televise the Home Run Derby on Netflx? So, I have to pay to watch it? Fuhgeddaboudit! Oh wait! I forgot that son Andrew put his Netflix on my TV last year, so after suppling a code I was watching the Home Run Derby! And the St. Louis Cardinals’ own Jordan Walker won the tournament! Percy Sledge greets me this morning with his song: When A Man Loves A Woman…
On a sidebar here, I saw Percy Sedge sing that song on TV a year or so ago, and his voice was crystal clear and the same… It was truly amazing!
Ok… Well, the dollar bugs finally looked at the headlines and saw that the War was back on, and that spurred them to buy the dollar. The BBDXY gained 3 index points on the day to end at $1,222…
The SPTs have known that the war was back on, and they used that as their camouflage selling the metals short… Gold lost $119 on the day, and Silver lost $2.50… UGH! Gold ended the day at $4,002 and Silver at $57.78… It was an ugly day all around for Gold/Silver… of course, the folks at Kitco won’t every mention the SPTs, so they wrote that the metals getting sold was because of the war… UGH!
The price of Oil really exploded higher as the missiles flew and ended the day with a $78 handle…. And the 10-year Treasury’s yield continued its ratcheting higher and ended the day with a 4.62% yield…
In the overnight markets last night…. the foreign traders said Whoa There Partner toward all the dollar buying yesterday in the U.S. The foreign traders took the dollar back down to the 1,220 level in the BBDXY and said, “not so fast Tim”…. I think that they just thought that there needs to be some thought put into the dollar’s direction, and not just knee jerk reaction to news that the War is back on…
Gold is up $26 in the early trading today, but that’s before the U.S. SPTs show up at their desks… Silver is also up 17-cents… There’s a ton of data this week that should direct the dollar in one direction or other and with-it Gold/Silver should follow… I like the comment by Sprott about how Gold is becoming the reserve assets of Central Banks…
That means that Treasuries and dollars are no longer persona non gratis… Too much debt, too much war, too much drama plagues the U.S. former reserves…
The price of Oil continues to rise,,, and this morning’s price is in the $80 handle… So, many economists had thought that inflation around the world would come back to this ozone, but they didn’t calculate that the Peace Agreement would fold like a lawn chair and that the price of Oil would rebound…
And the 10-year slid a blip overnight and starts today with a 4.61% yield…
This is becoming a fight of wills in bonds… The Bond Boys want yields higher to combat inflation, and the Fed Heads are not raising rates, but instead at the last FOMC meeting they kept rates unchanged… The Fed Heads keep interring the bond market to perform their “yield control”… They want yields lower…. The Bond Boys will win this fight…
So, have you heard that researchers have figured out that the ocean’s floor is full of Gold? Some people seem to think that this new supply will hurt Gold’s price… But what they didn’t think of is: 1. How in the heck they will get the Gold from the ocean floor, and 2. Just how long it will take to perform this extraction… What a bunch of dolts!
Sprott, one of the world’s largest Gold dealers, recently said that Gold is becoming the reserve asset of the new multipolar world. Now that would be quite the accomplishment for Gold to be talked about like that….
The thing that comes to mind every time I see Gold lose more ground… That the summer months have historically been slow times for Gold growth… And pundits seem to always forget about the summer months. So, in my mind, when the summer months begin to fade and the sunlight days become shorter, that’s when I feel that Gold / Silver will come back with a vengeance!
So, hold on…. It’s coming, Hold on… (Sam & Dave)
The currencies are held hostage by the comings and goings of the dollar, but one currency that continues to hold strong VS the dollar is the Brazilian real.. The real is an Oil play for sure, but besides that… I don’t see where it gets its intestinal fortitude… The Chinese renminbi, after a brief selloff is back to being allowed to gain VS the dollar… I would keep an eye on these two if you are into that…
I don’t have much more for you this morning, as the same problems with news stories continue… They are all about the war, the problems with the war, and the Strait of Hormuz… So, we might as well go on to the Big Finish…
The U.S. Data Cupboard today has the STUPID CPI for June… I really can’t believe my eye that the forecasters are calling for The STUPID CPI to fall to 2.8% from May’s 3.2%… But they are… It’s as if the price of Oil was the only item that was causing higher inflation in prices… All I know is that the cost of everything is higher and one item going down in price isn’t going to upset the apple cart, so to speak…
Tomorrow we’ll see the PPI (wholesale inflation) which should give us the total picture or inflation, that is IF there weren’t a ton of hedonic adjustments in the STUPID CPI… And after I board a plane for my winter home on Thursday morning, we’ll see Retail Sales for June… The BHI (Butler Household Index) indicates to me that Retail Sales for June will be just OK… Nothing to write home about…
To recap… The dollar bugs finally woke up and read the headlines that the U.S. was back at War, and decided to buy dollars. The BBDXY gained 3 index points on the day. Gold/Silver had a very ugly day as the SPTs saw that the dollar rally was good cover for short selling… Gold was down $119 and Silver was down $2.50 But the overnight markets said, “not so fast Tim” and brought the dollar back down to 1,220
For What It’s Worth… Ok, this is part 2 of the 2 part FWIW article on Alan Greespan and free markets. Once again, it can be found here: Alan Greenspan’s Greatest Work | Jim Woods Investing
Or, here’s your part 2 snippet: “Another article he penned for “Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal” was titled “Antitrust.” This was based on a 1961 paper that Greenspan wrote, and it argues that antitrust laws harm consumers by punishing successful, efficient companies. He asserted that true, harmful monopolies are only created through government subsidies and regulations, and not as a result of free-market competition.
Right again, as today’s antitrust laws are punitive, restrictive, wielded as a weapon for lawfare warriors and just simply anathema to a free society.
Finally, there was “The Assault on Integrity,” an essay that critiques government regulatory agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Greenspan argued that government regulation destroys the financial value of a company’s brand reputation. His view was that in a completely free market, the financial necessity of maintaining a good reputation naturally protects the consumer better than bureaucratic oversight.
Now, I read these three articles when I read “Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal,” around the summer of 1986, or thereabouts. About a year later, on Aug. 11, 1987, to be exact, Alan Greenspan became the new Chairman of the Federal Reserve, a position he held for nearly two decades before his final day at the helm on January 31, 2006.
I recall reading Greenspan’s essays with a sense of clarity and admiration. He was a strong explainer of ideas and their consequences, ideas that I hadn’t really been acquainted with until then. Later, when I was exposed to the obligatory university litany of Marx, Hegel, Kant and Keynes, I recall being intellectually armed to confront these bad ideas — and I got that intellectual ammunition from Ayn Rand and Alan Greenspan, along with Ludwig Mises, Milton Friedman, Adam Smith and other freedom-oriented minds.
Interestingly, later in my journey as a free-market advocate, I was fortunate enough to collaborate with Mark Skousen, whose work in defense of liberty and free markets carries on the spirit and substance of these iconic intellectual figures.
If you’ve never read “Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal,” do yourself a favor and buy it today. It will give you a whole new perspective on the meaning of freedom and free markets, and how capitalism isn’t just the most efficient, most practical political philosophy, but why it’s also the only moral political system.
So, thank you, Alan Greenspan. Your mind helped illuminate mine, and your work at the Fed helped steward a nation through a whole lot of tumult.”
Chuck again… I know that I was pretty bad talking about Big Al Greenspan through the years, but I guess I should have known him before he sold himself to become the Fed Chairman in 1987.. But I won’t EVER forgive him for creating the housing debacle….
Market Price 7/14/2026: American Style: A$ .6943, kiwi .5800, C$ .7088, euro 1.1407, sterling 1.3384, Swiss $1.2322, European Style: rand 16.4832, krone 9.7139, SEK 9.6752, forint 316.77, zloty 3.8030, koruna 21.2890, RUB 77.53, yen 162.22, sing 1.2917, HKD 7.8375, INR 96.30, China 6.7796, peso 17.49, BRL 5.1150, BBDXY 1,220, Dollar Index 101.46, Oil $80.06, 10-year 4.61%, Silver $57.95, Platinum $1,603.00, Palladium $1,271.00, Copper $6.35, and Gold… $4,028
That’s it for today… Good for Jordan Walker the Home Run Derby Champion! The All-Star Game is tonight, go National League! When I was younger the National League won all the time, but now it’s more of the American League wins… Good thing, son Andrew had put his Netflix on my TV last year! Had lunch with classmates yesterday, it’s always good to see them and catch-up… Next one is 8/31, which seems like a long time from now, but it will be here before I know it! Stevie Wonder takes us to the finish line today with his song: My Cherie Amour… I hope you have a Tom Terrific Tuesday today, and Please Be Good To Yourself!
Chuck Butler