- The POTUS throws the markets for a loop
- Gold & Silver climb back on the rally horse…
Good Day… And a Tom Terrific Tuesday to you! I watched my beloved Cardinals and their bats come alive (finally!) yesterday VS the Orioles… It was a beautiful day, only made better by a baseball game! The week my spring training buddies were here, we saw 4 games, and the Cardinals struggled to score a hit, much less a run! Baseball… What else is new? Last night the US played Mexico in the World Baseball Classic, and the US came out on top….U.S.A.! King Crimson greets me this morning with their classic rock song: In The Court of the Crimson King….
Well, Gold & Silver were getting sold and getting sold short yesterday, in trading that saw Gold down nearly $100 and Silver down $1.33 to start the day… But then the selling stopped, and Gold fought back to end the day down $37 to close at $5,137 and Silver ended the day up $2.56 to, close at $87.15… So, all-in-all, Gold came back strong, and Silver was even stronger!
The dollar ended the day with the BBDXY giving back 2 index points to end the day at $1,201… The markets got thrown for a loop yesterday when the POTUS decided to tell reporters that he thought the “excursion in Iran” come to an end this week…. If I were a betting man, I would take the over on that statement, because to me, we started it, and to finish it will take much more… I sure hope I’m wrong on that, but my spider sense says otherwise….
The price of Oil, which at one point in the day, was getting near $120 BBL… settled back to close the day only up $4 to $94… I guess oil traders bought the “war will be over this week” statement hook, line and sinker…
And the 10-year’s yield rise ended at 4.18% as the bond boys also bought into the “war will be over this week” statement and bought bonds, with he lead dog 10-year losing 8 BPS on the day and ending the day at 4.10%
In the overnight markets last night.. The dollar returned to its underly weak trend with the BBDXY losing 3 index points to 1,198…. Gold & Sliver have gotten back on the rally horse, with Gold up $37 and Silver up $1.37 to start our day today… The POTUS really got the stock jockeys back on Happy Street yesterday, and took the wind out of the sails of Oil… The 10-year Treasury starts today with a 4.12% yield, and the price of Oil has really dipped overnight to an $88 handle….
Long-time readers know my affection for kiwi… The New Zealand dollar aka kiwi, for a very long time… There have been times when kiwi was the cat’s meow, and there have been times when kiwi was not… But according to This report: “New Zealand’s economy is set to outpace Australia’s.” Chuck again, now that will be very difficult to do because the Aussie economy has pulled so far ahead of New Zealand’s that the relationship now seems less like a sibling rivalry…
Here’s a report that long-time reader Bob sent me: “Australia, is arguably the most economically successful country of the 21st century. It has the 18th highest GDP per capita and, importantly, the 2nd highest median household wealth in the world, driven by strong government savings schemes and high-performing real estate markets.”
Chuck again… Well, it will take a good effort by New Zealand to over take the Aussies… But if there’s anything that will get the kiwi’s riled up is a competition with the Aussies!
So, my answer to this is to buy both the Aussie and New Zealand dollars… In the last 11 year weak dollar trend, these two gained over 100% and I’m not kidding! So, if history repeats itself… if the dollar continues in this underlying weak trend, you could be looking at two currencies that are hotter than a firecracker! I’m just saying…
Do you know what next week’s anniversary is? It is the week that the U.S. shutdown for Covid… And we were all relegated to our houses, and we all looked like bandits ready to hold up the stage…. That was 6 years ago… Already! Even a long as 2020 seemed to last, it has already been 6 years! Where were you when you heard that you needed to go home and stay there?
And speaking of Covid brought China into my mind… Did you hear that China’s outbound shipments from the world’s second-largest economy grew 21.8% in U.S. dollar terms in the January-February period, sharply up from the 6.6% increase recorded in December and blowing past the median forecast in a Reuters poll of 7.1% growth.
“Growth in clothing, textiles and bags exports was surprising, given their poor performance in 2025 amid challenges from Southeast Asia and South Asia,” said a leading economist.
China’s export momentum could accelerate further in the near term, with March data likely to show factories rushing shipments to the U.S. to exploit the Supreme Court’s tariff reprieve and Chinese firms muscling back into low value-added sectors like textiles.
So, China isn’t slowing down, much unlike the economy here in the U.S. Yesterday I reported that Retail Sales from January were negative… That goes with a negative Factory Orders, a weak Durable Goods Orders, and many other weak or negative economic reports previously printed..
And finally… Today marks 150 years since Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone call from his Boston lab to his assistant in a nearby room. Can you think of any other invention that has been so vital and grown in ability so much in those 150 years?
The U.S. Data Cupboard is still lacking with Existing Home Sales the pick of the day… and tomorrow we’ll see the color of the latest STUPID CPI… The bean counters that put together the STUPID CPI have been told to get everyone’s mind back on rate cuts, after the jobs number last week. So, I guess we’ll see if they obey!
To recap… The dollar & oil quit getting bought, Gold & Silver and bonds quit getting sold yesterday during the day… Gold & Silver got bought in the overnight markets, and the POTUS threw the markets for a loop, when he stated that “the war will end this week”… Chuck is taking the over on that one…How about you? The Kiwi’s are thinking they will overtake their kissin’ cousin across the Tasman, Australia in the next 2 years… Chuck thinks that’s quite an undertaking, but nothing spurs a kiwi more than a competition with the Aussies!
For What It’s Worth… Well, a slow day for FWIW worthy articles with the POTUS hogging all of the news outlets with his statement that has really taken the OOMPH out of the price of Oil and put the stock jockeys back on Happy Street… But there was this since I was talking about the U.S. economy above that caught my eye, and it’s about just that the problems for the economy and it can be found here: Market Risks Loom Beyond Iran in a Fragile Global Economy – Bloomberg
Or, here’s your snippet: “Five things you need to know
Donald Trump said the US and Israel were making significant progress in their war on Iran and could end the conflict “very soon.”
Trump’s comments are sparking a reversal of yesterday’s big market moves: Oil is tumbling while stocks are climbing in Asia and Europe. US equities look poised to add to yesterday’s late-day rally.
Even so, oil production cuts in the Middle East are deepening, shaving about 6% off global supply. The Strait of Hormuz chokepoint remains at a near-standstill.
Some of the world’s biggest hedge funds suffered hundreds of millions of dollars in losses last week after the war against Iran hit portfolios across the industry.
Taiwan Semiconductor’s sales rose 30% in the first two months of the year, buoyed by the robust pace of AI infrastructure construction prior to the war’s outbreak.
Economic shock
Donald Trump’s decision to attack Iran has injected a new and potentially long-lasting shock into the global economy at a time when investors were already grappling with an array of forces threatening to upend their confidence.
There’s the emergence of AI as a disruptive technology. There are the soured loans starting to pop up in the booming private-credit industry. There’s the softening of the US job market. And there’s the stubbornly high inflation that’s casting doubt on whether the Fed will be able to resume cutting interest rates — and possibly even force central banks in Europe to start raising them.
Each shock alone may be manageable. But together, they are creating new fragilities in global markets that no single policy lever can fix, making it different than, for instance, the rout sparked a year ago by Trump’s tariff rollout.
“That is the issue,” said Amy Wu Silverman, head of derivatives strategy at RBC Capital Markets. “Even if Iran starts to fade into the background, we have several other issues to contend with.” —Denitsa Tsekova, Matthew Griffin and Miles J. Herszenhorn”
Chuck again… This article made me shiver even more than I was shivering previously!
Market Prices 3/10/2026: American Style: A$ .7104, kiwi .5930, C$ .7364, euro 1.1632, sterling 1.3448, Swiss $1.2871, European Style: rand 16.2978, krone 9.5971, SEK 9.2118, forint 331.94, zloty 3.6599, koruna 20.9405, RUB 78.77, yen 157.87, sing 1.2731, HKD 7.8242, INR 91.58, China 6.8788, peso 17.56, BRL 5.1577, BBDXY 1,198, Dollar Index 98.80, Oil $89.69, 10-year 4.12%, Silver $89.69, Platinum $2,111.00, Palladium $1,708.00, Copper $5.92, and Gold… $5,172
That’s it for today… today is the birthday of my good friend, Rick Baur… Rick has been a steady spring training attendee every year with me since 2003 (the strike year doesn’t count) I hope your day is grand today, Rick! Rick is the guy that gave me the idea of how I could fix my internet problem with my laptop after I first got down here in Jan… Otherwise, I would have gone bonkers trying to get the Pfennig out each day! The sun is rising out of the ocean right in my sight of view.. Lots of clouds over the ocean this morning will mute the sun’s brilliance…. Golden Earring takes us to the finish line today with their song: Twilight Zone… I feel like this song is bang on with how I feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone with the markets these days… I hope you have a Tom Terrific Tuesday today, and Please Be Good To Yourself!
Chuck Butler