Author: admin

• Currencies and metals rally strongly on Tuesday!
• What’s up China’s sleeve? Chuck explains…

Good Day… and a Wonderful Wednesday to you! I apologize for the mix-up in the Pfennig yesterday… It wasn’t until I had sent it out that I realized that I had somehow used last Monday’s Pfennig! UGH! Thanks to Mike K. For pointing that out to me, he was the first to point it out to me, and at first, I denied the problem, but upon further review… I realized what I had done… And I greatly apologize for that!  Today is Chris Gaffney’s birthday…  If I was still on the trading desk, I would remind him that he’s halfway to the next 10-year marker of..  Oh, no I won’t tell you his age, but he is 10-years younger than me…. wink, wink…Head East greets me this morning with their great song from the Flat As A Pancake album: Never Been Any Reason… 

Well, the dollar got hammered yesterday… Aren’t you glad you diversified?  The BBDXY lost 14 index points… That’s the largest downward move I’ve seen in the BBDXY since I started using it! The old Dollar Index, still used by most followers of the dollar, but still unaware that it has an overweighting of euros, fell to 96.21… The euro closed the day trading within spittin’ distance of 1.20…  Apparently, the unknown tariffs are causing things to pile up on the dollar… 

We do have a  2-day FOMC meeting culminating today… Time to put away the board games and restack the cards, to hear what chairman Jerome Powell has to say at the end of the meeting…  I had said yesterday, that I thought there would be no rate cut at this meeting… But… Jim Rickards thinks the FOMC will cut rates today… So, there’s still a chance that the Fed Heads could opt to debase the dollar some more, and that’s another reason to sell the dollar, along with our creeping every so higher debt… 

OK, well yesterday was Gold’s day to shine… Gold, which was up $109 in the early morning, finished the day up $170 to close the day at $5,181… And Silver also shined yesterday, up $7.31, to close at $112.33… I had told you yesterday that there were “no worries” about the engineered takedown by the STPs on Monday, and I was sure glad that the metals proved me correct!

The price of Oil bumped higher again this time end the day trading with a $62 handle..  Apparently, the POTUS has sent an armada to the mid-East to block Iranian Oil from getting shipped out… I read that this could be construed as an act of war…  And since most of Iran’s oil goes to China, then that means that the act of war could be with China…  Please tell me that this is all wrong, and that I had a nightmare about this…. 

And the 10-year’s yield was allowed to gain 1 basis point yesterday to 4.23%… I have to give some kudos to the Fed Heads for keeping a lid on the 10-year’s yield… I don’t like it, but they’ve been true to their undertaking, and to that I applaud them, for they’ve put the fear of God in the bond traders that were trying to get the yield higher… 

In The overnight markets last night… The dollar selling stopped, just like that! The PPT must have intervened to save the dollar’s fall… The fall yesterday was very pronounced and evidence that the dollar is in real trouble and in need of intervention… And the PPT saw that and bought dollars. The BBDXY is up 4 index point overnight, and starts the day at 1,178…  This is what we’ll see from time to time in this new weak dollar trend. Remember that the trend is your friend, and not a ONE-WAY Street!  There will be times when the dollar will be en vouge, but it won’t last long and will return to the underlying weak trend soon… Alasdair Macleod says that “the dollar is dying, the coffin is being made ready and embalming fluids are in stock. And China is allowing the U.S. to make mistakes after mistakes…”  I agree, the dollar will suffer a long illness, but I doubt it will go away altogether….  You can find Alastair at www.macleodfinance.com  

So, my suggestion that you diversify your investment portfolio is bang on, and you should look to do that right away… again, contact my friend, and former colleague, Tim Smith at : GlobalMarkets@Battlebank.com they should be up and running soon.  

The price of Gold is up $24 to start the day today, and Silver is up 10-cents… More like the types of gains the two used to have before all these crazy trading days…  I think Gold & Silver have the momentum going for it right now, and all of you have played sports in your younger days, know how powerful momentum can be…  And this momentum will carry Gold & Silver a long way, in my humble opinion… 

Well, have you heard about a story that’s going around about how Gold’s rise in price is all in the POTUS’s plan?  OK, let me spell it out…  You see the Gold currently (supposedly) held at Ft. Knox is Valued at $42.50…  and Treasury Sec. Bessent has called for a revalue at today’s rate..  They could use the profit generated by the revalue to fund the POTUS’s sovereign wealth fund… So, why wouldn’t he want to see Gold continue its rise?  I know, I know, this is a conspiracy theory that will have to be proven, but the one thing we do know as fact is that the POTUS has long wanted a weaker dollar… And with the dollar falling right now, the run to Gold is even stronger…. I’m just saying…

The price of Oil remained in the $62 handle overnight.. The new method of storing Oil on tankers is gaining interest among Oil producing countries… But this is only temporary folks, these tankers need to get to sea, and get to their destination, without interference… I’m just saying…

And the 10-year’s yield has bumped higher to a 4.25% yield this morning… So far no sign of the Fed Heads performing their yield control exercises, so we have that going for us this early morning… 

Did I mention above that today is Chris Gaffney’s birthday?  He took over for me when I was told to retire by TIAA… I taught him everything I knew! HA!  This June it will be 10-years since I last worked a day on a trading desk… And 10 years that I’ve been retired… So, Happy Birthday Chris, I hope you have a grand day!

OK, This is serious stuff folks… China and Hong Kong signed an agreement to, oh shoot Rudy, I’ll let the folks at Chinadaily.com tell you: “The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Shanghai signed a cooperation agreement on Monday to foster gold trading, putting flesh on the bones of a coordinated push to elevate China’s two major financial centers in the global gold market.

Officials and industry experts said they expect the deal to promote long-term interconnectivity opportunities, with a more integrated renminbi-based Asian gold market in the making.

The landmark deal comes at a critical juncture when “the strategic importance of gold has become even more pronounced amid heightened geopolitical uncertainty, inflationary pressures and ongoing restructuring of the international monetary system,” Hui said at the forum.

Chuck again… I’ll tell you what the Chinese have up their sleeves…  Basically, they see the dollar weakening so much that it will put pressure on the fiat currency system, and since they own so many dollar denominated Treasuries, they want to prevent the renminbi from getting caught up in the dollar’s demise… So, they will look to back the renminbi with Gold… Something akin to the old Bretton Woods Agreement… To do that they will need distribution centers around the world that convert renminbi to Gold when presented… And the Chinese have already signed Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia…  This will take a long time so don’t look for it to happen overnight… I’m just laying the bricks of a foundation that will be needed to protect China from the mistakes of the U.S.   

The U.S. Data Cupboard yesterday had the Case/ Shiller Home Price Index that I had said would probably show another increase, and it did, it did, I did see a putty tat! And the STUPID Consumer Confidence for this month, fell 10 ticks, from 94.2 to 84.2… WOW! A 10 tick downward move for this piece of data, in which its usually a pulse of the stock market, but with all the other stuff going in this country, I can see consumers not being so cheery…  And this is a 12-year low for the data… YIKES!

Today’s Cupboard only has the FOMC meeting announcement for this afternoon… What are you gonna do boys and girls? I guess we’ll find out later today… 

To recap… dollar seller took an axe to chop down the dollar yesterday as it lost a ton of ground to the currencies and metals… There are a pile of reasons for the dollar to get sold like that, and the reasons keep building each day… Gold shined yesterday as it was up $170 and Silver also shined closing up $7.31. Chuck talks about a stroy going around about how the POTUS wants to see Gold continue to rise…  And BMO issues a report that calls for some very lofty numbers for Gold & Silver, if you’re a metals holder than you won’t wan to have missed that!

For What It’s Worth…  Well, after my spiel the other day about listening to pundits’ talk about how they see the metals going in the next year, I have this for you today… And this forecast is not a willy-nilly forecast, they are calling for large increases, and it can be found here: BMO bullish scenario sees gold at $8,650 and silver at $220 by 2027 | Kitco News

Or, here’s your snippet: “Surging momentum in gold and silver reflects a shifting order in the global marketplace, as uncertainty over the future of government balance sheets and fiat currency resilience dominates investor sentiment, according to one Canadian bank.

In their latest precious metals note, commodity analysts at BMO Capital Markets embarked on a bullish thought experiment, examining the current drivers for gold and what they mean for prices through the rest of the year.

The analysts note that gold’s push above $5,000 an ounce in the first month of the year puts prices above their first-quarter forecasts from December.

“The world has changed. A call on gold and precious metals is a call on the future state of the world and the nature of the transition that gets us there,” the analysts said. “This calls us to consider bull case scenario for prices over the years in which a new world order is established, with potentially two more dominant spheres of influence, where nations in between are pushed to choose sides.”

While gold has been driven to new all-time highs as investors once again embrace the ‘Sell America’ trade, with the U.S. dollar and bond market struggling, BMO analysts noted that this is a global issue supporting broad-based demand for gold.

“Last week saw a huge sell-off Japanese bonds with accompanying dramatic swings in the yen, further raising concerns about traditional safe haven assets,” the analysts said. “For this bull case scenario, we stretch our model input assumptions to reflect a world where investors of all forms continue to add gold at a rate similar to, or even above, the rate seen over the first year of Trump’s second term. If we assume average quarterly central bank purchases of ~8Moz, quarterly ETF flows of ~4–5Moz, and ongoing erosion in real yields and the US dollar, this brings us to a bull case scenario for gold prices of ~$6,350/oz by Q4 2026 and ~$8,650/oz by Q4 2027.”

Chuck again… All I’m saying about this is that for the metals to get this high by the end of next year then the dollar will have to have fallen by a precipitous amount… Have you diversified your investment portfolio with currencies and Gold / Silver?  If not, apparently, it’s not too late… It’s late, yes, but not too late… 

Market Prices 1/28/2026: American Style: A$ .6999, kiwi .6030, C$ .7369, euro 1.1969, sterling 1.3770, Swiss $1.3002, European Style: rand 15.9021, krone 9.6391, SEK 8.8350, forint 318.25, zloty 3.5116, koruna 20.3110, RUB 76.25, yen 152.62, sing 1.2617, HKD 7.8020, INR 91.78, China 6.9459, peso 17.18, BRL 5.1970, BBDXY 1,174, Dollar Index 96.20, Oil $62.42, 10-year 4.25%, Silver $112.43, $2,652.00, Palladium $1,984.00, Copper $5.97, and Gold… $5,255

That’s it for today… Whew! What a day yesterday in the metals and dollars…  We haven’t seen many like them right? Did I mention that today is Chris Gaffney’s Birthday? Oh, I did… sorry, just making sure I didn’t miss mentioning it! The StL U Billikens made a 2^nd half comeback hold and beat George Washington U last night, while my beloved Mizou Tigers couldn’t hit free throws and got smoked at Alabama last night…  The Billikens’ game was great as they fought back from a 15-point deficit… Our Blues lost last night on home ice… That’s not a good thing… Ok, Hamilton, Joe, Frank and Reynolds take us to the finish line today with their song: Fallin’ In Love…  I hope you have a Wonderful Wednesday today, and Please Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler

• The dollar continues to get sold…
• The metals are back on the rally tracks this morning

Good Day… And a Tom Terrific Tuesday to you! Well, that was quite the snowstorm that went through St. Louis Saturday and Sunday, eh? Back home wasn’t the only area that got hammered over the weekend with snow and cold… Be careful out there driving in and shoveling snow… All I can say is that it was sunny and 85 yesterday down here… Not to rub it in, but to illustrate why I have come here every winter since 2016…  Of course, later that year, I was told that I needed to retire…  That’s a long story that I don’t care to rehash today…  But I do remember cleaning out my office on a Sunday, when no one else was around, and then taking all my books, and personal things down to my car and leaving the garage for the last time… I turned up my radio real loud, and sang along with the songs, so it was good thing no one else was there!  Poco greets me this morning with their great song: Rose of Cimarron… A great morning song!

Well, Durable Goods printed yesterday, and surprised on the Up side, but the UP was supplied with aircraft sales, and other items that we won’t see on the list for another 3 years… Gold & Sliver didn’t let the strong data get in their way of a strong rally… The only thing that could get in the way were the SPTs… And they made sure that everyone knew that they still existed…  Throw in some profit taking from the short-timers and the strong rally in both was watered down greatly… Gold rose $28, but you may recall me telling you yesterday that Gold was up $109 in the morning… Silver saw that kind of trading that Gold saw, gaining $1.25, and this was after being up more than $6 in the morning…  Gold ended the day at $5,011, and Silver ended the day at $105.62

Here’s Ed Steer’s take on the trading in metals yesterday, “With another epic margin call for the shorts in the works, ‘da boyz’ did what they had to do — and they didn’t take any prisoners in all four. It certainly looks like they’re trying to turn the precious metals market lower…but I doubt they’ll have any more success than they’ve had recently…which ain’t much.

It should be pointed out that the DXY bottomed out minutes after 11 a.m. — and despite its ensuing rally, the precious metals continued to power higher — and the engineered price declines came two hours after that. It was yet another day where the moves in the DXY were mostly irrelevant, compared to what was unfolding in the precious metals arena in the precious metals arena.  Not all of it, mind you…but most of it.” = Ed Steer at edsteer@goldsilver.com 

The dollar ended the day with the BBDXY trading at 1,187…  That’s down 1 more index point from where it started in the morning, at 1,188…  The wildness of the Japanese bond market had really thrown the bond boys for a loop… The Japanese 10-year Gov’t Bond yield had hit a moon shot last Friday, gaining 25 basis points in one day to 2.34%…  That’s a crazy move in bonds, folks… I’ve seen months go by before seeing a bond yield gain 25 Basis Points! I would guess all those hedge funds and bond desks that were long Japanese bonds were cussing them on Friday…

I talk about this because this is the culprit that the Gov’t and dollar bugs hung their hats on with regards to why the dollar had fallen so greatly in recent days… I say hogwash! I’ll give them a basis point or two, but 8 index points since last Thursday tells me that the dollar is getting sold on a wide basis…  And that tells me that my call for a the beginning of a weak dollar trend is here in earnest…  Of course, we could see the PPT step in and attempt to put a floor under the dollar…  But how many times can they do that until the markets see the move for what it is, an attempt to save the dollar, before they go hog-wild in selling the dollar?

The price of Oil dipped yesterday and ended the day trading with a $60 handle… And our U.S. treasury 10-year saw some selling and the yield on the bond ended the day with a 4.22% yield. 

In the overnight markets last night… Well, the IMF issued a statement yesterday that they were preparing for a deep run of selling the dollar…  Well, they are getting their preparations a run for their money… The BBDXY is down 5 index points to start our day, and the “Sell America” feeling is really starting to take hold.  The currencies are all looking much better these days, and the Petrol currencies get an extra boost with the price of Oil higher…  The euro this morning is 1.1905… It’s been a month of Sundays since the euro was this strong…  You’re not too late to diversify your investment portfolio with currencies so that all the dollar denominated investments get some diversity…  Again, my friend, and former colleague, Tim Smith runs the currency / metals desk at Battle Bank… And you can send him an email and find out what he has up his sleeve (not like Bullwinkle!) you can find him here: GlobalMarkets@Battlebank.com    

Gold & Silver shrugged off the STP’s engineered take down yesterday, and are back on the rally tracks this morning with Gold up $76 and Silver up $8 to start our day….  There’s just no amount of short trading that can keep these two down right now… Platinum and Palladium have really been getting bought too, with Palladium trading over $2,000, and Platinum over $2,600! Copper is attempting to mount a rally, but the SPTs continue to keep a lid on the industrial metal. 

The price of Oil remained trading with a $60 handle overnight, and the 10-year Treasury’s yield remained at 4.22% overnight, so no changes here. I can’t blame the bond boys that want to take the 10-year’s yield higher, for every time they do, the Fed Heads come in a do some yield control…  Keep at it boys, sooner or later the Fed Heads will give up! 

Yesterday, I told you that the FOMC had been in keeping a lid on the 10-year’s yield…  Then I talked about how Japanese yen had rallied VS the dollar…  Her’s Wolf Street with their take on all that: “On around midday Friday came the latest step, a “rate check,” with which Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent attempted to put a floor under the yen that had plunged against the dollar, and push back down long-term US Treasury yields that had surged, as he saw the turmoil in the Japanese bond market, and the plunge of the yen, bleeding over into the US.

The New York Fed, at the request of the Treasury Department and acting as fiscal agent for the Treasury Department, asked its primary dealers what exchange rate they would get if the NY Fed started buying yen through them. This “rate check” was a signal that the US government is ready to intervene in the currency market to support the yen against the USD.”

Chuck Again… Well, even if the Treasury didn’t actually intervene in the currency market, they did …  When the rest of the world knows that the U.S. is looking to sell dollars and buy yen… They say, “we’ll sell dollars too, and buy Gold”…

I found this on FXSTREET.COM… These are the nice people that repost the Pfennig each day that I write it… I have no idea how many people read it there, but it helps get the word out!  Any old way here is the article: “The US Dollar (USD) ended the week near a four-month low of around 97.80, maintaining a weak tone amid risk aversion in financial markets. Concerns escalated after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose 10% tariffs on eight European countries, which would increase over time unless Denmark agrees to sell Greenland to the US. Tensions remained high until Trump, along with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, announced a framework for a future deal regarding Greenland on Wednesday.”

Chuck again… The FXSTREET.com has been a source of information for me for a very long time.  So, they reiterated what I had chronicled as to the reasons for the dollar’s weakness, but like I always say, it’s sometimes good to hear another voice singing from the same song sheet! 

Stop me if you’ve hears this before, but Germany is telling the U.S. that they want their physical Gold… Here’s the good folks at GATA with their post: “Germany has been urged to withdraw gold worth more than L100 billion from American vaults because Donald Trump’s unpredictability has made keeping it there too “risky.”

The country stores 1,236 tons of gold, roughly the same weight as three Air Force 1 jets, at the U.S. Federal Reserve in New York, worth around E164 billion (E122 billion).”

Chuck again… Good luck with that request… Do you recall all the hullabaloo that went on the last time Germany asked for some of their Gold to be returned? This has got to be coming about because of all the problems the U.S. returning that bit of Gold to Germany…  Their claim that “Trump’s too unpredictable” is hogwash and window dressing for the real problem… 

The U.S. Data Cupboard yesterday had the beefed-up Durable Goods Orders I talked about at the start today… I still say that going from negative 1.2% the previous month, to a 5.34%, isn’t for real… and I stand by that! 

Today’s Cupboard has the STUPID Consumer Confidence for this month (real live data, YAHOO!) and the Case/Shiller Home Price Index for Nov… I would think that this data would still show home prices increasing… But maybe not… I guess we’ll see, eh?

For What It’s Worth…. This article comes to me via The Guardian, and it’s about how he POTUS turmoil has really propelled Gold higher and it can be found here: Gold price jumps above $5,000 an ounce for first time amid Trump turmoil | Gold | The Guardian

Or, here’s your snippet: “The price of gold has jumped above $5,000 an ounce for the first time as Donald Trump’s chaotic policies and proclamations drive more investors to seek safe harbour in the precious metal.

Gold reached a record high of $5,100 (£3,723) on Monday morning, before easing back to settle up 2.2% at $5,091.

The moment came after Trump threatened Canada with 100% tariffs if Ottawa made “a deal with China”, and after the US president’s showdown with Europe over the future of Greenland.

With global financial markets already jittery, there are also rising fears of another US shutdown after Democrats threatened funding for the Department of Homeland Security after federal immigration agents killed a man in Minneapolis on Saturday.

Monday’s milestone is the latest in an extraordinary and historic run for gold, the price of which has jump by almost 90% since Trump’s second inauguration a little over a year ago.”

Chuck again… Well, Gold was in need badly of a another type of fuel to get it going again, and it’s found it according to the Guardian… 

Market prices 1/27/2006: American Style: A$ .6944, kiwi .5991, C$ .7303, euro 1.1905, sterling 1.3727, Swiss $1.2953, European Style: rand 16.0082, krone 9.7278, SEK 8.8959, forint 319.90, koruna 20.3845,  RUB 76.41, yen 153.88, sing 1.2859, HKD 7.80003, INR 91.72, China 6.9547, peso 17.31, BRL 5.2681, BBDXY 1,184, Dollar Index 96.67, Oil $60.50, 10-year 4.22%, Silver $111.38, Platinum $2,698.00, Palladium $2.050.00, Copper $5.87, and Gold… $5,087.90

That’s it for today… Well, back home they won’t see temps above the freezing level until next week… Did someone say something about global warming? Our StL U. Billikens (#21 in the rankings) play tonight, as does my beloved Mizzou Tigers…  The Tigers beat OU last Saturday with 2 buzzer beaters in the same game! I’ll have one game on the TV and the other on my laptop or phone…  They seem to be playing games on the same days, UGH! The teams are set for the Super Bowl in the NFL… The Seahawks and the Patriots… The two combatants played in the Super Bowl against each other a few years ago… So, this is the rematch… I still don’t know why Seattle opted to pass on the goal line instead of handing the ball off to the beast (Marshawn Lynch) and win the game… Woody Hayes used to say that two out of three things with a pass are bad outcomes… And he was right! In this case that is… The great Nina Simone takes us to the finish line today with her song: Feeling Good… I  hope you have a Tom Terrific Tuesday today and Please Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler

Currencies and metals rally big time1

Sorry Charlie, no rate cut this week

Good Day… And a Marvelous Monday to you! Our StL U. Billikens won their game on Friday evening by a wide margin and moved to 19-1 so far this year… They are on a roll! Back home, they got hammered with icy cold temps and lots of snow this past weekend, and the snow hasn’t stopped! I’m so glad to be in the far South of Florida right now… We had mid 70’s and sun this past weekend, quite the difference of what they had back home. The great Wilson Pickett greets me this morning with his song: 634-5789…  He was “something” to watch and hear perform back in the 60’s… I’m just saying… 

Well, GDP was revised upward and the dollar got sent down the river for sale… Wait, What?  Yes, the “opposites” that we’ve experienced in the markets for some time now, came to a head on Friday with the BBDXY losing nearly 9 index points and ended the week at 1,192… The dollar hasn’t been this low since 2022, and this time looks like it’s going to go much lower… The euro has inched close to the 1.18 handle, and the rest of the currencies are all following the Big Dog euro, down the street to chase the dollar… 

This came through from Kitvco.com : “The private sector is following the trend set by central banks by diversifying into gold, prompting Goldman Sachs to raise its year-end gold price target by more than 10%.

Just weeks after setting a year-end target of $4,900 per ounce, the banking giant announced on Wednesday that it was raising its December 2026 price target to $5,400 an ounce. “

Well, you know what I always contend, right?  That whatever LOLA wants, LOLA gets…  For new readers LOLA is what I’ve dubbed Goldman Sachs…  

I always turn to Ed Steer to tell me what’s going in with the SPTs… he had this to say regarding the shorts in Silver: “BlackRock issued a warning five or so years ago to all those short SLV that there might come a time when there wouldn’t be enough metal for them to cover. That would only be true if JPMorgan decides not to supply it to whatever entity requires it. However, we appear to be far beyond that point now, as the short position in SLV will never be covered through the deposit of physical silver, as it just doesn’t exit — and never will. And if it does exist, it will only be available at a price far higher than what’s being quoted in the public domain now. Those short SLV shares are in equal dire straits as those short silver in the COMEX futures market — and I suspect that they’re the same entities.” Ed Steer from : edsteergoldsilver.com 

It’s always interesting in the metals… This guys says this, and that guy says that, and lots of guys are in the middle saying something else… Everybody has a position to trade, if you ask me… And that’s why they come out and say what they say… For instance, LOLA says Gold will reach $5,400 in 2026…  They must be very long Gold and need to sell it… So, always take what I provide you in comments about the metals with however many grains of salt that you wish….  

The price of Oil bumped higher again on Friday, and ended the week with a $61 handle… Things are getting interesting in Oil, and we need to keep an eye on it… I only see out of one eye, so that should be easy for me!

The yield in the 10-year Treasury saw a lot of Fed yield control late last week, and its yield ended the week with a 4.23% yield. The yield in the 10-year would be much higher if the Fed Heads would leave it alone, but they know better, right? NOT! They are a bunch of knuckleheads and don’t every think otherwise! 

In the overnight markets last night… Well, all hell has broken loose.. Gold is up $109 and Silver is up over $6… Gold has surpassed the $5,000 level, and Silver has gone past the $100 level… This move has come too far too fast, if you ask me, I’m not one to want an asset to go to the moon in a short time…  I Would prefer it to take the slow, steady route to the moon… But, it is what it is, and even through I called for the two metals to reach these levels, them reaching them so fast, isn’t a third world problem… it does mean that the route on the dollar on…

The dollar got sold down the river again last night, and the BBDXY is down 4 index points at 1,188… Sell American, including the dollar is the theme in the markets right now, and I can’t blame them… The dollar has held on to its lofty figure for way too long, with all the fundamentals against it… I’m just saying…

The price of Oil remained trading with a $61 handle overnight, I think the world is finding out that the glut in Oil story is just that… And demand is stronger than expected thus depleting the smaller Oil supplies….   

And the 10-year Treasury is seeing some buying (from whom?) and its yield drop to 4.21% this morning… So, we start the week with the prospects of an FOMC rate cut on Wednesday… But I doubt seriously if the FOMC opts for a rate cut at this meeting… 

So, I was bang on with my call that the dollar’s recent rally would be short lived…  Greenland, political fears, and the idea that more rates (just not this week) are on their way, has really sent the dollar to the woodshed… And once it begins to drop, it will continue to do so… I’m just saying…   

Makes you kinda wish you had gone ahead and diversified your investment portfolio, doesn’t it?  I would think it does!   

I read that the currency markets are on edge to start the week due to their fears of intervention by the Bank of Japan (BOJ)…  The dollar fell so much late last week that the EVEN the Japanese yen rallied VS the dollar.. Currency traders are fearing that the BOJ will intervene to stop this upward movement in yen… 

I’ve always said that the markets have deeper pockets than a Central Bank… That is as long as the markets have the cajónes to challenge the Central Bank

Circling the wagons here on the currencies for a brief minute… Shoot Rudy, even the Japanese yen is rallying VS the dollar this morning… This reminds me of the last weak dollar trend that started in 2/2002 and ended 9 years later. During this time, you could throw a dart at the roster of currencies and probably pick a winner…  I don’t think this time will be as easy, for a lot of countries have debt coming out their ear holes..  So, you’ll have to use that “stock of a country” criteria I’ve explained in previous Pfennigs… 

Here in theU.S. the PPT never gets challenged for their forays into keeping the dollar from falling off a cliff, .. I truly believe that the PPT is in cahoots with the Gov’t and gets their marching orders from them….  Maybe I’m wrong about that but I doubt it!

Well, Gov’t spending hasn’t slowed down, and won’t either…  Just last week,  The US government sold $654 billion in Treasuries last week across 9 auctions. $500 billion were T-Bills with maturities from 4 to 26 weeks, mostly replacing maturing debt.

Furthermore, $154 billion in notes and bonds were issued, including $50 billion in 10-year notes. Since 2020, T-Bills outstanding have now surged ~$4 trillion, or +160%. As a % of marketable Treasury securities, T-Bills now reflect 22%, near the highest since 2021.

So the Gov’t / Treasury isn’t changing their strategy so far, this fiscal year for the U.S. I complained about the short-term T-bills coming due in hoards this year and will have to be reissued with higher interest rates/ discounts… So, apparently, no one at the Gov’t / Treasury reads my letter…  Too Bad, So Sad… 

The U.S. Data Cupboard late last week was chock-full-o-data… On Thursday, the Weekly Initial Jobless Claims came in at the lowest level in years, 200,000… So, the hyped-up labor problem has abated… We saw that 3^rd QTR GDP was 4.4%… Sounds pretty good, eh? Well, remember that Gov’t spending is a BIG part of the GDP calc, and the Gov’t spending is off the board!  We also saw Personal Income +.3% and personal Spending +.5%…  The thing that I think most economist miss here with spending is that prices for everything is inflated higher, and that will cause spending to be larger… I’m just saying….

Today we’ll see the Durable Good Orders for Nov… They are so far behind that this data is worthless to me… you know, they used to print Capital Goods orders at the same time, but they no longer print it… Why, you ask? Because it never showed that Corp were putting their earnings back into the Company… Instead, they Companies buy their own stock… And that’s a different problem altogether and I don’t have the time or space to get into that right now!

To recap… It’s all about the metals these days, folks… Either you’re in them, or you’re not… I sure hope you’re in them…  The dollar is getting sent down the river for sale, and Chuck thinks this is just the beginning… 

For What It’s Worth… In keeping with the idea that either you’re in metals or you’re not, this article is about a guy that bought a boat load of Silver before the rally, and you can find it here: Meet The Man Who Bought $1 Billion In Physical Silver Before The Rally | ZeroHedge

Or, here’s your snippet: “The precious metals complex resumed its upward trajectory overnight. Shortly after the US equity cash open, silver surged above $100 per ounce for the first time on record, while gold approached the $5,000 per ounce level.

As Rick Privorotsky, head of Delta One at Goldman Sachs, noted to clients earlier, flows suggest some speculative participation, but the dominant driver remains structural: “There is clearly hot money involved, but first and foremost gold is a central bank trade… a slow erosion of the dollar’s exorbitant privilege rather than a sudden loss of confidence…”

What first came to mind as silver broke above the $100 level was Warren Buffett’s late-1990s bet on the precious metal. Berkshire Hathaway accumulated 129.7 million ounces of physical silver, or about 4,000 metric tons, ahead of the Dot Com bubble crash. The position was disposed of around 2006, generating a substantial profit for Berkshire.

Fast forward to October 2024, and we rolled out the Zero Hedge silver/gold coins and bars. At the time, silver was in the low $30s, while gold hovered around $2,600.

But on an even grander scale, several months later in early 2025, David Bateman, the founder of Entrata, revealed on X that he had purchased “close to a billion dollars in precious metals over the past six months.

To be exact, Bateman told his followers on X that he bought “1.5% of the annual global silver supply (12.69 million ounces).”

Earlier today, shortly after silver jumped above $100. He posted on X, “Congrats everyone on $100 silver. Couldn’t have happened to a better group of degenerate mildly autistic misfits.”

Bateman’s trade could easily be up more than 250%, though he did not disclose his cost basis at the time. Either way, it stands out as one heck of a trade. As for readers who purchased ZeroHedge coins and bars of gold and silver, the hedge has clearly paid off.”

Chuck again… The article goes on to tell the reasons he put this hedge on…. and it’s all the reasons that I’ve talked about for years now…  So, I also feel vindicated… I’m just saying…

Market Prices 1/26/2025: American Style: A$ ,6920, kiwi .5971, C$ .7318, euro 1.1865, sterling 1.3671, Swiss $1.2858, European Style: rand 16.0214, krone 9.770, SEK 8.9415, forint 321.49, zloty 3.5477, koruna 20.4505, RUB 76.31, yen 153.95, sing 1.2699, HKD 7.7947, INR 91.95, China 6.9542, peso 17.39, BRL 5.2579, BBDXY 1,188, Dollar Index 97.15, Oil $61.15, 10-year 4.21%, Silver $ 108.89, Platinum $2,389.00, Palladium $ 2, 151.00, Copper $5.97, and Gold….$ 5,091

That’s it for today… Today is my youngest sister’s birthday… Happy Birthday Joanie!  I hope your day is GRAND!  I had 4 sisters at one time… They used to dress me up and make me play stupid games with them… I only have 2 sisters left… And they live in Houston, Texas, very far from me….  The snowstorm that hit my hometown last weekend was like the old days… I truly believe in weather patterns, and I believe that we’re beginning a new colder weather pattern… Remember the covers of TIME magazine in the 70’s calling for a new ice age? Oh well, The band Trooper takes us to the finish line today with their 60’s song; Round, Round We Go.. I hope you have a Marvelous Monday today, and please Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler

• The dollar selling stops
• Ray Dalio visits the Pfennig today

Good Day… And a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday to one and all! We’ve gone into a rainy period down here with yesterday, today and tomorrow all filled with rain. UGH! A day without sunshine is a day without a meal, very empty… Florida is supposed to be the “sunshine state”… not the “monsoon state”! I truly have no idea how the folks in the Northwest deal with all the rain they get!   I wouldn’t last that’s for sure!  The Outlaws greet me this morning with their great song: Green Grass And High Tides… This is a over 9-minute song on the album but when performed live it would go on for at least 20 minutes! 

Well, the dollar sellers were going along just selling dollars yesterday, when suddenly there were frantically trying to keep control of the trading. The dollar selling quickly turned to dollar buying (on no news), which immediately got me thinking that the PPT must have entered the market and kept the dollar from falling down the rabbit hole… The BBDXY started the day at 1,204 and the selling brought it to 1,202, before turning around and ending the day at 1,206… UGH!   

The price of Oil bumped higher to end the day trading with a $60 handle (Still a long way from the break-even price of $80)  And the 10-year’s yield stopped rising yesterday, after the POTUS promised no military action to take Greenland and ended the day with a 4.25% yield. 

The price of Gold rallied on Wednesday, while the price of Silver saw a ton of SPTs.. And lost ground on the day… Gold closed at $4,832, and Silver at $93.22…  The SPTS have to let us know that they are still around and that makes me very angry!  For instance, Gold was $55 higher at one point in the day, and Silver was higher at $2.38… See? Yes, Gold was allowed to gain on the day, but the SPTs had taken their slice of flesh… And Silver just continues to be in the middle of the price war between the SPTs and China…  I’m pinning my flag to the mast of China on that one!

In The overnight markets last night… The dollar drifted lower a bit with the BBDXY starting this morning at 1,205… I really dislike the fact that the dollar has a “savior” in the PPT and the exchange stabilization fund… Why can’t the powers that be just let the markets decide which way the dollar goes?  Well, with inflation still kicking our tails at the Grocery store, and everywhere else, having a weak currency allows inflation to be imported into the economy… That’s why…. But in my mind, if something needs to be weakened because of fundamentals, then so be it! 

Gold is down and Silver is up this morning, a reversal of recent price action… Kitco.com shows Gold down $5 to start the day, but my records I show Gold flat at $,4,827…  And Silver is up 28-cents to start the day today… Don’t know what Kitco.com is smoking, but I’m going with my numbers! 

The price of Oil is bouncing between $59 and $60 these days, and this morning it has chosen the $59 handle…  And the “sell America” is really building steam folks… this is not good either! A Dutch firm issued a statement that they would sell their total Treasury holdings ($100 Million) just as a warning shot across the bow of the U.S.  and their Treasury issuance… With that the 10-year Treasury’s yield starts the day trading with a 4.25% yield…

I want to circle the wagons and go back to something I talked about last week and that is the rise in yield in Japanese Gov’t bonds (JGBs)…  The world is spinning right now about this rise in yield… The Japanese Gov’t Bond 10-year reached 2.35% yesterday… I know you’re saying that’s not much…  But it is, considering that Japan’s interest rates have been zero percent for two decades! 2.35% in Japan is HUGE! 

I’ve explained in the past that most of Japan’s debt is self-financed, by issuing the bonds and the Japanese people would buy them…. The citizens own a very large chunk of JGB’s, so right now they are sitting on large losses in their bonds, should they need to sell them into the market. Remember, when yields rise in bonds, the price of the bond goes down, and vice versa…  

The other thing that’s getting wiped out by the rise in JGB’s, is the carry trade… For years, Japanese housewives would sell yen and buy a higher yielding currency, and use their JGB as collateral…  But all of that is coming to an end too… 

This year is starting out very strange, don’t you think? Japanese bond yields are rising, Gold & Silver can’t be stopped, and the dollar is starting out the year on a down note… I didn’t even mention the weaker stock market too, but then I’m not even your last pick for a stock jockey! 

I’ve told you about my fondness of the writings by Ray Dalio and so he had something to say yesterday that I think all should hear: “Ray Dalio says global ‘capital wars’ favor gold over US bonds

The U.S. Dollar’s reign as the world’s favored reserve currency is under increasing pressure as trade wars discourage foreign central banks from buying U.S. debt, pushing Treasury yields higher.

“The monetary order is breaking down,” said Dalio in an interview with CNBC today. “Fiat currencies and debt as a store of wealth is not being held by central banks in the same way.”

Chuck again… yes, when there’s a Capital war countries decide to not hold other country’s debt and currency, and instead flock to hard assets… i.e. Gold… 

And I told you yesterday about Michael Checkan’s tale of the Taels that I would search for and print again in the Pfennig…  Instead, Michael and Rich Checkan sent me the pdf of the tale, and after reading it again I thought, “this is very long and would take up a full Pfennig: so, I’m going to give you the PDF so you can click on it and read it… This is very important that you do read it, for it tells the story of one refugee with Gold, and the other refugee with paper currency that was now worthless..  So, if you were wondering what that PDF at the beginning of the letter was, it’s the Tale of the Taels PDF. Just scroll back to the top and click on the PDF and it will come alive for you… 

The U.S. Data Cupboard finally gets something to look at today… First up is the Weekly Initial Jobless Claims, then Personal Income and Spending for Nov… (like this isn’t stale…) then the first revision of 3^rd QTR GDP, ad finally the PCE for Nov.  I don’t like stale bread, and I don’t like stale cookies, and I don’t especially like stale economic data… I mean they might as well just skip printing it and try to catch up so that the next time around the data is fresh!  Oh, well, it is what it is…. 

To recap… The dollar was getting sold yesterday, until it wasn’t, indicating that some dollar intervention had entered the markets… Gold rallied for the day, but Silver got whacked by over a $!  Ray Dalio says we as a coutnry are in a Capital War…  (Chuck listens to Ray Dalio)  And Japanese bond yields are rising and that has effects all over the globe including the U.S. And Chuck gives us the Tale of Taels as told by Michael Checkan…  

For What It’s Worth…  Well, I saw this article and it caught my eye and attention for sure for it’s a head of an Investment firm saying that commodities will be the king of the hill investments this year, and if can be found here: Bond fears are boosting gold prices, 2026 gains will be found in commodities rather than tech – UBS’ Michael Zinn | Kitco News

Or, here’s your snippet: ” Geopolitical and macroeconomic fears are pushing sovereign yields into dangerously high territory – with gold the chief beneficiary – while commodities, small caps and international equities will likely steal Big Tech’s thunder ahead of the midterms, according to Michael Zinn, managing director and senior portfolio manager at UBS.

In a Tuesday interview with BNN Bloomberg, when Zinn was asked how concerned he was about the ongoing market impacts of U.S. threats toward Greenland, he said markets appear more concerned with fixed income yields in Japan.

“This seems like it’s going to be a year of policy uncertainty and that’s just another example of it,” he said. “It’s a midterm election here in the United States. I would say that wasn’t necessarily on our bingo card a week or two ago. I think what’s driving markets, maybe a little more profoundly today is what’s going on in Japan, where we are seeing yields surge a little bit. That, I think, is a little bit more of a concern, because rising bond yields in Japan have been tugging on global yields for a while now.”

“Days like today, where they push the top end of the ranges and push U.S. rates to the top ends of their ranges, those begin to discourage investors from taking risks and encourage them to go into other things like gold.”

 Zinn said he wasn’t seeing much improvement in market conditions toward the end of Tuesday’s trading, with U.S. and Japanese 10-year yields remaining high and stocks languishing near session lows. “You’re seeing gold near its high of the day,” he noted. “That probably means investors might be advised to be a little bit patient, see how this works out.”

“We think this is all landing in a fundamentally pretty strong backdrop,” he added. “I don’t think this is going to haunt us for the rest of the year by any means. But these kinds of yield-spawned sell-offs can be sharp declines, and you want to just be mindful of patience sometimes being rewarded.”

Turning to which sectors may perform well in 2026, Zinn said the opportunities will be found less in tech and more in commodities.

“It’s a change in the music, I think, from the previous couple of years,” he said. “Of course, in the past, tech has been leading the charge, and the Mag 7, of course, have been on the top of everyone’s favorite playlist. This year does feel a little different.”

Chuck again… Yes, at least the start of the year seems a bit different in my eye, so I agree with Mr. Zinn….  And if he’s correct that commodities will be the big winners this year, then the commodity currencies will be popular…  They include the A$, kiwi, C$, RUB, BRL, and some lesser ones…  

Market Prices 1/22/2026: American Style: A$ .6805, kiwi .5875, C$ .7234, euro 1.1702, sterling 1.3421, Swiss $1.2610, European Style: rand 16.2110, krone 9.8971, SEK 9.2580, forint 327.40, zloty 3.5920, koruna 20.7818, RUB 75.71, yen 158.65 sing 1.2837, HKD 7.7975, INR 91.62, China 6.9774, peso 17.48, BRL 5.3165, BBDXY 1,205, Dollar Index 98.77, Oil $59.83, 10-year 4.25%, Silver $93.92, Platinum $2,508.00, Palladium $1,876, Copper $5.76, and Gold… $4,830

That’s it for today and this week… A short week for me, (YAY!)  The Stl U. Billikens have an afternoon affaire at St. Bonaventure tomorrow… I sure hope they worked on finishing out a game on the road… I really like this Billikens team this year, they all score and that’s a good thing! Only 19 more days until Pitchers and Catchers report for Spring Training! Our Blues still can’t put together a win streak of more than 2 games… And when they lose they just can’t generate any scoring… So, that’s a problem they need to correct…  The Troggs takes us to the finish line today with their song that I heard on TV Commercial the other day: With a Girl Like You I hope you have a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday today and Please Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler

• Currencies and metals rally on Tuesday
• Blackrock CEO says our debt is a problem… (where’s he been?”)

Good Day… And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! Well, winter is now over for down here, as the forecast for the next 10 days is for sun and mid 70’s… I like a bit warmer, but I’ll take mid 70’s over 20 degrees back home! I guess I’ve mentioned a time or two over the years that I totally dislike Cold weather! Our Stl U. Billikens won their game last night almost gave it away but held on, and my beloved Mizzou Tigers lost at home!  Little Feat greet me this morning with their great song: Dixie Chicken…

.Well, I mentioned yesterday that the Greenland talk was really doing a number on the dollar… I failed to mention that the “talk” was also pushing the yields on bonds higher, as now not only the BRICs are turning away from the auction window, but now the Europeans are too!  So, bonds get sold, and yields go up, and there’s no one left to buy the bonds at the auction window, and that will cause yields to go higher as the Treasury has to make them look attractive… So, the 10-year ended yesterday trading with a 4.28% yield… And bound to go higher as the days go on as long as the rhetoric remains the same from the POTUS….

And what else do you think the POTUS can do now? He’s gone too far down this dark alley to stop now, if he were to say “oh I was just kidding”, the credibility of the POTUS and further the Treasury, would get thrown out the window…

So, the dollar had a bad day yesterday, with most of its selling came in the overnight markets… We started the day with the BBDXY down 4 index points at 1,204… And the BBDXY ended the day at 1,204… So, as you can see the overnight markets did a number on the dollar and propped up the metals

Speaking of the metals… Silver had a day where the SPTs were trying to guide the price lower, but at the end of the day, Silver had fought back to gain all the ground it had lost during the day, and ended the day flat at $94.47… All the while Silver was fighting for its right to gain, Gold kept on gaining as the day went on… Gold ended the day up $112 to close at $4,764… 

The price of Oil remained trading with a $ 59 handle yesterday…   I think that the markets (Dollar, bonds, metals) are getting all the attention these days, and Oil is an afterthought… But that won’t last in my eye! 

In the overnight markets last night… The selling of the dollar stopped, for now that is, and the BBDXY starts today at 1,204…  Gold on the other hand is up $1.01, and Silver is up 49-cents…  Silver is going to see many attempts to get it over the $100 figure going forward, and it will also see many attempts to stop that rise… Silver is going to be caught in the middle… But, in the end the buyers will win, in my humble opinion… Gold is on everyone’s mind these days… 

The folks at Battle Bank announced that they will do loans VS Gold holdings… That way, you’ll be able to retain your Gold, but have some cash from your Gold’s rise in price that has been so astronomical…  I don’t believe they are onboarding new clients just yet, as they are still testing, but you can send the an email and tell them you are interested here: GlobalMarkets@Battlebank.com 

Well, I read an article that I came across yesterday that was an interview with Larry Fink the CEO of Blackrock… In the article Mr. Fink is yelling from the rooftops about the U.S.’s debt…  (where have you been buddy?) This from TheStreet.com…. “BlackRock (BLK) CEO Larry Fink feels the market’s attention could soon shift toward the ballooning U.S. national debt.

With U.S. debt now soaring over $38 trillion, Fink believes that markets are underestimating the moment when fiscal policy, not monetary policy, becomes a major problem.”      

Chuck again… There’s a point when everyone becomes aware of our debt, and that to service the debt will be our downfall, is when everyone abandons dollars for they will have become monopoly money, (worthless) I hate to be the bearer of this bad news… so don’t shoot the messenger! 

The U.S. is still has the strongest economy… but for how much longer?  AI is supposed to save us, right?  I shake my head in disbelief…   In the year 2000 the U.S. was the number 1 economy on the Globe… And Japan was # 2… China was # 6 but 20 years later China is now #2, and Japan is #4, and falling fast!  Germany was #3 in 2000 and again in 2020… Steady as she goes….  I point all this out to show that a country’s economy can sink or swim very quickly…  

And talk about having too much on one’s plate to take on another problem… The POTUS is talking about putting a cap on the interest rates that credit cards can charge…  Now getting the Gov’t involved in private business has never worked out to everyone’s advantage, and we even have history on a previous POTUS doing something similar… 

Back in the early 80’s President Carter, in his last year in office, announce Credit Controls, in an effort to cool down the economy, bring inflation under control and restrict borrowing…  The whole shootin’ match backfired on the Gov’t… The economy fell over 8%, the Unemployment Rate rose to 8.2%, and it felt like our country was going down a rabbit hole that it wouldn’t emerge from… 

You see these Credit Card companies and banks that issue cards, are making unsecured loans… So, they need the higher rates to make up for the loans that default with nothing behind them for the issuer to recover… If you limit their interest rate charges, they will cut the amount of people that they approve to have a CC…  So, spending goes down and the economy goes with it..  So, be careful of what you wish for… I’m just saying

I got some of that info from my friend Dave Gonigam’s 5 Bullets email that is sent out each day… 

I’ve carried on way too long today about gloom and doom… 

The currencies have been perking up with the dollar back on the selling block. Even the Norwegian krone is showing some life… The Chinese renminbi was at a 6.95 handle yesterday, but bumped up to 6.96 today… China’s had a run of good economic reports, so the Peoples Bank of China has allowed the currency to gain VS the dollar.  With the bump higher in the price of Oil the Petrol Currencies are getting bought. The Russia ruble is prime example of that. The A$ has been inching higher too, and there are also those currencies still in doom mode, like the Japanese yen,  and the Indiian rupee to name a few… 

The U.S. Data Cupboard is still wanting for real economic data, which won’t be found until tomorrow… 

n other data, this from the BBC: “China said its economy expanded by 5% last year, meeting Beijing’s official target as a record trade surplus boosted growth.

The world’s second-largest economy reached its goal despite growth slowing to 4.5% in the final three months of 2025.”

Chuck again, China also reported a new record for their Trade Surplus…  Even with cutting off exports to the U.S., China has found other avenues for their exports… 

Boy did a make a colossal error yesterday, calling this week a FOMC week! What a dolt! The FOMC doesn’t meet until next Wednesday… I guess I was looking at next week’s calendar and too it for this week… excuses! As the old football coach used to say: “Excuses never won a ballgame for any team” I didn’t learn much from him, as I was too scared of him to ask him a question, but I did learn that tidbit! 

To recap… The dollar is getting sold overseas along with bonds as the Greenland talk keeps getting louder… The metals are having banner days because of the same talk.  Chuck talks about our debt, and capping interest rates so he was quite wordy this morning!

For What It’s Worth…. The Good Folks at GATA sent me this, that they found on Bloomberg.com regarding Russia’s Gold Holdings making up for their lost assets and it can be found here: Russia Gains $216 Billion in Gold Rally, Replacing Lost Assets – Bloomberg

Or, here’s your snippet: “Russia has reaped a windfall from a surge in gold prices since the start of its war in Ukraine, generating gains on a scale comparable to the sovereign reserves frozen in Europe over President Vladimir Putin’s invasion.

The value of the Bank of Russia’s gold holdings has increased by more than $216 billion since February 2022, according to Bloomberg calculations. At the same time, the central bank has largely refrained from both major purchases of the metal and using its gold reserves during that period, despite the loss of access to foreign securities and currencies blocked under sanctions.

In December, European Union countries approved extending a freeze on around €210 billion ($244 billion) of Russian sovereign assets held in the bloc.

The increase in the value of bullion restores most of Russia’s lost financial capacity, even if it doesn’t return the blocked reserves. While securities and cash immobilized in Europe cannot be sold or pledged, gold can still be monetized if needed.”

Chuck again…  See? Gold to the rescue once again! I read a long piece the other day about Turkish people using Gold instead of the currency to get around…   A long time ago, I printed a story from good friend, Michael Checkin of ASI fortune and fame, about how he was involved in Vietnam during the time when the people had to report to the Gov’t what they owned, and those that had Gold were much better off than any ones not owning Gold… I’m going to have to search for that and reprint it for it was so good! 

Market Prices 1/21/2026: American Style: A$.6750, kiwi .5848, C$ .7231, euro 1.1717,  sterling 1.3416, Swiss $1.2643, European Style: rand 16.3512, krone 9.9400, SEK 9.1060, forint 329.16, zloty 3.6087, koruna 20.7826, RUB 77.49, yen 157.89, sing 1.2821, HKD 7.7974, INR 91.70, China 6.9630, peso 17.54, BRL 5.3657, BBDXY 1,204, Dollar Index 98.57, Oil $60.35, 10-year 4.29%, Silver $94.96, Platinum $2,476.00, Palladium $1,878.00, Copper $5.86, and Gold… $4,865

That’s it for today… I’m really, deep down, not a gloom and doom guy.. I may sound like one in the Pfennig from time to time, but someone needs to be honest with you and tell you what’s really going on… I doubt your Wealth Advisor, broker, counselor, would do that… I’m Just saying…. What would you do if you learned that something was going on or about to happen, would you tell everyone you knew?  I’ve been getting outside by the Pool to read sitting in the sun and that makes me feel good… Well, the countdown to spring training has begun. My beloved Cardinals Pitchers and Catchers wil report here in Jupiter, Fla on Feb 11..   That’s less than a month away, and I’m getting all lathered up already! Chicago takes us to the finish line today with their song: 25 or 6 to 4…. I hope you have a Wonderful Wednesday today, and Please Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler

• metals end the week on a down note
• But kick some tail yesterday and last night!

Good Day… And a Tom Terrific Tuesday to you! I hope you had yesterday off work, I sure did! The metals markets didn’t, and that ended up being a good thing! The NFL Conference Championships games are set for this coming weekend. My Bills got hosed by the referees in their loss! Good Games at least. Our Stl Univ Billikens continued their winning ways on Saturday, and my beloved Mizzou Tigers lost on the road in Baton Rouge… UGH! The Rolling Stones greet me this morning with their song: Can’t You Hear Me Knocking?

Yesterday, being a national Holiday in the U.S. meant the stock and bond markets were closed but the metals now traded globally, were doing their very best to make the holiday one to remember! Gold, without intervention, gained $74 on the day to close at $4,672, and Silver gained $4.18 to close at $94.47… These moves were so pronounced to the upside that I fear what the SPTs do to the metals today…  Before I retired last night, I checked to see what the metals were doing, and Silver had already given back $1.21… The STPs are so brazen now that they don’t have to disguise their short selling…. But the Chinese said, “oh no you don’t”… 

Remember last week when I went all postal on TD Securities and their “new short Silver trades”?

I got the biggest kick out of an email that long-time reader and friend, Craig sent to me late last week… Ok, let me set this up…  about two weeks ago, I pointed out that TD Securities were getting back into a short position in Silver and they were calling for Silver to fall to $40.. I also said that I hoped that TD Secs got their A&$^ handed to them…  And guess what? They did! Here’s the title of an article on Kitco.com: “TD Securities takes a second hit on silver short, losing $606k.” I laughed until I cried! Serves them right! 

Apparently, TD Secs put a lot of eggs in the rebalancing basket that didn’t pan out, and now they are getting margin calls out the ears!  

In my humble opinion, I see Silver reaching the $100 figure this coming spring…  so, the folks at TDS had better take those short contracts and tear them up… 

In the overnight markets last night…  Well, the selling stopped I the metals as the Chinese said, “Oh, no you don’t” to the SPTs. Gold is up $55 to start the day, and Silver is up 96-cents… The dollar got ambushed overnight, and the weakness it showed in yesterday’s activity carried over to the overnight markets and the BBDXY starts the day down 4 index points from where it closed yesterday, and that makes the dollar down 7 index points from where it closed last Friday. 

This ends the brief rally that the dollar was in prior to yesterday.  Didn’t I tell you that the dollar’s rally would be short-lived? Sometimes, even I get what’s going on right!  HA! All this Greenland talk really has the metals roaring and the dollar sinking… 

The price of Oil remains trading with a $59 handle to start the day today.  And the 10-year Treasury has really taken off for higher ground… Its yield sits at 4.29% this morning… Yes, I said 4.29%… That’s going the wrong way for the Fed Heads and I’m surprised that they haven’t stepped in to do some yield control… 

In keeping with the BRICS and their desire to unload Treasuries… Business Insider reported that China’s holdings of US treasuries fell to $682.6 billion in November last year, down from $688.7 billion in October, this is a 17-year low…  China instead is filling their coiffures with physical Gold… 

China is doing it why not Americans? Because Americans believe in the dollar and their investment advisors / brokers won’t even begin to tell them that they need to diversify into currencies and metals…   I should know, because I’ve been extolling the benefits of a diversified investment portfolio for over 40 years, and there are still investors that don’t diversify…  

And one of the reasons you might want to be diversified was talked about yesterday in Bill Bonner’s daily letter when he said, “about $105 trillion total debt in the US. Or, about $1.5 million per family. At 4% interest, that would saddle the family with monthly payments — interest only — of about $5,000 per month…or about half of the average family’s take home income.”

Chuck again… YIKES! So why do I think this is a bad thing for the economy to have all that debt? Because to keep the debt cycle going it needs more debt, and more debt etc. and then who’s going to pay for debt servicing?  You guessed right if you said you and me…  in taxes, and then there goes the disposable income being used instead for taxes…  And then… oh, and the bond yields are rising again, which makes this arrangement tricky at best… 

To finance the debt, we must sell Treasuries…  When will other countries no longer finance our debt, things will get real hairy… I think the kindness of strangers is at the edge of being no more, and then the U.S. would have to print dollars to buy their own Treasuries…. And we’ve done that before, only to have money supply explode and bring about inflation that we as a country hadn’t seen since the mid-to-late 70’s.. This time there will be no saviors come riding in on a white horse to save the U.S. economy from collapsing…

And what will you have at your disposal to keep the food on the table, heat in winter, clothes on your children? Gold & Silver…  I’ll say no more…

Speaking of Oil and its price… I found this on X (Twitter) and it speaks volumes… “In the ever-volatile world of oil markets, few voices carry as much weight as that of Harold Hamm, the billionaire wildcatter and founder of Continental Resources. He argued that U.S. shale drillers require oil prices around $80 per barrel to viably develop higher-cost fields beyond the Permian Basin.”

See why I’ve held onto Oil producing countries, Canada and Russia?  The price of Oil will eventually go back to its breakeven price, and I’m counting on that!  

Speaking of the currencies… I’ve read many an article lately calling for the currencies of the world to all collapse…  All at once? C’mon give me a break here… Throw me a bone! Sure, currencies will collapse under the weight of their self-imposed debt debacle, but that’s sometime in the future. Let’s not let that get in the way of a diversifying your investment portfolio with some good ones…  What? You want me to do your homework for you? Well, maybe I’ll give you one off the top…  Singapore (no debt, low yield, but strong manufacuring and exports)…   

I’ve always contended that a currency is the “stock of the country”, and you set your value criteria on the country much like you do a stock when you are looking to buy it…  Debt, yield, leadership, etc.  And when you do this you end up with a handful of currencies for you to look to buy…

Battle Bank has this recent post on LinkedIn: “You know what most Americans are overexposed to?

No, it’s not cable news reruns. It’s USD.

– Your travel plans: dollars.

– Your vacation home: dollars.

– The grandkids’ birthday gifts? All dollars.

When everything in your financial life depends on a single currency, that’s not stability — that’s risk in disguise. “

Chuck again… yes, Frank Trotter and I used to extoll the virtues of diversification with currencies and metals, and now Frank is continuing that mantra at Battle Bank…  if you haven’t already checked them out here you go: www.battlebank.com

The U.S. Data Cupboard doesn’t have much for us today or tomorrow… But Wednesday will bring the latest FOMC Meeting and rate announcement… No one is talking about this meeting, and that concerns me a bit… Will the Fed Heads cut rates again this month, or will they delay the inevitable? Rate cuts are coming, so why not make them now and get them over with?   I’m just saying…

To recap… The week ended last on a down note in Gold & Silver, but yesterday’s price movement was spectacular for metals owners… Chuck is concerned about what the SPTs will do today, after yesterday’s gains. $80 is the break even for the oil producers, so why is it $11 below that figure?  Chuck believes that the price of Oil will return to is break even price, eventually…  And Chuck talks about how the debt is going to be our ruin as an economy…   

For What It’s Worth… This came to me by way of the good folks at GATA… They found it here: telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/01/15/trumps-role-in-staggering-rise-of-worlds-oldest-currency/

Or, here’s your snippet: “Sell the dollar, buy gold. Few investment strategies have worked better than this over the first year of Donald Trump’s second presidency, and it looks set to continue that way.

In the past year the dollar has undergone its worst overall devaluation since the 1970s. At the same time, the price of gold has surged nearly 75% to record highs.

No commodity acts better than gold as insurance against inflation, financial instability, and geopolitical turmoil.

Call it Trump Derangement Syndrome if you like, but financial markets are increasingly betting on all three.

Almost everything the Trump White House does seems deliberately designed to undermine the dollar, last weekend’s renewed attack on the independence of the Federal Reserve being only the latest example.”

Chuck again… Ahh, back to normal TWIW articles! I remember following Bill Bonner’s trade of the decade in the early 2000’s… Sell dollars, buy Gold…  I’m forever grateful to Bill for that reccomendation… I’ve been a Gold Bug since then… I remember at our usual Friday watering hole, many years ago, telling the boys to buy Gold, and they all looked at me like a deer in headlights… Then a few years later the boys were discussing what they should buy, and my good friend, Duane, said, “if we had listened to Chuck we would all be much richer!”…   I got the biggest kick out of that and will remember it for years to come for sure! 

Market Prices 1/20/2026: American Style: A$.6733, kiwi .5836, C$ .7234, euro 1.1727,  sterling 1.3466, Swiss $1.2659, European Style: rand 16.7332, krone 10.0125, SEK 9.1282,  forint 328.98, zloty 3.6057, koruna 20.7467, RUB 77.85, yen 157.85, sing 1.2824, HKD 7.7983, INR 90.97, China 6.9541, peso 17.61, BRL 5.3656, BBDXY 1,204, BBDXY 98.49, Oil $59.57, 10-year 4.29%, Silver $95,43, Platinum $2,417.00, Palladium $1,888.00, Copper $5.85, and Gold… $4,728

That’s it for today… Today is my good friend Kevin’s Birthday! Happy Birthday Webbie! I hope your day is grande! You have now caught up with Kathy! In age that is…  Duane, you’re next!  Congrats to Indiana U. For their win in the National Championship Game for college football last night….  I really thought that Miami had a chance, but that was not to be.. Well, we’re one month away from the start of Spring Training games… They start earlier every year, and end earlier too!  Spring Training games will be over before my birthday! I hope that nothing happened to me health-wise so I can celebrate my birthday this year… Last year, I celebrated my 70^th birthday in hospital! Boy was that fun…. NOT! Dion takes us to the finish line today with his hit song: Runaround Sue….  I hope you have a Tom Terrific Tuesday today, and Please Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler

• Metals have a banner day on Wednesday
• But in the overnight markets they see selling…

Good Day… And a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday to one and all! I have another very long FWIW for you today, so same-o, same-o stuff for the Pfennig today and then the FWIW article…  I don’t like to have the FWIW article have so much of the letter, but these last two days, they’ve been at the top of my mind, and ergo, the longer than usual FWIW articles…  I’ll return next week with normal Pfennigs, and a lot of Chuck speak, so get ready for that! Uriah Heep greets me this morning with their great song: Stealin’…   

Well, the dollar didn’t gain again yesterday and instead gave back 1 index point in the BBDXY to 1,210. The Data yesterday indicates that the Fed Heads might have to cool the economy a bit this year with rate hikes… The November Retail Sales came in at +.6% yesterday… Yes, Nov. Was the beginning of the Christmas Sales so there’s that!  Housing Starts were up too 5.1%, and the PPI (wholesale inflation) was up 3% year on year in Nov.  I’m not saying that the economy is roaring, what I’m saying is that the economy is good in parts and not good in other parts with more other parts being the key here…  And when I say the Fed Heads might need to apply the brakes later this year, I’m really addressing those parts that are going good… 

Gold & Silver took off for the moon yesteday, with Silver outperforming Gold once again. Silver gained $5.93 to close at $93.35, and Gold gained $50 to close at $4,627… Pretty amazing what these metals have done in the last year and less than a month…  The thing that caught my attention is that it seemed to me that the Short metals paper traders were going to step in front of this runaway bus and stop their respective gains… 

The price of Oil dipped back below the $61 handle yesterday, and closed at $60.20… The 10-year Treasury saw some additional buying yesterday as its yield dropped to 4.14%… 

In the overnight markets last night… The dollar drifted around and stayed within the 1,210 figure in the BBDXY.  And before I retired last night, I did a quick check on the metals and saw that they were getting hammered. I said to myself, “looks like the SPTs are having their way with the metals” I absolutely loved this line from Ed Steer, talking about the manipulation in the metals… ” The price management has been so obvious recently, that even Stevie Wonder could see it.”  – Ed Steer from www.edsteergoldsilver.com

Ed goes on to say, “And as Ted Butler pointed out on more than one occasion over the years…”one must never underestimate their treachery”…as they are strong with the dark side of The Force.”   

But as the night went on, the selling abated and the SPTs made the downward move look like profit taking… Gold is down $11 to start our day today, and Silver is down $2.38…  When you outperform on the upside, you get to outperform on the downside too…  The old, what’s good for the Goose thing… 

The price of Oil remained trading with a $60 handle overnight, and the 10-year starts today trading with a 4.14% yield…   See? Even the bond boys are on board with the idea that the interest rate will be cut a couple of times in 20226… 

This brief new mini rally by the dollar has me stumped… All the talk about interest rates is centered around the idea of more rate cuts coming in 2026, so where’s the “looking forward” for traders?  Gets me, for sure…  The mini rally has to be the PPT and their exchange stabilization funds making certain that the dollar doesn’t fall into a chasm… an abyss… a hole that it can’t climb out of! 

That day will come, I do believe, that no amount of funds in the ESF is going to help the dollar, but in this case, we have to be patient, and amass our Gold & Silver holdings to make sure we’re diversified and that our protection against a falling dollar is in place… You can do this by contacting my old metals guru, Tim Smith at Battle Bank… Yes, he’s there now, and I’m so happy that he got out of the clutches of EverBank (TIAA) …   You can email him at: GlobalMarkets@Battlebank.com    

Do you recall me saying over and over again about how the higher interest rates that we had for a short period were going to really cause the U.S. to have to spend more on bond servicing (interest) than ever?  Well, the U.S. has hit that target right smack dab on the nose… This from Forbes.com “Treasury spent $276 billion in interest on the national debt in the final three months of 2025, says the CBO—up $30 billion from a year prior.   Uh-Oh! Mom, it’s happening! Our Empire is going to be circling the bowl soon… Are you ready?

One of these days… Yes, one of these days I’m going to report to you that the SPT’s have given up the ship and are allowing gains in the metals without intervention… But, until then, we will have to endure days like this where the SPTs take over the metals and their prices for the day….  I say, to just either ignore the SPTs or, just used their cheaper value to buy more metals… I’m just saying.

Well, I don’t know if this falls under Data or just plain stupid information, but I read in Ed Steer’s letter yesterday that: “I received a phone call from Dr. Dave Janda yesterday — and he informed me that JPMorgan is closing its safety deposit box program on a national level at all its banks in all states of the Union. All box holders must clear them out by April 2. I just can’t imagine why they’re doing it — and I’m wondering what excuse they’re going to dream up, because it’s a pure profit center for them …as it is for any bank.”

Chuck again… I think that JPM will find that there are boxes that remain and no one claims them, then they can take them over… At least that’s my thought on why their doing this…  What’s yours? I don’t believe in keeping anything in a bank’s safe deposit box… Remember the Canadian Truckers? That wasn’t that long ago… And there are stories of coming into a bank and finding the whole wall of safe deposit boxes gone… YIKES!  Well, this is a public service announcement… Should you find the bank has done nefarious things with your safe deposit box, there are lawyers who specialize in these proceedings… contact one and have at the bank! 

So, I do know that this does….  from Reuters.com: “High-end department store conglomerate Saks Global filed for bankruptcy protection in one of the largest retail collapses since the pandemic, barely a year after a deal that brought Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus ‌under the same roof.” 

Chuck again… WOW! See what I mean that some areas of the economy aren’t doing so well?

The U.S. Data Cupboard yesterday had all the prints I talked about above and then some.. Today, we will see the color of the Initial Weekly Jobless Claims and that’s it… There is a plethora of Fed Heads out talking today, so more lies will be put upon us to deal with… 

To recap… What a grand day for the metals yesterday, only to have the stuffing knocked out of them by the SPTs in the overnight markets…  Gold & Silver were knocked backward last night, after setting new all-time records for price during the day. Chuck suggests that you either batten down the hatches, or dip your toes in the cheaper prices for the metals this morning… The selling of the metals could have also been tied up in that index rebalancing I told you about on Monday this week.  Either way, it won’t be long before the metals get right back on their rally horses…. I would think any way…

For What It’s Worth… I saw this on the economy here in the U.S. and thought, “This is what I’ve been saying for so long now, and maybe the readers will believe someone else’s viewpoint”… And you can find it here: This Money Expert Is Sending Warning Signs About the Economy — and How To Protect Yourself

Or, here’s your snippet: “Several money experts have sounded the alarm, warning that today’s economy isn’t as strong as some headlines suggest. Although the stock market continues to hit record highs, those gains are concentrated among a small group of companies, according to financial influencer Jaspreet Singh.

But that’s not all. The average American, Singh said, is slowly becoming poorer as prices rise due to inflation and the job market continues to slow down due to artificial intelligence.

Only a Few Companies Carry the Stock Market

“The news keeps talking about how corporations are seeing record profits, which is helping the stock market break new record highs,” said Singh in his YouTube video. “But we’re actually seeing a divergence here where a few select companies are carrying the market while the rest of the stock market is actually slowing down.”

More specifically, Meta, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla — collectively known as the “Magnificent Seven” — grew earnings by about 14.9% in the third quarter of 2025, Singh said.

By comparison, the other 493 companies in the S&P 500 grew earnings by just 6.7%. While the Magnificent Seven are growing much faster than the historical 10-year average quarterly growth rate of 9.2%, the remaining companies are growing significantly more slowly.

While the Magnificent 7 are growing much faster than the historical 10-year average quarterly growth rate of 9.2%, the other 493 are growing much more slowly.

The Broader Market Is Falling Behind

The concern isn’t that some companies are outperforming others, Singh explained. The warning sign is that most of the market is growing more slowly than usual, while just seven companies are propping it up.

“These seven companies by themselves make up around 33% of the entire value of the S&P 500,” Singh said. “And this is where things start to become risky because if one of these seven companies doesn’t do good, not only is it bad for that company and those employees, but now it could bring down the entire stock market because it has such a big weight relative to the general stock market.”

J.P. Morgan predicts that the Magnificent 7 will see roughly 20% earnings per share (EPS) growth in 2026, a faster rate than the S&P 500’s 13% to 15% EPS, as reported by Forbes.

Easy Money Is Inflating Risk

Another concern Singh raised was whether we’re in a stock market bubble, since only a few high-valuation companies drive the market.”

Chuck again.. See? Exactly what I’ve been saying all along! The economy is good in parts but very bad in others and a lot of others!  And the debt is the number one problem, followed by inflation… I’m just saying

Market Prices 1/15/2026: American Style: A$ .6692, kiwi .5745, C$ .7194, euro 1.1634, sterling 1.3416, Swiss $1.2487, European Style: rand 16.3622, krone 10.0687, SEK 9.1858, forint 331.26, zloty 3.6180, koruna 20.8535, RUB 78.56, yen 158.45, sing 1.2894, HKD 7.7994, INR 90.29, China 6.9671, peso 17.78, BRL 5.3865, BBDXY 1,210, Dollar Index 99.18, Oil $60.01, 10-year 4.14%, Silver $90.97, Platinum $2,373.00, Palladium $1,831.00, Copper $6.00, and Gold….  $4,616

That’s it for today, and this week… There’s a holiday on Monday so… no Pfennig… We’ll pick it back up on Tuesday next week. My beloved Mizzou Tigers came home and played Auburn last night and won the game.  Our St Louis Billikens also came home and won their game VS Fordham…  I’m so glad that I can stream my TV provider from home, here and get the games!  It’s so much better to watch the games on my TV than my iPhone! Dennis Miller called last week, and we talked for a long time regarding what things could stop Silver. He wrote about that in his letter this week, so look for that today! Procol Harum takes us to the finish line today with their song: Whiter Shade of Pale…  I hope you have a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday today and Please Be Good To Yourself! 

Chuck Butler

• Currencies get sold on Tuesday
• The metals are soaring in the overnight markets

Good Day… And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! Well, more lies and false numbers ruled the day in the markets yesterday… I’ll have more on that a minute… Our Blues played in Miami last night, and they shocked me and the rest of the NHL with a 3-0 win over the best team in the NHL… But that’s the Blues… play to the level of your competition…   Sweet greets me this morning with their song: Love Is Like Oxygen… 

Just whom do the BLS think they are fooling with their STUPID CPI report? I don’t get it, I mean, I think even the Fed Heads know their report is a bunch of lies…  This is really getting ridiculous…  The BLS reported that inflation remained at 2.7% year on year, while John Williams says that inflation is really 16%…  Who will you believe? I know whom I’m going to believe, and that’s John Williams of shadowstats.com who calculates inflation the way it was calculated before Bill Clinton, Alan Greenspan, and the Boston Commission started to change the way it was calculated… They provided tons of hedonic adjustments so that inflation would look lower, and the Fed would cut rates and make housing more affordable…  That’s the story behind the change, and it’s fact, folks… 

So, the dollar bugs went all-in on the dollar, because if inflation, per the BLS, is not a problem then there would be no more rate cuts, and that’s good for the dollar… And the BBDXY immediately gained 2 index points and finished the day up 2 in the BBDXY at 1,211. And history is about to repeat itself… The rates have already been cut, so housing is going to go through the roof again if not already, and when the ride comes to stop… We’ll see Armageddon in the markets and economy… But don’t let me get in the way of a “feel good story about how inflation fell”….  

Gold fell early in the morning on Tuesday, but then rallied to a level of $4,644, but then the STUPID CPI printed, and the SPTs decided to make the Gold bugs pay for thinking inflation was a problem. Silver took off early in the morning, and never looked back as it nears $90 an ounce…  Gold closed yesterday at $4,587 and Silver at $87.07… I do have to say that China taking over control of the Silver price has proved to be quite beneficial to Silver, eh?  The FWIW article today is about owning physical Gold VS other types of Gold (paper, ETFs, etc.) So, hold on to your horses until you get there, you will, as long as you keep reading! 

The price of Oil stayed above the $60 handle yesterday, and it now appears that the price of Oil is going to remain higher than the mid-$50’s it has been stuck at for some time now… So much for going out and buying another gas guzzler!  HA!  The 10-year Treasury’s yield had touched on 4.20% and then it wasn’t, after the STUPID CPI printed… Everyone and their brother knows that the STUPID CPI is a great BIG LIE!  But, the bond boys have to play the game sometimes… I’m just saying… 

In the overnight markets last night…  Gold & Silver took off for the moon early in the night, and remained at lofty levels throughout the night…  And the dollar drifted…  Like I said yesterday, I don’t see what the dollar bugs are seeing in the dollar right now but I’m a sure as the sun will come out in S. Florida, that this brief rally will be short lived, so batten down the hatches and ride this dollar storm out..  That’s my Pfennig worth.. 

Gold is up $48 to start the day today, and Silver is up a whopping $3.25… The large moves in Silver have me a bit concerned, but not too much.. I just get a little leery at  an asset that continues to jump higher by large margins…  But I’m going to put that leeriness aside this time and enjoy Silver’s path to $100….  Yes, I do believe that Silver will be trading with a $100 handle by March… I guess we’ll see, eh?

The price of Oil bumped higher yet again last night and trades this morning with a $61 handle…. Seems strange doesn’t it considering that just a week ago, the doom and gloom were all over the price of Oil, and then it wasn’t…  And the 10-year’s yield continued to see some downward pressure from buying overnight with the yield falling to 4.15%… 

And the dollar buying stopped overnight once again… The BBDXY starts the day down 1 index point at 1,210, and the feel in the markets is that the dollar ran too far, too fast… I guess we’ll see, eh?

The U.S. Data Cupboard has the delayed Retail Sales report from Nov. This morning… I don’t even recall what the BHI indicated during Nov. I do believe that I gave it the month off, since the Gov’t was in shutdown…  

Furthermore, on yesterday’s STUPID CPI…  OK, here’s the skinny on how the STUPID CPI came in lower in this report…  Back in Rocktober and November, there was no CPI report because of the Gov’t Shutdown, but the BLS not having any hard numbers to fudge, used their best estimations of what the numbers would have been and then carried those numbers forward to the Dec report that printed today and showed that inflation had gained .3% but remained at 2.7% year on year…  And their estimations caused that inflation would show at 2.7%..  Pretty useless in my humble opinion, but the markets seem to have their minds taken over, much like the sea witch in the old Popeye cartoons, when she would send out her sound, and Popeye would become entranced with it, and follow it anywhere…  That’s the markets reaction to the STUPID CPI every darn time! 

To recap… the dollar continued to get bought yesterday, and Chuck doesn’t have a clue as to why the dollar bugs are so adamant about buying dollars right now, but he believes that it will be short-lived, so… batten down the hatches and only open them when he gives the all clear…   Or, you could buy the dips in the currencies and get them cheaper than they were to start the week… 

For What It’s Worth… Well, years ago while speaking at a conference, I told the audience that to own Gold, you had to buy physical Gold, and not ETFs… I had a man confront me afterwards and yell at me for saying that, because he believed that an ETF was as good as physical Gold…   Well, I told him that we would agree to disagree and walked away…. I’ve always contended that you don’t really own paper Gold… And then I saw this from Doug Casey’s International Man site, and said, “where was this when I used to sell Gold?”  It’s about the danger of paper Gold and it can be found here: The Danger of Paper Gold – Doug Casey’s International Man

Or, here’s your snippet: “To those who are new to gold ownership (and I believe their numbers will soon be increasing exponentially), it would seem perfectly reasonable that gold could be purchased as simply as buying any commodity. If, for example, someone were to want to buy an apple, he would simply go to the grocery store and pay the price marked on the apple bin. If, however, he wanted quite a lot of apples, he might go to several stores and have a look at the prices marked, then choose the lowest price. Looked at from this perspective, it seems perfectly reasonable that the purchase of gold would not be significantly more complicated.

However, our local grocer, unfortunately, does not have bins full of Krugerrands and Maple Leafs with prices marked above them. While we sometimes have the opportunity to buy gold from private parties or coin dealers in which a selling price is stated up front, most gold purchases are done through middlemen (banks, investment funds, etc.) who do not actually own the gold they are selling. The middlemen, understandably, are forever seeking ways to maximise their profits on the transactions, and this has led to the number of permutations that exist today.

Risky Business

One of the riskiest of these, to my mind, is the Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), investment funds traded on stock exchanges. Not surprisingly, this method of purchase is the favorite of stockbrokers. It is an easy sell for them, since it is structured by the way stocks are structured. It therefore seems safe to stock investors. It is not.

With most stocks, the buyer owns a portion of the company, rather than a specific number of the products that the company deals in. When investing in a fund, the fund generally owns a portion of the companies it has invested in. With buying gold through ETFs, however, the buyer is under the impression that he has bought the actual product, when he has not. In many cases, the fund does not have possession of the gold. Therefore, the buyer has bought the “promise” of future ownership.”

Chuck again…  Now, that wasn’t that long of a FWIW as I thought, as I left a lot of the article alone, but I gave you the gist…  he goes on to talk about how when the supply depletes, the ETFs will be the first to be sold…  and you won’t have anything to say about that! And again, if it’s not in your pocket or safe, etc. whatever, you don’t own it…  

Markets Prices 1/14/2026: American Style: A$ .6688, kiwi .5741, C$ .7200, euro 1.1655, sterling 1.3455, Swiss $1.2482, European Style: rand 16.4094, krone 10. 0688, SEK 9.2007,  forint 331.00, zloty 3.6142, koruna 20.7792, RUB 78.54, yen 157.68, sing 1.2878, HKD 7.7974, INR 90.29, China 6.9732, peso 17.82, BRL 5.3737, BBDXY 1,210, Dollar Index 90.32,  Oil $61.88 10-year 4.15%, Silver $90.32, Platinum $2,405.00, Palladium $1,851.00, Copper $6.06, and Gold… $4,636

That’s it for today… The first week of weather down here was absolutely beautiful, but now we’re seeing , so winter in S. Florida… Lots of rain, and no 80’s… This will be over soon, if past years down here are any indication and I believe they will be… Rams VS Bears, and 49ers VS Seahawks in the NFC, and The Bills VS Broncos and Texans VS Patriots are the teams that will square off in this weekend’s playoff games…  I don’t see how any team scores on the Texans defense.. But I’m hoping that the Bills make it to the Super Bowl…   Mungo Jerry takes us to the Finish Line today with his one-hit wonder song: In The Summertime…  I hope you have a Wonderful Wednesday today and Please Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler

• metals take no names!
• The manipulation of metals continues

Good Day… And a Tom Terrific Tuesday to you!   I have a very long FWIW for you today… I’ll give a recap of the markets I follow and then onto the FWIW… Bill Weathers greets me this morning with his song: Lovely Day… 

Yesterday, in the markets, the dollar recovered the index point in the BBDXY that it had lost the night before, and ended the day at 1,209…  The metals were quite busy yesterday with large gains, and large, short sales butting heads… Gold round up closing up $88 to close at $4,598… And Silver, closed up $5.43 to end at $85.39…  Both Gold & Silver were up much larger amounts, before the SPTs stepped in to make sure that Gold didn’t close above $4,600 and Silver above $86… But they did still have banner days, and we can’t get all too upset about the SPT’s move… 

Here’s Kitco.com’s Jim Wycoff, “Keen rtisk aversion in markets as Federal Reserve served grand jury subpoenas. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Sunday the U.S. Department of Justice has served the Federal Reserve with subpoenas and threatened it with a criminal indictment over Powell’s testimony last summer about the Fed’s building renovations. “The move represents an unprecedented escalation in President Donald Trump’s battle with the Fed, an independent agency he has repeatedly attacked for not cutting its key interest rate as sharply as he prefers,” said the Associated Press.”

Chuck again… first, geopolitical saber rattling pushed the metals higher on Sunday night, and then yesterday we had this nonsense going on and the markets freaked out…    I read where the next stop for Gold is $4,770…  Gold would take that out in a NY Minute, if not for SPTs! 

Two weeks into 2026, and Gold & Silver seem to have weathered the early headwinds of tax loss selling, portfolio rebalancing and precious-metal volatility with three new all-time-highs, I can’t wait to see where they go from here… 

And the shortage in Silver that I’ve talked about for a few years now, is really beginning to show its cards… here’s moneymetals.com with a thought on Silver: “The underlying issue is that there are true shortages beginning to manifest.

Silver demand has outstripped supply for four straight years, and the Silver Institute projects that 2025 will be the fifth. The structural market deficit came in at 148.9 million ounces in 2024. That drove the four-year market shortfall to 678 million ounces, the equivalent of 10 months of mining supply in 2024.

This inventory tightness globally seems to have created an unusual setup in COMEX futures, as investors appear to be moving March contracts backward to January and February.”  

This shortage is real folks, and should underpin Silver all the way up until the shortage is resoloved. I’ve always kept this lesson from my dad in mind… There are no such things as shortages, only items that are need of a price adjustment…  And Silver is finally getting its price adjustment! 

The price of Oil bumped back higher to a $59 handle yesterday, and the 10-year continued to rise, ending the day trading with a 4.18% yield… 

In the overnight markets last night… the dollar continued on its way to a brief rally, as it gained another index point to start the day at 1,210…  I don’t get why the dollar bugs have decided to push up the dollar at this time, but it is what it is…  Gold is seeing some profit taking this morning is down $$13 to start the day, and Silver is on the rally tracks again this morning and is up $41 -cents this morning.  

The price of Oil has risen to trade with a $60 handle overnight…  And the Petrol Currencies are liking the rise in price for sure!  The leader of the Petrol Currencies is the Russian ruble, so there’s that…  And the 10-year’s yield has risen to a 4.20% yield…  The bond boys are really pushing the envelope here with the Fed Heads, don’t you think? I do, and that’s all that matters here.. HAHAHAHA! 

The U.S. Data Cupboard sees the STUPID CPI for Dec this morning, So get ready for a piece of data that’s full of lies and false numbers.. That’s what the markets get all giddy about… I don’t think they really think about what’s in the soup… I’m just saying… 

To recap… The dollar pushed higher yesterday after getting sold the previous night. The metals kicked some dollar tail yesterday and took names later… Gold closed up $88 and Silver $5.43, but their respective gains would have been even greater if for no STPs entering the markets…  I read where the next stop for Gold is $4,770… If for no STPs, Gold would take that out soon enough! 

For What It’s Worth… I’ve waited for years for Kitco.com to print an article that talks of price manipulation in the metals, and finally, I saw one! The Good folks at GATA sent me this and I immediately went to the site and read it… This is a great article and it can be found here: Silver price suppression: is the bull still roaring or the bear reawakening? | Kitco News

Or, here’s your snippet: “Silver was among the best-performing asset classes of 2025, alongside platinum and gold mining equities. With gains of 148% in U.S. Dollar terms and 118% in Euro terms, the precious metal significantly outperformed equity markets as well as Bitcoin. The rally was particularly pronounced in December, when silver surged by 25% alone. Both December and the full year 2025 ended with silver priced at $71.50 per troy ounce.

At its peak, silver temporarily reached $84 per ounce, and in China even the equivalent of $89 per ounce. Notably, the previous nominal high from 1980 – $54.50 per ounce – had only been exceeded a few weeks earlier.

This spectacular rally until shortly after Christmas was abruptly interrupted. On Monday, December 29, silver fell by nearly 10% within just over an hour during early morning trading in Australia. This sharp decline raises important questions, most notably whether the move may have been driven by deliberate price manipulation.

A Brief History of Precious Metals Price Manipulation

Price manipulation in the precious metals markets is not a rumor; it has been established repeatedly in courts of law. Fines and settlement payments in the tens and hundreds of millions of dollars have been imposed on institutions such as Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, and Scotiabank. In several cases, multi-year prison sentences were handed down to individuals involved in the manipulation of precious metals prices. Most cases involved downward price pressure rather than upward distortion. In addition to private actors, government institutions have also influenced prices, most notably the gold price.

On August 5, 1993, the longest systematic suppression of the gold price began. It lasted for more than two decades. Initially, it prevented gold from trading above $400 per ounce until 1996 and subsequently pushed the price down to around $250 per ounce by 2001. Price interventions also occurred during the gold bull market after 2001, when prices eventually rose to nearly $2,000 per ounce by 2011. During that phase, the objective was not to stop the overall upward trend, but rather to prevent excessively rapid price increases occurring at sensitive times – particularly during crises, presumably to calm market participants.

One explicit motive for price suppression was articulated by then-Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on May 18, 1993, nearly three months before the start of the suppression campaign. His statement can be found in minutes published five years later. He said the following in the context of inflationary risks, with the word “thermometer” referring to the price of gold: “If we are dealing with psychology, then the thermometers one uses to measure it have an effect. I was raising the question on the side with Governor Mullins of what would happen if the Treasury sold a little gold in this market. There’s an interesting question here because if the gold price broke in that context, the thermometer would not be just a measuring tool. It would basically affect the underlying psychology.” Greenspan was thus contemplating gold sales to prevent a rapidly rising price, as such a move would have signaled inflation. The intention was to dampen inflation expectations and, in turn, influence the behavior of savers, businesses, and workers.

Price manipulation can therefore influence precious metals markets for many years, making it one of the most important factors affecting the price. For investors, this raises the question of whether the late-December 2025 price decline was manipulated – and to what extent similar interventions could shape prices in the coming months. In recent years, such manipulations have become relatively rare, with only a few suspected cases. Notably, during silver’s surge to its 2011 high, prices were not suppressed; however, afterwards, the market was demonstrably subjected to systematic manipulation.

Unlike consumable commodities, precious metals can be suppressed for extended periods by influencing inventory and storage dynamics. In contrast, attempts to suppress prices in crude oil, for example, would quickly lead to increased consumption, thereby counteract the effect. I have discussed precious metals manipulation in detail in my book The Gold Cartel (Palgrave Macmillan). The Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee has been investigating gold price manipulation since 1998.

Intraday Price Action in Late December 2025

Let us turn to silver’s price behavior near its year-end high in 2025. The chart illustrates the intraday spot silver price movement from Tuesday, December 23, through the holiday-shortened session on Wednesday, December 24, and the subsequent trading day on Friday, December 26, extending to Sunday, December 28, 2025, when the price peak occurred. All intraday prices are shown in New York time. As a result, price data already appears on Sunday afternoon, corresponding to the start of Monday morning trading in Australia, while it is still Sunday on the U.S. East Coast.

Silver at its 2025 high, in U.S. Dollar per troy ounce, December 23-28, 2025

It is clearly visible how the price surged sharply in a short period of time from $72 per troy ounce on Wednesday before the Christmas day to $84 per ounce after the weekend on Sunday in New York (Monday morning in Australia). This was followed by the previously mentioned sharp decline during early morning trading in Australia, when silver fell by nearly 10% within just over an hour.”

Chuck again… This article goes on, and I highly recommend you clicking the link above and reading it in its entirety… 

Market Prices 1/13/2026: American Style: A$ .6701, kiwi .5760, C$ .7204, euro 1.1662, sterling 1.3468, Swiss $1.2522, European Style: rand 16.4577, krone 10.0954, SEK 9.1895,  forint 331.48, zloty 3.6100, koruna 20.7892, RUB 78.59, yen 158.90, sing 1.2873, HKD 7.8021, INR 90.19, China 6.9756, peso 17.91, BRL 5.3804, BBDXY 1,210, Dollar Index 98.97, Oil $60.58, 10-year 4.20%, Silver $85.80, Platinum $2,347.00, Palladium $1,857.00, Copper $6.06, and Gold… $4,586

That’s it for today…  The Divisional Rounds of the NFL Playoffs are set…  The games on Sat and Sun were outstanding, except the last game, which was a dud… We got a new cable system here and had to have a technician come out and activate it… he said, “Well, so far they can’t replace me with AI”… I said, not yet! My wife gave me the “I can’t believe you just said that look”… Oh well, I call ’em the way I see ’em… that’s for sure! The Outsiders take us to the finish line today with their song: Time Won’t Let Me… I hope you have a Tom Terrific Tuesday today, and Please Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler

• Metals end the week strong…
• The shorts are dwindling…

Good Day… And a Marvelous Monday to you! What a beautiful week that just ended yesterday, weather-wise down here… All seashells and balloons…Today, is my oldest son’s Birthday… Happy Birthday, Andrew!  My digestive system problems have abated, and if I felt any better, I would go out dancing! (not really, but you get the gist) The National Championship College Football Game is set… The current powerhouse Indiana team VS the former powerhouse team Miami… I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a college team so dominant as Indiana… Just shows to go ya, that money buys good football players… I’m just saying… The Beatles greet me this morning with their song: Golden Slumbers…

Well, The Jobs Jamboree last Friday, was not a good reading, but the dollar bugs latched onto it and said, “with no labor disaster, the Fed Heads will pause rate cuts” and with that the dollar rallied going into the weekend the BBDXY stood at 1,209…  That’s a far cry from the dollar’s year-end figure of 1,198…  Here’s the skinny on the Jobs Jamboree: 

the BLS reported that in December the US gained 50K jobs…  And here’s where the games are played with the numbers… The change in total non-farm payroll employment for October was revised down by 68,000, from -105,000 to -173,000, and the change for November was revised down by 8,000, from +64,000 to +56,000. With these revisions, employment in October and November combined is 76,000 lower than previously reported. So, their monthly prints of jobs created have now been revised lower in every single month of 2025. 

So, back to their old Job Creation tricks for the BLS… Report a strong number one month and revise it downward the following months under the guise of “it’s just a revision”… But, the markets don’t care about revisions, their only focus is on what’s going on now…   So, I’d bet a shiny quarter that this month’s 50K total will be revised downward next month, if I were a betting man… 

Oh, and this last thing about employment in 2025… Last year was the worst year for job creation since 2009, excluding the 2020 pandemic year. Now, that’s saying something, and once again I will point out that the Fed/Cabal/Cartel’s rate cuts aren’t going to help this scenario one iota!   But I’m just a lonely voice out in the wilderness trying to get my point across, but the markets don’t listen…. I’m just saying… 

And the rate cuts debase the dollar, and… invite inflation into the country…  But the Fed Heads don’t care about inflation right now… Their absence of mind will come back to haunt them, but we’ll have to wait for that… 

Gold & Silver didn’t care about false numbers and recovered the selloff from Thursday for Silver… Gold had rallied $23 on Thursday, but many dollars from its intraday high, as the SPTs took aim at Gold’s rally…  To me, it was interesting that the SPTs laid into Gold, but allowed it to close above $4,500 on the day… The brunt of their selling was in Silver, and Silver lost $1.22 on the day… But as I just said, on Friday, Silver recovered its loss and gained $2.87 to end the week at $79.96, and Gold gained $31 to end the week at $4,510… 

My good friends, and former publishers, The Aden Sisters are true believers of the charts, and they told their readers last week that, “Gold, meanwhile, remains firmly near the highs.   The market will remain very strong by staying above $69 for silver, $4300 for gold, 690 for the HUI index, $1770 for platinum, and $1650 for palladium.”

And this from Kitco.com: “The resilience of silver has been particularly impressive as short-term downside risks have started to pile up in the marketplace. The gray metal has bounced back from its sharp drop last week after the CME Group raised margin requirements to tamp down speculative momentum.

 For many analysts the play book that they were using last year remains relevant, which means dips will be bought fairly quickly.

Specifically for silver, it is difficult to see any significant downside as industrial consumption and investor demand continue to compete for dwindling supplies. No silver mine can be built in the next couple of months to alleviate the ongoing supply crunch — no matter how much the market might wish otherwise. “

Chuck again… I know, a long-winded start to the letter today with the metals, but I needed to get all that in for you someplace, so why not at the beginning?

And my good friend, and former Big Boss, Frank Trotter, the lead man at Battle Bank, sent me this from Grant’s letter: “Index-tracking commodity focused funds are unloading $5.6 billion in gold and $6.1 billion in silver holdings over the week through Jan. 15 as part of their annual rebalancing, analysts at JPMorgan calculate, after the major price run-ups pushed that cohort’s holdings above their target allocation”

Chuck again, that means… That there will be pressure on the metals this week, and will require tons of physical demand to offset it…  So, don’t panic if you see some drops this week, they won’t last long, in my humble opinion…. 

The price of Oil bumped higher to end the week with a $59 handle…  And the 10-year ended the week trading with a 4.17% yield… 

The other item that I wanted to mention this morning regarding metals is that from the looks of the days to cover graph that Ed Steer provides every Saturday in his letter, www.edsteergoldsilver.com. The days of production in Silver have fallen from the 180’s a few months ago, to a 128 as of last week… That means the short positions are either maturing or getting closed out… And the latter of the two is what I think is going on… I’ve talked about a “short squeeze” and this report really illustrates that… Silver is the item that gets sold short the most… It is reported that Bank of America has one heck of a short position, and then there’s JP Morgan’s short position that is monstrous… They reported that the closed out their shorts, but I don’t believe them one iota… But the key here for Silver is that the shorts are dwindling… And that’s a really good thing!

In the overnight markets last night…  the dollar got sold and it appears that its brief return to the rally wagon is over… The BBDXY starts the day/ week at 1,208, and the currencies have been awakened.  The metals are screaming higher to start the day/ week this morning… Gold is up $76, and Silver is up $4.19!  Copper is roaring again, and so is Platinum and Palladium.  There was more saber rattling from the U.S. over the weekend and those geopolitical problems are really fueling the run upward of the metals this morning.  Tje folks in the Eurozone are not taking the POTUS’s comments about Greenland as false bravado, and are really steamed about his comments… This is going to get very interesting, don’t you think?

The price of Oil slipped back to start the day/ week with a $58 handle… And the 10-year Treasury’s yield is on the rise again and starts the day/ week trading with a 4.17% yield…  I have something for you later on Treasuries, so stay tuned, same Bat Time, same Bat Channel. 

I mentioned inflation above… and I came across this on Kitco.com: “Year-ahead inflation expectations in January held steady at 4.2%. “This is the lowest reading since January 2025 but remains well above that month’s 3.3%,” Hsu wrote. “Long-run inflation expectations ticked up slightly from 3.2% in December to 3.4% this month. In comparison, readings ranged between 2.8 and 3.2% in 2024, and were below 2.8% throughout 2019 and 2020.” -Kitco.com

Chuck again… That’s quite a rise from 3.3% to 4.2% in inflation, don’t you think? And the Fed Heads keep cutting interest rates… Go Figure… 

With the dollar back on the rally wagon, again…  The currencies were all looking pekid again… For instance, for a couple of days last week the A$ rose above the .67-cent figure, but then retreated…  The euro had been flexing its muscles above the 1.17 figure, but now the euro too has retreated… So, this is was just another of those short term rallies for the dollar, in my opinion… The dollar has too many other problems to deal with… And one of them is…

The U.S. will have over $9 Trillion in maturities of bonds this year…. this from YouTube.com… “Nearly $9 trillion of the national debt must be refinanced or paid back, and almost no one is talking about what that actually means. That’s about ¼ of the entire debt stock… 

This isn’t about politics. It’s about math. Decades of borrowing collided with higher rates, shrinking demand for U.S. debt, and a global financial system already stretched thin. As refinancing costs explode, the pressure shifts to taxpayers, consumers, markets, and the dollar itself. From bond auctions to inflation risks, from government spending cuts to emergency interventions—this is where theory meets reality.”

Chuck again… This is serious stuff folks… When the plandemic hit, the issuing of debt changed, and we, as a country began to issue short-term Bills and notes and they took over the brunt of our financing in place of long bonds… The problem with that is that they come due long before long bonds do… And this year, nearly $9 Trillion of them come due and will have to be refinanced, at higher rates, and what that will do to our Debt is explode it higher…  Like I said above the dollar has problems, far too many to list too! 

The U.S. Data Cupboard is empty today, but tomorrow’s Cupboard has the Stupid CPI for Dec… So the markets will be rapt awaiting for that data… Me? I’ll shrug it off because it’s all made up of false numbers and useless as far as I’m concerned… 

To recap… Siver got sold on Thursday, but came back with vengeance on Friday, and closed the week so close to $80 that it could spit in the $80’s backyard!   Gold rallied on both days, but also saw a ton of SPT’s short trading thrown in, but closed the week above $4,500, so there’s that…  The dollar is on the rally tracks again, but Chuck thinks it will be short-lived… And our country will have to deal with nearly $9 Trillion in maturities this year… Good luck with that!

For What It’s Worth… I found this last Friday, and after all I talked about Silver last week, I thought this would be good pfodder… It’s about the volatility of Silver and it can be found here: Extreme silver price volatility likely to persist in 2026, China controls risk market fragmentation – Goldman Sachs | Kitco News

Or, here’s your snippet: “Persistently thin silver inventories mean prices are likely to remain highly sensitive to flows, increasing both upside potential and downside risk for the gray metal, according to analysts at Goldman Sachs.

“Thinner inventories have created conditions for squeezes, where rallies accelerate as investor flows absorb remaining metal in the London vaults and reverse sharply when tightness eases,” Goldman analysts Lina Thomas and Daan Struyven wrote in a Wednesday note.

The analysts said that the price turbulence is not being driven by a global shortage of silver, but by localized supply bottlenecks that are keeping the market distorted.

Silver supplies in London, where the global benchmark price is set, are unusually low after much of the metal was moved into U.S. vaults last year amid concerns that the Trump administration could impose trade tariffs.

Silver’s historic 2025 rally was driven by investor inflows tied to safe-haven buying, Fed rate cut expectations, and asset diversification, they said, but the London squeeze is amplifying the impact of these moves.

Thomas and Struyven said that under normal conditions, a weekly net demand of 1,000 metric tons would lift silver prices by around 2%, but in the current environment, Goldman estimates that sensitivity has surged to about 7%. The analysts warned that these extreme price moves will likely persist – in both directions.

And even at these all-time high prices, the analysts said investor’s demand may not be overstretched. They point out that silver ETF holdings remain below their 2021 peak, and could rise higher on the back of rate cuts and investor diversification.”

Chuck again… This was interesting, especially coming from Lola, aka, Goldman Sachs…  I’ve chronicled the short squeeze previously here, so you shouldn’t be surprised at the mention of that phenomenon.. 

Market Prices 1/12/2026: American Style: A$ .6707, kiwi .5759, C$ .7205, euro 1.1683, sterling 1.3467, Swiss $1.2540, European Style: rand 16.4195, krone 10.0680, SEK 9.1638, forint 331.12, zloty 3.6024, koruna 20.7913, RUB 78.74, yen 157.83, sing 1.2855, HKD 7.7968, INR 90.16, China 6.9731, peso 17.90, BRL 5.3599, BBDXY 1,208, Dollar Index 98.79, Oil $58.70, 10-year 4.17%, Silver $84.16, Platinum $2,359.00, Palladium $1.791.00, Copper $6.03, and Gold… $4,586

That’s it for today… Happy Birthday to Andrew again… It was a day of a heavy snowstorm the day he was born… I still remember the look of happiness and joy in his older sister’s face when we went to the florist the next day to buy Kathy some flowers, She told everyone there, that she was now a big sister! She was only 2 ½ years older than her new baby brother.. Memories… I hope to God that I never lose those memories, they are a fabric of my life…  I hope your Birthday is grand, Andrew! Our Billikens won on Saturday, but my beloved Mizzou Tigers lost on the road at Ole Miss… Poor foul shooting was their bane… I have a story about sitting next to the old St Louis U coach, Charlie Spoonhour that I’ll share with you someday… Carlos Santana takes us to the finish line today with his song: Europa (Earth’s Cry) it’s an instrumental so no singing along for me this morning… I love Carlos Santana’s guitar playing… I hope you have a Marvelous Monday today, and Please Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler