Author: admin

• 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

• Currencies and metals get sold on Wednesday
• Silver miners are printing cash!

Good Day… And a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday to you! I got my laptop back in working order yesterday, thanks to my good friend Rick B!  He was a lifesaver as far as I was concerned, for I was ready to go bananas, if not already!  My beloved Mizzou Tigers won in Kentucky last night, and the StL Billikens won at VCU last night, I was going back and forth on their games, which ended about the same time… The Steve Miller Band (Stevie Guitar Miller) greet me this morning with their song: Livin’ In The U.S.A… 

Well, Wednesday wasn’t a good day for Gold & Silver, but a good day for the dollar… Makes you wonder doesn’t it? I told you yesterday morning that the SPTs were back and taking a pound of flesh from Gold & Silver, and nothing changed much as the day went along… The dollar rose to end the day at 1,207… And that rise was questionable…  Yous see, the Fed Heads have said that they were cutting rates because of the declining labor situation in the U.S. And then yesterday, the ADP Employment Report showed that only 41,000 new hires were taken on in Dec.  

Now, that would mean that the Fed Heads had more rate cuts up their sleeves… And THAT should have been a death knell for the dollar… Instead the dollar rallied…  So, to me, this was the work of the PPT, making certain that the dollar didn’t fall like a rock off a side of a cliff…  So, there you have a synopsis of the markets that I care about from yesterday… 

The price of Oil remained trading with a $56 handle yesterday, and the 10-year stayed trading with a 4.14% yield…  No changes here… So, no manipulation here… 

In the overnight markets last night…  Well, the SPTs are not backing off and have taken Silver down over $3 overnight, and Gold down $41… Gold & Silver aren’t the only metals that have had to deal with the SPTs, Platinum and Copper are also on the SPTs list of metals to short… UGH!  This from Kitco.com “On Wednesday, commodity analysts at TD Securities published their latest trade, saying they were shorting silver futures and looking for sharply lower prices within the next three months as market fundamentals start to balance out.”  

Chuck again, they are calling for Silver to retreat to $40…  I hope they get their $*# handed to them on Silver platter! 

The dollar gained another index point overnight, and starts today at 1,208 in the BBDXY… I really can’t get my arms around this dollar strength, with the labor market not showing any signs of recovering, and the Fed Heads saying they are cutting rates to alleviate the labor shortage…. The two don’t mix, and that’s why it’s so confusing… 

The 10-year’s yield rose to 4.16% overnight, so apparently the Fed Heads weren’t in doing yield control overnight… And the price of Oil remains in the $56 handle…  Did you hear that the U.S. seized two tankers yesterday, one of them under a Russian Flag? I don’t like that one bit, for lessor things have caused wars to break out… I’m just saying… 

So, now, the U.S. is going to recover Oil revenue from Oil taken from Venezuela…  But, to me, this is going to take SOME TIME, and not going to be a today thing for the U.S. revenues… But then, that’s just me, thinking logically… 

But the thought here is that it will reduce the price of gas in U.S. to help families struggling to make ends meet now…   Which is way the price of Oil is falling… The key here is the words “now” and “some time”… They don’t mesh… I’m just saying… 

So, this week I’ve been talking a lot about Silver and its prospects looking forward in 2026..  And then I saw this article from the good folks at GATA… ” Silver miners have begun to print money”…  Yes, it’s been lagging the earnings of the mining companies, but with Silver in a shortage, and the price of Silver going through the roof, it was only a matter of time before the Mining Cos began to book profits…  here’s a snippet from the article: “People unfamiliar with mining may think the industry’s profits jumped in line with these price increases.

But thats not how it works. Profitability is increasing by multiples of the underlying metals. Especially for silver.

Pan American Silver (PAAS) is a large silver and gold miner (disclosure: I own it, along with most other big silver producers).

In the company’s most recent investor presentation, they show how much it costs them to mine each ounce of gold and silver. This is known as the all-in sustaining cost (AISC).

 In Q1 of 2024, Pan American was mining silver at a cost of around $16.68 per ounce. They sold silver during that quarter at an average price of $22.61 per ounce.

So in Q1 2024, they made a profit margin of roughly $6 per ounce.

By Q3 of 2025, the price of silver rose to an average of around $39/oz. Pan American’s AISC decreased slightly, so their profit per ounce rose to $23. An almost 4x increase from Q1 2024.

When the company reports Q4 earnings, that profit per ounce will rise more.

And if silver stays around the current $80 level, and their costs stay around $16/oz, the profit/oz will rise to a crazy $64/oz.”

Now, I’m not here to talk stocks, but to point out that the Silver miners are printing money… And that bodes well for the future price of Silver, as these miners will want to squeeze as much blood out of this turnip that it can… I’m just saying… 

This has been Silver Week in the Pfennig… and I hope you have enjoyed it!

OK, onto the currencies… With the dollar getting bought yesterday (by the PPT per Chuck) the currencies had to retreat from their lofty figures from Monday…  The Chinese renminbi continues to improve in price VS the dollar, and as I said last week, it appears the Chinese are not concerned about the level of their currency as their exports continue to rise… 

The euro has remained below the 1.17 figure, but has stayed withing range that to reach that level again won’t require a complete failing of the dollar… The euro closed yesterday at 1.1680… Longtime reader, Bob, sent me a link to a video that explained that 14 nations are leaving the dollar after our invasion of Venezuela…  YIKES! Oh, well, the best laid plans of mice and men…   No wonder the PPT had to step in and provide the dollar a prop…  I’m just saying… 

I just read an article about “why smaller houses can lead to happier lives”…  And something hit me…  Why didn’t I move from my small home years ago, into a McMansion, when I very easily could have?.. Because a larger home was not going to buy us happiness… We were a family of 5 living in a 3 bedroom house, so what did we do? We built another bedroom in the basement and made do… So, I get the the premise of the article and agree with it  100%!

But so many Americans didn’t use their frugal side of the brain back in the day, and now they have a this Monstrous size home, and it’s just them… The kids moved on, and so on…     And now… well, now things aren’t calling for a McMansion house any longer… What to do?

The U.S. Data Cupboard yesterday had the aforementioned ADP Employment Report that wasn’t good news for the economy, but also had the Nov Factory Orders and they too, were not good news for the economy as they showed a negative -1.3%… And then the Jobs Openings number showed a narrowing of the total from 7.9 Million to 7.1 Million… On the outside you might think, that’s good… But the decline wasn’t from citizens getting new jobs, but by Companies removing their want ads…   That’s a completely different story…  And one that’s not good for the economy…

To recap… The SPTs made their presence felt yesterday, and sold Gold & Silver short throughout the day… Silver got the brunt of the short selling, but Gold wasn’t far behind…  Chuck believes that the PPT came in and intervened in the currency markets and bought dollars to keep it from falling too far too fast… And Chuck talks about McMansions, and how countries are leaving the dollar due to the U.S. invasion of Venezuela… 

For What It’s Worth…  I guess I could have used the GATA report above about the Silver miners here, but I think I have something better… This is from MarketWatch.com and is about how the manufacturing sector still is not coming back, as was the plan of the POTUS… And it can be found here: U.S. manufacturing slump shows little sign of ending, ISM shows – MarketWatch

Or, here’s your snippet: “A closely watched index that measures U.S. manufacturing activity fell to 47.9% in December, the Institute for Supply Management said Monday. This is the lowest reading of the year and the 10th straight month of contraction in the factory sector.

Any number below 50% signals contraction.

Economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal were expecting some stability in December, with the index forecast to inch up to 48.3% from 48.2% in the prior month.

“We still see weak demand,” with uncertainty from tariffs holding down activity, said Susan Spence, chair of the ISM’s manufacturing survey committee.

The ISM surveys executives every month about how their companies are doing. Business isn’t getting any better, they say.

“In the current environment, our company is struggling with customer orders and financially overall,” one manufacturing executive told ISM. “Our senior leaders are struggling to focus our business and get the company on track with quality products.

In November, layoffs impacted about 9 percent of our workforce, affecting all locations in the U.S. and Europe.”

Key details: New orders shrank for the fourth month in a row. Production dropped to 51% from 51.4% in the prior month.

The employment index rose 0.9 percentage point to 44.9 in the month.

Only two of 19 manufacturing industries reported growth in December.

Looking ahead: New orders need to rise to pull the manufacturing sector out of the slump, Spence said.

“I firmly believe when new orders start turning around … and expand for three, four, five months — then you’re going to see it flow to production as backlog and then everything should follow,” she said.

Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics, said “the manufacturing sector is sick” and does not appear to be responding well to President Donald Trump’s economic policies.”

Chuck Again… So much for that resilient economy that the guy talked about yesterday, eh? And once again, the best laid plans of mice and men, often leave sorrow instead of joy… 

Market Prices 1/8/2026: American Style: A$ .6675, kiwi .5749, C$ .7210, euro 1.1673,  sterling 1.3443, Swiss $1.2539, European Style: rand 16.5723, krone 10.0994, SEK 9.2158, forint 329.71, zloty 3.6059, koruna 20.8003, RUB 80.24, yen 156.76, sing 1.2842, HKD 7.7921, INR 90.02, China 6.9824, peso 17.96, BRL 5.3909, BBDXY 1,208, Dollar Index 98.76, Oil $56.85, 10-year 4.16%, Silver $74.55, Platinum $2,179.00, Palladium $1,728.00, Copper $5.85, and Gold… $4,415

That’s it for today… I was up until 4 am last night… darn steroids… I’m on the last few days of them now, so hopefully my sleep pattern gets back to normal..  There are some strange stories in the middle of the night to read, that’s for sure!  Big wins last night for the Tigers and Billikens… They both have good seasons going so far… We went to dinner last night with our good friend, Gus from Long Island, and it was yummy! Gus owns the famous Candy Kitchen on Long Island and he’s been coming down here in the winter longer than I have! The Candy Kitchen is famous for the home made ice cream…  I love to get their blueberry pancakes when I’m there… All this talk is making me hungry, I had better stop.. Montrose takes us to the finish line today with their song: Rock Candy… I hope you have a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday today, and Please Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler

Good Day… and a Tim Terrific Tuesday to you!  Well, my first day down here in S Florida was good. I went out to the deck by the ocean and read for a couple of hours, soaking up some vitamin D… I got my TV to connect to the internet, so now I’m able to stream, but my laptop is AWOL.. So therefore, I’ll have to shorten the letter again this morning as I cannot work on my laptop as usual. Typing on an iPad is ridiculous, I don’t know how people do it. But, I struggle through despite my shortcomings. The Guess Who greet me this morning with their song: No Sugar Tonight 

Well, I told you yesterday that the year normally starts with everyone puffing out their chests, and bragging about this will be the dollar’s year, and by the end of the month those folks are nowhere to be seen or heard… Well, it didn’t wait until the end of the month to take the dollar to the woodshed. Yesterday, after seeing the dollar rise to 1,207 in the BBDXY, it turned around and ended the day at 1,203… Down 4 index points from its high earlier in the day.

I don’t think someone thought it through regarding “running Venezuela “.. and the dollar bugs were confused how that would be accomplished? And let the anti-dollar bugs seize the day..

Gold & Silver were at it early yesterday, as I told you how the Chinese took offense at the SPTs in the West, and said ” We’re not going to be pushed around any longer ” and the metals continued to rally throughout the day… 

Gold gained $2.52to end the day at $4,448… Silver gained $2.52 to close the day at $76.55…

To me, and I’ve explained this before, that we shouldn’t think of Gold risking price, but the dollar losing purchasing power. Same with Silver…But for those of us keeping score at home , we want to know the level of the two major metals at all times… I say, buy it and forget it! But that doesn’t make the headlines… 

Platinum has really been in the shopping baskets of the metals buyers in recent days… And Copper? Well, Copper traded over $6 yesterday… the shortage in Copper is really playing out now, eh?

The price of Oil bumped higher to trade with a $58 handle… Oil shipments around the world are going to chaos, with a Capital C!

The 10-year Treasury saw a little buying, or yield control by the Fed Heads, or just geopolitical strains from the U. S.’s incursion into Venezuela, and the yield on the bond ended the day trading with a 4.17% yield…

In the overnight markets last night… the dollar got bought again… and the BBDXY gained 3 index points overnight… Gold continues its assault on the dollar and is up $16 to start the day, and Silver is up $1.72…

Silver is on a tear and I don’t think that anyone should standing front of this runaway bus!

The price of Oil remains trading with a $58 handle this morning and the 10-year’s yield is 4.18%…

I came across an article from a guy at Bank of America (BofA) who agrees with what I wrote last week regarding how I saw Gold continuing to rise in price in 2026, but not at the breakneck pace of 2025…I have that article in the FWIW later in the letter… That is as long as I can get the dang thing to work (iPad)

I haven’t talked about inflation much lately, but at dinner last night, our friend Cathy, was talking about how her prices for staples for her restaurant were remaining very high, and now she’s seeing shrinkflation…

Inflation was the economies in Germany, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and of course Zimbabwe… They all tried to get inflation under control, but failed and soon the inflation turned to hyperinflation and the respective currencies were toast, and so were the economies of the countries… Will this be our fate too?

The key here is that at least these countries tried to control inflation before it ran away from them. The U.S. contended with high inflation in the late 70’s and early 80’s before Paul Volcker took an axe to it with interest rates that choked the economy but… ended the chance of runaway inflation…

The U.S. also experienced high inflation when they issued the Continental dollar, yes this was in the time of revolution..,

But it’s real fact, and therefore, as they say history doesn’t always rhyme but it’s always an eye witness of repeats… at least that’s what I say…

The Continental dollar was a failure and to prevent the country from ever issuing another fiat dollar, the founders passed a law that prevented the States from coining money… and that only Gold & Silver were to be used as a payment of debts…

Since our leaders have thrown the Constitution out the window we don’t use Gold & Silver as our tender… instead we went back to a fiat currency…

This history lesson has been brought to you from Battle Bank… and Chuck! And I got a lot of this stuff from an essay by Doug Casey in his International Man letter..

Si, I ask the question… Are we to suffer a hyperinflation phase that kills the dollar and economy? You can’t think “this is America and we have always landed on our feet ” because… This time we have nearly $36 Trillion in debt that has to be financed, and to do that we need to sell Treasuries…

But if you were a long term investor from a country, would you be buying Treasuries knowing all to well that the U.S.’s leaders continue to deficit spend, and they will always be issuing more debt?

Speaking of debt in the U.S. A panel of economic luminaries said the long-run risk posed by mounting debt represented a paramount problem facing the U.S. economy… from Bloomberg.com

So, see I’m not the only one banging the drum about how the debt is going to ruin us!

Ok enough of that! The euro didn’t last long under the 1.17 figure yesterday and as long as the dollar remains getting sold the euro will benefit… Yes, the Eurozone has its own debt problem as does Japan, and the U.K., but they will falter after the U.S. shows the way….

The Chinese have figured out how to steer clear of the U.S.’s tariffs the POTUS put on their exports… Their trade surplus for the Jan/ Nov rose 5.9% year on year and surpassed the $1 Trillion mark… Their exports to the U.S. fell 29%, but their exports to S.E. Asia, Europe, and Latin America rose significantly… and I didn’t mention Africa, which the Chinese are going after diligently..,

I told you long ago that When the tariffs were announced that they wouldn’t harm China, as they would just go somewhere else for their exports… and they have!

Still no new data in the Data Calendar, but tomorrow we’ll see the color of the latest ADP Employment Report for Dec… and some other data…

To recap… the Chinese have had enough of the West’s SPTs.. the dollar got sold yesterday but got bought last night, and Chuck goes through the history of countries that got ruined by debt and inflation.

For What It’s Worth… This is the article I talked about above from BofA’s Michael Widmer head of Metals Research at BofA and can be found here: www.kitco.com

Or here’s your snippet;”Gold will remain a key portfolio hedge this year, with the yellow metal projected to average $4,538 per ounce in 2026, but history suggests silver prices could peak between $135 and $309, according to Michael Widmer, Head of Metals Research at Bank of America.

“Gold continues to stand out as a hedge and alpha source,” Widmer said in a Monday report. Bank of America sees tightening market conditions and strong earnings sensitivity position gold as a key hedge and potential return driver in 2026.

BofA’s 2026 outlook is based on their projections of falling supply and rising costs in the gold sector. Widmer expects the 13 major North American gold miners to produce 19.2 million ounces this year, a decline of 2% from 2025, adding that most market forecasts for output are too optimistic.

Widmer said silver may appeal more to investors willing to take higher risk for extra upside, and noted that the current gold:silver ratio of around 59 suggests silver could still outperform gold. He cited the historical ratio low of 32 in 2011 as implying a silver price high of $135, while the 1980 low of 14 in the ratio suggests a silver price of $309 per ounce.

In his annual outlook webinar in December, Widmer said that gold bull rallies typically peak only when the underlying drivers that initially triggered the rally fade, and don’t end simply because prices rise.

“I’ve highlighted before that the gold market has been very overbought. But it’s actually still underinvested,” he said. “There is still a lot of room for gold as a diversification tool in portfolios.”

Chuck Again… I like how he put the ratios to numbers…

Market Prices 1/6/2026: American Style: A$ .6721, kiwi .5788, C$ .7261, euro 1.1708, sterling 1.3524, Swiss $1.2610, European Style: Rand 16.35, krone 10.0147, SEK 9.1893, forint 328.76, zloty 3.5963, koruna 20.6745, RUB 81.03, yen 156.40, sing 1.2796, HKD 7.7877, INR 90.19, China 6.9837, peso17.98, BRL 5.4167, BBDXY 1,206, Dollar Index 98.42, Oil $58.58, 10-year 4.18%, Silver $78.28, Platinum $2,324.00, Palladium $1,722.00, Copper $6.02, and Gold… $4,460

Thats It For Today… I feel like I’ve been writing for hours this morning and I have!  This is ridiculous!  I’m going out the deck and yell at the ocean!  Foghat takes us to the finish line this morning with their song: Slowride

I hope you have a Tom Terrific Tuesday and Please Be Good To Yourself!

January 5,2026

• The year ends with a dud

• Good day… and a Marvelous Monday to you! Happy New Year, although I think those words will not ring true in 2026, but then that’s just me…  I’m in my winter home now for the next 3-4 months… I only book a one-way ticket to come here, and decide when to go home much later…  Buddy Miles greets me this morning with his song: Down By The River…
• Well, the year, 2025 ended with a whimper… Everyone who was still on a trading desk at 3pm est on Wednesday, was making certain that Gold didn’t show a gain, Silver didn’t show a gain, Copper didn’t show a gain, and etc.  With the dollar bugs, the only ones to get the asset higher in price, to end the year.  Bonds ended the year with the 10-year’s yield gaining…  And the price of Oil getting dumped on to end the year.  The year end prices were: Gold $4,317, Silver $71.54, Copper $5.64, BBDXY 1,203, Oil $57.42, and the 10-year’s yield was 4.16%
• Friday saw a hit and miss data in trading as most senior traders were still celebrating their holiday. As with the start of every year, that I recall that is, the dollar was bought on the first day of the year, and the BBDXY ended Friday at 1,204… Its seems to me that each year the dollar bugs are all out talking about how the dollar is going to be strong the coming year, and by the end of January they are nowhere to be seen or heard. I guess we’ll see what’s in store for us regarding the dollar, my guess? I tend to think that the dollar is in for a world of hurt this year… How’s that diversification out of some dollars going for you?
• I used to ask a question to the audiences that I talked to this: You don’t hold just one stock in your account, do you? You don’t wear just one set of clothes, do you? Then who among you only holds one currency? My claim to fame was diversification, no matter when the dollar was strong or weak… You need to diversify to make sure that if the dollar gets beaten to hell with hand sledge, that you don’t suffer the losses in purchasing power…  There! I’ve said enough on that!
• Oh, and where to diversify?  www.battlebank.com
• I know, I know, the end of currencies around the world will come some day… But until then, there’s no worry from me on investing in them… Besides, the ending will be very pronounced, and you’ll have plenty of time to react…  
• Well, we as a country entered another conflict on Friday, sending in missiles and bombs to Venequela, and capturing the leader of the country. It was quick and dirty, and I’m not going to say either way how I feel about this, but the one thing that I think that most people have missed with all the drugs talk veiling the truth, as I see it, it was a move to eliminate Oil shipments to Russia and China…   That’s how I see it, and you can argue with me if you think I’m incorrect, but you won’t change my mind… 
• I’m having connectivity problems down here this morning. My iPad and phone connect, but my laptop and TV won’t connect… so that means I’m having to attempt to get this out via my iPad but it’s not the same so if I had hair I would be pulling it out right now! So, I’m cutting this short today, hope you don’t mind…
• Well, we’re finally getting back to the normal period of time for printing data releases… This will be the first normal week, and it’s full of data prints, but the most important of them all will come when the Jobs Jamboree returns on Friday this week… The Fed Heads claim their rate cuts are to help with the slump in labor markets, but C’mon we all know better than that! So, get ready for a week of data prints, just not any today! 
• To recap… well, the year ended with the SPTs holding the con on the metals, and making certain that they didn’t show a year-end gain… Gold closed the 2025 year at $4,317, and Silver at $71.54. The dollar bugs had to do the same with the dollar and the BBDXY ended the year at 1,203… Down 8.3% for the year, the worst year for the dollar since 2011…  Friday’s trading was hit and miss on thiings, as the senior traders were still on holiday… Gold ended the week at        and Silver at         
• For What It’s Worth…  I read this piece from Matthew Piepenburg of Van Greyerz Gold over the weekend and once again I was blown away by Matthew’s words, of which I have cut out a piece for the FWIW… In it he talks of the pending gloom and doom for the U.S. and this piece really lights a fire and it can be found here: Gold’s Bigger Picture in a Narrowing 2026
• Or, here’s your snippet: “This brings us to the Fed in 2026. Will or can it tow the White House’s line to further rate cutting and more QE? The likely answer is yes, and not because of politics, but because of basic survival.
• The Fed’s Real Mandate & Problem
• The Fed’s real mandate is bond market stability, not inflation, which is an open lie, and not employment, which is equally so. Given that the post-2022, weaponized USD is openly unloved and untrusted, someone has to buy Uncle Sam’s debt, and that won’t be China or Japan.
• Japan has been dumping USTs to support its own broken credit markets and Yen, and China, well… it has been walking away from USTs (in favor of gold) in a staggering manner. Its FX reserves were once 40% USTs; by 2025, that figure had fallen to less than 1%:
• Given the fact that less UST demand means lower bond prices and hence rising bond yields, Uncle Sam is in deep trouble heading into 2026.
• Rising bond yields are an absolute terror to bankrupt debtors like the US, because it means the interest expense on its debt, already over $1T/year, gets even harder to repay.
• The Bond Market’s Real Power
• For this reason, DC needs to keep yields and rates down. The Fed has thus been pushing rates down in 2025, but as we also saw in 2001, yields still climbed despite the Fed’s rate cuts, a terrifying confirmation that the Fed’s tools are breaking down as the bond market, rather than Powell, takes the wheel.
• In 2025, 70% of Uncle Sam’s IOUs were short-duration bonds, which need to be paid back soon. This will be entirely unsustainable going into 2026 unless Powell breaks out bazooka money printing and becomes a perma-buyer of our own debt with mouse-clicked dollars.
• This should be a tailwind for precious metals.”
• Chuck again…  Another thought that I had about The Fed/ Cabal/ Cartel is that they’ve painted themselves into a corner, and that the only way to survive is to print the heck out of money and buy bonds that keep the U.S. economy afloat…  
• Market Prices 1/5/2026: American Style: A$ .6681, kiwi.5758, C$ .7256, euro 1.1679, sterling 1.3461, Swiss $1.2526, European Style: Rand 16.4217, krone 10.0923, SEK 9.2336, forint 328.78, zloty 3.2878, koruna 20.7112, RUB 80.86, yen 156.65, sing 1.2866, HKD 7.7867, INR 90.25, China 6.9849, peso 17.97, BRL 5.4419, BBDXY 1,207, Oil $57.78, 10-year 4.18%, Silver $75.27, Platinum $2,207.00, Palladium $1,675.00, Copper $5.88, and Gold….. $4,409
• That’s it for today… Well, on New Year’s Day…  the College Football Playoffs were a dud, except for the last game of the day… My bracket is toast, so I won’t be going back and looking at it any longer!  Was Texas Tech really that bad? And was Ole Miss really that good? Questions…  My travel time down here couldn’t have gone any better, we moved along just fine , no problems! In Nashville, where we changed planes, the wheelchair guy was waiting for me and addressed me by my name… pretty impressive!
• Well, the wolf moon is a Super Moon and was out over the ocean last night and looked awesome!  Bob Marley and the Whalers take us to the finish line this morning with their song: 3 Little Birds… I hope you have a Marvelous Monday today, and Please Be Good To Yourself!
• Chuck Butler

Good day… and a Marvelous Monday to you! Happy New Year, although I think those words will not ring true in 2026, but then that’s just me…  I’m in my winter home now for the next 3-4 months… I only book a one-way ticket to come here, and decide when to go home much later…  Buddy Miles greets me this morning with his song: Down By The River…

Well, the year, 2025 ended with a whimper… Everyone who was still on a trading desk at 3pm est on Wednesday, was making certain that Gold didn’t show a gain, Silver didn’t show a gain, Copper didn’t show a gain, and etc.  With the dollar bugs, the only ones to get the asset higher in price, to end the year.  Bonds ended the year with the 10-year’s yield gaining…  And the price of Oil getting dumped on to end the year.  The year end prices were: Gold $4,317, Silver $71.54, Copper $5.64, BBDXY 1,203, Oil $57.42, and the 10-year’s yield was 4.16%

Friday saw a hit and miss data in trading as most senior traders were still celebrating their holiday. As with the start of every year, that I recall that is, the dollar was bought on the first day of the year, and the BBDXY ended Friday at 1,204… Its seems to me that each year the dollar bugs are all out talking about how the dollar is going to be strong the coming year, and by the end of January they are nowhere to be seen or heard. I guess we’ll see what’s in store for us regarding the dollar, my guess? I tend to think that the dollar is in for a world of hurt this year… How’s that diversification out of some dollars going for you?

I used to ask a question to the audiences that I talked to this: You don’t hold just one stock in your account, do you? You don’t wear just one set of clothes, do you? Then who among you only holds one currency? My claim to fame was diversification, no matter when the dollar was strong or weak… You need to diversify to make sure that if the dollar gets beaten to hell with hand sledge, that you don’t suffer the losses in purchasing power…  There! I’ve said enough on that!

Oh, and where to diversify?  www.battlebank.com

I know, I know, the end of currencies around the world will come some day… But until then, there’s no worry from me on investing in them… Besides, the ending will be very pronounced, and you’ll have plenty of time to react…  

Well, we as a country entered another conflict on Friday, sending in missiles and bombs to Venequela, and capturing the leader of the country. It was quick and dirty, and I’m not going to say either way how I feel about this, but the one thing that I think that most people have missed with all the drugs talk veiling the truth, as I see it, it was a move to eliminate Oil shipments to Russia and China…   That’s how I see it, and you can argue with me if you think I’m incorrect, but you won’t change my mind… 

I’m having connectivity problems down here this morning. My iPad and phone connect, but my laptop and TV won’t connect… so that means I’m having to attempt to get this out via my iPad but it’s not the same so if I had hair I would be pulling it out right now! So, I’m cutting this short today, hope you don’t mind…

Well, we’re finally getting back to the normal period of time for printing data releases… This will be the first normal week, and it’s full of data prints, but the most important of them all will come when the Jobs Jamboree returns on Friday this week… The Fed Heads claim their rate cuts are to help with the slump in labor markets, but C’mon we all know better than that! So, get ready for a week of data prints, just not any today! 

To recap… well, the year ended with the SPTs holding the con on the metals, and making certain that they didn’t show a year-end gain… Gold closed the 2025 year at $4,317, and Silver at $71.54. The dollar bugs had to do the same with the dollar and the BBDXY ended the year at 1,203… Down 8.3% for the year, the worst year for the dollar since 2011…  Friday’s trading was hit and miss on thiings, as the senior traders were still on holiday… Gold ended the week at        and Silver at         

For What It’s Worth…  I read this piece from Matthew Piepenburg of Van Greyerz Gold over the weekend and once again I was blown away by Matthew’s words, of which I have cut out a piece for the FWIW… In it he talks of the pending gloom and doom for the U.S. and this piece really lights a fire and it can be found here: Gold’s Bigger Picture in a Narrowing 2026

Or, here’s your snippet: “This brings us to the Fed in 2026. Will or can it tow the White House’s line to further rate cutting and more QE? The likely answer is yes, and not because of politics, but because of basic survival.

The Fed’s Real Mandate & Problem

The Fed’s real mandate is bond market stability, not inflation, which is an open lie, and not employment, which is equally so. Given that the post-2022, weaponized USD is openly unloved and untrusted, someone has to buy Uncle Sam’s debt, and that won’t be China or Japan.

Japan has been dumping USTs to support its own broken credit markets and Yen, and China, well… it has been walking away from USTs (in favor of gold) in a staggering manner. Its FX reserves were once 40% USTs; by 2025, that figure had fallen to less than 1%:

Given the fact that less UST demand means lower bond prices and hence rising bond yields, Uncle Sam is in deep trouble heading into 2026.

Rising bond yields are an absolute terror to bankrupt debtors like the US, because it means the interest expense on its debt, already over $1T/year, gets even harder to repay.

The Bond Market’s Real Power

For this reason, DC needs to keep yields and rates down. The Fed has thus been pushing rates down in 2025, but as we also saw in 2001, yields still climbed despite the Fed’s rate cuts, a terrifying confirmation that the Fed’s tools are breaking down as the bond market, rather than Powell, takes the wheel.

In 2025, 70% of Uncle Sam’s IOUs were short-duration bonds, which need to be paid back soon. This will be entirely unsustainable going into 2026 unless Powell breaks out bazooka money printing and becomes a perma-buyer of our own debt with mouse-clicked dollars.

This should be a tailwind for precious metals.”

Chuck again…  Another thought that I had about The Fed/ Cabal/ Cartel is that they’ve painted themselves into a corner, and that the only way to survive is to print the heck out of money and buy bonds that keep the U.S. economy afloat…  

Market Prices 1/5/2026: American Style: A$ .6681, kiwi.5758, C$ .7256, euro 1.1679, sterling 1.3461, Swiss $1.2526, European Style: Rand 16.4217, krone 10.0923, SEK 9.2336, forint 328.78, zloty 3.2878, koruna 20.7112, RUB 80.86, yen 156.65, sing 1.2866, HKD 7.7867, INR 90.25, China 6.9849, peso 17.97, BRL 5.4419, BBDXY 1,207, Oil $57.78, 10-year 4.18%, Silver $75.27, Platinum $2,207.00, Palladium $1,675.00, Copper $5.88, and Gold….. $4,409

That’s it for today… Well, on New Year’s Day…  the College Football Playoffs were a dud, except for the last game of the day… My bracket is toast, so I won’t be going back and looking at it any longer!  Was Texas Tech really that bad? And was Ole Miss really that good? Questions…  My travel time down here couldn’t have gone any better, we moved along just fine , no problems! In Nashville, where we changed planes, the wheelchair guy was waiting for me and addressed me by my name… pretty impressive!

Well, the wolf moon is a Super Moon and was out over the ocean last night and looked awesome!  Bob Marley and the Whalers take us to the finish line this morning with their song: 3 Little Birds… I hope you have a Marvelous Monday today, and Please Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler