Author: admin

September 11, 2019

* Currencies trade in tight range, except euros… 

* Russia believes that the Oil price will fall to $40… 

Good Day… And a Wonderful Wednesday to you…  Well, today is the we observe our 2nd day of infamy…  To this day, I still can’t believe we as a nation were attacked like that…  Not a good night for my Beloved Cardinals, who proved once again that they have problems hitting the ball when a runner is on third, and less than two outs… Got to get back on the rally tracks boys! Alex has completed 2 of his clinicals and has two left next spring, in the meantime, he’s back at home, going to class again. He’s on the docket to graduate with his doctorate in Physical Therapy, next May… It’s seems like an eternity to him, but I keep telling him that May will be here before he knows it! Cat Stevens greets me this morning with his song: Moonshadow… I’m being followed by a moonshadow, moonshadow, moonshadow… It basically means that the moon is shining on someone…

OK… Another dull day in the currencies folks… I know, I know, I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, of which I’m glad vinyl records are back in style, because for a while I had to amend that statement with I’m beginning to sound like a damaged digital recording… It just doesn’t sound the same, eh? OK, getting back to the currencies… A dull day is a good day, when were mired in the dregs of a strong dollar trend that refuses to give up the conn… But as sure as day follows night, and night follows day, the strong dollar trend will eventually end… I believe it will end in the next year…

But don’t set your watch on my calls… Yes, I’m right most of the time, but take the call I made in February 2010, at the Orlando Money Show, I told the audience that was overflowing, with people lined and standing against the wall, and people sitting in the main aisle on the floor… That the dollar would not be the reserve currency of the world by the end of the decade (2020) and that the Chinee renminbi would be the new reserve currency… Well, I got have of it right… The Chinese renminbi was added to the IMF Special Drawing Rights a couple of years ago, thus making it a “reserve currency” along with dollars, yen, and other currencies that make up the SDR’s… But I will end up being very wrong about the dollar… I realize the decade isn’t over just yet, but… Time waits for no one, and it won’t wait for the dollar’s strong trend to end!

As we went through the overnight markets, first Asia, there was little movement in the currencies, but as the books were handed over to Europe, the European traders began to sell euros. Maybe it’s going to be one of those sell the rumor buy the fact things, because most traders say they are frontrunning the European Central Bank (ECB).  

You see, the ECB meets tomorrow, in one of the last two ECB meetings that outgoing ECB President Mario Dragi, will make the final decisions…  And it is thought that Draghi will leave the ECB and the European Economy with a journey further into negative deposit rates, and a return of bond buying, as the Eurozone economy, as a whole, seems to be already in a recession.  And then there’s the presss conference following the meeting, and in these press conferences, in that past that is, Draghi, has not been kind to the euro… 

So, traders are frontrunning that whole scenario that tomorrow holds… And selling euros seems to be the trade du jour today…  Because, well, the final meeting before Draghi steps down and former IMF chief Christine Lagarde takes over at the ECB, will be full of back slaps for a job well done, a cake, cards, balloons, and a going away party… So, the real job will be done in tomorrow’s meeting… 

I read a report yesterday, that talked about how the writer believes that we are already in a recession here in the U.S. Of course we won’t know for sure until we get the wink and nod from the NBER the folks responsible for calling the recessions, which they normally do after the recession is about over! Can you believe they still have a job? HA!

Don’t forget that I’ve said that this next recession will be a doozy… for a number of reasons of which I’ve already talked about so I won’t go there again, I’m sure I’ll more chances to bore you later on in the letter! HA!

The price of Oil has been on a nice jump higher in price this past week, but the Russians don’t believe it will last. They cite the lack of demand, because of the slowing economies of the world. That’s good news for SUV drivers! Gas guzzlers was what they used to be called, but I’m sure that the car unions, got together, and decided that being called a Gas Guzzler was demeaning and hurt their feelings, so it became politically correct to not say gas guzzler… But then I’ve never been one to be politically correct, so gas guzzler, gas guzzler, gas guzzler!

But it won’t be good for the Russian economy who depends on Oil sales as a large part of their economy… But they’ve weathered the storm there before, and they’ll weather it again… They have little to no debt, and Their interest rates are higher than the rest of the world, and can be cut during a recession without have to worry about going into negative deposit rates…

It might put on hold the stronger moves in the ruble, but I trust the Bank of Russia’s Gov. and I’m sure she’ll do the right thing to keep their heads above water. And for now the ruble seems to be appreciating nicely each day… 

Gold had a decent day going, and then the price manipulators showed up at the COMEX and in the end Gold lost $13 on the day… I had to laugh yesterday when I saw a report that said that Citicorp, was calling for Gold to rally to $2,000… What have I always told you when these Big trading Banks and Brokerages make calls like this? That they are probably trading their book… In other words, they are long a large position in Gold, and need for it go higher, so they “ talk it up” … Now, I’m not saying that can’t happen… I’m just leery of these guys… and not just Citicorp… All of them! Remember I did say that I thought that Gold would revisit its previous higher of around $1,965… So, what’s $35 more?

The shiny metal and it’s kissin cousin, Silver, are trading upward early this morning, so Let’s see if that continues, or if they’ll be another showing at the COMEX by the Price manipulators…  I’ve got a great article on Gold manipulation in the FWIW section today, do you won’t want to miss that! 

The U.S. Data Cupboard is still bare of real economic reports… Yesterday we saw the median Income number for 2018, increase to $63,179, from $62,626 in 2017… This is so backward looking that you see why the markets don’t pay much attention to it…  

In other data news…. It was reported yesterday that the poverty rate in the U.S. fell last year… That’s the good news… The bad news is that the number of Americans without health insurance rose by nearly 2 Million people… OK, so when those uninsured people go to the hospital, who pays for their visit? Look in the mirror… 

To recap…  The currencies were stuck in the mud yesterday, but the overnight markets, in Europe that is, brought some selling in euros ahead of the ECB meeting tomorrow…  Because Chuck thinks that the final meeting in Rocktober will be a going away party for ECB President Draghi, so look for rockets at tomorrow’s meeting…  Gold got whipped around by the price manipulators yesterday, but is up $6 in the early trading, along with its kissin cousin, Silver, which is back above $18…  

For What It’s Worth… Well, this article came to me via my friends at GATA, so there is no link to an article for you today, but…. Since it’s about Gold and price manipulation, I thought I would include the entire article for you, so, here’s your snippet from GATA…

“U.S. Rep. Alex X. Mooney, R-West Virginia, is continuing his efforts to get answers from the U.S. Treasury Department, Federal Reserve, and Commodity Futures Trading Commission about surreptitious interventions by the U.S. government in the financial and commodity markets and particularly the gold and silver markets.
Mooney’s efforts began with letters sent to the Federal Reserve chairman and treasury secretary in April 2018:

In July 2018 the Fed and Treasury responded to Mooney but only incompletely, the Fed denying that it was trading in gold but refusing to say whether it is trading in other markets, the Treasury giving a partial denial of gold trading but failing to answer about the government’s policy toward gold:

In February this year Mooney asked the CFTC, as GATA already had done, if it has jurisdiction over manipulative trading undertaken by the U.S. government or brokers acting for the U.S. government, or if such manipulative trading is authorized by federal law:

The CFTC has never responded to GATA or to Mooney.

Summarizing the major questions that remain unanswered:
1) What is U.S. government policy toward gold? Is the policy still to drive gold out of the world financial system in favor of the U.S. dollar, as State Department records show the policy was in the 1970s?
2) Is the Treasury Department’s Exchange Stabilization Fund transacting in gold?
3) What markets are the Fed and Treasury trading in, through what mechanisms, and for what purposes?
4) Does the CFTC have jurisdiction over manipulative trading by the U.S. government or its agents?
5) Has the U.S. gold reserve ever been audited for any encumbrances? If so, what were the findings?

Of course the refusal of the Fed, Treasury, and CFTC to answer the congressman’s questions promptly and fully is strong evidence that the U.S. government is deeply and comprehensively involved in market manipulation.

If only mainstream financial news organizations and financial market analysts had the courage and integrity to pose Mooney’s questions on their own behalf. Then the world might enjoy some actual financial journalism — and the market rigging and the imperialism the rigging represents might be defeated and free and transparent markets restored along with limited and accountable government.”

Chuck Again…. Don’t you just love this guy Alex Mooney? His state has taken away the taxes on Gold & silver profits, and at the same time fires off letters asking for answers, that nobody, other than the usual suspects, lie the folks at GATA and Ted Butler have done! Maybe, one day, we’ll know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth… And don’t believe the Gov’t if they say, “you can’t handle the truth!”

Currencies today 9/11/19 American Style: A$.6866, kiwi .6417, C$ .7607, euro 1.1007, sterling 1.2352, Swiss $1.0082, European style: rand 14.6927, krone 8.9723, SEK 9.6867, forint 301.84, zloty 3.9366, koruna 23.4991, RUB 65.42, yen 107.71, sing 1.3784, HKD 7.8395, INR 71.63, China 7.1108, peso 19.51, BRL 4.0941, Dollar Index 98.57, Oil $58.02, 10-year 1.71%, Silver $18.10, Platinum $938.29, Palladium $1,562.11, and Gold… $1,491.97

That’s it for today… A somber day ahead, as we observe our 2nd day of infamy…  I recall the day after the 9/11 catastrophe, sitting in the office and trying to write something about the markets, which didn’t make much sense to me to do, but an astute pfennig reader sent me a note that day, telling me it was important that we attempt to continue as we did before the day…  And that turned me around! I came out of my funk, and began to write like I had before 9/11….   When baseball returned our adored announcer, Jack Buck, recited a poem, that you should Google, and read… The Jefferson Starship takes us to the finish line today with Marty Balin doing the lead singing of their song: Count On Me    I hope you have a Wonderful Wednesday, and please Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler

 

 

 

September 10, 2019

* It took a day, but rubles finally get bought! 

* Currencies trade in tight range yesterday, but slip overnight

Good Day… And a Tom Terrific Tuesday to you… No baseball for me last night, and I really don’t get excited any longer about watching an NFL football game… So, I turned the volume on whatever was on down low, and began to read… I really shouldn’t do that, because what it does is it gets me all riled up and yelling at the wall, and then I try to go to sleep… Doesn’t work! But anyway… It just keeps getting more difficult every day, to wake up… I have no idea what’s going on, I have always been a morning person, able to get up whenever, and be ready to take on the world… But not any longer… Is it age? Or years of accumulation of Chemo? Or do I know in the back of my mind that, in reality, I no longer HAVE to get up so early? Probably a bit of all three, don’t you think? Oh, well… I carry on despite my short comings! A St. Louis band, Mama’s Pride, greets me this morning with their song: Blue Mist…

Well, the price we pay for making sure our kids have everything they desire, because… You don’t want to upset them! Oh, the humanity if we did! That price I’m talking about is the run up of Consumer Debt… It’s crazy folks… But remember when the July Retail Sales were so strong, and I said that it was inflated with back-to-school sales, and wondered what the credit card bills would show when they arrived in the mail? Well, the report card is out, and here are the numbers, read ‘em and weep! For the month of July, consumer credit increased at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.75%. Revolving credit, which are credit cards increased at an annual rate of 11.25% while non-revolving credit increased at an annual rate of 5.25%.

That’s over 11% increase in July from June in credit card debt…. What on earth are these people thinking about? Do they think they’ll come a day when all is forgiven, and the Gov’t will step up and take all their debts away? What was the old TV commercial? Calgon… take my troubles away… or something like that! I’m telling you now, so please make sure you listen to me later, but not too much later… That a situation like I just thought of, would be devastating to you and me… People that pay their taxes, save, and trying to invest… (I have a doozy for you on investing in 2020 in the FWIW section today) Because, who’s going to pay for all this debt forgiveness? Ahem… are you looking in a mirror?

Oh, and for those of you keeping score at home…. Longtime readers will recall me saying several times though the years, that debt levels like we have in the U.S. are hurting our economy’s ability to grow… And then I came across this yesterday, and thought… Hmmm, I wonder where they got this idea… Hmmm… “Debt owed by governments, businesses and households around the globe is up nearly 50% since before the financial crisis to $246.6 trillion at the beginning of March, according to the Institute of International Finance, an association of global financial firms. And the high debt levels are weighing heavily on economies….”

So, hopefully we don’t ever come to that… What we might be coming to however, is negative rates… and I read this past weekend that Big Al Greenspan said that negative rates were no big deal… Wait! What? Oh, brother, have we gone, no wait Chuck, don’t say it, for it wouldn’t be nice, and your mother always told you to hold your tongue if you didn’t have anything nice to say about someone…

Well, just as a sidebar… The University of Bath, did some research and found that negative interest rates aren’t doing what they were supposed to be doing… Look, at Japan… Their economy is still in the dumpster, and now Europe’s economy just headed into a recession… So, while I believe that’s where we will eventually be with negative rates, I certainly hope we don’t ever get there!

OK, I’ve started this morning off full of you know what and vinegar! The currencies on the other hand had little to no upward movement yesterday VS the dollar… Gold on the other hand was not able to hold to the early morning gains, and ended up in the red once again, falling almost $8 on the day, and closing below $1,500… I somewhat expected this to happen, as I explained a couple of weeks ago, I viewed the $1,500 level as the new $1,300 level… Recall how we would bump up higher over $1,300 and then get sold back below it again, and we played that game for over a year!

So, like I said yesterday, I would look to buy Gold on the dips… And anytime it falls under $1,500 would seem like a “dip” to me… I’m just saying…

In the overnight markets, the currencies have slipped a little (except the Russian ruble), and Gold is down another $6 in early trading.  The real BIG mover to the positive side yesterday was the price of Oil, which bumped up to trade with a $58 handle, and that got traders and investor excited about buying the leading Petrol Currency, the Russian ruble… The ruble saw a strong rally on the day, and in my opinion, it’s about time! I saw a blurb on the Bloomberg this morning that traders are questioning the size of the Oil reserves in Saudi Arabia… Uh-Oh…  this has the potential to be a very damaging piece of news, should it turn to be the truth… 

Sure, as I’ve been saying, the ruble was trading very steady Eddie for a long time, but after the news I brought to you yesterday, about how Russia’s economy was still growing, even after 5 years of economic sanctions, finally impressed someone, or group of someones…  You can still get an interest rate above 4.75% in Rubles, folks… I’m just pointing these things out, it’s up to you to do something! HA!

The Peoples Bank of China (PBOC) allowed another increase in the value of their currency, the renminbi, VS the dollar last night… That marks 3 days of allowing gains… What’s up with that?  Not that I’m complaining about this move in the renminbi, it’s just that it doesn’t make any sense… I guess the fact that there are still negotiations going on with regards to the Trade War with the U.S., there’s no reason to keep marking the renminbi down… 

Remember when I asked the question, and said that I was sure that some propeller heads in China probably had already figured out at what level the renminbi needed to fall in order to make up the losses from the Tariffs… Well, I guess they figured it out! HA! 

Well, the mess in politics in the U.K. continues… PM Boris Johnson failed once again to get his call for elections passed.  BREXIT looks like its dead in the water, and the deadline is looming… I believe it’s Rocktober 31st, which is also Halloween, will it be the bewitching hour for BREXIT? The U.K.? Boris Johnson?  I know it sounds far off, 10/31 that is, but it’ll be here before we know it, as time waits for no one and it won’t wait for the U.K. to come up with a BREXIT deal…  I’m just saying… 

I told you yesterday that the U.S. Data Cupboard was going to be a disappointment this week until we get to Friday, and Retail Sales prints… And so that means yesterday, we had the Consumer Credit data that we already talked about, and today we get the Median Household Income number… No biggie, but it will be interesting to see if we continue to lose ground with regards to wages… 

To recap… The currencies played in the mud yesterday, and are a little weaker in the overnight markets. Except the Russian ruble, and the Chinese renminbi, these two have rallied once again. There are rumors going around that the Oil reserves aren’t what they were thought to be in Saudi Arabia… Hmmm….  Gold lost $8 yesterday, and is down another $6 in the early trading today…  As I’ve already explained but repeated once again today, $1,500 is the new $1,300…   Got it? Get it! 

For What It’s Worth… I saw this article last night on MarketWatch, and thought, this is going to be a humdinger of an article… It’s about investing in 2020, and I’m sure you’ll want to take a look at it and if so, it can be found here: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-investors-risk-major-damage-ahead-of-the-most-volatile-year-in-history-2019-09-09?mod=MW_section_top_stories

Or, here’s your snippet: “Think 2019 has been hectic? You ain’t seen nothing yet.

According to our call of the day from John Mauldin of Mauldin Economics, 2020 “will be the most volatile year in history” for investors
“The last few weeks marked a turning point in the global economy. It’s more than the trade war. A sense of vulnerability is replacing the previous confidence — and with good reason,” he wrote in his latest market update. “We are vulnerable, and we’ll be lucky to get through the 2020s without major damage.”

Mauldin pointed to supply shocks, the trade war, interest rates, unproductive debt and Europe’s mess as some of the factors set to create the perfect storm, but it’s one volatility bomb, in particular, that could blow up best-laid plans.

“Remember when experts said to keep politics out of your investment strategy?” he asked. “We no longer have that choice. Political decisions and election results around the globe now have direct, immediate market consequences.”

Of course, the most consequential of all: The 2020 U.S. election. And Mauldin doesn’t sound too hopeful about any of the scenarios.

“None of the possible outcomes are particularly good. I think the best we can hope for is continued gridlock,” he said. “But between now and November 2020, none of us will know the outcome. Instead, a never-ending stream of poll results will show one side or the other has the upper hand.”

Markets will be a mess, bouncing up and down with each headline, Mauldin warned, and that will inspire politicians and central bankers to react. To “do something.” That something, he said, will probably be the wrong thing.”

Chuck Again… Yes… and it brings to my brain the question I keep asking…. Got Gold?

Currencies today 9/10/19 American Style: A$.6868, kiwi .6423, C$ .7587, euro 1.1037, sterling 1.2348, Swiss $.9916, European Style: rand 14.6770, krone 8.9784, SEK 9.7357, forint 300.32, zloty 3.9260, koruna 23.4322, RUB 65.53, yen 107.45, sing 1.3798, HKD 7.8406, INR 71.88, China 7.1217, peso 19.55, BRL 4.0737, Dollar Index 98.44, Oil $58.25, 10-year 1.64%, Silver $17.92, Platinum $940.50, Palladium $1,554.56, and Gold… $1,493.36

That’s it for today…  I just caught myself looking at one of the pictures I have on my wall at my writing desk, and while doing that I inadvertenly held down a key, and I had a whole page of that one key on my screen! What a dolt! OK, I got rid of all that…  the picture I was looking at, is a picture of me and my oldest sister, Brenda. She was battling cancer at that time and had wig on, but smile on her face, which is how I’ll always remember her…  My beloved Cardinals head out west for 3 games starting tonight, which will start later, because, well… they’re out west!  So, when I get up at 4 in the morning to take my chemo, I’ll be checking on the final scores….  Journey takes us to the finish line today with their song: Who’s Crying Now?  I hope you have a Tom Terrific Tuesday, and please Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler

 

September 9, 2019

*China cuts reserve requirement ratio 50 basis points!

* U.K. surprises with a 0.3% GDP growth print for July! 

Good Day… And a Marvelous Monday to you… Well, my beloved Cardinals have taken over 1st place in the Central Division, and widened their lead with the Cubs all weekend long, thanks the the Brewers who beat the Cubs while the Cards won their games… I sure hope we can hang onto that 4.5 game lead with 19 games remaining… Another beautifully pitched game by Cardinals pitcher Jack Flaherty, and then it was onto to other things on my Sunday… I’m all alone again, for 4 more days… We had beautiful weather on Saturday, and my beloved Missouri Tigers won their home opener, at which Alex, Andrew and Grace were in attendance… Jimmy Buffett greets me this morning with this song: Boat Drinks… “The boys in the band ordered boat drinks”…

Well, the BIG news from this weekend as far as currencies are concerned came from Russia, where after 5 years of economic sanctions, the Russian economy continues to grow! Industrial output is on the rise, the Russians believe they will have a record harvest this year, their Current Account is in surplus by $500 Billion… and… Inflation, which has always been a bugaboo for the Russians, has been falling for the past couple of years, and while it was expected to fall to 4.3% this year, it appears that it will be more likely around 3%… With deposit rates still above inflation, that means that Russia, as opposed to most countries, the U.S. included, do not have real negative rates…

The currency, the ruble, rallied big time on the news… And I can say that I’m vindicated! I remember when I first wanted to offer the ruble… And the all the pushback I received… Well, the ruble still have a quite a ways to go to reach the levels it traded at back then, but it has slowly but surely, chopped away at the currency price that the ruble fell to after the conflict in Ukraine, now 5 years ago…

Coming in second place for the currency news was China’s announcement that they would cut their Reserve Ratio percentage by 50 Basis Points (1/2%). A Reserve Ration cut is akin to an interest rate cut, as it frees up more money to use to support the economy… This news was welcomed by the Asian and Pan Asian Currencies and followed by a rally in this region’s currencies. 

And just when it appeared that the Chinese renminbi would slip off the ledge and fall into a deep dark abyss, this reserve ratio cut allowed the renminbi to rally for what seems like the first time in month of Sundays! 

it’s not all gloom and doom news coming from the U.K. these days, although I do have to say that this one caught me by surprise… U.K. GDP saw a 0.3% growth print for July, after June’s 0.0% print, there were, and I among them, economists that thought the U.K. was already in recession… 

This news was welcomed in the European region, and allowed pound sterling to rally, but left the euro stuck in the mud…  

When we last talked I told you that the price of Oil had rallied nicely and that was helping the Petrol Currencies… Well, the price of Oil continues to trade with a $56 handle this morning, and the best performing Petrol Currency is the Ruble, followed by the Canadian dollar/ loonie, and the Norwegian krone… 

Well, it was not a good week for Gold, as the price manipulators took back the conn from the physical Gold buyers, and Gold lost a good chunk of its value late in the week… Maybe this week will be better, and it’s off to a good start in the early trading today… And along with the engineered price taken down in Gold, they also showed up at the COMEX with an armful of short Silver paper trades too!

Longtime readers already know what I’m about to say, right? Buy the dips in Gold… well, that would be what I should say… But it’s not advice I’m giving, it’s merely a thought… and to that thought lies another one so let’s go there!

Longtime friend, publishing guru, and writer extraordinaire, Bill Bonner said it best the other day in his diary writings… I’ll let Bill explain, “a very simple Capital Loss Avoidance System, which proved to be very effective for long-term capital preservation: Any time you can buy the Dow for less than 5 ounces of gold, you should buy all the stocks you can. Then, when the Dow goes over 15 ounces of gold, you should sell stocks, buy gold, and sit tight until stocks fall again.

The real beauty of it is that it doesn’t require any research or any pretense of knowledge.” – Bill Bonner
Chuck again…. OK… doing some simple math is all that’s required to know when to sell stocks and buy Gold… And using my trusty calculator on the iPhone, I see that it takes more than 17 ounces of Gold to buy the DOW these days… Hmmm…..

OK, I’m not saying that you could bet the farm on the sell the DOW buy Gold trade right now… But it certainly does make for some interesting conversation, doesn’t it? And why not give it whirl? As Bill says, it has been proven to be very effective for along-term capital preservation.

Here in the U.S. things were interesting last Friday… Well, looky there…. The Jobs Jamboree was a disappointment to the dollar bugs camp out! The BLS reported that only 130,000 jobs were created in August, and of the 130,000 what the BLS didn’t report was that they had added 93,000 jobs after the surveys were completed… Of course that wasn’t as bad as the previous month when the BLS reported 160,000 jobs created, but had added 148,000 after the surveys!

Remember about a month ago, when I told you that the BLS had to eat all those extra jobs that they had added in the past year? Well, not all of them, but most of them! Which goes to prove what I’ve been saying all along… The BLS is full of their name minus the “L”…. Their numbers are worthless! But yet the markets still react to them like they were words from the Bible! I just don’t get it, do you? They’ve been proven wrong, and yet, people still listen to them… One of these days, folks, someone with far greater gray matter than I, will come up with a way to count jobs correctly… Right now, I believe the ADP folks, who are responsible for setting up payroll systems for just about every company in the country, would have a better count of who’s getting a paycheck this month, that wasn’t getting one last month!

But does anyone in the markets listen to me? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Now that was worth a great big-o-belly laugh!

So, stocks rallied, the dollar rallied, on Friday, and the Jobs number wasn’t even close to the 170,000 that were forecast for the month…. Now you tell me, why that was? And I’ll give you a Gold star! OK, not really… but you get what I’m trying to say… It’s preposterous! A Royal Scam (sorry Steely Dan), and so forth… I had better go on to something else before I blow my top!

The U.S. Data Cupboard this week, will be a real bummer for those looking for data that really counts…. In fact, we won’t see anything “worthy” printing until Friday, when Retail sales will print… This will be from August, which might still have some residual back-to-school spending in it, as I guess not all states go back to school as early as we do in Missouri… But other than that, it should be disappointing, when it does get around to printing on Friday. Today we will see the color of the Consumer Credit (read debt) for July… But like I said, not too much to bank on the rest of the week…

Before I head to the Big Finish today… I wanted to share with you a cartoon… Well, it’s a link to a cartoon… My fave cartoon, Pearls Before Swine, this one really hit home with me, and explains our political system with humor… So here’s the link, click it if you want to : https://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/comics/go-comics/?amu=/pearlsbeforeswine

To Recap…  The Jobs Jamboree was a real big disappointment, but the markets didn’t care… Stranger than fiction… But China cut it’s reserve requirement ratio by 50 Basis Points, and allowed the renminbi to rally… The U.K. surprised the markets with a 0.3% growth in GDP for July, and it’s all coming up roses for Russia and the ruble… 

For What It’s Worth… Well, we all know, by now that is, that former Fed Chairman, Big Al Greenspan, was a Gold bug before he took over the reins at the Fed, and all the while he was there, nary a word about Gold was spoken by Big Al… But since he’s been retired from the Fed Reserve, he’s back to extolling the virtues of owning Gold…   And this article is Big Al talking about Gold, and it can be found here: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-09-06/greenspan-rising-gold-price-shows-investors-want-hard-assets-will-increase-value

Or, here’s your snippet: “During a CNBC interview, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said gold prices are surging because investors are looking for hard assets that they know will have value in 20 or 30 years.

Gold is up more than 21% on the year and is trading at levels not seen since 2013.

During the interview, Greenspan focused on an interesting fundamental he thinks is driving both the bond and gold markets – the aging population. He said there has been a shift in time preferences as people recognize they will likely live longer and they will need to finance those longer lives. This, he says, is increasing the demand for hard assets like gold.

“One of the reasons that the gold price is rising as fast as it is … that’s telling us essentially that people are hard resources which they know are going to have a value 20 years from now, or 30 years from now as they age, and they want to make sure they have the resources to keep themselves in place. That is a clearly fundamental force that is driving this.”

Historically, gold has served as an inflation hedge and a wealth preserver. It makes sense that investors concerned about maintaining their savings well into the future would turn to gold. This is especially true given the likelihood of increasing inflation as the Federal Reserve continues to try to prop up the economy with low interest rates and quantitative easing.”

Chuck again… Well there’s something there in the idea that Big Al is once again talking about owning Gold… Was he told to keep his trap shut about Gold while running the Fed Reserve? It sure appears to be the reason to me… 

Currencies today 9/9/19 American Style: A$.6866, kiwi .6438, C$ .7601, euro 1.1026, sterling 1.2365, Swiss $.9911, European Style: rand 14.6992, krone 8.9411, SEK 9.6620, forint 298.97, zloty 3.9335, koruna 23.4593, RUB 66.70, yen 106.99, sing 1.3795, HKD 7.8409, INR 71.64, China 7.1147, peso 19.53, BRL 4.0606, Dollar Index 98.37, Oil $56.94, 10-year 1.59%, Silver $18.18, Platinum $955.91, Palladium $1,552.53, and Gold… $1,509.74

That’s it for today… Things continue to be quite strange in the markets, to an old markets person that have been around them for 46 years… But, it is what it is… and I can’t do a thing to change it, so…   Well…  I treated myself to some great smoked chicken thighs yesterday… Son Andrew and his family (Rachel and Braden) joined me for dinner…  Good friend, Dennis Miller, is doing better these days, and he sent me a video of a guy giving his recipe for chicken thighs, and I responded to him saying “I already do that!”  So, we’re down to the proverbial cheese that binds with my beloved Cardinals… They’ve gotta keep the pedal to the metal…  The Blue Jays take us to the finish line today with their song: Maybe…. “maybe, I’m wrong” I do believe I’ve used that line many times through the years!  I hope you have a Marvelous Monday, and please Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler

September 5, 2019

* The price of Oil jumps higher, delighting the Petrol Currencies!

* The BRICS GPD outpaces the combined GDP’s of the U.S. and Eurozone!

Good day… And a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday to you! I get to go to the day game at Busch Stadium today, so I’m geeked about that this morning… Man a crazy game last night, back and forth with lead changes, but in the end, my beloved Cardinals lost… UGH!  Have I got some articles for you today… I feel like I should stop writing and just provide articles to read… Nah, just kidding, but that’s what today is going to seem like… So, grab a cup of coffee, and let’s go! The Babys greet me this morning with their song: Back On My Feed Again… 

Well bust my buttons! The currencies stayed off the mat yesterday, and added to their small gains from Tuesday… Very interesting, eh? Has the dollar run its course? Or is this just a correction, and we’ll see the dollar bugs again soon enough?  Well, that’s always the question, you would think that a currency guy would be able to come to the right answer every now and then don’t you? HA!  It’s always an educated guess… that’s just the way it is…  And when you get caught up in Traders’ talk, they can steer you wrong, for sure! 

For us currency investors, I’m just happy that the currencies got up off the mat that they had been knocked to in recent weeks by the dollar bugs. For those of you keeping score at home, the Dollar Index has fallen from 99.28 on Tuesday morning, to 98.18 this morning… That pretty much tells you the dollar has been slipping… How long this will last, is the $64 question. I’m thinking that tomorrow’s Jobs Jamboree holds the key…  For the rate cut campers will be looking for a weak number that would help sway the Fed Heads to cut rates later this month, and that would not be good for the dollar…  A good strong print? that would turn this dollar weakness around on a dime… That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! 

The price of Oil has bumped higher to a $56 handle in the past 24 hours, and I think the move higher is tied to two things… 1. The U.S. announced additional sanctions on Iran, and 2. The Russians decided to join the Saudis and cut Oil production…  This move higher in the price of Oil has the Petrol Currencies looking perky this morning… 

OK, in the movie the Big Short, Michael Burry was the star investor who bet against the mortgage bubble, and won, in the end…  Well, he’s been pretty quiet lately, but this week he talked about what he feels is the next bubble to blow up, and that is the stock index funds…  Let’s listen to what Michael has to say about that, and this was taken from here: https://capital.com/michael-burry-compares-index-funds-to-subprime-cdos   

“passive investments such as index funds and exchange-traded funds are inflating stock and bond prices in a similar way debt obligations did for subprime mortgages more than 10 years ago.
The flows will reverse at some point, he said, and “it will be ugly” when they do.
“Like most bubbles, the longer it goes on, the worse the crash will be.” – Michael Burry  

Chuck again…  Wow! if you watched the movie the Big Short, you know how hard he worked and researched to come to his decision that the mortgage sector was a bubble… And he was correct, then… I’m just saying… 

Well, when they were formed, I knew in my heart of hearts that it wouldn’t take long for them to be bigger than most people thought they would be. And it’s with that, that I have for you today some news about the BRICS remember, the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, S. Africa)? Of course you do, for you are an astute person that reads the Pfennig! So, it happens to be that the BRICS combined GDP now outpaces the combined GDP of both the U.S. and Eurozone! WOW! And if things continue on path, they should be larger in GDP than the combined countries of G-7 by 2020! Who’da thunk?

OK, this thought came to mind when I read that yesterday… Remember when I told you that China suspended rare earth minerals to the U.S.? (we discussed then what rate earth minerals are used for), and caused the U.S. to find other sources… Like South Africa and Brazil…. What would happen, say, should the other countries of the BRICS vote and decide that S. Africa and Brazil cannot sent their rare earth minerals to the U.S. ?

• Just for fun… I feel like Wikipedia here, but here goes… here is a list of the rare minerals: Neodymium. This is used to make powerful magnets used in loudspeakers and computer hard drives to enable them to be smaller and more efficient. …
• Lanthanum. …
• Cerium. …
• Praseodymium. …
• Gadolinium. …
• Yttrium, terbium, europium.

And here his a list of things that use these rare earth minerals: many modern technologies, including consumer electronics, computers and networks, communications, clean energy, advanced transportation, health care, environmental mitigation, national defense, and you guessed it… that all important… many more!

Just food for thought on this Tub Thumpin’ Thursday…

Boy, I’m on a roll today… Better not stop me! He’s on a roll… better not stop him… It’s like when the German bombed Pearl Harbor! HAHAHAHA… That famous line from the Animal House movie, as been used by me several times through the years, and each time, I swear, I receive one or more emails informing me that the Germans didn’t bomb Pearl Harbor, the Japanese did!  Just shows to go ya that people read what they want to read, and pass over the other stuff… 

Gold had another wild and wacky day, with the price manipulators, but in the end it gained to $1,552 on the day… But this morning it’s starting out on the downside, with an $8 loss so far… That has time to correct, so let’s see how it unfolds today, eh? 

The U.S. Data Cupboard, yesterday, had the Fed’s Beige Book for the markets to read yesterday, and in it the majority of the Fed regions were reporting slower economic growth… the markets took this as an indication that the Fed will cut rates at the next meeting…  I’m not sure how they got that from what I read, but they’re on a roll, better not stop them!  

The U.S. Data Cupboard today, has some stupid prints, and a good one… July Factory Orders will print… I expect this print to be somewhat weak… which would go along with the Durable & Capital Goods Orders weakness that was reported previously… On Friday, the Jobs Jamboree for August will print…  Right now the so-called experts are calling for job growth at 170,000, Recall that June’s number was 164,000…  but those are BLS numbers, which are not worth a wooden nickel!  

To Recap…  The currencies stayed off the mat that had been knocked to in recent weeks by the dollar bugs, and added to their gains from Tuesday. Is this the end of the dollar’s run? or is just a correction?  The $64 question, for sure! Chuck highlights stories about stock index futures, and BRICS and poses a question that could lead to real problems… 

For What It’s Worth… Yesteday, I received a note from a longtime reader, Bernard, who sent me a link to an article on Wall Street On Parade, it’s written by Pam Martens, someone that I’ve long admired for her intellect, and ability to explain things to people… This week she was writing about how the 1-year Treasury Bill outperformed the DOW… And it can be found here: https://wallstreetonparade.com/2019/09/a-one-year-treasury-bill-beat-the-stock-market-over-the-past-year/

Or, here’s your snippet: “One year ago, investors could have purchased a one-year U.S. Treasury Bill with a yield of 2.47 percent. As of this past Friday’s closing price of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the Treasury Bill would have beaten the performance of the Dow over the past year by more than three-quarters of a point (not taking into account dividends on the Dow stocks).

On Friday, August 31, 2018, the Dow closed at 25,964.82. This past Friday, August 30, 2019, the Dow closed at 26,403.28 That’s a gain of 438.46 points in a year or a return of 1.68 percent versus earning 2.47 percent on a T-bill.

You would have been saved yourself the agony of living through the 800-point market plunge on August 14 and the 3746-point rout in the Dow from the close of trading on November 30, 2018 until Christmas eve – marking the worst December performance since the Great Depression.”

Chuck again… And don’t forget, as Pam won’t let you in her article, that stock performances were aided by a HUGE tax cut, during that year! Oh, have I told you that publishing guru, and writer extraordinaire, Bill Bonner, has another trade for us? Buy Gold, sell the DOW… Hmmmm… Sounds like a good plan to me, and you know me, I love it when a plan comes together!

Currencies today 9/5/19 American Style: A$.6820, kiwi .6390, C$ .7577, euro 1.1060, sterling 1.2337, Swiss $.9834, European Style: rand 14.8060, krone 8.9787, SEK 9.6563, forint 297.86, zloty 3.9240, koruna 23.7438, RUB 66.38, yen 106.65, sing 1.3834, HKD 7.8392, INR 71.78, China 7.1546, peso 19.65, BRL 4.1366, Dollar Index 98.18, Oil $56.17, 10-year 1.50%, Silver $19.25, Platinum $981.94 (nice to see Platinum finally joining the metals rally, eh?) Palladium $1,558.67, and Gold…. $1,542.66

That’s it for today and this week…  Short week, but those things happen all the time, no biggie…  Cardinals need to get back on the winning track today, this is no time to go on a losing streak!  I was talking with my good friend Dennis Miller, a lifelong Cubs fan, the other day, and he was not happy that the Cubs had fallen 3 games back of the Cardinals… I told him, not to worry there were 7 games left between the two teams, plenty of games to make up the ground…  Not that I want to see that… But it’s possible! Hope for the best, plan for the worst!  AC/DC takes us to the finish line today with their song: Rock And Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution…  I hope you have a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday, and Fantastico Friday, and please Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler

September 4, 2019

* Currencies get up off the mat!

* Eurozone Retail Sales in July go negative! 

Good day… And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! Another near no-hitter was pitched by the Cardinals Jack Flaherty last night… he was sailing along, and one mistake pitch… It’s about the 3rd time in the past month that he’s come close to a no-hitter! He’ll get one yet… he’s only 22 years old! Cardinals win, but so do the Cubs, so our lead on the 2nd place Cubs remains at 3 games, with one less game on the schedule… Can’t everyone just get along with each other these days? Another shooting here in St. Louis… I have a novel idea… Stop reporting them in the paper, TV, radio, internet, and let’s see if that slows the shooters down… I’m just thinking out loud here… Shooting Star greets me this morning with their song: Last Chance… “to be good to yourself”… my kind of lyrics!

Well, the currencies had a small, minor-like bounce upward yesterday VS the dollar, and Gold finished the day up officially by $2, but from my number yesterday it was up $15 at $1,545… So, not a good day all round for the dollar bugs. Don’t you feel sorry for them? NOT! They’ve had the upper hand on the currencies (not Gold & Silver) for most of the summer, and all the kings men and all the kings horses will put the dollar back together again, because… Well, it’s still in a strong dollar trend… Remember, a trend my be your friend, but it’s not a ONE-WAY-STREET!

And if you thought Gold had a good day yesterday, on a percentage return basis, Silver out gained Gold and trades today with a $19 handle… I’ve been telling people for a couple of years now that there would come a time when Silver was in high demand, and the supply would be short… Well, it appears that we’re approaching that time… Yesterday, the GATA folks sent me a blurb that said, Swiss gold fund manager Egon von Greyerz says Silver to Gold ratio will narrow, and become more normal, and that there won’t be any metal available… WOW! OK, so it’s just one guy, but Shoot Rudy, I’ve been saying that for two years now! And it’s finally here! I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but Silver has been quite stealth in its upward move lately… I really do believe that Silver’s next stop is $20… I’m just saying…

I don’t see the dollar losing too much ground, because, yesterday, Fed Head, Eric Rosengren, talked about there being no need to cut rates… Now, Rosengren is not the last and final word on a rate movement folks, but… if he’s the only one speaking, like yesterday, he’s the only one being heard!

Well, over in the U.K. PM Johnson has made a mess of things… threatening to suspend parliament, and then losing a confidence vote… What did he think they would do, applaud him for wanting them to go home? It’s not they’re 6th graders folks… And now a snap election is probably going to be needed to clean up everything… That should put tremendous weight on the currency pound sterling… Because, I know you all know, why I’m saying that… Because…. Everyone sing along, or follow the bouncing ball… Traders don’t like unknowns! How many times through the years, have I told you that one? Plenty for sure! That’s why I thought for sure you would already know what I was going to say!

Well looky there! This proves that for once and for all, that even a blind squirrel can find an acorn…  Yesterday, I told you that I believed that the ISM Manufacturing Index would fall below 50 when reported later yesterday… And looky there! That’s exactly what happened as the ISM fell from 50.5 to 49.1 a pretty big drop as far as I’m concerned…  A little piece of history here folks, are you ready?  Back in the early days of my old place of business, I wrote something that caused a real stir amoung the management…  I pointed out that the PMI (that’s what it used to be called) had printed to consecutive months at 45, and that I was taught by Hy Minsky that when that happens the economy is in a recession. No matter what the officials that are in charge of calling recessions say, we’re in a recession…    

You see, there had been no mention of a recession in the media, economists were convinced that the U.S. economy would skate through recession gauntlet, but there was little old me, claiming that we were in a recession!  And then months later, when the NBRD, the folks responsible for calling recessions, actually said that the recession had started months earlier, thus proving me correct!  

Come to think of it, I really stirred the drink a bit at times at my former place of business… They were a mortgage company that had a bank, and in 2003, when I wrote a write paper about The Year of The Euro, I had a section in the paper that talked about how there was a housing bubble brewing in the U.S. and it would end up very ugly…   The mortgage guys had a hissy fit, with me saying that…  But a couple years later that too had to apologize for the things they said to me…    

And then there was the time… no wait! Chuck, we don’t have all day to spend talking about your calls that got you into trouble, that then worked out!  OK, but that was fun while it lasted, right?  

OK back to regular programming… The euro tried to get up off the mat yesterday, but was held back this morning by a rotten Retail Sales print for July from the Eurozone… Eurozone July Retail Sales were negative -0.6%, and the Year on year number fell to 2.2% VS 2.8% last year…  I’d say that a recession is in place in the Eurozone, folks… One that even the strong economy of Germany will pull the rest of the Union out of the red…   

Well, the protests that we talked about last month in Hong Kong continue to be a real problem for the country… Could this be the center point of a confrontation between the U.S. and China? I doubt it, but stranger things have caused wars… Remember what started World War I?  it was the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his pregnant wife Sophie.  So… strange things can happen folks… 

Protests are also happing in S. Africa…  That place is a real mess folks, and has been for years… I used to say that I wouldn’t touch the S. African rand with YOUR ten foot pole, and I think it’s even more appropriate now! 

Do you recall me talking about and old friend, Rob Vrhijof, and him saying that he thought the Swiss franc would do well in the coming months, and I questioned that based on the fact that Switzerland has negative deposit rates, but said if anyone knew, he did…    Well, I noticed that when the euro was dropping like a rock last week, the franc was bumping higher… Strange I thought at first, and then it hit me!  A real V8 face slap!  Of course…  The euro was once one of those so-called safe haven currencies, along with francs, and yen, and Gold…  But with the shenanigans of the European Central Bank  (ECB) the euro’s status as a safe haven currency was in trouble, which made the franc even more appealing…   Good call Rob!

The U.S. Data Cupboard yesterday, had the aforementioned ISM Index  and Construction Spending, which in July was negative, and in August only rose 0.1%, so this sector is not doing too well, right now folks…  There’s not much on the docket today, except the Beige Book fed writings…

To recap… The currencies got up off the mat yesterday, and rallied along with Gold for once in a blue moon… The euro’s move was held back by a negative print for July in Retail Sales. Chuck believes the Eurozone is in a recession already…  Chuck points out the steal-like move in Silver in the last week, with the next stop for Silver being $20.  And then we go back in time to talk about things that Chuck called out, and got in trouble for, only to be proved correct later…

For What It’s Worth….  Well, this has been a long time coming… U.S. Investors finally getting off their duffs and buying Gold… Well, they’re buying the Gold Index, which isn’t really Gold, but it does follow Gold’s price, and in essence, the fund has to buy the real Gold to match the index purchases by customers so in the end, it works out for Gold…  This article from Bloomberg tells us that the Gold Index fund is quite popular these days and it can be found here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-02/gold-etfs-surge-more-than-100-tons-in-august-as-havens-in-vogue

Or, here’s your snippet: “Investors are going for gold in a big way. Inflows into bullion-backed exchange-traded funds topped 100 tons in August to hit the highest since February 2013 as the trade war worsened, risk assets took a knock, and central banks signaled looser monetary policy.

Holdings rose 101.9 tons, bringing total known assets to 2,453.4 tons as of Friday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It was the third straight monthly increase after the addition of a combined 154.1 tons in June and July.”

Chuck again… Yes, a real short-n-sweet article today, but the important part is that individual investors are finally seeing Gold as that safe haven investment… Too bad their broker told them the only way to own it was in an index… I’m just saying… 

Currencies today 9/4/19 American Style: A$.6790, kiwi .6352, C$ .7507, euro 1.1020, sterling 1.2195, Swiss $.9844, European Style: rand 14.8575, krone 9.0582, SEK 9.7565, forint 298.40, zloty 3.9373, koruna 23.4428, RUB 66.83, yen 106.24, sing 1.3858, HKD 7.8405, INR 72.01, China 7.1717, peso 19.82, BRL 4.1767, Dollar Index 98.59, Oil $54.84, 10-year 1.49%, Silver $19.41, Platinum $974.13, Palladium $1,5343.83, and Gold… $1,538.56

That’s it for today…  A little later than usual… sorry…  One of our friends that attended the BBQ last Saturday, that we hadn’t seen in a few years, stopped by my writing desk and looked over the pictures I have put up… She really liked one where Alex was about 3 or 4, and Andrew was in High School, and they are sitting next to each other eating popsicles, on a hot summer day… And Alex is looking up at Andrew with such admiration… I told her it was my favorite, and that’s why it’s smack dab in front of me! The Beatles take us to the finish line today with their song: Drive My Car…  I hope you have a Wonderful Wednesday, and please Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler 

 

 

September 3, 2019

* But dollar bugs won’t be distracted, they keep buying dollars!

* Chuck takes us back to his days as a cashier in Des Moines, Iowa! 

Good Day… And a Tom Terrific Tuesday to you! What a great weekend here in my home town… The rain stayed away for the BBQ on Saturday, after coming down in buckets on Friday night, and then Sunday and Monday were just absolutely beautiful… I know that’s not fair, to the folks in the SouthEast, getting hammered by wind and rain from the hurricane Dorian. But, as Annie sang… The sun will come out tomorrow… So, hang in there, be careful, and don’t take any chances with mother nature! We ended the week yesterday with our neighbors, Paul and Lenore, sitting out back watching the Cardinals win again, and then had a wonderful dinner out on the deck… Marvin Gaye greets me this morning with his song: Inner City Blues… “makes you wanna holler, the way they do my life”…

Well, another round of tariffs went through on Chinese goods this past weekend… They had had been held back awaiting for any signs of progress in the negotiations, but since that didn’t happen, the tariffs went into place, and the stock jockeys, who last week bought tons of stocks on the thought that the Trade War might end, are not so much thinking that today, as stock futures are down big this morning…

And through all of these gyrations with stocks, the dollar continues to be bought… The dollar has now pushed the euro down below the 1.10 level, and it’s falling fast folks… (my English teacher would be proud of me using that alliteration! ) But that’s not going to save the euro… And right now I don’t know what can, besides a fall in the dollar, which doesn’t appear to be on anyone’s docket right now…

Longtime readers know that when the euro is getting sold, there’s not a currency in the world that can survive not being sold too… The Chinese kept the renminbi steady Eddie during the 2007-2008 financial meltdown, but once the first round of Quantitative Easing was announced, in March 2009, the Chinese let the dogs out to run VS the dollar… And soon the dollar was getting sold like Funnel Cakes at a State Fair! But… that’s not happening now… so we have to live with a stronger dollar… And that’s bound to make the President madder than a we hen! But so far, the dollar bugs have given the President the deaf ear treatment…

In addition, longtime readers, know that I believe the next recession is going to be a doozy! The Fed normally cuts 5% in interest rate cuts during a recession… We’re not even 1/2 the way to 5%… So, where will the extra arrows come from to stop the recession this time? Negative rates? More Quantitative Easing? Or how about both? That’s what I’m betting a shiny quarter on… Both of those being used by the Fed to stop the recession… But, by the time the Fed gets around to admitting they were wrong about the economy, and begin to deal with the recession, it’ll be too late, baby, now, it’s too late, though we really did try and make it!

Will the recession come still this year, or will it come in 2020? I doubt that it’ll be stubborn and wait any longer than 2020… And at the end of last year, I told you that by the end of this year, we would be in a recession… So, I’m still keeping a light on for that forecast!

Oh, and don’t look now, but there are some glaring signs that a recession is closer than we think… 1. The Bond curve inverted, 2. GDP is shrinking, 3. Corporate Earnings growth has slowed to 2.3% (was above 7%) 4. Remember last month when I told you that the Manufacturing Index was very close to going below 50, which would mean manufacturing is contracting? Well, the August ISM (manufacturing index ) will print today, and I expect it to fall below 50 at 49.9… 5. About a month ago I told you that Cass Freight shipments were dropping like flies, well, May they were down 6%, June they were down 5.3%, and now July they were down another 5.9%… Do you see a trend here? I thought you would! 6. CAPEX (capital expenditures) are way down, folks… There’s no economic recovery without CAPEX rising… So, there you go… I’m sure there are more… like the economic data, even the data that’s hedonically adjusted, continues to look weaker with every print…

Not that I want to see another financial meltdown… But a recession is something that should be welcomed by economies, for they clear out the excesses, and allow economies to come back stronger than ever… But the Fed has insisted on making sure we all know that they are smarter than the rest of us, and have tried to limit the effects of a recession, before the excesses were cleared out, and we’ve kicked that can down the road, since the Big Al Greenspan days!

Well, I got to see former colleagues, Jen and Chris at the BBQ last Saturday, and we all agreed that this current situation is bad, and can’t keep going like it is… But does that mean the economy will collapse today? No! Tomorrow? No! Next week? No! I think you get the picture… There’s not one person on the God’s green earth that can pinpoint exactly when the economy will collapse… I call events that could lead to the beginning of a collapse, snowflakes… You know like a snowflake can be the final snowflake on a mountain of snow that causes an avalanche… We’ll have our “snowflake moment”, but by the time we wake up or come back to work one day after a 3-day weekend, or whatever, it’ll be too late… Sorry, game over, take your ball and go home, stuff… I’m just saying…

My neighbor asked me if he could still buy Gold… I said, why not? I asked him, does your bank pay you much on your deposits, whether they be demand deposits, savings deposits or CD’s? So, let’s look at it this way… At least with Gold, you may not receive interest, but… You have a store of wealth, that has never gone to zero! The dollar has lost 95% of its value since the Fed took over in 1913… I just thought I would throw that tidbit out there… to compare…

Gold was getting any love on Thursday and Friday last week, but it’s difficult to keep a good currency/ metal down… And It recovered by $7, yesterday, as the Trade War ratchets upward… Just so you know… Central Banks around the world, sans the U.S., U.K., Japan, and Europe, are buying physical Gold by the truck loads each month… Are the Central Banks in Russia and China smarter than those in the U.S, U.K. Japan and Europe? Well, I do believe they are! Sorry Jerome Powell, Mario Draghi, Mark Carney, and Mr. Kuroda, with all respect, I would have to put my money on the Central Bankers of Russia and China… But then I would think that most people that read this letter would know that by now!

While on the subject of Gold & silver, Ed Steer printed his latest graph showing the number of days of production it would take to equal the amount of ounces of Gold & silver that are sold short… The reason I bring this up, is that Silver has now moved to 200 days of production needed, and Gold 130 days… As these two metals rise, don’t you think things get a little hairy for those bullion banks holding all those short positions? I personally hope that it gets so hairy that a few of them have to go into receivership! That would teach them!

Wouldn’t that drive you crazy? knowing you held all these short positions while the asset was moving higher each week?  I’ll tell you a story that relates to this… A long time ago, I was working in a brokerage/ commodity house in Des Moines, Iowa, And we had broker that made huge bets with commodity trades on something I won’t talk about… I being the cashier, kept issuing his clients margin calls, but he persuaded the management team that he was right, and it would be be right on the night, eventually… Well, one Monday morning, I arrived to hear that the project had fallen through, and the broker had checked himself into a mental facility… I then had to make all these calls to the clients telling them their positions were being sold out, and they needed to supply additional funds…  

That led to SEC investigations and depositions being taken… I had an SEC regulator, take me into a hallway, and start poking me in the chest, and telling me to start remembering the events better…  I told him to keep his hands off me, and that I would never forget the events! And I still haven’t! 

So will we hear about some Bullion Bank traders checking themselves into mental facilities?  Now, that would make this whole thing go full circle wouldn’t it?  

OK, the U.S. Data Cupboard today has the ISM manufacturing index that I’ve said would go below 50…  Then we’ll go along through the week with some various data prints tht don’t mean too much, until we get to Friday’s Jobs Jamboree for August…   I had a little back and forth with a writer last week that sent me a note that said, Chuck, you’re wrong about the U.S. consumer being tapped out, did you see how strong Personal Spending was In July? (it printed last week) …  I responded it, Haven’t we already talked about this before? July Retail Sales were strong, because of the back-to-school sales, and therefore Personal Spending would also be strong in July for the sale reason!  Besides, it wasn’t cash being spent, it was for the most part credit card purchases! 

To Recap…  The Trade Ward kicking into a higher gear this past weekend, as a new round of tariffs began… The Southeast it getting whipped around by Hurricane Dorian.   The dollar continues to get bought, despite all the goings on…  Chuck talks about the next recession, and has a flashback to the 70’s and a situation in Des Moines… 

For What It’s Worth… Last week, I received an email from my longtime friend, and former boss, Frank Trotter… He sent me a link to an article that I think I could have written… It’s about the Budget Deficits and how no one seem to care about them any longer (except me of course!) and it an be found here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/were-making-a-high-stakes-gamble-on-the-deficit/2019/08/25/82b0494e-c5c5-11e9-b5e4-54aa56d5b7ce_story.html?noredirect=on

Or, here’s your snippet: “It’s getting harder and harder to write these budget columns, because it must be obvious to almost everyone by now that hardly anyone in Washington (or perhaps any place) cares about the budget deficits. The assumption is that we can raise spending and cut taxes forever — or until some crisis occurs that forces us to do involuntarily what we won’t do voluntarily.

There is a bipartisan consensus of sorts that the presumed discipline of balancing the budget — discarding the least useful programs and increasing the least burdensome taxes — has been overtaken by expediency. Why bother to curb budget deficits when there seem to have been few, if any, damaging consequences in letting them continue? Worse, deficit reduction now might raise the risk of recession.

Just for the record, it’s worth reciting the basic facts in the latest report from the Congressional Budget Office. It demonstrates the nonchalance with which the budget is now treated by both parties.

According to CBO estimates, massive deficits stretch as far as the eye can see. Between 2020 and 2029, the projected deficits total $12.2 trillion, which is nearly $1 trillion more than was estimated in May. In every year after 2020, the deficit exceeds $1 trillion and is more than 4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). By 2028, the projected deficit will be 5 percent of GDP.”

Chuck, and here’s the important part… The writer goes on to say: “This is a high-stakes gamble. The possible ways in which a world sated with dollar securities could trigger a financial or economic crisis are many. The consequences of a run on the dollar — the currency most held by multinational firms, international banks, investors and traders — would clearly destabilize the world economy. A prudent society would recognize this and take preventive steps.

We are not prudent. We are just raising the risks, seemingly determined to learn how much we can test the bounds of our ignorance.”
W have become… Perfectly Numb… 

Currencies today 9/3/19 American Style: A$.6732, kiwi .6293, C$ .7483, euro 1.0933, sterling 1.2037, Swiss $.9906, European Style: rand 15.1340, krone 9.1554, SEK 9.8823, forint 302.55, zloty 3.9940, koruna 23.6838, RUB 66.71, yen 106.12, sing 1.3929, HKD 7.8435, INR 72.36, China 7.1666, peso 20.09, BRL 4.1567, Dollar Index 99.28, Oil $54.07, 10-year 1.48%, Silver $18.46, Platinum $940.06, Palladium $1,545.87, and Gold… $1,529.88

That’s it for today…  I really don’t want to place the kiss of death on my beloved Cardinals, so I’ll just say they had a good 3 day weekend of 5 games! We had a blast at the Annual Butler Labor Day BBQ & Pool Party! A great time was had by all (I think!) I guess I estimated the amount of meat to cook as there was very little leftover, after everyone had eaten…  Good job Chuck!  I really didn’t want to wake up this morning… But I did, and then I thought to myself… Chuck you don’t get any gold stars for waking up early! HA!   Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP) take us to the finish line today with their song: Lucky Man…    Hey! they must be talking about me! Whenever I meet a new nurse, who wants to know my medical history, even though she could look it up, I tell her the history, and then add… And my friends call me “Lucky”!  HAHAHAHAHA    I hope you have a Tom Terrific Tuesday, and please Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler

August 30, 2019

Good day… And a Fantastico Friday to you! This is out of the ordinary, me writing on a Friday, but I’m going to do very little of the writing. Instead, I have a special treat for you today… 

A very long time ago, my longtime good friend, and former boss, Frank Trotter, introduced me to one of his colleagues. His name…. Michael Checkan. Michael and I struck up a conversation, and he told me of sitting in audience in San Diego, and listening to me speak about currencies and metals, and was quite impressed, and wanted to meet me… I can’t tell you how embarrassed I was, but happy that I had done well… Through the years, we’ve stayed in touch, Michael is a cancer survivor too… So, we have a bond… When I was speaking a lot, we ran into each other all the time. Good times with Michael… He was the person that introduced me to Rob Vrijhof, of whom I spoke of two weeks ago…

Ok, now we have that background… Late last week, Michael sent me an email, and in it was a letter that he had written about Gold back in 2007… But it’s even more in touch with what’s going on today than ever! And he asked me to share it with my readers, and I’m so happy to do just that… Enjoy!

T H E T  TALE OF THE TAELS
By Michael Checkan

A Hard Lesson about Hard Money Gold protects wealth. This lesson isn’t new. But we do have to rediscover it from time to time. Back in 1975, I was a senior officer with the world’s oldest and largest dealer in precious metals and foreign currencies, Deak-Perera. I learned a lesson first-hand that taught me about the importance of the “barbaric relic” … GOLD! Deak-Perera was one of the few financial institutions in the U.S. with a combined expertise in precious metals, foreign currencies, and international banking. As a result of this knowledge, they were invited by the U.S. State Department in April 1975 to assist the South Vietnamese refugees that were being air-evacuated into Guam and the U.S. as Saigon fell. Deak-Perera would soon be catapulted into the national limelight. Their role was the exclusive “money changer” for all five of the Vietnamese Refugee Camps. Y ou m ay recall , it was only as of J a n u a r y 1 , 1 9 7 5 t h a t American c i t i z e n s w e r e o n c e a g a i n permitted to legally own bullion gold. It had bee n illegal to own gold since 1 9 3 3 w h e n P r e s i d e n t R o o s e v e l t t o o k t h e U.S. o f f t h e g o l d s t a n d a r d a n d c o n f i s c a t e d gold. Unaccustomed as we were to handling displaced persons, it was nonetheless clear that even the most prominent of these refugees would be arriving at the camps with little more than the clothes on their backs and whatever valuables they were able to carry. Who knew what those valuables would be … but one thing was certain, they wouldn’t be drawing checks on their local banks. All banks in that impoverished country had been nationalized along with the rest of the economy. The cruel joke you heard was that Vietnam was a true cash and carry economy.

A Day That Changed My life May 1975 found me at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, one of the 5 refugee camps. Two particular families are burned in my mind … Wearing what had once been an expensively tailored suit was a middle-aged man, trim and well spoken. He obviously cared deeply about his bedraggled family. He had been a businessman in Vietnam, in fact, a banker. But now his family’s total fortune was contained in the small dingy canvas bag that he hung on to for dear life. Even through all the adversity he and his family had recently experienced, there was still a glimmer of hope in his eyes. Despite losing his job, his home and his country, what he gazed upon in that canvas bag caused an expression of relief on his face. It was his golden anchor! It was his key to a new life in a new country. I was about to learn the role of gold in a crisis. He poured the contents of the bag onto the table. There, gleaming in the sun, were 24Karat gold TAELs … a form of gold bullion indigenous to South East Asia. Each weighed 1.2 ounces. (37.5 grams) of pure .9999 fine gold. They looked like wafers … thin sheets delicately wrapped in paper. It was Deak-Perera’s job to buy the gold Taels from the refugees, and, with the proceeds, issue traveler’s checks.

Further back in line, there was another refugee who was less fortunate than the banker carrying gold Taels. Much like the banker, he was a successful businessman before being uprooted with his family by war. He approached my table with two suitcases in-hand. Like his countryman with the Taels, he had worked very hard, saved extremely well, and carried all his worldly wealth in those satchels. But, there was one major difference. His wealth was in the form of Piasters, paper money issued by the Republic of Vietnam. These paper promises of a government that no longer existed were worthless. Can you imagine … a lifetime of toil for two suitcases filled with worthless paper? Worthless as well were the U.S. issued Military Payment Certificates (MPC) which carried the likeness of movie stars. Other items, even valuable diamonds, jade and loose gems, were hard to exchange on the spot for a fair price. Only gold had a quick and ready market. Before that day, I always knew that precious metals were an important asset.

But, after looking into the eyes of these two men and their families, I knew first-hand the value of gold and other precious metals—they held their value when nothing else did. Is the TALE of the TAEL still relevant today?

Does gold in 2007 offer the same peace of mind and protection to Americans that it has through 5,000 years of history? Absolutely! As an American, there are many threats to your hard-earned wealth. The most insidious is not military in nature. It is the weakening of the U.S. dollar.

For the United States, the invoices are piling up. The costs of military conflicts, out-of-control government spending, rising healthcare, and entitlement programs for the vast number of emerging baby boomers add up to a number well in excess of revenue. The only politically acceptable
solution is to print more money and devalue the dollar. A good friend of mine, Don MackayCoghill, the “Father of the Krugerrand,” and respected figure in the precious metals industry for nearly half a century, recently had the following to say on the subject of the weakening dollar and the future of precious metals … “Because the action that needs to be taken to begin to turn the ship around is politically untenable, the only way out for the politicians on both sides of the house is the well worn track of devaluing the dollar by dramatically increasing the money supply—what used to be reported as M3. Having been fairly bearish on precious metal prices for a long period, I have over the past eighteen months turned into a full-blown bull. For the past five years or so the gold price has, in my opinion, simply reflected the weakness of the US dollar. Over the next five years the driver is going to revert to the same driver that pushed gold to $850 per ounce in January 1980—INFLATION—and this time around it is my view that the forthcoming bull run is going to dwarf anything that has gone before it. It is not going to happen overnight, but all the building blocks are in place, and I expect the fireworks to begin in the next three to five years.” So, when gold prices go to the moon, and the dollar falls off the abyss, which would you rather hold as a fair representation of a lifetime of toil? Would you rather be holding two suitcases full of dollar bills, or a canvas sack full of gold?

Chuck Again… I hope you enjoyed the Tale of Taels…  and I’ll leave you with one question…. Got Gold?   Have a Fantastico Friday, and a lovely Labor Day weekend! 

August 29, 2019

* The dollar continues to rule the roost

* Gold fights the dollar bugs, and wins! 

Good Day… And a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday to you! Well… one of my good friends (Kevin) said to me last night… “Well, your short-n-sweet, didn’t turn out to be so short”… And we all had a laugh, because they know as you probably do too dear reader, that once I get going… The fat fingers start flying over this keyboard, and the next thing you know… It’s long, once again! But not today… I really truly am going to make this short-n-sweet, because… Well, there’s just not that much new to talk about… It’s all a lather, rinse, repeat, of the yesterday and so on… With last Friday being the only blip in the daily goings on in the currencies, and order was restored on Monday… Quicksilver Messenger Service greets me this morning with their classic rock song: What About Me?

OK… Well, like I just said above, yesterday was no different than the previous days (except last Friday) The Trade War is getting uglier by the day, The Global economy is going to hell in a hand basket, followed by the U.S. economy, The Fed has backed themselves into a damned if the do and damned if they don’t situation… The President is still trying to get his way with the Fed and get them to cut rates big… The dollar bugs continue to rule the roost, and Gold, while it didn’t gain yesterday, is doing just fine… So… that’s the wrap up… talk to you next Tuesday! – Just kidding… 

Regarding any new news on coordinated intervention in the dollar… The GATA folks sent me this: “The Treasury Department has no intention of intervention at this time. Situations could change in the future but right now we are not contemplating an intervention, Mnuchin said Wednesday in an interview with Bloomberg News in Washington.”

OK… does that sound sort of like a team owner giving his coach a vote of confidence right before showing his the door soon after? Well, it does to me… And therefore I’m going to say that intervention to weaken the dollar is on the table to discuss right now…

The U.S. Data Cupboard had nothing for us to see yesterday, and today the big kahuna is the next revision of 2nd QTR GDP, which after the last downward revision it was 2.1%, and if you’ve been reading this week, you already know that I think it will be downgraded to 1.8%… And finally down to 1.5% when the final revision comes along…

To recap… nothing new has come to light this week, other than the stuff we’ve already discussed… Chuck smells a coordinated intervention coming to weaken the dollar, even though the Treasury Sec. said “not at this time” And this one is a real McCoy, short-n-sweet letter today…

For What It’s Worth… OK, you didn’t think I would leave for a 4 day weekend, and not have a FWIW article for you did you? This one came to be from the good folks at GATA, and they supplied a link to the article… Coming GATA you can figure that it’s about Gold… which it is… and it can be found here: http://petergrandich.com/2019/08/27/gold-the-easy-part-is-now-behind-us/

Or, here’s your snippet: “Back in late summer of 2018, I made a decision that gold, and related investment vehicles, was a much better choice for capital gains opportunity than both general equities and the overall U.S. stock market going forward. I chose to hold just one general equity and to instead own gold, numerous gold ETFs and one individual mining stocks as my personal portfolio. Gold was on either side of $1,200 during that timeframe.

Since then, I continued to suggest gold, and those related items, as my personal choice over the U.S. stock market. As of now, it has proven to be a much better choice with gold up 30% and with gold-related vehicles up an average 100% or more. This contrasts, in the same period, with the flat-to-down general stock market. Gold and gold-related items have even outperformed general equities just in 2019.

While many of the remaining ‘gold bears’ and those who claim that “gold’s rise is basically behind us”, they are mostly the same folks who said the same at $1,200 and who also claimed that gold was going under a $1,000 too. Words like “relic” were common in their description of gold, and many of them even claimed that bitcoin and cryptocurrencies were the ‘new gold’. How’s that working out for them?

While I had a bias in favor of gold for the first 30 or so years of my career in and around the financial arena, I have had no such bias now for the last 5+ years. I neither promote investment vehicles that benefit from my stance nor am I employed by anyone who would benefit from my bullish talk on gold. My motivation has simply been 100% for personal profit motives that have led my viewpoints.

Believe it or not, the easy part is now over. While gold still has hundreds of dollars more of upside potential, it’s going to be more volatile and harder to hold on to, then it was the last 12 months.”

Chuck again…. This is a very long article, so make sure you have a few minutes to devote to reading it… Mr. Grandich makes some wonderful points that I’ve alluded to through the past couple of years…

Currencies today 8/29/19 American Style: A$.6745, kiwi .6344, C$ .7528, euro 1.1070, sterling 1.2209, Swiss $.9827, European Style: rand 15.3075, krone 9.0580, SEK 9.7417, forint 298.13, zloty 3.9584, koruna 23.3445, RUB 66.60, yen 106.25, sing 1.3875, HKD 7.8462, INR 71.71, China 7.1612, peso 20.10, BRL 4.1394, Dollar Index 98.26, Oil $56.18, 10-year 1.50%, Silver $18.51, Platinum $925.16, Palladium $1,484.46, and Gold… $1,535.56

That’s it for today… Another beautiful day here… I had to check the calendar, and yes we ARE in August! WOW! It looks like my home away from home in the South is going to be getting hit with some very bad weather, right now Dorian is looking like it will hit Palm Beach, which is not far from my place… UGH! Let’s hope it takes a wide turn and goes back out to sea! I’ll be cooking all day tomorrow, and then again on Saturday morning… It should be a good and fun crowd as usual and hopefully the rain stays away… Leon Russell takes us to the finish line today with his song: Queen Of The Roller Derby… I hope you enjoyed your short-n-sweet Pfennig today… and that you have a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday, and a Fantastico Friday, and fabulous weekend… If you’re on the East Coast in the South, please take precautions… And please Be Good To Yourself! I’ll see you… In September… see you when the summer’s through… 

Chuck Butler

August 28, 2019

* Back to the dollar bugs ruling the roost… 

* But the dollar can’t hold Gold in check! 

Good Day… And a Wonderful Wednesday to you… A Chamber of Commerce Day here in the St. Louis region yesterday… And I failed to spend much of the day outside… I’ve told you before that sometimes I get whacked out, and all I want to do is sleep all day… Well, I didn’t sleep ALL day, just a good piece of it! I would be fired in a minute the first time I fell asleep at a job! So, I guess it’s a good thing I was shown the door a few years ago! Pink Floyd greets me this morning with my fave Pink Floyd song: Comfortably Numb…. Remember when I used to say that the U.S. had become comfortably numb with debt accumulation? I gave up on that, because it just keeps getting worse and worse! 

This should be short and sweet today, as I just don’t have that much to say in addition to what I’ve already said about the markets, manipulation, dots and twits…  But I’ll give it that old college try!

The dollar is back in the driver’s seat this morning, pushing the currencies down to levels that look very ugly… The Norwegian krone, which a couple of weeks ago, I said I was worried about, finally gave up the ship and fell into the 9 handle… UGH!    The Euro Wannabes, forints, zlotys and korunas, have hit the skids, and just keep sliding downward… Remember what I’ve said in the past, that when these three currencies get on the rally tracks then you know it’s a good currency rally… 

Even the Russian ruble which has been Steady Eddie through all of this dollar strength, gave up some ground in the trading yesterday and overnight. And this is doubly interesting because the price of Oil rose to above $55 in the past 24 hours… So no love for the Petrol Currencies, all the love is being given to the dollar right now…  So, we might as well embrace that…  I mean it… Shoot Rudy, you can’t fight city hall, you don’t pull on Superman’s cape, and you can’t fight the dollar bugs once they’re entrenched in their bunkers… 

But what if all this dollar strength isn’t good for the world,  including the U.S.?  Well, I have some thoughts on that subject, that I’ll let the folks at Bloomberg explain to you this morning…  “Not only does the U.S. currency’s climb tend to erode the profits of American multinationals, but it also raises the costs of foreign corporations with trillions of dollar-denominated debt. The pressure from greenback strength on other economies could even encourage those countries to join a U.S. attempt to weaken it.

“If you start to see the U.S. economy really begin to decelerate and the dollar continue to strengthen, that would suggest a dislocation with fundamentals that is unsustainable and will get the attention of policy makers,” Bank of America senior foreign-exchange strategist Ben Randol said in a phone interview. “If the U.S. can make its concerns heard with its international counterparts, it can potentially get some support for a coordinated intervention that suppresses the strength of the dollar.”

There’s that “intervention” word again…  There sure seems to a lot of talk about that possibility suddenly… So, I found a good article on it for the FWIW section today, you won’t want to miss that! 

OK, U.K. PM Boris Johnson, threw a cat among the pigeons in the past 24 hours, as he  announced that he was going to suspend Parliament at the end of September… Why? Because that way they would not be in session to vote down a BREXIT Deal…  That’s Tricky, isn’t it?  Imagine if you would, that the U.S. was a parliamentary gov’t. and Trump could just suspend parliament (the house and senate) and do what he wanted?  See? Young people are always wanting to change the Gov’t… To what? Checks and balances folks… that’s what it’s all about in governing a country… 

Sterling traders didn’t like the message that Johnson sent, and they began to mark down the currency immediately…  

But all this talk of bad things happening to currencies and all the love given to the dollar doesn’t apply when we switch gears and head over to the Gold window…  The dollar may be the cat’s meow VS the currencies, but it’s not cutting the mustard when it comes to keeping Gold in check… 

Gold gained $18 yesterday…  And Silver? OMG! it rose above $18 for the first time in what seems like a lifetime!  I had just read a traders comments on Silver this past weekend, and he talked about the $18.50 level as key, for he thought that once Silver went through $18.50 it’s next stop would be $20… And if history is to come into play here with Silver, the last time Silver went on a run  and got to $20, it was clear sailing all the way to $50…

OK, I’m not shouting from a rooftop that Silver is going to $50… I’m just pointing out that the last time that’s what it did…  And you know me, I love it when history gets repeated!

The U.S. Data Cupboard had the Case/Shiller Home Price Index (HPI) yesterday, and like I said yesterday, “Home prices in preceding months had fallen, and I didn’t see any reason why the June report wouldn’t show the same, and it did… It showed Home Prices only grew 3.1%, VS 3.3% in May…. Oh, and get this… I’m going to pause a minute here so you can get the real sarcasm of this…. The Consumer Confidence Index rose from 128 to 135 this month…   Really?  With all the talk of the Trade War getting really ugly, and a recession coming, the Fed backed into a corner, Consumers are Confident?  Well, bust my buttons!  Oh, that’s right, Consumers believe the stock market is the economy, shoot Rudy, even the Fed believes that now, judging from their statement last week, So, I guess Consumers aren’t wrong for being confident…  NOT!

For What It’s Worth… OK, yesterday, I painted a picture for you of how two countries and maybe three could be joining forces to get what they want out of their respective currencies via intervention… The U.S. / Japan and maybe even the Eurozone… And then I find this article on MarketWatch that just blew me away… They must be Pfennig readers because that’s what they were talking about! All the while you read this, remember what I was talking about yesterday, and say… “How’d he know”? HA! OK, you can find the article here: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-how-currency-intervention-works-2019-07-12

Or, here’s your snippet: “Intervention occurs when a central bank buys or sells its own currency in an effort to influence the exchange rate.
A government might take action to halt a precipitous slide or a sharp runup in its currency following a shock. It could also act in concert with or on behalf of other countries in an effort to stabilize a particular currency. In fact, the last time the U.S. intervened in the currency market was in March 2011, as part of a coordinated effort by the Group of Seven nations to arrest a surge in the Japanese yen following a devastating earthquake and tsunami.

According to the New York Fed, the foreign currencies used to intervene by the U.S. usually come equally from Federal Reserve holdings and the Treasury’s Exchange Stabilization Fund. Those holding consist of euros and Japanese yen.

The New York Fed’s trading desk does the buying and selling, often dealing simultaneously with several large interbank dealers in the spot market. The New York Fed, in a 2007 note, observed that it historically hasn’t engaged in the forward market or other derivative transactions.

The process is also meant to be transparent, the New York Fed says, with the U.S. Treasury secretary typically confirming the move while the Fed is conducting the operation or shortly thereafter. After all, authorities are attempting to send market participants a message, so there’s little incentive for them to cover their tracks.”

Chuck Again… OK, also to the point… I’m not in favor of intervention… I’ve always said that the markets have deeper pockets than any Central Bank… But that comment came to me years ago, before there was carte blanche printing of currencies… Think about that one for a moment… So combined intervention may work, short term, but it’s not always a given that it will continue to work… And then all those countries lose money and currency traders are the only ones that come out on top!

Currencies today 8/28/19 American Style: A$ .6745, kiwi .6347, C$ .7511, euro 1.1086, sterling 1.2207, Swiss $.9812, European Style: rand 15.3690, krone 9.0334, SEK 9.7058, forint 297.70, zloty 3.9584, koruna 23.3170, RUB 66.32, yen 105.72, sing 1.38, HKD 7.8462, INR 71.81, China 7.1595, peso 20.00, BRL 4.1467, Dollar Index 98.15, Oil $55.64, 10-year 1.46%, Silver $18.43, Platinum $877.35, Palladium $1,472.54, and Gold $1,543.19

That’s it for today…  Another Chamber of Commerce day here for today, and today, even if I do feel like sleeping I’ll do it outside!  No, I’ve got things to do today, to prepare for the big BBQ this weekend!  Well, college Football really kicks off this weekend as everyone plays! And that includes my Mizzou Tigers… Good luck Tigers, I’m expecting a very good year! This morning we’re being taken to the finish line by the Outfield and their song: Your Love…  I always think of my good friend Rick when an 80’s song plays…  I hope you have a Wonderful Weekend, and please Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler

 

August 27, 2019 

* Currencies, Gold, bonds all are none events on Monday

* Japan’s Fin Min is worried about the yens latest move…. 

Good Day… And a Tom Terrific Tuesday to you… Back to regular programming today… I drove through what felt and looked like a Tropical Storm yesterday on my way to the doc’s office. I know what I’m talking about because about 8 years ago, I did just that in Florida on my way to the Ft. Lauderdale Airport… Cars were pulled off on the side of the highway, and I’ve got to say, at least the water didn’t build up on the highway like it did on the streets yesterday… And, by the time I got to the doc’s office, it had stopped raining, and by the time I came back out, the sun was shining! Crazy weather! I hope none of that’s in store for this coming Labor Day Holiday Weekend… The Doobie Brothers greet me this morning with a song from their great Captain and Me album…. Natural Thing…

Well, the Plunge Protection Team must have been out in force yesterday, as the stock bounced back, along with the dollar… Hmmm… One day it’s armegeddon and the next day, it’s all sunshine, lollipops and rainbows and everything… Oh, well, their day will come… (as opposed to Our Day Will Come) And they’ll get their rears handed to them! But that’s for another day… As they say!

But for all of you keeping score at home… Let me paint this picture so you get my drift here…  Yesterday morning stock futures were down big, which is a strong indication that stocks will open up in the red…  But then almost magically, they didn’t… How’d that happen?  Ahhh grasshopper, the Plunge Protection Team (PPT) had to have been there with arms full of contracts to buy, otherwise things would have looked differently yesterday…  Another case of market manipulation..

So… the world is talking about the Trade War… The markets all over the world are screaming for help, along with their respective economies.. And we sit here, with a Fed that has its hands tied… I don’t blame Powell, for having the Fed backed into a corner… I blame all the years that Big Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen left rates at zero… That’s who I blame! One side is trying everything they can to make things look bad come reelection time, and the other side is lying through their collective teeth on how good things are… It’s crazy out there, and you, me and the guy down the street that cuts his grass with his shirt off, all know it!

The currencies were all back to where the started on Friday morning, having given back their mini-gains… That really ticks me off, because why can’t we let markets be markets, and not fiddle with them all the time? So, did you get to read the piece yesterday, from the late Bart Chilton, who on his deathbed, basically said, “yes, JPMorgan was too big, and they exceeded their positions limits, and yes, we saw price manipulation, but we didn’t do anything about it”… Thanks Bart Chilton, for coming clean, but… You left out why, the CFTC didn’t go after JPMorgan… OK, this is where I get out tin foil hat and talk conspiracy… But I do have those Wilileaks memos from back in the 70’s to stand behind me when I say this… The CFTC didn’t go after JPMorgan because, JPMorgan had a Get Out of Jail Free Card, from the U.S. Gov’t… The Gov’t needed to keep the price of Gold down so that people wouldn’t shun the dollar, and so they can’t be found in the markets, but they can give the wink and nod to JPM to do their bidding… And so, that’s the reason, as far as I’m concerned why the CFTC never slapped JPM’s hands, never issued a cease and desist order on them. And so on…

So, the currencies gave back their mini-gains, and Gold remained in the previous day’s clothes on the day, nothing to write home about… And the Bond yields didn’t really move, with the 10-year remaining at 1.53%… But Stocks rallied…

You know I mentioned this yesterday, and I thought it was a big deal, but apparently the only article I could find on it was the one I used yesterday. And in that one they talked about how the Bank of England (BOE) Gov. Mark Carney called for a global currency to replace the dollar… Did you hear what I just said? Isn’t that crazy, that an ally as staunch as the U.K. has always been (well since the 1800’s) would not chastise their Central Bank Gov. for making a statement like that…

OK, so I’m sure you’ve been noticing that the Japanese yen, which rallied a couple of months ago, then weakened , is back on the rally tracks, and this latest move into the 105 handle has the Japanese leaders worried…  Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said on Tuesday that he was observing the currency moves “with a sense of urgency” after this latest move to the 105 handle in yen.  This phrase Aso used is usually reserved for currencies getting far out of whack with what the leaders want to see… Stability is the word most often used…  

So, here’s where I’m going with this…  President Trump has repeatedly called for a weaker dollar, and now the Japanese leaders are concerned with yen’s strength… Sounds like a case of combined intervention to me, could be in works…  More market manipulation! 

I read where the U.S. and China might be getting together again to talk about the Trade War…  I was laughing hysterically, when the media was all bent out of shape when the President said that China had called him twice about meetings, and then China denied making any calls…  Come on Media, this is the Big Leagues! These statements are used to get countries to get moving…  My goodness, go find something else to write about! 

Things are quiet in the Eurozone…  Not a peep out the leaders there with what’s going on in Italy… Hmmm…  No news is good news, right?  I wonder if the European Central Bank (ECB) would be interested in getting in on the combined intervention that I talked about being a possibility between Japan and the U.S.?  Maybe a smidgen, but then when the euro rose in value, outgoing ECB President, Draghi, would get to throw it under a bus one last time before he departs!  That would be funny if it weren’t true! 

Quite frankly, the euro doesn’t deserve to be stronger right now… The economic data from the region just doesn’t warrant a much stronger currency… But remember what I’ve always told you… If the dollar went into a weak trend, it wouldn’t matter what the Eurozone fundamentals were doing the euro would rally…   Because….  here we go with a statement that I’ve made a thousand times through the years, The euro is the offset currency to the dollar!

And what the heck are the Chinese doing with the renminbi… Recently we saw them devalue the renminbi and now they’ve been allowing it to weaken the max amount almost daily… 7.14 is the level this morning… I don’t know what it is, but I’m sure some propeller heads there have figured out how cheap the renminbi needs to get to offset the tariffs… I would think a lot cheaper…  I’m just saying… 

The Petrol Currencies led by the Russian ruble, just can’t buy a bid these days… The ruble and the Canadian dollar/ loonie seem to be stuck in the mud, and the Norwegian krone and Brazilian real have been getting cut off at the knees…  And that leads me to talk about the real… It was just a couple of months ago that I mentioned that the new government in Brazil was responsible for the recent rally, but that we should be careful there, because, as we found out with the Modi rally in India a few years ago, those political rallies are short lived…  And well, the real’s slide down the slippery slope pretty much seals that idea!

The U.S. Data cupboard has the Case/Shiller Home Price Index (HPI) for June today… Home prices have been slipping in the preceding  months, I see no reason to believe they didn’t continue doing that in June…  We’ll also see the stupid Consumer Confidence Index, which last month took a big fall in the index number, but it had the same effect as removing a bucket of sand from a beach! 

To recap…  The PPT must have come to rescue, for the stock futures yesterday were down big, but the stock market rallied on the day…  the currencies, Gold, bonds, all were none events on the day…  Japan’s leaders are concerned with the yen’s recent rally…  And President Trump is always saying that he wants a weaker dollar, seems like a match made on one of those dating sites! 

For What It’s Worth…  So, I’ve talked about this for two days now, and when I saw this on Reuters I just had to circle it for the FWIW section today… It’s about the BOE’s Mark Carney and his call to replace the dollar and it can be found here: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fed-jacksonhole-carney/world-needs-to-end-risky-reliance-on-u-s-dollar-boes-carney-idUSKCN1VD28C

Or, here’s your snippet: “Bank of England Governor Mark Carney took aim at the U.S. dollar’s “destabilizing” role in the world economy on Friday and said central banks might need to join together to create their own replacement reserve currency.  

The dollar’s dominance of the global financial system increased the risks of a liquidity trap of ultra-low interest rates and weak growth, Carney told central bankers from around the world gathered in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in the United States.

“While the world economy is being reordered, the U.S. dollar remains as important as when Bretton Woods collapsed,” Carney said, referring to the end of the dollar’s peg to gold in the early 1970s.

Carney – who was considered a candidate to be the next head of the International Monetary Fund but failed to secure backing from Europe’s governments – said the problems in financial system were encouraging protectionist and populist policies. “

Chuck again…  Again I say,,, why on earth is our staunchest ally having one of their leaders talk about replacing the dollar?  There’s something here that I’m not seeing right now, but I will, and when I do… You’ll know!

Currencies today 8/27/19 American Style: A$.6763, kiwi .6375, C$ .7558, euro 1.1108, sterling 1.2268, Swiss $.9801, European Style: rand 15.2726, krone 8.9926, SEK 9.6322, forint 295.90, zloty 3.9293, koruna 23.2277, RUB 66.06 yen 105.73, sing 1.3880, HKD 7.8447, INR 71.54, China 7.1427, peso 19.95, BRL 4.1327, Dollar Index 97.91, Oil $54.31, 10-year 1.50%, Silver $17.82, Platinum $862.64, Palladium $1,485.43, and Gold… $1.529.89

That’s it for today…  Another win last night for my beloved Cardinals, who suddenly look like a team on a mission… Gotta keep the pedal to the metal boys!  Well, maybe the rain has stopped, even though it still looks like rain any minute outside…  My visit to the oncologist was good… She loves me, and thinks I’m Superman…  I told her, that chemo was my kryptonite!  HA!  I added three pictures to my wall that faces me at my writing desk… One of my darling daughter Dawn from about 20 years ago (she looks the same!) One of Son Andrew handing his brother Alex, his high school diploma on stage, and the last one is my fave picture of all time… It’s Kathy’s senior year picture… (but don’t tell her I talked about her!)   Donnie Iris takes us to the finish line today with his song: Ah! Leah!  (a one hit wonder!) I hope you have a Tom Terrific Tuesday, and Please Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler