Category: Uncategorized

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Any number below 50% signals contraction.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Only two of 19 manufacturing industries reported growth in December.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chuck Butler

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

January 5,2026

• The year ends with a dud

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Fed’s Real Mandate & Problem

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

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

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

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

The Bond Market’s Real Power

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

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

This should be a tailwind for precious metals.”

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

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

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

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

Chuck Butler

*Silver rallies on Tuesday, while Gold sees STPs

• China is changing the rules…

Good Day… And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! Well, it’s the last day of 2025…  Good riddance as far as our local sports teams, and as far as my frequent visits to the Emergency Room at the Hospital… I’ve gotten to know the folks at the Jupiter Medical Center Emergency Room quite well! The folks at the St. Claire in Fenton Hospital are always changing, so they don’t recognize me when I arrive, which could be a good thing or a bad thing…  The Searchers greet me this morning with one of my all-time favorite songs: Love Potion No. 9… 

Well, one day a humongous upward move, the next day a bigger downward move, and that was followed by a nice move in Silver, and one in Gold that was cut short by the SPTs, I’ll explain… Gold was up over $35 yesterday until it wasn’t… The SPTs came in and shorted the heck out of Gold, thus making Gold’s rally a measly $2…  Silver on the other hand saw that the SPTs were a non-event, and it gained $4.06 on the day to close at $76.28… Gold closed at $4,335…

I have something very important for you to read if you are a Silver holder or a Silver holding Wannabe in the FWIW section today… No peeking! Almost caught you skipping ahead, didn’t I?  Oh well, I doubt it will hurt if you do…  

The dollar was up in the early trading but ended the day flat as a pancake (Head East), with the BBDXY at 1,201…  That’s a 8.5% loss for the dollar ytd…  that is if it doesn’t lose more in the last day of trading in 2025… Really though, I don’t expect much to happen today, as most trading desks will close up shop early to get home and get ready for a night on the town… Be Careful out there…

My wife’s father used to call New Year’s Eve “Amateur Hour”…  And I used to tell my kids that for every minute past midnight the clock ticks the more hazardous the roads become…   So… Be Careful!

The price of Oil slipped a bit (actually only 19-cents) , but that brought it back to a $57 handle on Tuesday…  The 10-year Treasury is beginning to make me sound like a broken record as it closed the day with a 4.12% yield… B-O-R-I-N-G!  

In the overnight markets last night…  Well, it appears that to end the year the metals will have a game off day… Silver is down over $4 and Gold is down $28, this is getting to leave me with a rash… game on, game off… But Gold & Silver have put I yeoman work this year no matter what the SPTs do to them today… 

The dollar is floundering around 1,202 as many currency traders won’t be showing up to their desks today… I know when I was on the trading desk, I came in late and left early on 12/31… And I imagine that many of my former cohearts will do the same today…  The dollar is down over 8% this year, and I would think that it will down at a larger percentage next year… But that sounds too much like a forecast for 2026, and I shy away from those… 

The Chinese renminbi was allowed to gain some more ground VS the dollar overnight, and trades this morning at 6.9871…  When I began offering renminbi to investors at the old EverBank World Markets trading desk, the renminbi was around 5.00, so it has a long way to go to get back to that price, I would say…  And knowing the Chinese pefreences I would suspect that to get back to a 5 handle will take a very loooooonnnngggg time! 

The price of Oil remained trading overnight with a $58 handle and the 10-year’s yield is at 4.11% yield… downa BP or two this week to end the year… I suspect that the Fed Heads have been manipulating the yield to end the year…  I know, I know, they aren’t bond buyers any longer, yeah right, and my first wife was a young Elizabeth Taylor! 

On 1440 the new service that I rely on each day for they tell you what’s happening without bias, which is so difficult to find with other cable news services… Well, on 1440, they highlighted the forecasters thoughts for 2026… They were all in agreement that AI will be the story of 2026… 

I have to say that even my son, who’s a High School Teacher, says that AI makes his life much easier, but has to be on the lookout for cheaters in class…  But I reminded him of something I wrote about a couple of months ago, and that was that you have to be careful with the answers you receive from AI because they were entered by someone, and who knows if that “someone” was that smart?  I’m just saying…

It could end up much like Wikipedia… Not as used as much now VS when it was first introduced….  But, I believe in the end, it will be used extensively, so get ready for it!

One of the forecasts comes from my former publishers and friends, Mary Anne and Pamela Aden aka the Aden Sisters who had this to say: “For now, the metals will remain very strong by staying above $4,100 for gold, $57 for silver, 650 for the HUI, $1800 for platinum and $1550 for palladium.  During strong bull markets, the downward corrections generally tend to be moderate.  That will be strongly reinforced if the metals hold above these levels on any further weakness. “

You can find the Aden Forecast and sign up at www.adenforecast.com

For 2026, the forecasters thought that the Bank of Japan (BOJ) will be one of the few Central Banks to hike rates in 2026… The BOJ has been disappointing the markets for decades, why would anything be different in 2026?

It was reported in the WP yesterday that 2025 was NOT a good year for at least 717 companies that filed bankruptcy… This was according to data from S&P Global Markets Intelligence…  That’s 14% more bankruptcies filed in 2025 than in 2024, and the highest tally since 2010…   Did tariffs have anything to do with these bankruptcies?

I’m finished with 2025… I’m not going to write any more on the markets, as they are all manipulated and massaged to make everyone think that all’s ok on the Western front!   Except for those 717 companies that filed bankruptcy in 2025…  So, I’ll just head to the Big Finish and say goodbye to 2025 may you soon be forgotten! 

The U.S. Data Cupboard yesterday did indeed show home prices rose in Rocktober as I thought they would and said so in the Pfennig yesterday… A 1.2% rise and with the Fed Heads willing to cut rates further in 2026, homes should continue to rise in price..

To recap… it was game on for the metals yesterday, after experiencing game off on Monday. Silver gained over $4, and Gold gained just $2 after the SPTs took away over $35 of its earlier gain. The forecasters are out in full force and 1440 along with Yahoo Finance,  wrote them down and printed them on their sites.  And even the Adens chimed in with a forecast for Gold & Silver… 

Oh, and one more thing for Silver traders to think about… from Bloomberg.com “Oh, and China announced that they were raising the margin on metals again, for the second time in a week! Bloomberg.com reported this and said, “Precious metals have been rocked this week in a tumultuous end to a historic year. Silver has been especially volatile, with futures soaring to a record above $82 an ounce early on Monday, followed by a sharp retracement.” this new rate of margin goes into effect after the close of business today… 

For What It’s Worth… I had a dear reader send me this link yesterday, and it’s very important to read to make sure you do, and it can be found here: Opinion: China launches its silver weapon on Jan. 1. Here’s what that means for prices. – MarketWatch

Or, here’s your snippet: “On Jan. 1, China’s new export-licensing regime takes effect, putting government gatekeepers between 121 million ounces of annual silver exports and the rest of the world. That means 60%-70% of the globally traded refined supply will require Beijing’s permission to leave the country.

Wall Street spent Monday hyperventilating about margin hikes on silver traders. CNBC trotted out the usual suspects warning about “speculative excess.” The X platform was full of people who couldn’t spell backwardation six months ago suddenly explaining why silver is overvalued.

The playbook you’ve seen before

China doesn’t invent new tricks. It just runs the old ones on new commodities.

If this feels familiar, it should. China doesn’t invent new tricks. It just runs the old ones on new commodities.

In 2010, Beijing started “licensing” rare-earth exports. Not banning them, mind you. Just requiring paperwork. Approvals. Quotas that somehow never quite met demand. The effect was surgical; as prices spiked up to 4,500%, Western manufacturers discovered they couldn’t build smartphones or missiles without Chinese permission — and a generation of supply-chain executives learned Mandarin the hard way.

The rare-earth squeeze wasn’t dramatic. It was bureaucratic. Death by a thousand forms filed in triplicate.

Silver will see the same treatment starting Jan. 1. Chinese refiners will need government approval to export. The qualification thresholds are 80 tons of annual production capacity and $30 million in credit lines. That’s not a regulatory standard. That’s a velvet rope designed to keep most current exporters on the wrong side.

China just nationalized the silver trade without nationalizing a single mine.”

Chuck again… this is HUGE folks! I told you yesterday that the Shanghai Metals Exchange didn’t allow fools and knaves like the SPTs, and now they’ve weaponized their Silver…    This changes everything I said yesterday, about the COMEX and their allowing short trades in the millions of ounces…  Are you ready? Strap yourself in, and keep those arms and legs inside at all times….  And I asked Ed Steer what he thought and he replied: “It’s another weapon in the arsenal that China/BRICS+ can use against the west…like they’re currently doing with rare earths.”

Market Prices 12/30/2025: American Style: A$.6687, kiwi .5740, C$ .7295, euro 1.1748, sterling 1.3458, Swiss $1.2619, European Style: rand 16.5995, krone 10.0590, SEK 9.1912,  forint 327.44, zloty 3.5907, koruna 20.5965, RUB 81.42, yen 156.61, sing 1.2854, HKD 7.7842, INR 89.87, China 6.9871, peso 17.95, BRL 5.4753, BBDXY 1,202, Dollar Index 98.27, Oil $58.25, 10-year 4.11%, Silver $71.68, Platinum $2,015.00, Platinum $1607.00, Copper $ 5.62, and Gold… $4,311

That’s it for today and this year…  here’s something that I think I’ll make a tradition in the Pfennig: 

Should old acquaintance be forgot

And never brought to mind?

Should old acquaintance be forgot

In the days of auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my dear

For auld lang syne

We’ll drink a cup of kindness yet

For the sake of auld lang syne

And surely, you will buy your cup

And surely, I’ll buy mine!

We’ll take a cup of kindness yet

For the sake of auld lang syne 

Have you ever heard Lisa Kelly from Celtic Women sing it? Here’s a lync: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fAG2yv-o5A

Chuck again….  ( you can’t get rid of me that easily!)  I also hope you have a Wonderful Wednesday and a celebratory New Year’s Eve tonight…  I also hope that everyone gets home safely…   I have one final thought for you this morning: “May dreams arise with the first sunrise of the year” The GREAT Percy Sledge takes us to the finish line today with his song: When A Man Loves A Woman… Please remember To Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler

• The metals get taken down, like at no other time!
• Taking away our paper checks?

Good Day… And a Tom Terrific Tuesday to you… Well, to prove that all good plans of mice and men may often go awry… I made a major faux pas with buying a gift for my wife.. What a dolt I am! Hopefully all will be worked out today… My infusion 10 days ago, finally caught up with me yesterday and my stomach problems returned… UGH!  I got some medicine for it last night, so hopefully, that takes care of it! We are hosting a New Year’s Eve Party this year, our friends will be here, and I have a special surprise for them at Midnight…  Simple Minds greet me this morning with their 80’s song: Don’t You (Forget about me) 

Well.. All the euphoria in the metals was taken away yesterday, much like the chaperone that takes away the spiked punch bowl… I wish it were that silly… The profit taking and the short sellers combined to send Gold & Silver back to where they were last week… Silver was down $7 and Gold was down $200… Yes, that’s right Gold was down $200 yesterday…  It was the opposite of the gains the metals made last Friday…  So, we start over again at getting the metals moving in the right direction… 

The dollar was bought a bit yesterday, as the BBDXY gained 1 index point on Monday.  All the Armageddon that surrounded the markets on Friday, was knocked for a loop yesterday… It will be interesting to see how the metals react today… 

The price of Oil bumped higher to trade with a $57 handle, and the 10-year Treasury’s yield saw another BP taken from its price yesterday. The 10-year closed the day at 4.11% yield. 

In the overnight markets last night…  Well, Gold & Silver has fought back… Silver is up $3 to start the day, and Gold is up $38… There was more buying in the dollar, and the BBDXY picked up another index point to start the day at 1,202…  I’m more confused about what’s going on in Silver than I was yesterday… But then what else is new?  

The price of Oil bumped higher again to trade this morning with a $58 handle…  And the 10-year Treasury is floundering around 4.13% this morning… back and forth, C’mon bond boys, pick a lane and stay there! 

I received an email from a reader yesterday that explained the run up in the price of Silver that doesn’t have anything to do with the physical Silver shortage, or the crazy wild demand for physical Siver… It has to do with futures contracts that are traded like they are at a casino… It’s a very long explanation, so I won’t get into it here, but  i will say that it involves the COMEX’s change in Silver futures expirations from once a month to 3 per week… This scares the bejeebers out of me…  What happens when the casino players decide to walk away from Silver and play a new game?  I’ll tell you what…  long ago in a galaxy far away, I was the “go-to” guy when the media wanted to know what’s going on in the currencies and metals… 

And I received a phone call from a writer for a major magazine, and she wanted to know about what was going on in Silver, as it had rallied big time and was approaching $50…  I told her that Silver was the working man’s Gold, as it was far cheaper to buy than Gold…  And that I thought Silver would get to $59 and then who knows how high it would go?   

And right after the magazine came out, the casino players walked away from Silver, and soon it dropped to $30, then $20… Where it remained for quite a few years…  So, it has happened before, and it will happen again, just when, is anyone’s guess… Maybe after Silver reaches $100 or before that, I just don’t know.  I never heard from that magazine writer again… I wonder if she lost her job, or just decided to treat me a persona non-gratis… 

OK, let’s move on, talking about all of this depresses me… UGH!  The Chinese renminbi, as I told you yesterday, had briefly slipped below the 7 figure but had closed back above it, did go below the 7 figure overnight and this time it stayed there. Remember the renminbi is a European Style currency, which means the lower the price VS the dollar is a good thing because it takes less of the currency to buy a dollar…  So, falling below the 7 figure is good for renminbi holders, who have had to endure years of a weaker currency to the dollar.  

Of course, a lot of the cause of the weakness has been the Chinese’s preference of a weaker currency to aid their exports… This is what the POTUS is always carping about, how we need a weaker dollar…  of course a weak currency invites inflation into your counrty, so there’s that to think about…  Which is why inflation was held back here in the U.S. as the dollar was stronger, but now the weak dollar trend has been triggered, and who knows what will be the outcome for inflation, here in the U.S. given the economy has to deal with 1. Expanded money supply, 2. Lower interest rates, and now 3. A weaker dollar…

And then finally today, regarding Silver… Ed Steer highlighted this comment in his letter this morning and I thought after all the doom and gloom I talked about in Silver above, that this would be good to finish with…  “It is the most blatant act of financial warfare we have witnessed in quite some time. As you read this, the price of silver in New York is being smashed to ~$72, a manufactured, low-volume paper crash designed to steal your position. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, the physical market in Shanghai is screaming, with silver trading at a staggering $83. This is not a spread; it is a divorce.

The paper market of the West and the physical market of the East have been torn apart, and the ~$11 gap between them is the fuse that is about to ignite the most violent price explosion in modern history.

What we are witnessing is a trap, a final, desperate shakeout by the Western banking cartel to steal our silver just days before the world changes forever. Do not fall for it!”

Chuck again… yes, it’s a quite something to see Silver priced in the U.S. and in China being so different, but… I told you years ago, when the Shanghai Metals Exchange was first announced, that this would, in time, lead to the SPTs to become small players, that in China they would not allow the kind of manipulations that the COMEX and U.S. allow…   

The U.S. Data Cupboard has the Case/ Shiller Home Price Index for Rocktober this morning… With the rate cuts already started in that time frame, I would expect that home prices to rise and end the trend of monthly drops in the data… I guess, we’ll see, eh?

And I guess this falls under data… In line with taking away the penny… the Fed Heads announced that they were looking into ending paper checks… what will they think to end next?

To recap… The “fix was in” on the metals yesterday… It was an engineered shorting like we’ve never seen before and it tood Silver down $7 and Gold down $200… We’re back to last week’s figures for these two… Chuck explains what happened, sort of, and how this has happened previously, back when Chuck was the “go-to” for currencies and metals for the media… Hey! We all get old, and become “has beens”…. I’m just saying…  There’s a difference between the price of Silver in China and the in the U.S., and I’m not talking a couple of buck difference either!

For What It’s Worth…  I pulled this from the World Gold Council’s web site because these guys don’t usually get it right when they talk about Gold, but this time they did! The article is about how Central Banks are still buying physical Gold at a break neck pace and it can be found here: Central Bank Gold Statistics: Central banks ramp up gold buying in October | Post by Krishan Gopaul | Gold Focus blog | World Gold Council

Or, here’s your snippet: “Central bank demand for gold remained robust in October, totalling 53t (+36% m/m) and continuing the strong trend seen throughout the year. Buying remained concentrated among a small number of central banks, led by the National Bank of Poland which became active again during the month.

Y-t-d reported net purchases through October totalled 254t, a slower pace when compared with the previous three years (Chart 2). This possibly reflects the impact of higher prices. Even so, sustained activity from emerging-market central banks – supported by the findings from our annual survey – strongly suggests that these purchases are strategic rather than opportunistic, reinforcing gold’s importance amid persistent macroeconomic uncertainty.

The buyer cohort in October was dominated by names we’ve seen throughout the year, with a handful of central banks accounting for the bulk of additions:

The National Bank of Poland re-entered the market in October, having paused its buying since May. After recently increasing its target gold allocation to 30%,1 the purchase of 16t in the month lifted its gold reserves to 531t, 26% of total reserves at end-October prices.

The Central Bank of Brazil bought gold for the second consecutive month, adding 16t in October following its 15t purchase in September. Its gold reserves now stand at 161t, accounting for 6% of total reserves.

The Central Bank of Uzbekistan (9t), Bank Indonesia (4t), Central Bank of Turkey (3t), Czech National Bank (2t), National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic (2t), Bank of Ghana (>1t), People’s Bank of China (>1t), National Bank of Kazakhstan (>1t) and the Central Bank of the Philippines (>1t) were also buyers in October.

At the time of writing, the Central Bank of Russia was the only bank to report a decline in gold reserves in the month – falling by 3t to 2,327t.

Year-to-date, the National Bank of Poland (83t) continues to be largest official-sector gold buyer, with double the purchases of the next largest buyer, Kazakhstan (41t) (Chart 3). While buying continues to be concentrated among emerging-market central banks, the list of buyers – old and new – remains broad.”

Chuck again… this is important stuff folks… follow the money, and the money leads to Central Banks buying physical Gold… I’m just saying…

Market Prices 12/30/2025: American Style: A$ .6697, kiwi .5799, C$ .7300, euro 1.1758, sterling 1.3479, Swiss $1.2650, European Style: rand 16.6227, krone 10.0558, SEK 9.1956, forint 328.13, zloty 3.5925, koruna 20.6135, RUB 79.34, yen 156.27, sing 1.2844, HKD 7.7829, INR 89.78, China 6.9958, peso 17.95, BRL 5.4969, BBDXY 1,202, Dollar Index 98.13, Oil $58.46, 10-year 4.14%, Silver $75.45, Platinum $2,214.00, Palladium $1,687.00, Copper $5.72, and Gold… $4,371… 

That’s it for today, Sorry about how tardy the letter is today… The alarm went off and I ignored it… I slept most of yesterday, don’t know why, but then had difficulty going to sleep last night, and then when I did finally nod off, I didn’t want to wake up!  Something is awry here… I guess I’ll find out what it is eventually… Our Blues jumped out to a lead last night, but ended up losing, yet again on home ice… UGH!  Home ice used to mean something in ice hockey… Oh well, having cash in your pocket used to mean something too…  The temptations take us to the finish line today with their song: I Wish It Would Rain…  a great song by the way…  I hope you have a Tom Terrific Tuesday today, and Please Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler

• Silver has a day for the ages!
• Economic data is not good…

Good Day… And a Marvelous Monday to you! I hope everyone had a very Blessed Christmas, and if you don’t celebrate the Good Lord’s birth, then I hope you had a wonderful weekend.  How was your Christmas?  Mine was grand as all the kids were here along with the grandkids… Family is what matters to me, and I enjoy having my family around me all the time… The Marshall Tucker Band greets me this morning with their great song: Heard It In A Love Song

Well, I was all prepared had it cued up and all to send you a Pfennig last Tuesday that alerted you to how the Big Bullion Banks and The COMEX were in cahoots to cheat Silver holder and buyers to be… I had seen a YOUTUBE explaining it all, but then I got to thinking..  No one else was writing about this cheating, and so I didn’t send it out, and later found out that it probably wasn’t true… at this time… 

But the COMEX did raise the margin on futures contracts in both Gold & Silver last week, just not when I thought they had.  Gold to $22 and Silver to $27…  I’ll let Ed Steer explain how this all plays out math-wise:  here’s Ed “So if you’re short on one COMEX contract, your margin call requirements that month worked out to $135,000 per contract…$27×5,000 troy ounces. That doesn’t include the approximately 70 cent roll-over/switch charge per ounce from December into March that the CME imposes…so tack on a further $3,500 on top of that per contract. We’re talking about serious money here…especially if you’re a smaller trader. The Big 8 commercial traders are short 59,180 contracts/295.900 million troy ounces — and I’ll let you do the math on that. It’s a frightening number.

The icing on the cake for all the shorts…small, medium and large…was the margin call they got on that $7+ rally in silver yesterday.” – Ed Steer at www.edsteergoldsilver.com

Yes, so the Silver $7 rally on Friday to end the week at $79.39 was so full of short covering by the SPTs and then sprinkle in some new long buys and you have a rally for the ages!  Remember when I told you after Silver traded above $70 the first time? I said, “That Silver will reach $80 much faster than it took it to reach $70 from $60” And lookie here.. I couldn’t believe my eye when I first looked at the metals screen and saw the $7 rally in Silver.. I mentioned before I went on vacation, that the SPTs are caught in a trap, on one side they have these HUMONGOUS margin calls for their shorts, but if they go to close the shorts out, that means they have to buy Silver and that will cause an even larger rally in Silver…  And that’s exactly what we saw last week… 

Gold also rallied on Friday and ended the week at $4,533… One month ago, Silver was $52… So, a $27 rally in a month…  Pretty crazy, eh?  Well, onto $100 I guess.. 

The dollar spent last week getting sold, and ended the week with the BBDXY at 1,200…  Gold at $4,533, Silver at $79.27, Oil at $56, and the 10-year at 4.13% yield. It was not a “Santa Rally” for the dollar… 

In the overnight markets last night…  What the heck went on here? Silver is down $4 to start the day/ week this morning, and Gold is down $70!  Just when you think the SPTs have had their day, and have gone away, they come back with a vengeance…  And the dollar saw some buying overnight, and the BBDXY is up 2 index points this morning… Last night before I retired, the BBDXY had fallen to 1198… But I guess the PPT came in and intervened to get the dollar from falling further. 

Goldman Sachs, aka Lola says that “Gold is our favorite long commodity”…  And Kitco.com reports this morning that 57% of people polled are of the belief that Silver will get to $100 this next year.  So, I wanted to include those things to even out the selling going on in Gold & Silver…

The price of Oil bumped higher to a $57 handle this morning, and the 10-year Treasury’s yield saw some buying and the yield starts the day today at 4.12%..

So, when I was on the trading desk at EverBank World Markets, and I would go on vacation, the remaining crew on the desk would claim, “When Chuck’s away, the currencies and metals rally”… And they would be really screaming it now, because while I was away, the dollar sunk, Gold & Silver rallied as if they were going out of business, and all was right in the world of markets again… 

The dollar has really sunk, especially after the 3^rd QTR GDP showed that, once again, if your Gov’t spends enough, they can pump up the GDP…. 3^rd QTR GDP printed at 4.35%… So, now, all the town criers that were calling for another rate cut at the next meeting, have slunk back into the caves, like Snuff The Magic Dragon, and all bets are off now… Now to me, that GDP print was utterly ridiculous!  Factory Orders are down, Industrial Production is down, Capacity Utilization hasn’t moved,  but… Money Supply is soaring…  GDP has officially become a piece of data that I don’t care about any longer, because of its falseness… 

The Chinese renminbi was traded below he 7 handle for a brief time on Friday,  It hasn’t been this strong VS the dollar since Sept 2024… So, the main competition for exports for the U.S. is allowing their currency to strengthen… I guess they aren’t worried about how expensive their currency is for their exports… 

The BBDXY when I left you on 12/17 was 1,208…  This morning the BBDXY is 1202 …  The dollar had already begun its drop before I went on vacation… The BBDXY had reached as high as 1,213, and on 12/15 I even headlined a Pfennig with ” The Dollar Returns To Its Underlying Weak Trend”…   So, this wasn’t just a “Chuck’s away” rally for the currencies, but it was a bit of:  “Chuck’s away” so let’s play some more for the currencies… 

The price of Oil has fallen to a $56 handle… I have changed my outlook for the price of Oil… With weaker demand, and all the tanker shipping problems, I see the price of Oil falling below $50 in the new year…   The 10-year Treasury’s yield ended the week at 4.13%… You would think that if the thoughts of an additional rate cut next month were put on the back burner, that the yield would go higher….  But the Fed Heads were there to prevent that from happening, I suspect… 

As in past years, the last week of the year all the forecasters come out of the woodwork and opine about how they see the new year going… I won’t be joining them because my viewpoint is a long-term view..  But I will add that I really think that the rallies in Silver and Gold for 2025 are really impressive… Gold is up 70% this year, and Silver is up 140%!!  But book those gains, and put them away… I feel that while Gold & Silver will continue to rally in 2026, that their gains in 2025 will be their best efforts.. I hope I’m incorrect in that thought, that Gold & Silver better 2025 gains in 2026… You won’t be mad at me if I’m incorrect here, will you? I didn’t think so…  But basically, when you calculate the percentage gain from $2,000 to $4,500 it’s astronomical, but… when you calculate the gain from $4,500 to $7000 since you’re dealing with larger numbers the percentage gain isn’t as lofty…  That’s all I’m saying here… The percentage gains will not be as lofty as they were in 2025… 

Jim Rickards said that since Gold is on a bull run that it could very well be at 10,000 by the end of the new year…  But before you celebrate, think about that for a minute, if Gold is $10,000 that means something is terribly wrong or already has gone wrong in the U.S. and its economy…  I’m just saying…

I’ve said for some time now that I thought the U.S. Financial System would collapse and I still feel that way… When? Only the Shadow Knows… 

The euro is stuck in the mud right now… you would’ve thought that the euro would benefit from a weaker dollar, and it has but not as strongly as I would have thought. The rest of the currencies are looking a little healthier this morning, with the Russian ruble standing out as the best performing currency vs the dollar… See what the talk of a peace agreement can do? So, how’s that diversification going? 

The U.S. Data Cupboard last week had two reports (Oct & Nov) for each data print, with Rocktober’s prints being much worse than the Nov print…  You see, they can’t go back and make adjustments once the data has printed, so they just said, oh well, we’ll make up for it with the Nov. Prints…   

This week the Data Cupboard is basiclly empty, it will have a sprinkling of non-market moving prints but that’s it…  So, the dollar is on its own this week, and so far it doesn’t look like it will be good week for the dollar… 

To recap… Silver rallied by $7 or 10% on Friday, and in China it traded over $80… But here in the U.S. where the SPTs still have some say, Silver stayed below $80 into the weekend… Gold also rallied and ended the week above $4,500.. The dollar got sold like funnel cakes at a State Fair, and Chuck has changed his outlook for the price of Oil… 

For What It’s Worth… Well, this article comes to us from the Good Folks at GATA, and it’s about the real story driving the prices of Gold & Silver higher and it can be found on the GATA site, but unless you’re a subscriber you won’t be able to see the entire article, but… I have the most of it…

Here’s your snippet: “To hear mainstream financial news organizations and analysts tell it, gold and silver have been flying because of:

— The decline of the U.S. dollar.

— International disorder sparked by the war between Russia and Ukraine, or the West’s war against Russia through its Ukrainian proxy.

— The seizure by the U.S. government and Western European governments of Russian foreign exchange assets.

— Heavy buying of gold by central banks seeking some independence from the dollar and U.S. foreign policy.

— The unstoppable increase in U.S. government and Western European government debt.

— Strong industrial demand for silver.

Of course there is something to all those things. But the mainstream carefully overlooks what is likely the biggest cause of the stunning revival of the monetary metals: the long-overdue calling of the short derivatives positions in both metals that has been operated for decades by the U.S. government, its closest allies, and their bullion bank agents.

Delivery of real metal now is being demanded against paper claims on metal, claims that were issued by bullion banks that never had to deliver it, thereby allowing gold and silver supplies to be oversubscribed by as much as 90 or 100 to 1.

Only a short squeeze can plausibly explain the violent price action in silver today, when the metal rose in price by as much as $7 or 10%. One-day action like that in the metals has not been seen for decades.

The squeeze is evident in the huge discrepancy between prices in Shanghai, India, London, and New York. Prices in Shanghai and India are far higher, creating an arbitrage opportunity that has been draining metal out of the West, metal that in many cases has multiple owners and isn’t readily available.

Examining this angle — the creation of vast imaginary supplies of the monetary metals in order to protect the dollar as the world reserve currency, maintain faith in U.S. government debt, and impoverish the rest of the world — might explode what’s left of the world’s political order, an unjust, imperialistic order that should be exploded.

Examining this angle also might fatally discredit the mainstream news organizations and analysts who aren’t capable of honesty in a matter so important.”

Chuck again…  I would really like to see the look on the faces of those that told me not to write about short selling to manipulate Gold & Silver years ago…  All those yerars ago… I was about ready to walk out the door because they wouldn’t let me say what I wanted to say… But realizing that I had the best job I could have, and I needed to support my family, so.. I tucked my tail between my legs, and went back to my desk…  I still alluded to the short selling, but never really came out and called the manipulation for what it was…. 

Market Prices 12/29/25: American Style: A$.6685, kiwi .5792, C$ .7300, euro 1.1760, sterling 1.3477, Swiss $1.2645, European Style: rand 16.6377, krone 10.0546, SEK 9.1909, forint 329.62, zloty 3.5954, koruna 20.6447, RUB 77.67, yen 156.36, sing 1.2859, HKD 7.7740, INR 88.98, China 7.0068, peso 17.91, BRL 5.6664, BBDXY 1,202, Dollar Index 98.14, Oil $57.96, 10-year 4.12%, Silver $75.05, Platinum $2,323.00, Palladium $1,740.00, Copper $5.60, and Gold… $4,464

That’s it for today….  Just today, tomorrow and Wednesday for writing this week, and then we say goodbye to 2025…  And the next time I write to you, after Wednesday, I will be in my winter home, and it will be 2026… My beloved Mizzou Tigers laid an egg at the Gator Bowl game and lost… UGH! And Kathy celebrated her birthday (day after Christmas) by doing nothing! She deserved to do nothing, after all the Christmas stuff she worked on!  It was 65 degrees on Christmas, so obviously, no White Christmas for us…  Where was that 65 degrees the year I received a new bike for Christmas when I was a youngster?  Marmalade takes us to the finish line today with their great 60’s song: Reflections of My Life… I hope you have a Marvelous Monday today, and Please Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler

When I was reading The Night Before

Christmas to my daugher’s kindergarten class. I said to myself, I wonder how many times this classic has been read.  Too many for me to even think of, but that got me thinking… And I came up with a thought that I would dust off a previous year’s Christmas Pfenning in hopes that it gets read again! So with no further Ado…

T’was the night before Christmas

And all through the house

The occupants were congratulating each other

For their stimulus, but  not me

I’m such a grouch!

The debt level in this country

Has gotten out of control

But I’ve cried wolf for years

And still the spenders are on a roll.

The stockings were hung by the Chimney with care

In hopes that St. Nicholas would seen be there.

My grandkids I hope are all nestled in bed

With visions of PlayStations, and games

Dancing in their heads…

When on my laptop screen I saw such clatter

I had to click on to see what was the matter

$900 Billion more is being printed from thin air

And no one in Washington DC seem to care…

People that don’t make much will soon get a check

Let’s hope it keeps them from becoming a wreck!

 I went to the window to yell at the walls

And outside were carolers singing Deck The Halls…

And then with a blink of an eye did appear?

But a miniature sleigh and 8 flying reindeer!

This must be Santa, with gifts for all the girls and boys

I hope he has something for me

And I’m not talking about toys…

I’m hoping that he has cleared the air

Of this virus, and we can get back to life

Instead of going outside on a dare…

I’m hoping that 2021 is full of joy and happiness

So that we can forget 2020

But that will be so difficult, no less…

Now I’ve forgotten all about the markets

And the manipulations, and dots and twits

It’s time for Christmas, and besides those

Things give me the fits!

My grandkids are ready to see what Santa brought them

And I whistled and shouted and called them by name

On Delaney, On Everett, On Braden, and little Evie

To the living room we go to open our gifts

But remember please that the greatest gift of all

Is what we call Christmas Day… When

The Good Lord was born…

So, with all the calamity going on

I sneak out of site,

And say a prayer that this scene can go on forever…

And then I saw Santa and his reindeer, take off

And I heard him exclaim

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night!

Chuck Butler, Christmas 2020 reprinted 2025

PS… I always include a little message at this time, so here goes..

May the light & warmth of the season bring comfort & joy

To your family and friends this Christmas Season…

Chuck Butler

Good Day… And a Tom Terrific Tuesday to you! I know, I know, I’m on vacation… But.. This is HUGE!  Apparently, last Friday, The Casino Banks who are short Silver are being tested and it could be the end of their shorting, or even the end of their existence… 

Silver closed last Friday above $67… The banks have a credit limit on the margin that that hold their shorts at $65…  So, they tried to enter tons of short trades after the markets on Friday to get the price back below $65… And then when the market opened on Monday the sells would be recorded and people would panic and sell, which is what the Casino Banks wanted them to do… 

But… They didn’t sell… the bought the dip and closed yesterday up $2.00 and only $1 from $70…  The banks are scrambling, folks… This is going to get real ugly for them…  You see, if the Casino Banks wanted to close out their shorts, that would be buying Silver and that would drive up the price more… They are caught with their pants down folks…  As of December 22, 2025, reports from financial markets indicate that the price of Silver has reached approximately $71 to $73 USD per ounce in Shanghai, trading at a premium compared to Western markets. The general live spot price for silver is around $69.90 USD per ounce at the COMEX exchange… Either price spells disaster for the Short Paper Banks…    

The Comex could help them by announcing Force Majeure…  That means no buys will be accepted, to stop the price from rising, and only sells would be accepted… What would Large Companies that use Silver, like Toyota, Tesla, Samsung, etc. would NOT be nice about not being able to buy Silver or at least hedge their future buys… 

Then last night the Casino Banks got together and told the COMEX their problems.. The Comex raised the margin requirement… The doubled the amount of margin required on a futures contract…  The Casino Banks see Silver going to $75 and from there it’s a straight line to $100… Then bankruptcy for the Casino Banks…   The Comex is changing the rules on the fly to help the Casino Banks.. And now the Casino Banks are spoofing the Silver markets to get holders to sell.. The entered a sell for 5,000,000 ounces of Silver to get people to think that everyone is selling…  Spoofing is a trick that sent 3 traders to jail a few years ago… In Spoofing you enter a buy or sell in this case to show the world that Silver is getting sold, but before they have to pay for the trade… They cancel the trade as if it didn’t exist…  And then the game of Spoofing goes on and on…  

So, if 3 traders got sent to jail for this, why wouldn’t someone take the Casino Banks to court? The precedence has been set…  

So, like I’ve always told you about the SPTs… If everyone bought physical metal that would stop the SPTs… And now in Silver, it appears that China is going to make sure that rule changes at the COMEX don’t apply to them, and they’ll be buying…   

And to think… I was once called on the carpet because of my short Silver and Gold, Conspiracy Theories… Well, they have become Conspiracy FACT!  I bet those that pointed me out have egg on their faces now… I can only hope! 

Oh well… enough on this… I Am on Vacation!  Oh, and Silver this morning is $69.66

This public Service announcement has been brought to you by: Battle Bank a non-Casino Bank…Get on their waitlist at www.battlebank.com

Be Good To Yourself… 

Chuck

• metals see short paper trading on Tuesday
• The dollar rallies overnight?

Good Day… And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! Well, this is the last Pfennig until 12/29, so read it carefully! HA! Today, my buddies will partake on our traditional “Shopping Day”, and tomorrow I report to the Hospital for my infusion…  Saturday, I’ll be in attendance for The Wizard of Oz play that my darling granddaughter, Delaney Grace, will take part in…  In the spring, she has the lead in a play… She’ll be the star I always thought she would be!  Back to Pandora’s Christmas station today, and Michelle McLaughlin greets me with her version of the song: O’ Come All Ye Faithful…  (one of my fave Christmas songs!) 

Well, I said yesterday that the Jobs Jamboree wouldn’t have good numbers in it, and it didn’t! The total jobs created in Nov, were just 64,000…  Remember the last Jobs report showed over 100,000 jobs lost, but there were 430,000 jobs added to the surveys by the BLS, so really the jobs report should have been over 500,000 down, and therefore yesterday’s print of 64,000 would seem like manna from heaven!   But, the markets don’t see it that way… And the dollar got sold on the report.

The dollar got sold immediately after the report and the BBDXY fell 2 index points right out of the starter’s blocks… But as the day went on, the dollar recovered its loss and ended the day flat… The BBDXY was 1,205 at the end of the day, and the currencies all remained at their previous day’s range. 

Gold, which I told you yesterday was already seeing some SPT action and down $11, came back strong after the reports that also included Retail Sales, which were flat, and the SPTs came back at Gold, and Gold ended the day down $2.  Silver tried like the dickens to get above their early morning loss, but the SPTS also came back to Silver and it ended the day down 33-cents… 

The price of Oil remained trading with a $55 handle… And the 10-year Treasury’s yield slipped a bit and ended the day with a 4.15% yield… 

In the overnight markets last night… Well, in Chinese trading, Silver soared! Silver is up $2.14 to start the day, and the SPTs are viewing that as a hill to steep to climb, I think… Gold is up $15 to start the day from the overnight trading.  The reason I say that about the SPTs is what I read on Ed Steer’s letter this morning… let’s listen in…”As I’ve been pointing out frequently is the precipitous decline in short positions held by the big 5 U.S. banks since their high-water mark back in July. In the last report, they were down to a piddling 6,797 short contracts between the five of them — and because of that, I doubted very much that any of them were in the Big 8 commercial short category anymore. I’ll be very surprised if they’re not completely out by now. But even if they’re not, I suspect that whatever they may be short in the futures market, they’ve covered themselves in the options or OTC markets.” – Ed Steer at www.edsteergoldsilver.com

The price of Oil bumped higher overnight to a $56 handle… No biggie… The rot on the Petrol Currencies from the price of Oil dropping has been quite noticeable…  The Russian ruble was trading around 77 and now it’s 80… Not a good thing for the Petrol Currencies… 

And the 10-year’s yield rose to 4.18%…

The selling in the dollar ended overnight, and smells of PPT intervention, as the BBDXY is up 3 index points to start the day… I went to the internet to find out what’s going on with the dollar, and all I got was something about the POTUS announcing a total blockade of Venezuelan Oil… So, that led me to say that the dollar rally smelled of PPT intervention… 

And in the “I can’t believe what I just read” category is this article from Reuters.com… This is unbelievable, and tells you how weird the world is…  Check this out…. 

“Music played in a wedding hall in western Japan as Yurina Noguchi, wearing a white gown and tiara, dabbed away her tears, taking in the words of her husband-to-be: an AI-generated persona gazing out from a smartphone screen.

At first, Klaus was just someone to talk with, but we gradually became closer,” the 32-year-old call Centre operator said, referring to the artificial intelligence persona.

“I started to have feelings for Klaus. We started dating and after a while he proposed to me. I accepted, and now we’re a couple.”

Ok, back to reality… And dont’ tell me “to each their own”, because this is too wacko to qualify!

The labor market in the U.S. is in shambles…  The BLS tried like heck to get the jobs created number to a good number, but they failed… The Unemployment Rate rose to 4.6%, and the previous month’s 104,000 jobs lost was revised to 108,000… It’s a bad time to be without a job, like any time is a good time, but with the Christmas season upon us, no one wants to be at home with no future job…  I’m just saying… And I saw this on MSN… “From tech giants to coffee chains, America’s biggest employers are slashing their workforce by Thousands”…. 

I was let go once, back in 1998, when Mercantile Bank performed ethnic cleansing on all the former Mark Twain Bank employees, who initially came to Mercantile when they purchased Mark Twain Bank…  I had two kids in college that I was self funding, and a 3 year old at home… Thank goodness I had saved a ton of money through my years at Mark Twain… Hopefully, anyone let go at this time, has a “rainy day fund” like I had…

OK, back to the present…  I read to my darling daughter Dawn’s kindergarten class yesterday, The Night Before Christmas…  They were all listening intently to my words and then they all thanked me for reading to them… One little girl said, ” I didn’t like the story… I LOVED IT!”  She made me chuckle…

There’s still something rotten in Denmark folks… The repo market is getting used like a puppet, the Fed Heads announced QE, and the Casino Banks are all looking over their shoulders right now to see if the regulators are coming… I guess we’ll find out what it is when the fit hits the shan… 

And let’s not forget about the money supply… As of late 2025, the U.S. M2 money supply is around $22.3 trillion, hitting record highs, with recent monthly increases suggesting rapid growth similar to early pandemic levels. And we all know what the result of that rise in money supply was… Inflation…   Got Gold?

The U.S. Data Cupboard had the Jobs Jamboree that we talked about above, yesterday, along with the 2 month old Retail Sales report, which I had told you that the BHI indicated that it wouldn’t be good, and it wasn’t… Retail Sales were flat as a pancake (Head East) and that didn’t help the dollar any…  

Today’s Retail Cupboard is empty, and only 3 Fed Heads speakers will be out and about spreading their lies… 

To recap…  the jobs report was not good, and the dollar initially got sold on the report, but rallied back to finish the day flat…  Gold started the day down $11 and then fought back to go positive on the day, only to see it lose that gain and finish the day down $2 and Silver finished the day down 33-cents…  The two have recovered their losses in the overnight markets last night…  Retail Sales for two month ago were flat, with no growth, And Chuck talks about all the job losses…

For What It’s Worth… I know I’ve been telling you for some time and including articles that say Gold is going to the moon… So, when I saw this article, that says otherwise, I had to include it here to give a “fair and balanced” report… So, this is about a technical guy that says the “end is near”…. And it can be found here: Gold and silver appear to be entering the final act in 2026; years-long bear market looms – Avi Gilburt | Kitco News

Or, here’s your snippet: “After one of the most powerful precious metals rallies in decades, gold and silver investors may be entering the most consequential phase of the cycle — one that could define returns well beyond 2026.

According to Avi Gilburt, veteran technical analyst and founder of ElliottWaveTrader, the surge in gold and silver prices since the 2015–2016 lows is approaching its final innings. While prices could still climb further in the months ahead, Gilburt warns that investors should begin preparing for a multi-year correction that may begin as early as next year.

“This is not the start of something new,” Gilburt said. “This is likely the end of a very long cycle.”

Gilburt, who accurately called the 2011 gold top within dollars and the 2015 bottom almost to the day, believes the current rally has its roots in the post-2015 reset that followed years of ETF liquidation and declining investor interest. That cycle, now nearly a decade old, appears to be approaching exhaustion.

“I believe we are heading into the end of the cycle,” he said. “2026 probably will provide us with the end of this long-term cycle in gold and silver, and potentially kick off another multi-year bear market.”

While the outlook may sound jarring for investors who view precious metals as a long-term hedge, Gilburt explained that metals move in distinct waves that are largely independent of popular macro narratives.”

Chuck again…  Well, there you have it… I know, I know, all the fundamentals point to higher levels for Gold & Silver, the technicals don’t…  and so I caution you to be careful out there… 

Market Prices 12/17/2025: American Style: A$.6620, kiwi .5777, C$ .7252, euro 1.1715. Sterling 1.3359, Swiss $1.2561, European Style: rand 16.7449, krone 10.2180, SEK 9.3305, forint 330.58, zloty 3.3952, koruna 20.7875, RUB 80.32, yen 155.59, sing 1.2918, HKD 7.7804, INR 90.37, China 7.0442, peso 17.98, BRL 5.5003. BBDXY 1208, Dollar Index 98.54, Oil $56.23, 10-year 4.18%, Silver $65.39, Platinum $1,921.00, Palladium $1.658.00, Copper $5.41, and Gold… $4,318

That’s it for today… Today is my former assistant and colleague’s birthday… Jen Mclean… Happy Birthday Jen!  (Bet you thought I forgot!)  Friday is my good friend Ty Keough’s birthday… Happy early Birthday Ty!  While I’m on my Christmas Vacation, my beautiful bride, Kathy, will celebrate her birthday the day after Christmas…  She always said that she got short-changed on her birthday… I’ve always separated the two!  So, watch you email box around the 24^th for the annual Christmas Pfennig… The Lori Mecha Quartet takes us to the finish line today with their version of the song: Christmas Time Is Here…  I hope you have a Wonderful Wednesday today, and Please Be Good To Yourself! 

Chuck Butler