- dollar continues to get bought…
- Gold & Silver see major short paper trading…
Good Day… And a Tom Terrific Tuesday to you! Well, how was your Labor Day Holiday weekend? Mine was low-key, for sure… Shoot Rudy, I didn’t even fire up the Big Green Egg this past weekend… In previous years, when we hosted our BBQ on Labor Day, I would smoke two Pork butts on Friday, and 3 Turkey Breasts on Saturday, and then the Green Egg would get to rest… I really had plans to go the butcher shop and get pork butt to smoke, but, I just never made it there! My own fault… I sit down to read and the next thing I know it’s 4 hours later, because I fell asleep while reading! That’s why it takes me so long to read a book! But, I guess that’s a good thing, because once its read, it’s time to go to a new book… I may as well get this out of the way now… There will be no Pfennig on Wednesday, as I will be at the hospital to see my oncologist bright and early… Jefferson Starship greets me this morning with their great 70’s song: Miracles…
And that’s what it would take, a miracle, to rid the markets of the short paper traders… They were back at again on Friday, and without a brief last minute rally in Gold it would have been pushed below $2,500… Gold lost $18 on Friday, and Silver lost 58-cents… Gold Closed at $2,504.70, and Silver closed at 28.92… Look what the short paper traders have done to Silver in the last week… We began last Monday with Silver trading at $30, and in one week the short paper traders took Silver down over a buck… Tsk, Tsk, Tsk… dirty deeds, done dirt cheap (AC?DC)…
The dollar, which last week was on the verge of circling the drain, gained another 3 points in the BBDXY on Friday, and ended the week at 1,232… The BBDXY was at 1,225 last Monday morning… So, a miraculous recovery for the dollar. How did that happen? Well, I’m sure the PPT intervened, and bought dollars by the truck load, and after they were done, traders were leery to sell dollars, in the face of all that intervention… So, we have the Gov’t sticking their hands in the cookie jar of the dollar, and metals… Shoot Rudy, the 10-year’s yield rose to 3.91% last Friday, but not to worry, because the Gov’t has had this yield capped since last Rocktober…
So I sound a bit ticked off and really done with the short paper traders/ Gov’t to start the week this morning? Well, I am because, every time I say that the dollar is ready to go on a long weak trend, the PPT steps in, and stops that from happening, and I sit here with egg on my face once again… UGH!
The price of Oil slid back again on Friday, and ended the week trading with a $73 handle… Don’t tell me that Gov’t has their hands in this cookie jar too! It is an election year, I might add… Well, Chuck, let me remind you that the POTUS released the Strategic Oil Reserve to lower the price of gas… Oh, yeah, that’s right, so my question is answered!
And then yesterday, while the smell of charcoal burning was going through the neighborhoods, and the smell of freshly mowed lawns, mixed, the short paper traders made some hay… They took down Gold by $4, and Silver by 30-cents… Yes, even though the markets in the U.S. were closed for the holiday, the short paper trader filed their dastardly trades in the overnight markets… See? We can’t escape their dirty dogs even when the markets are closed! Oh, and the dollar got bought again overseas… This is getting ridiculous…
In the overnight markets last night… The dollar continued to get bought… What the heck do these dollar bugs see with the dollar? (there’s that program telling me to calm down my writing), but I’m not going to do it! There! Take that and knit a sweater! This program keeps asking me if I want to download it, and I keep telling to go fly a kite, and yet, it keeps making suggestions! UGH! Gold is down $7 to start the day today, and Silver is down another 30-cents… It’s starting out to be a very ugly week, folks… It’s time again to batten down the hatches, and let the boys and girls that seem to a toolbox that’s short of a tool or two, take over for now…
I’ll let you know when the adults can dip their toes in the water again…
Well, the price of Oil has fallen out of bed once again, and once again, the lack of Chinese demand is being blamed for the attack on the price of Oil… Ok… I’m not going to throw darts at a claim that demand is lacking, and from such a large user of Oil… Here’s Bloomberg.com with their thoughts on this: “Oil fell as Chinese demand concerns outweighed supply disruptions in Libya.
Global benchmark Brent dropped below $76 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate traded near $72. A further contraction in factory activity in China and a deepening property crisis are continuing to drag on the country’s economy, threatening growth targets.”
Chuck again… Well the letter is late again today… Once again, it’s a matter of me answering the bell, and how in my “retired state”, I just don’t have the OOPHM to do that… And the letter will be shorter than usual today, because, there’s just not a lot out there in terms of markets news, that don’t have a political twang to them… And iI refuse to get drawn into those…
This week is a datapalooza week… Starting today with the ISM Manufacturing Index, which should show that it remained below the 50 level that is neutral between expansion and contraction… And a below 50 number isn’t a good thing for the U.S. economy… And that’s just today’s entry… Tomorow, we’ll see Factory Orders, and other data prints, and all the data prints culminate into Friday’s Jobs Jamboree… You may recall that last month’s Jobs Jamboree got the markets all in a tizzy, and had the chicken screaming that the sky was falling… And in between that Jobs print and this one, we had the BLS admit that they lied and cheated for the last year, adding jobs that didn’t exist to the tune 818,000… So, that leads me to believe that this month’s Jobs Jamboree will have a different look to it… I’m just saying…
To recap… The short paper trader have had their run of things since last Thursday… Friday they were at their best, which isn’t good for Gold & Silver… The dollar bugs are getting ridiculous with their buying of dollars in the face of an expected debasing of the dollar with a Fed Head Rate cut coming to a theater near you, soon!
For What It’s Worth… This article is a little different, in that it talks about how Gold is doing VS the euro… And removes all the volatility of the short paper traders in the U.S. and it can be found here: Ignore U.S. dollar volatility and focus on gold in euro terms as prices test April highs – MKS’ Nicky Shiels | Kitco News
Or, here’s your snippet: “In her latest note, Nicky Shiels, Head of Research and Metals Strategy at MKS PAMP, said she is paying more attention to gold against the euro as it trades near record highs. She noted that XAUEUR is a good proxy for “gold-only” demand, as it removes the broader U.S. dollar volatility.
While the U.S. gold futures market is closed Monday for the Labor Day long weekend, spot gold against global currencies continues to trade. Gold is trading in neutral territory against the euro, at €2,259.60 an ounce, roughly unchanged on the day.
Shiels warned that gold is trading at a critical resistance level against the euro, which could set the stage for a broader trend.
“XAUEUR has been sitting comfortably in a broad ~€150 range since the large breakout in March and April this year,” Shiels said in her note. “XAUEUR is extremely toppy in the high €2200s; there have been six failed attempts in the €2270-2280 range since the April peak and all-time high in euro terms at €2287/oz.”
Although gold has been unable to break above its March/April highs, Shiels noted that the precious metal appears to be building a solid base around €2,200 an ounce. She said that even as prices consolidate, gold has maintained an upward bias against the euro. She added that in this environment, investors should look to buy the dips.
“Time is somewhat ripe for a rerating (up or down)—it’s been six months since the March breakout—but we don’t think the top is in yet.”
Chuck again… Well… I know what you’re thinking here… Why on earth would Chuck highlight this, when the majority of us our U.S. dollar / Gold Based? I get what you’re asking here, but think of it this way… If Gold can rally in Europe without interference, it shows us what the U.S. markets could look like without interference… I’m just saying…
Market Prices 9/3/2024: American Style: A$ .6743, kiwi .6200, C$ .7383, euro 1.1056, sterling 1.3127, Swiss $1.1856, European Style: rand 17.9217, krone 10.6339, SEK 10.2687, forint 355.90, zloty 3.8683, koruna 22.6754, RUB 87.88, yen 145..68, sing 1.3075, HKD 7.7979, INR 83.96, China 7.1223, peso 19.88, BRL 5.5950, BBDXY 1,236.03, Dollar Index 101.67, Oil $71, 54, 10-year 3.85%, Silver $28.24, Platinum $911.00, Palladium $954.00, Copper $4.09, and Gold… $2,492.26
That’s it for today… Well, no Pfennig tomorrow… I have to say that I was shocked to see how many emails were in the Pfennig Replies box after it got fixed, and I was able to access it again… I got through all of them and had to explain the tardiness of the reply on each one… UGH! Sometimes, the simplest of things go awry… And that was the Pfennig Replies box… My beloved Cardinals took 2 of 3 from the Yankees in the Bronx, and had momentum going to Milwaukee, and all that was lost in the 1st inning… Darn home plate umpire… I’m just saying… Saturday was a grand day, as both the Cardinals and the STL City team won their respective games… And My beloved Mizzou Tigers started their college season on the right foot… YAY! The Allman Brothers take us to the finish line today with their live at the Filmore version of the song: One Way Out… I hope you have a Tom Terrific Tuesday today, and please Be Good To Yourself!
Chuck Butler