- the dollar gets sold on Friday
- and for once there was follow through to start the week!
Good Day… And a Marvelous Monday to you! Welcome to hot and hotter St. Louis! We’ve been under a heat dome for a week now, and I’m getting cabin fever from not going outside to read! My beloved Cardinals found their right-handed slugger… And he was right under their noses! I had bad stomach all weekend, and finally yesterday it settled down…. I live with so many maladies that they run into each other! Christopher Cross greats me this morning with his song: Never Be The Same…
Well, the dollar got sold on Friday, and Retail Sales for July tumbled down the hill just like Jack and Jill…. The dollar closed the week at 1,201, and looking like it wanted to go further down, but luckily the end of the day Bell rung…
Gold/Silver found some good bids on Friday, after suffering through an engineered takedown by the SPTs on Thursday… Gold was up $25 to close at $4,377. Silver was up 33=cents to close the week at $64.58. So, Gold/Silver found ways around the SPTs 4 of the 5 days last week… Their rallies from the massive shorts that were put on at the beginning of July are still around, its’s just that the ETF and Physical buying is kicking tail most days… and that’s a good sign…
But, I’m concerned…. Remember about a month or so ago when I told you that the short positions Gold & Silver had gone down? Well, that didn’t last long and the short positions now are greater than they were the last time the SPTs went after the two….
My friend, Ed Steer, wrote about this and we’re going to listen to what Ed had to say Saturday…. Regarding Silver… Ed Steer had this bit of info on the shorts in Silver this past weekend…”Those 106 days that the Big 8 traders are currently short, represents about 3.5 months of world silver production, or 245.795 million troy ounces/49,159 COMEX contracts. That’s up a bit from the 238.555 million troy ounces/47,711 contracts from last Friday’s COT Report.”
Chuck again… Thanks Ed! Oh, and you can always find Ed at: www.edsteergoldandsilver.com
So, that’s what concerns me… the SPTs didn’t build up those short positions just to look at their masterpiece!
But, it’s somewhat like living each day… you could worry about crossing the street and getting hit by a bus…. You could worry about how aww. Forget about it, you know what I’m saying, We could worry about all the shorts, but they may never get executed….
The price of Oil remained trading with an $82 handle on Friday, and the 10-year finished the week at a 4.69% yield…
In the overnight markets last night… Well, the follow up to Friday’s selling of the dollar was there last night… The BBDXY lost 3 index points and starts today/week at 99.42…. This was a good sign for further development in the selling of the dollar.
The currencies all look as though they got out of their respective sick beds, except the Russian ruble, who doesn’t seem to get bought even when the price of Oil rallies… The Euro Wannabes are kicking tail and taking names later, which to me is a sign of further dollar weakness…
The price of Oil is up $11 to start our day/week, and Silver is up 83-cents… It will be interesting to see if the SPTs show up today or not…. The 10-year Treasury was left to its own devices and the yield has risen to 4.71% to start the day/ week.
According to MarketWatch.com the Hindenburg Omen is flashing a warning about stocks… Should you fear it? It is just a warning, but they said the same thing in 2008…. And that’s the other thing that concerns me regarding the Gold/Silver rally… IF stocks crash, the margin calls would be getting sent out like Dear Santa letters…. And the only thing liquid they hold, to meet the call, is Gold/Silver… just keep that in mind….
So much for all my concerns, they may not materialize and mean a hill of beans….
Longtime reader, Bob, sent me an email that describes how the European Union is joining the Chinese RMB payments system…. See, that’s what happens when you tick someone off so bad that they do things that hurt you… Remember the U.S. sold $10 Billion worth of euros to buy yen without even a wink and nod to the European Central Bank…
And what has that buying done for the yen? The yen is already back to 159 and soon it will be 160 again, and all those funds used to buy yen will have been wasted…. And the euro seems to be getting its feet back under it again after having so much of it sold….
It appears that Wall St. is all in on risk assets these days, as the rate hike folks fade into the wallpaper… That means that not only you, me and the guy down the street, along with our friendly Centra Banks of the world, won’t be the only ones buying Gold… I’m just saying…
I have something for you in the FWIW section today regarding funding our Debt that is coming ever-so-close to $40 Trillion… YIKES! The higher the debt goes, the faster it rises, for it seems like it was just yesterday that we hit $39 Trillion… The cost to finance the debt is choking off funding other things and is becoming the albatross perched on the neck of Americans….
The U.S. Data Cupboard has the Empire Regional Manufacturing Index for us today… Not much… And since I overslept this morning because I was up with a bad stomach all night, the Empre report is out and showed a rise of 20 that surprised the markets and me! Tomorrow, we’ll see Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization, now those are market movers…
To recap, the dollar got sold last Friday, thus marking two Fridays in a row where the dollar got sold going into the weekend, only to see it recover the following week… It’ll be interesting to see if there’s any follow through on the dollar selling today… The Hindenburg Omen is flashing; had we better beware? And Chuck has a lot of concerns regarding Gold/Silver’s rally… Sure hope he’s as wrong as wrong can be!
For What It’s Worth… Well, I found this perusing the internet on Saturday, while waiting for Joshua Baez to come up again and hit another home run! This is about how the auctions that took place last week were absolutely awful, as the interest rates attached to the bonds had to be risen, thus the interest the U.S. will have to pay and if can be found here: Costliest U.S. bond sale since 2001 is investor warning to Bessent | Fortune
Or, here’s your snippet: “The US government sold 30-year bonds at the highest interest rate in a quarter century, a testament to investors’ demand for greater compensation to finance the nation’s growing deficit.
The yield at the $25 billion sale Thursday came in at 5.216%, the most since 2001, even as a drop in oil prices supported US debt in secondary-market trading. The sale, which was met with decent demand, follows the Treasury Department’s 10-year auction a day earlier that drew the highest financing cost at that tenor since 2007.
It’s a headache for President Donald Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent ahead of midterm elections in November. Lofty government financing costs are already feeding through to the broader economy, after years of elevated inflation and government spending.
“Investors are being asked to absorb a growing supply of government debt globally at a time when deficits remain large, inflation uncertainty persists” and the Federal Reserve is no longer a major buyer, said Michal Stanczyk, portfolio manager for the global fixed income team at Allspring Global Investments.
“If investors continue demanding greater compensation for inflation and fiscal risks, long-term yields could move higher and away from 5% even if Treasury auctions remain well covered,” he said.
The Treasury’s concern appeared to be on show last week when it tweaked its debt-sales guidance in a way that opened the door to potential cuts to long bond supply. Meanwhile, investors are still not rushing to lock in yields at multi-decade highs, signaling a collective wariness that the selloff may not be over.
Representatives for the Treasury didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.”
Chuck Again…. Well, like I’ve said before higher yields are having a bad effect on U.S. finances..
Market Prices 8/17/2026: American Style: A$ .7171, kiwi .5919, C$ .7219, euro 1.1598, sterling 1.3565, Swiss $1.2360, krone 9.4090, SEK 9.4794, forint 312.94, zloty 3.7194, koruna 20.8677, RUB 84.89, yen 159.26, sing 1.2784, HKD 7.8457, INR 95.61, China 6,7414, peso 17.01, BRL 5.2095, BBDXY 1,198, Dollar Index 99.42 Oil $82.62, 10-year 4.71%, Silver $65.41, Platinum $1,767.00, Palladium $1,345, Copper $6.71, and Gold… $4,388
That’s it for today… That was really something to see Saturday, Cardinals’ Joshua Baez hit 3 home run in his first 3 at-bats in the major league…. And then the fans in Chicago gave him a standing ovation when he lined out in his final at bat…. Saturday was the 15th, and that day will live with me forever, for that was always the first day of football practice, most times 2 x a day, and sometimes 3 x a day in the summer heat…. It’s been over 50 years since I last played football, and well my body aches each 8/15…. REO Speedwagon takes us to the finish line today with their song: Like You Do… I hope you have a Marvelous Monday today and Please Be Good To Yourself!
Chuck Butler