January 7, 2021
* Gold sees another engineered takedown
* Currencies lose ground to the dollar on Wednesday…
Good day… And a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday to you! What a scene yesterday from the Capitol… I’m not going to say any more about that because I don’t want to be accused of talking politics… Of course I don’t really know what is construed as politics any longer, since last week all I said was, that McConnell had nixed the $2,000 checks… And I got told to shut the *&^( up about politics! OK… Have you ever gotten to the point where you know you’re right but everyone keeps telling you you’re wrong, and you get so frustrated that you want to lash out? I’m just wondering if that’s ever happened to you? It happens to me all the time, and in my younger days, when I had a very bad temper, I would lash out, and then feel bad for doing so… Doctors and nurses can’t believe that I ever had a bad temper, they always tells me how easy I am and how I just go with the program… I tell them, “that’s because you have the needles!” HAHAHAHA! Elton John greets me this morning with his song: Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters… One of my fave Elton John songs… that one and Honky Cat…
Well, I guess the price manipulators didn’t like that I said that 2021 would be a “golden year”, and that all the currency printing was going to be beneficial to Gold… Yesterday early morning, Gold was down a few bucks, not big deal… And then the boys in the band showed up at the COMEX with their arms full of short Gold paper trades, and the engineered takedown was on…
Gold, yesterday lost $32 on the day… Now tell me how this sounds… We start they year with a $44 gain, followed by an $8 gain, and then all the reasons Gold was being bought the previous two days went to hell in a hand basket? And people sold? See howd illogical that sounds? The only people that were selling actual positions didn’t cause a $32 slide! The Price Manipulators, led by JPMorgan saw to it that before everyone thought that Gold was going to be a one-way shot higher, that they had different plans… Here I go getting my exercise again… Shaking my head in disbelief…
OK… The currencies gave back a bit of ground on the day too, but nothing like the hit that Gold took… The euro was able to remain above 1.23, which had been a line of resistance… And the Aussie dollar (A$) did slip below 78-cents but barely… So… it was Moving Day on Tuesday, and Move back in day on Wednesday! There was nothing, absolutely nothing, say it again, that would have caused this backing off of selling the dollar… If anything, you would think that the goings on in D.C. would have caused some additional dollar selling, but not yesterday… Makes you think that the PPT was buying dollars once again…
In the overnight markets, the dollar bugs won the battle… not the war, but the battle, and pushed the euro back below 1.23, and the Aussie dollar further down the 77 handle… It appears that it was a bunker down and hide behind dollars night… I don’t know what the overnight markets were fearing, but it sure looks like they feared something… The Big Bad Boogie Man? Or The Big Bad Plunge Protection Team? Most like it was the latter of those two… I’m just saying…
So, we start our Tub Thumpin’ Thursday with the dollar pushing back, and Gold down $4, and Silver down 19-cents. The price of Oil remains above the $50 handle, and the 10-year Treasury’s yield climbed higher in the past 24 hours and is trading this morning at 1.05%!
Have I ever told you about a presentation I did in Orlando in 2003? Well, if I have I’m going to tell it again, because this is what happens when the dollar in entrenched in a weak trend like it was in 2003….. I was scheduled to speak in a room that held about 200 people… Before I took to the stage, I noticed the room filling up quickly, and soon all the seats were taken, and people began to camp out sitting the floor… Then the standing room only crowd filled in against the walls of the room, and then a Hotel person came in and told me that they would not allow any more people in the room. So, Chris Gaffney went to the back of the room, and held the door ajar, and would tell the people waiting out in the hallway, what I was saying… The amount of people wanting to get in to hear what I had to say probably totaled 350… Not the largest crowd I ever spoke to, but… the first time I had to have someone relaying my message to the folks outside the room… After that year, the conference people began putting me in larger rooms…
But that’s what the frenzy to get out of dollar is like when the dollar is entrenched in a weak trend, as it is beginning to be now… I guess they don’t hold “in person” conferences any longer, and everything is virtual… So, it will be difficult to gauge when the frenzy to sell dollars come to be… But I do feel it will come, and I’m sure if it does come it will be this year!
And this morning, Ed Steer (www.edsteergoldsilver.com) had an interview with Doug Casey, and I’m going to borrow a small piece of that interview because it plays well with what I’m talking about here… So, take it away Doug… .”First of all, we have to define what Mises meant by a “crack-up boom.” It can occur when the public realizes that money is being printed at a great rate, and it’s likely to continue being printed at a great rate. The public then starts moving out of money to buy anything of real value. All that money is passed around faster and faster, like an old maid card, causing a “crack-up boom.” It’s not a real boom. It’s caused by fear, not prosperity. The desperation of trying to get into real goods and get out of the U.S. dollar creates what you might call uneconomic economic activity.”-Doug Casey
The U.S. Data Cupboard had the ADP Employment Report for December yesterday, and the report showed that the economy lost 123,000 jobs during the month… YIKES… Of course the BLS Jobs Jamboree on Friday won’t come near that number… I’m just saying… December Factory Orders also printed and showed a 1.0% gain, VS 1.3% in Nov. So, Riddle me this Batman… How can Factory Orders show a drop in Dec from Nov. but the manufacturing index (ISM) showed a big gain? Hmmm.
This morning’s Data Cupboard has the Weekly Initial Jobless Claims, which will be skewered once again because of the holiday last week… It won’t be until next week that we see a full week of claims being filed… And we have 3 Fed Heads on the speaking circuit today… Bullard, Evans and Day… I wonder what lies they’ll be telling us this time? As Pink Floyd sang: Haven’t you heard, it’s a battle words, and most of them are lies….
To recap… it was another engineered takedown in Gold yesterday by the boys in the band, who showed up at the COMEX with their collective arms full of short Gold paper trades… And Gold lost $32 on the day… The currencies saw some dollar buying that didn’t amount to too much, but still knocked the currencies off their lofty levels on the day. And Chuck gives us a glimpse of what the frenzy to sell dollars is like when the dollar is well entrenched in a weak trend…
For What It’s Worth… You know I first met Jim Rogers years ago, when he came to our office at EverBank World Markets and had lunch with us at our desks, and we talked about markets etc. And ever since that day, I’ve bought and read all his books, and sit up and take notice any time he’s on TV or in print… And so it was with this article that quotes Jim Rogers thoughts on Silver, and it can be found here: Jim Rogers recommends investment in silver | The Korea News Plus (newsarticleinsiders.com)
Or, here’s your snippet: “Famed investor Jim Rogers, the founder of the Quantum Fund, recommended investment in silver in the New Year as its price is substantially lower than historic high.
The financial commentator made the advice in a recent interview with E-Trend, a YouTube channel focusing on economic and stock market news.
“Silver is down 50 percent from its all-time high. Gold is down 10 percent from its all-time high, less than 10 percent. I will buy both, but I will buy more silver than gold,” he said.
The gold price has moved below $1,900 per ounce over the past month compared to its historic high of $2,069.4 this August.
That of silver approached $50 an ounce in the late 1970’s to fluctuate below the historic high after that. Silver struggled over the past decade but turned around after the virus outbreak to trade at around $25 last month.”
When asked about the stock market… “I am not very good at market timing, but I would imagine the bubble will pop later in 2021 because bubbles don’t go on forever, and bubbles are already developing in Korea, Japan, America, and some places,” he said.”
Chuck again… You always and I mean always know where you stand and what’s on his mind, when Jim Rogers talks… And like the old EF Hutton commercial… When Jim Rogers talks, I listen….
Market Prices 1/7/ 2021: American Style: A$ .7745, kiwi .7251, C$ .7858, euro 1.2267, sterling 1.3489, Swiss $1.1322, European Style: rand 15.2294, krone 8.4379, SEK 8.2015, forint 292.16, zloty 3.6775, koruna 21.3388, RUB 73.87, yen 103.66. sing 1.3242, HKD 7.7529, INR 73.30, China 6.4571, peso 19.75, BRL 5.2933, Dollar Index 89.85, Oil $50.79, 10-year 1.05%, Silver $27.16, Platinum $1,098.00, Palladium $2,459.00, Copper $3.65, and Gold… $1,915.20
That’s it for today… I hope things calm down in D.C. I see it being repeated around the country… I sure hope I’m wrong there… Now on to nice things… I sat out on the deck that overlooks the ocean yesterday, reading my book and usually I only stay out there for an hour or two, but I was so entrenched in this book, that I spent too long and my bald head got pink… It didn’t hurt, like sunburn, it just had a pink head! This morning the pink is all gone… I love the winter sun down here, if had sat outside in the sun in the summer time here, I would have 3rd degree burns on my bald head! But not now… the sun is warm and comfortable, to sit in and soak up Vitamin D…. That “cold front” I talked about yesterday is taking its time getting here, so for another day it’ll be nice and warm! The Counting Crows takes us to the finish line today with their 90’s song: Mr. Jones… At the time of that CD’s release, you would have thought The Counting Crows would be a band that lasted a long time with multiple CD’s… Oh well… I hope you have a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday, and a Fantastico Friday tomorrow, and will remember to Be Good To Yourself!
Chuck Butler