- the interference in the markets has been quite prevalent…
- Earthquake in Japan, deep sixes the rate hike thoughts…
Good Day… And a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday to one and all! Well my trip down to the South was delayed, of course, and we didn’t pull into our place until after 1 AM… I’m beat! I don’t know what it is about flying, but I always feel beat after arriving at my destination. So… Here I am… It’s very early, and the shutters that we closed before leaving in Nov. are still closed… We would have opened them last night, but it was too late for such noise. The PPT was back at work the first 2 days of the year, so we have that to talk about this morning, along with some other things that crossed my mind while traveling yesterday… King Crimson greets me this morning with their song: In The Court of the Crimson King… A rock classic for sure!
Well… Not only was the PPT in making sure the dollar didn’t fall any further the last two days, the short paper traders were at it again too! First they took Gold by $4.50 Tuesday, and then another $18 yesterday… Gold closed yesterday at $2,041.49… Silver was also taken to the woodshed the last two days, with Tuesday’s loss of 13.5-cents and then a whopping 65-cents yesterday. Silver closed yesterday at $23.01… UGH!
The price of Oil traded throughout the day yesterday trying to get back to $73, but fell short, and ended the day trading with a $72 handle… Bonds are still wishy washy, turbulent and not knowing which way to go, and the 10-year ended the day at 3.91% yield.
In the overnight markets last night…Well, apparently the foreign markets didn’t get the memo that the dollar bugs were back buying dollars, with the PPT’s backing, because the dollar drifted last night, and didn’t add to the day’s shenanigans. In fact the dollar lost 1 index point in the BBDXY overnight… So, maybe that’s a signal that the all-clear horn has sounded, and the PPT has gone back to their lair, I guess we’ll see for sure when the U.S. boys and girls return to their desks…
The price of Oil finally climbed back over the $73 handle last night, and the 10-year’s yield rose to 3.96%… Bonds are a mixed bag-o-nuts right now, and I wouldn’t touch them with your ten-foot pole!
You know, the news from Japan over the weekend was horrible. The earthquake they experienced was strong, and it has caused considerable damage in Japan… So, other than the horrible loss of lives, the markets have done a 180 on the Bank of Japan’s potential rate hike… That thought has been put to bed, for now, and the selling of the yen has replaced it… Goes to show you that all the plans of mice and men… right?
Well… congratulations U.S. Congress people… You made it to $34 Trillion! Yes, it was reported yesterday that, “The total US national debt spiked by $1.0 trillion in 15 weeks since September 15, to $34.0 trillion, according to the Treasury Department’s figures this afternoon. In the seven months since the debt ceiling was lifted, the national debt spiked by $2.5 trillion.”
And that brings me back to what I told you back when the debt ceiling was kicked further down the road, that the debt accumulation would spiral upward quickly because of the all the debt that was on hold… So, here we are already with $1 Trillion in debt in the first 3 months of the fiscal year… Oh my!
Well, Bill Bonner of www.bonnerprivateresearch.com had something to say about all this new debt, let’s listen in: “A long-held guess here at BPR is that the US would eventually follow Argentina on the road to ruin…with high levels of corruption and inflation. Amid all the noise and to-do of 2023, it was hard to follow the tune. But in the deep background, the tango beat grew stronger.
Stocks hit a high note; wars and massacres continued; US politics degenerated into buffoonery; inflation eased off. Over the course of the last two administrations, 2017-2024, US debt increased from $19.9 trillion to $33.9 trillion – or at the rate of $2 trillion per year. Last October and November set a new debt record – with a deficit of $383 billion for the first two months of the fiscal year, or $2.3 trillion annualized. No attack on the US. No depression. No emergency…not even a bad hair day…and yet, US politicians spent money as if they were Argentines! “
Chuck again… Say it ain’t so, Joe! We can’t be following the Argentines can we? Oh, yes we most certainly could be… I’m just saying
And knowing all of this should put a bee in the bonnet of many investors that have shunned physical Gold (& Silver) But, as a good friend told me recently after meeting with his investment manager, “I asked him if I could buy Gold in my account, and he told me “we have no way of doing that”! So this means if you have your investments handled by a agent at a Big Brokerage Firm, you’ll have to withdraw some funds, and buy it on your own…
And you had better buy it very soon, because even though Gold has backed off from its lofty figure of last week, it will soon revisit that, and more, if things go the way I see them going in 2024…
And the good folks at GATA sent me this note yesterday, “Investors flocked to gold in record numbers in 2023 as global economic turbulence triggered a flight to safety, according to the Royal Mint.The number of people buying gold and precious metal bars and coins jumped by 7% year-on-year, surpassing the highs of the 2020 lockdown investing boom.”
And yet… Gold only had a 13% gain in 2023… I know I told you on Tuesday that Gold’s gain in 2023 was only 3%… But I had looked at the number incorrectly… You would think that with a 7% jump in physical gold buying in 2023, the gain would have been greater… right? But we all know what’s holding Gold back… now don’t we?
The U.S. Data Cupboard had the ISM manufacturing index for Dec on Tuesday, and you may recall me telling you that I thought it would continue to show contraction, with a number below 50… And that it did with 47.2 showing… Today’s Data Cupboard has the Weekly Initial Jobless Claims, and the ADP Employment Report, which is showing that it could be 130,000, and then tomorrow the Jobs Jamboree prints for December, and who knows what the BLS has up their sleeve! It will be something interesting for sure… but be certain that it’s full of lies, lies, and more lies…
To recap… Ever since the new year began the interference in the metals and the dollar has been at an all-time high! Or at least that is what it seems! Gold has lost quite a bit of ground from its lofty figure of year end… And the dollar has won back some of the lost ground it has succumbed to in recent months, with the PPT in buying dollars to save it from more humiliation… Gold has a record year of physical buying in 2023… So, put that in your pipe and smoke it, price manipulators!
For What It’s Worth… Well, I decided to go a different route today, and will focus on health… You know, I’ve told you that I eliminated sweets from my diet 4 years ago, now… And then I read this article and thought, well, I’m one step ahead! This is about sugar in your diet and it can be found here: Dr. Says Quitting Sugar Can Stop Most Chronic Diseases (needtoknow.news)
Or, here’s your snippet: “Dr. Robert Lustig, MD, is a retired professor at the University of California, San Francisco and specializes in the field of neuroendocrinology. He explained the dangers of consuming sugar and said that it poisons mitochondria that causes a decrease in the energy that powers our cells. Sugar is not a food because it inhibits growth and energy production. Lustig says that sugar feeds cancer, and it dramatically raises the risk for Alzheimer’s Disease, cardiovascular disease, and other metabolic diseases. He said that if people eat a real food diet, most chronic diseases go away.
Dr. Lustig said that in the 1960’s, the sugar industry paid $6,500 to Fred Stare, the chairman of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, and his associate Mark Hegsted, who later became the head of the US Department of Agriculture, to exonerate sugar and instead blame saturated fat for negative health effects. They were paid to write false review articles in the New England Journal of Medicine that were peer reviewed.”
Chuck again… I didn’t completely eliminate sugars 4 years ago, I still use creamer in my coffee… But, I’m buying sugar-free creamer now, so that will complete the circle!
Market Prices 1/5/2024: American Style: A$ .6726, kiwi .6249, C$ .7499, euro 1.0953, sterling 1.2694, Swiss $1.1764, European Style: rand 18.6552, krone 10.2941, SEK 10.2143, forint 345.78, zloty 3.9680, koruna 22.5078, RUB 91.22, yen 144.18, sing 1.3279, HKD 7.8082, INR 83.23, China 7.1510, peso 17.0005, BRL 4.9110, BBDXY 1,223.71, Dollar Index 102.41, Oil $73.46, 10-year 3.96%, Silver $20.98, Platinum $972.00, Palladium $1,068.00, Copper $3.87, and Gold… $2,045.84
That’s it for today and this week… Well, not only am I in my winter home now, but I’m back with my good friend, Frank Trotter, and being sponsored by Battle Bank… It’s been a long time coming, it’s been a long time gone… But we’re back together! YAHOO! Well, the National Championship for college football will be played Monday Night… Should be a real barn burner! The Uber driver last night, saw that I was wearing my Mizzou Tigers baseball cap, and said, “how about those Tigers beating The Ohio State!?” I said, MIZ baby! Fantasy Football leagues should be have wrapped up their seasons last week, as this week is the last week of football, and those teams that guaranteed a spot in the playoffs win or lose, will not play their stars the whole game if any of the game… The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) takes us to the finish line today with their song: Can’t Get You Out Of My Head…. I hope you have a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday today, and a Fantastico Friday tomorrow… And please Be Good To Yourself!
Chuck Butler