- Currencies & metals get sold on Monday, but rally overnight…
- The Fed/ Cabal/ Cartel meet this week…
Good Day… And a Tom Terrific Tuesday to you! A double header of NFL games on Monday Night last night… talk about spreading your audience! I wanted to watch the Dolphins game, but instead, while I had it on the TV, I read a book instead… And looked up every now and then… Well, I’m a week away from my annual winter vacation… This Friday, we will host an engagement party for our son, Alex, and his fiancé Grace… It will be like one of the old Butler Christmas Parties! I gave up years ago, trying to convince Kathy that we needed to have a Christmas Party… You tend to choose the battles you want to fight, eh? There will be a good time had by all, I’m sure! Vince Guaraldi trio greets me this morning with a theme song from the Charlie Brown Christmas: Christmas Is Coming…
Yes, it is, and pretty soon, it’ll be here, are you ready? I think I’ve gotten everything I ordered for gifts… So, I’m good… I wonder how many Christmases will be financed with credit cards this year? There’s something to use a credit card and pay it off each month… But running up debts with outlandish interest rates attached seems to me to be A-line ticket (remember those?) for disaster, in a home’s finances… Oh, well, time to get into the letter’s gist today, I’ve beaten around the bush enough…
The dollar weakened as the day went through its paces yesterday, but still maintained a gain in the BBDXY of 2 index points… The currencies didn’t really move much yesterday, so it appears they are in the same clothes this morning as they were yesterday morning…. Gold still can’t find a bid, as the price manipulators keep the pressure on the metals… Gold was down $23.10 yesterday to close the day at $1,982.40, and Silver was down 16-cents to close at $22.91… Buying opportunities galore here folks, need I say more?
I think this thought that has filtered through the markets since Friday, that the Fed/ Cabal/ Cartel isn’t looking to pivot any time soon has really laid a heavy weight on the metals… And then the price manipulators pile on… We’ll get a glimpse of whether this new thought has legs are not this morning, when the STUPID CPI for Nov. prints… You, me, and the guy down the street that keeps his Christmas lights on his house all year, know that the BSL’s CPI print is about as worthless as plug nickel… But, convincing the markets of that is a tough row to hoe… I’m just saying
In the overnight markets last night… Well, we had begun to see the dollar get sold yesterday, as I just said, but in the overnight markets, the dollar really got sold! The BBDXY is down 4 index points this morning, and the euro has climbed back to 1.08 to start our day. So, what’s got into the dollar bugs that they are feeling like they need to sell dollars? Ahhh… grasshopper, come, sit, and listen to a tale that’s been said many times before, but no one seems to listen to it… Could it be that the dollar bugs finally came to the realization that the Fed Heads are NOT going to cut interest rates, and with all the opposites trading going on these days, who knows?
Gold is up $5 to start the day today, and Silver is flat to up a penny… So far, no sign of the short paper traders in the overnight markets, so maybe their assault on the metals is over, for now.? …
And the bond boys thinking that the Fed Heads mantra that they will keep rates “higher, longer” lasted one day… Last Friday we saw the 10-year’s yield rise to 4.27%, and that’s what it appeared to be, that the bond boys had finally come around to Chuck’s way of the thinking, but that lasted just one day, because the 10-year’s yield dropped back yesterday to 4.19%… I shake my head and say, that’s just so wrong! Oh well it is what it is…
The price of Oil slipped below $71 at $70.95 overnight, and a there’s some talk going around that there’s a glut of Oil…. I say that’s hogwash, and I hope that talk gets squashed soon!
Well, the Social Security Administration issued their wage statistics for the year 2022 (last year), and their findings were scary… here’s the skinny: “The Social Security Administration just released national wage statistics for 2022, and the figures that they have given us do not paint a pretty picture at all. In particular, we should all be deeply alarmed that the median wage earner brought home just $40,847.18 last year. That computes to just $3,400 a month… I don’t see how that works in today’s numbers…
Especially when the Average Monthly Mortgage Payment Explodes to $3,322 in the latest report that was chronicled in the Wall Street Journal… That leaves just $78 for the average homeowner to play with after their monthly wage and mortgage payment. I know, I know, that doesn’t account for a double income family, or a two jobs earner in the family… Just having some fun with numbers here to show how dire it could be in America these days…
But there’s nothing that these poor people can do about it, for they didn’t have any say in the Gov’t’s excessive deficit spending, on pollywogs, and other stupid things, except protest their situation in public… And I do believe that we, as a country, are headed down that road, with protests that could turn violent, and even turn into a Civil War… Got Gold?
Ok, let’s talk about something more positive… Oh, there’s nothing on the docket? Shucks! I really wanted to talk about something positive! There are two wars being fought right now, in which the U.S. has a large interest in who wins, interest rates on credit cards are through the roof, housing costs are skyrocketing, inflation is sticky, the U.S. is borrowing to pay the interest on their debt, and the national debt is nearing in on $39 Trillion, and the biggest thing that’s coming our way, is the end of cash, folding currency…
Oh, and the next bubble to burst? You and I will probably differ on this, and that’s ok.. See? that’s how things used to work, but not any longer… The one that’s in power gets to cancel the other one for his thoughts… Strange times we live in… So, getting back to something I’m seeing in the markets these days that reminds me of 1995, when the internet was opened to the world, it was supposed to be the Big Kahuna, for economic growth… Well… we’re still waiting for that growth, right? And the other day I read that $40 Billion had been put into AI stocks this past year! And the same kind of buying that led to the Dot.com disaster, is being done again with AI… Be careful out there folks, this all reminds me of the years leading up to 2000 all over again… I’m just saying… Got Gold?
The U.S. Data Cupboard yesterday was barren, but today’s cupboard has the aforementioned STUPID CPI… And the Monthly Budget deficit… And the markets will be watching the STUPID CPI like a hawk this morning, so we have that going for us, eh? And looky there! The Fed/ Cabal/ Cartel will meet for the last time in 2023 tomorrow! No one out there in stock jockey land wants to take a bet on what the Fed Heads will do… But I could tell them that the Fed Heads won’t move interest rates, and Chairman Powell will do his best to tell the markets once again, that the Fed/ Cabal/ Cartel is data dependent, and need more confirmation that we’re seeing disinflation… The markets won’t like that kind of talk, and will most likely choose to ignore him, and go about as if he didn’t say anything at all!
To recap… The selling of Gold & Silver continued on Monday, as Chuck explains the reasons why in the letter today… The U.S. Consumer finances are going through the gauntlet of problems these days, and Chuck points them out this morning… The overnight markets saw the initial selling of the dollar that we saw yesterday, add on during the overnight session with the BBDXY down 4 index points to start the day today…
For What It’s Worth… Well, today’s feature is by Willem Middlekoop, who has been called the “Oracle of Amsterdam” and he’s here to talk about the return of Gold as a holding by Central Banks around the world, and it can be found here: Central banks and the revival of gold – OMFIF
Or, here is your snippet: “One of the most significant changes in the world of money has been happening by stealth rather than through any policy announcement. Gold has regained a solid yet unofficial role in the world’s monetary system in a barely noticed, gradual process that cannot now be overlooked.
This is the result of several interlinked reasons. The last few years have seen central banks run into gold, accelerated by declining trust in the dollar following western countries’ freezing of $300bn of Russian foreign exchange reserves after the Ukrainian invasion.
The sharp rise in interest rates since the end of 2021 has led to significant losses for worldwide bondholders. This applies not just to commercial banks and asset managers but also, crucially, to many internationally operating central banks that acquired large stocks of government bonds in successive rounds of quantitative easing. This has damaged the validity of government bonds as a core element of central banks’ reserves.
This has had a significant side effect. Gold-holding central banks in Europe seem likely to resort (either formally or informally) to using their gold revaluation accounts to plug balance sheet losses to be unveiled in coming years. They find this a more palatable option than the alternative – asking their governments to recapitalise them during a budget squeeze.
Recapitalization would undermine central banking independence by exposing the need for bail-out measures. However, the option they seem most likely to choose could have uncomfortable effects. By demonstrating the new-found monetary importance of gold, which has been slumbering unused in their reserves for decades, central banks could endanger confidence in the national currencies they issue and guarantee. They could provoke further moves out of fiduciary currencies and into gold by emerging market central banks seeking to emulate their more established European counterparts.”
Chuck again.. .As I keep saying over and over again… “Follow the money”… And if Central Banks around the world are buying physical Gold, then you should be doing the same… I’m just saying…
Market Prices 12/12/2023: American Style: A$.6588, kiwi .6149, C$ .7368, euro 1.0801, sterling 1.2570, Swiss $1.1436, European Style: rand 18.9242, krone 10.8821, SEK 10.4368, forint 354.08, zloty 4.0130, koruna 22.6030, RUB 89.85, yen 145.10, sing 1.3401, HKD 7.8096, INR 83.38, China 7.1678, peso 17.32, BRL 4.9288, BBDXY 1,239.65, Dollar Index 103.74, Oil $70.95, 10-year 4.19%, Silver $22.97, Platinum $926.00, Palladium $983.00, Copper $3.75, and Gold… $1,987.67
That’s it for today… Yesterday’s visit to the PCP was OK… my mouth started bleeding while the nurse took my blood pressure… She was freaked out… I did get it to stop before the doctor walked in… He asked me this: “how do people like you, have the strength to take on all these problems?” I answered: “an optimistic outlook, and the power of prayers”.. Of course, I could have added and “good medicine”… He realizes what cancer patients go through, and he’s amazed at my smiling face!” I should have told him that I smile because I own Gold, and I own most of it since 2004… I told all my friends then in 2004, that they too, should buy Gold… I could hold it over their heads, the ones that didn’t listen, but I don’t… But they know… It’s never too late to buy… I’m just saying! Kenny G. takes us to the finish line this morning with his version of the song: Have Yourself A Merry Christmas… I hope you have a Tom Terrific Tuesday today…. and Please Be Good To Yourself!
Chuck Butler