March 16, 2023
* currencies get sold, Gold get bought on Wednesday
* Bond traders think the rate hikes are over?
Good Day… And a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday to one and all! This being the last Pfennig before my annual spring vacation starts, will hopefully be chock-full-o-stuff that interests you, and prods you into making a decision about your investment portfolio! I say that, because, you can’t project that I will absolutely, with no reservations, return… I’m just saying… OK, on the upbeat note (NOT!) Team USA won their game last night and therefore moved on to the knockout round. I stayed up to watch the game, and am regretting that decision this morning, as I’m dragging the line as the sun rises… Bob Marley greets me this morning with his great song: Three Little Birds… You know… “don’t worry about a thing, ‘cause every little thing going to be alreight”.. yeah, that song…
The dollar started yesterday roaring, with it up 8 index points to start the day, and then went on to add 3 more index points during the day to end up 11 for the day… But dollar weakness wasn’t the cause for Gold to soar yesterday… Gold was up more than $20 yesterday, before the price manipulators showed up, and pushed the metal down, but Gold still booked a gain of $15 on the day to end at $1,919.40. Silver got bought too, and saw the same price action as Gold, with it rising nicely during the day, only to see ti get whacked later, but hang onto a gain of 6-cents to close at $21.88…
The price of Oil has really lost a lot of ground in the last 2 weeks… In the past 24 hours, the price of Oil has dropped $3 to trade with a $67 handle… That looks strange to me, that $67 handle, but it is what it is, and I move along, for I talked about Oil traders yesterday… Forgot what I said? Well, simply go to the website for the Pfennig, and read it there: www.dailypfennig.com
In the overnight markets last night, the dollar saw some selling, and the BBDXY lost 2 index points, the shine has been taken from the Mexican peso folks… Well, that was fun while it lasted, eh? With the price of Oil slumping badly, the Petrol Currencies are seeing lots of selling, and the peso has had the best run recently, so it makes sense that profit taking is setting in… Look what the weak Oil price has done to the Russian ruble… And the Norwegian krone, and Canadian loonie, etc….
The best performing currency this week has been the Japanese yen… Yes, I had to recheck that a couple of time (measure twice, cut once) (belt and suspenders) cause that’s the kind of person I am…
Yen performing well, is just as strange as it sounds… But that’s the case, and I can’t deny it… I thought it was just last week that the Bank of Japan, announced more bond buying… But then opposites still rule, so there you go!
I read an article that talked about how bond traders are now betting that the Fed Heads are not going to hike rates any further, and so bonds are getting bought like funnel cakes at a State Fair! What are these guys/ gals smoking? There has been on indication that the Fed Heads are going to do a knee jerk reaction to two failed banks, so why would you go out on a limb like that and say that the Fed Heads are finished with their rate hikes? Aye, Aye, Aye….
Well, I saw this on Twitter yesterday… “Moody’s cuts outlook on entire U.S. Banking system to negative from stable, citing a “rapidly deteriorating environment”…
See? Didn’t I tell you that the two bank failures last week, would lead to more problems for banks? Even Moody’s, the rating agency, that can’t seem to find its rear end with both hands, sees the problems for banks going forward… It’s not often that I see the ratings agencies, one of the main culprits of the housing bubble in 2008, and I on the same page… Better write that one down, for all eternity! HA!
I have a serious situation in the For What It’s Worth section today, regarding talking about Bank failures, you’ll want to make sure you read that section today!
But wasn’t that warning from Moody’s sort of like: Too little, too late? Well, yes it was… too late to help anyone that had invested in the Bank… Unless of course, the Gov’t decides to bail out all investors too! I shudder to think what kind of precedence that would set… Because, the Good Lord, knows how many stock losses I’ve had over the years, and if the Gov’t is going to make reparations for stock losses, can you imagine the problems that would incur? I shake my head in disgust that we’ve gone this far with bailouts!
Well, Credit Suisse had a good day yesterday… It received a 50 billion Swiss franc credit line with the country’s central bank. But even that news isn’t stopping the Swiss Federal Council from convening a special meeting on Thursday (this morning) to discuss the situation at Credit Suisse Group AG, according to Swiss news service AWP.
The Swiss government usually holds regular meetings on Fridays, and it’s unclear if it will make any immediate decisions, AWP said, citing a report by affiliated news service Keystone SDA. That cited unidentified sources familiar with the matter.
I got some of that info from Bloomberg.com…
The U.S. Data Cupboard yesterday has the Feb Retail Sales, and like the BHI indicated the Retail Sales report was very disappointing, printing a negative -.4%, and that was including the Valentine’s Day sales, that are usually enough to prop up Feb Retail Sales, but not this year… I’ll say it again, and maybe this time it will sink in… Consumers are tapped out… They need more stimmy checks, they need the Gov’ to bail them out of their debt that’s up to their eyeballs, they need to find a genie, and a lamp!
Today’s Data Cupboard has a lot of minor prints, but the usual Tub Thumpin’ Thursday fare is head and shoulders above the minor reports, and that is the Weekly Initial Jobless Claims… Pretty soon, this data is going to show the increase of employees getting laid off…. Maybe this week?
To recap… The dollar fought back yesterday but only gained 2 index points on the day, and in the overnight trading last night it gave back those 2 index points! Gold soared yesterday for a 1/2 of the day, before the price manipulators took their pound of flesh from Gold, but the shiny metal was able to eke out a gain of $14.90 on the day…Silver saw the same price action… In the early trading today, Silver has climbed back above $22… The shine is off the peso, and the yen is the best performing currency this week… Yes, I meant to write that!
For What It’s Worth… And now… first we had censoring of people’s thoughts on Twitter, then YouTUBE, then Facebook, or whatever it is called these days, and so on… Then they censored anyone talking about the Biden laptop fiasco, before the election… And guess what’s on their censoring agenda now? Well, I’ll let the folks at the Burning Platform tell you what: this article can be found here: https://www.theburningplatform.com/2023/03/15/censoring-social-media-to-prevent-bank-runs/
Or, here’s your snippet: “The people within the system know when a bank is failing, as we saw with SVB’s recent collapse. Senator Mark Kelly (D-Arizona) asked the Federal Reserve, Treasury Department, and Federal Deposit and Insurance Corp (FDIC) if it would be possible to censor information that could lead to future bank runs. Kelly is denying the claims despite people on both sides confirming his question.
The government implements bots on social media to support its agenda. Elon Musk exposed Twitter prior to the takeover. Twitter admitted when filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that around 5% of its 300 million users are in fact fake accounts. Once Musk began to crack down on fake accounts, members of the Democratic Party saw sharp declines in followers.
So Kelly’s proposal is not merely a method to avoid bank runs. This is infringing on our Constitutional right to the freedom of speech to control the masses via media. Let us not forget that nearly all social media platforms heavily lean left and support the same message.”
Chuck again… This really ticks me off! What the hell happened to “Freedom of Speech”? Have we become a communist nation overnight? Really… I’m asking a serious question here? Freedom of Speech, is one of the backbone’s of our Free Country! Take it away, and what have you got?
I’m really upset here folks, you should see me, I’m hammering on the keyboard like the keyboard is to blame for this doltness! I sure hope that someone with an ounce of gray matter reminds Mr. Kelly that there is this thing called a Constitution…. I’m sure he is unaware of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, just like most of his colleagues…
I’m going to keep writing about this banking situation, as long as I can, you can bet your last bottom dollar on that! Well, then you ARE going on vacation, Chuck… Oh, that’s right! Ok, I’ll write about when I get back, because I’m sure there will be more to write about!
You know, I never talk about my birthday, but this year I am… Next week is my birthday, and one that I’ll appreciate even more, due to my two recent near death episodes… So, Happy Birthday to me, next week…
Market Prices 3/16/2023: American Style: A$.6648, kiwi .6163, C$ .7273, euro 1.0607, sterling 1.2043, Swiss $1.0765, European Style: rand 18.3820, krone 10.7743, SEK 10.5673, forint 373.89, zloty 4.4293, koruna 22.6086, RUB 76.26, yen 132.79, sing 1.3480, HKD 7.8494, INR 82.73, China 6.8963, peso 19.04, BRL 5.2684, BBDXY 1,252.80, Dollar Index 104.45, Oil $67.57, 10-year 3.45%, Silver $22.02, Platinum $968.00, Palladium $1,456.00, Copper $3.87, and Gold… $1,925.15
That’s it for today… And for this week, and until March 28… What the heck happened to our Blues this year? They lost a game last night on home ice, giving up 8 goals! YIKES! After a 2-game road trip, my beloved Cardinals return to Roger Dean Stadium today, and I’ll be there! By myself! It was an ugly day here yesterday, with clouds and rain, and wind… You’ve got to have those kinds of days, to appreciate the beautiful ones even more! I forgot to mention the other day that it was Kathy’s Mom’s Birthday! She turned 87, and is still on the move! Happy belated Birthday, Kathleen! Or Granny as my kids call her! The Outlaws take us to the finish line today with their near 10 minute song: Green Grass and High Tides… I hope you have a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday today, and a Fantastico Friday, St. Patrick’s Day tomorrow! I sure hope someone kisses me since I’m Irish! I hope you will Be Good To Yourself!
Chuck Butler