A Pause For The Cause?

May 17, 2018   

* Currencies’ attempt to come back is foiled!

* Peak Gold? 

Good Day… And a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday to you! What a beautiful day yesterday, and I got to be outside! I love to watch baseball games on my deck, and yesterday was just perfect for that! And my beloved Cardinals finally won! This will be a short-n-sweet edition to end the week, this morning… I’m plum out of things to talk about that move markets, and I doubt you want to hear me repeat myself over and over again… The Marshall Tucker Band greets me this morning with their song: Searching For A Rainbow…   

All the dollar buying this week either took a pause for the cause, or has ended all-together. That’s a tough call to make given that I was shown technical graphs last week that told me the dollar buying was over, and for one day (Friday) everything fell into line… But then came this week, and it was wrong…  So, we’ll just say, for now, that the dollar buying has taken a pause for the cause… 

The Dollar Index was much lower in the overnight market, but has recovered to get back to the same level it was trading at yesterday morning, which leads me to believe it will be another dollar day today. For the currencies attempted a coup overnight, but was beaten back, and the dollar rules another day…  

Gold fought, scratched and clawed and still couldn’t get out of the corner the dollar had it backed into yesterday, and when the dust cleared, Gold was down just 10-cents on the day. This morning though, Gold is down $3 in the early trading…  I came across this quote from the head of Goldcorp, in Ed Steer’s letter this morning… this guy is talking about “peak Gold” let’s listen in…  

“Ian Telfer, chairman of Goldcorp Inc., is the latest industry magnate to predict the world has reached “peak gold,” saying that from here on out, mine production will continue to decline because all the major deposits have been discovered.

“If I could give one sentence about the gold mining business … it’s that in my life, gold produced from mines has gone up pretty steadily for 40 years,” said Telfer. “Well, either this year it starts to go down, or next year it starts to go down, or it’s already going down.”

“We’re right at peak gold here,” he added….   Chuck again… if that’s really the case, then why on earth is Gold being held back?  Oh, I actually know the reason, but didn’t want to get my blood pressure all riled up talking about the price manipulators again..  Oh,, and let’s not forget what’s going on in the world right now from peace on the Korean peninsula to Italian populists forming a government, and looming over it all are trade talks between the U.S. and China, and we can’t forget NAFTA negotiations, or the wars we are fighting, and the Gold price manipulators are so brazen, they say, “we don’t care about all these geopolitical and unknowns that usually drive the price of Gold higher, we’re here to keep that from happening.”   

Of course, I just made that up, but I swear I can here them saying that! HA! 

Yesterday, the Aussie dollar (A$) slipped below 75-cents, but that didn’t last too long, as Aussie employment printed last night and was much stronger than expected, and that got the ball rolling for the A$, which is back above 75-cents again this morning. 

The U.S. Treasury 10-year’s yield is rising quickly it seems, with a 3.10% level beside it today… Treasury yields are the highest they’ve been since 2014.. And this time they’re going in the opposite direction! UP!  I really don’t see how stocks can survive with bond yields going higher, but then that’s just me…    

The price of Oil has a $72 handle beside it today…   I read an article yesterday that talked about how the writer didn’t think that the summer driving season will do much to drive the price of gas higher… Hmmm… 

The U.S. Data Cupboard yesterday saw Industrial Production, led by mining, beat the expectations in April. But Capacity Utilization slipped lower, so it was as my dad used to say, “6 of one and half a dozen of the other”…  Today’s Cupboard has the Leading Indicators, and the Philly Index (manufacturing for that region)…  And while Leading Indicators should be viewed with more intensity, neither of these two will move the markets if they print wildly up or down.   

To recap…  The dollar buying took a pause for the cause yesterday, and overnight the currencies attempted a coup only to be beaten back by the dollar. Gold lost 10-cents yesterday but is down $3 in the early morning trading today, and Chuck prints a quote about “peak Gold”… Aussie employment beat the expectations, and the price of Oil is up to a $72 handle this morning! 

For What it’s Worth…  I saw this article this morning, and thought it to be very FWIW worthy… It’s an article about how much money does an American need to feel wealthy, and can be found here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-15/how-much-money-do-you-need-to-be-wealthy-in-america   

Or, here’s your snippet: “Many Americans cite leading a stress-free life and having “peace of mind” as their personal definition of wealth. That doesn’t sound too money-centric on the face of it—until you consider that money, or specifically the lack of it, is a major source of stress.

Americans don’t like to admit that assets can buy happiness—just 11 percent of those surveyed for the second annual Modern Wealth Index from Charles Schwab chose “having lots of money” as their definition of wealth. But while most respondents selected more high-minded concepts as their keys to contentment, they weren’t afraid to put a number on what they needed to get there.

To be financially comfortable in America today requires an average of $1.4 million, up from $1.2 million a year ago, according to the survey. The net worth needed to be “wealthy”? That’s an average $2.4 million, the same as last year in the online survey of 1,000 Americans between age 21 and 75″

Chuck Again…  It’s about what you do with your money, folks… And that “net worth” thing is very important!  

Currencies today 5/17/18… American Style: A$ .7527, kiwi .6890, C$ .7824, euro 1.1790, sterling 1.3488, Swiss $1.0024, … European Style: rand 12.50, krone 8.0890, SEK 8.7220, forint 268.08, zloty 3.6340, koruna 21.6608, RUB 62.09, yen 110.65, sing 1.3422, HKD 7.8495, INR 67.71, China 6.37, peso 19.56, BRL 3.6647, Dollar Index 93.48, Oil $72.19, 10-year 3.10%, Silver $16.43, Platinum $887.73, Palladium $982.00, and Gold… $1.287.80

That’s it for today… I’ve talked about my writing desk and the pictures I have tacked up so I can see them as I write each day… I noticed a picture today that was new to the arrangement. Kathy snuck a picture of me, with long hair on the wall… I cringed when I saw it…  I sure was a lot “smaller” in size back in the day!  I’m going to hide that picture! Well, I think that I’m going to get together with some former colleagues tomorrow for Happy Hour, that should be fun seeing everyone again. I haven’t seen a lot of them since my “retirement party” last year. So, I’ve got that going for me this weekend… Johnny Rivers takes us to the finish line today with his song: Secret Agent Man… I hope you have a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday, and that your Friday tomorrow is Fantastico! But please, always remember to Be Good To Yourself!    

Chuck Butler