Gold & Silver Get Whacked Once Again!

March 30, 2021 

* Currencies overnight get sold… 

* What is taught in economics these days? 

Good day… And a Tom Terrific Tuesday to you…  My last spring training game ended the same way the first one did.. in a tie…  I saw 5 ties this spring… That’s crazy! It was a beautiful day at the ball park though… I love that little stadium (Roger Dean Stadium)… It’s perfect for me, and I’m already longing for next spring when I can come back to the stadium to watch my beloved Cardinals! We say goodbye to out last condo guest today, and then three days later I will be heading home… My friends will all ask me what I think of our Cardinals’ chances this year… Like I said yesterday, the Cardinals will pitch well, play excellent defense, and the offense will struggle… But you can win with that formula… And that’s what I’m hoping will happen this year!  Eric Burdon and the Animals greet me this morning with their song: The House of the Rising Sun… 

Well, so much for the dastardly day for stocks yesterday…  To circle back to yesterday morning, I had told you that many intelligent people were saying that Monday would be a blood letting for stocks… And well that didn’t happen, as the Dow ended up 98 points… That’s a far cry from a blood letting, eh?  Well, now all those that have been calling for a stock sell off are saying that it is going to be an April event…  OK… So, just like everyone else these days, if you just keep moving the goalposts, the score doesn’t change…  I’m just saying…  I might remind you to make sure your stop losses have been updated and are live…

The currencies didn’t do much on Monday… The Dollar Index, which on Monday morning was 92.85, ended the day at 92.91… So in essence there was some additional dollar buying but not much, and certainly not enough to write home about!  Gold on the other hand saw another day of getting chopped and diced by the price manipulators…  Gold lost $21.60 on the day, to close at $1,712.70, and Silver lost 40-cents to close the day at $24.73… Those are some very ugly closing figures for these two, and I for one have grown numb to the price manipulators dealings… Yes, we all know why the price manipulators exist, and who’s behind them all the way… But do they have to go after these two metals as if they are the root cause of their problems?

In the overnight markets… Well, in no other words… All hell has broken loose! Gold is down $23 and no longer owns a $1,700 handle… And Silver is down another 38-cents… The Dollar Index has risen to 93.19, and it’s all about dollar strength… What gives?  Basic economics tells us that the more of something reduces its price… And the Good Lord knows just how much more we have in the form of dollars flooding the economy!  I shake my head and wonder what the hell they teach the young ones in economics these days… 

Don’t look now, but the 10-year Treasury’s yield has surged to 1.76%… And it doesn’t appear to be ready to stop rising….  This is beginning to get very serious folks… The Cartel, has announced yield curve control (ycc), but the bond boys are saying, “Bring it on”!   

OK, I had someone take exception to what I said about our infrastructure’s future yesterday… He pointed out that we have the best highways and interstates anywhere, along with bridges and overpasses… And questioned my mentality to even suggest that the Gov’t needs to get out of the infrastructure business…  Well, I accept that challenge because it was done with class and not snotty like most of the disagreements with what I say come through…

Basically, I’m looking at this as a way to lower our deficit spending… Why do we continue to take on things that cost money that we don’t have to spend?  Quite a few years ago now, I wrote a Sunday Pfennig (yes we used to have those)  and titled it: Chuck’s Debt Solutions…   I suggested that we, as a country, stopped spending money we didn’t have, and we could start by ending all wars… The war on poverty, the war on drugs, the war in the Middle East, etc.    I also suggested that we close all military bases in countries where they don’t’ want us there to begin with, bring the boys home and put them on the border to protect our sovereignty…  In addition, I suggested that we allow entrepreneurs to take over the highway system…  All ways to reduce our deficit spending, going forward…

But these days… These days I sit on cornerstones and count the time in quarter tones to ten, my friend, don’t confront me with my failures, I had not forgotten them…   No wait!  These days no one seems to care about deficit spending… Shoot Rudy, we don’t even have a debt ceiling any longer!  It’s all spend, spend, spend till you drop!   One of my fave Rodney Dangerfield movies was Back to School, where in a college bar he told the waitress to bring a pitcher of beer every 20 minutes, until some one pukes, then bring them every 10 minutes…   So, we, as a country will spend, spend, spend, until somebody pukes, and then we’ll really begin to spend!

And when the rubber meets the road on spending, then the defaults will come, and the negative interest rates, and the digital currencies, and that’s when I’ll sit back and say… I warned you all  that this was coming, but you just wouldn’t listen to me!

The Non-Sequitur comic had a great one a couple of years ago, where a mom and her two kids are sitting in a cave around a campfire heating some form of meat on the fire, and the mom says, “You’re father tried to warn us about this, but we wouldn’t listen”…

OK, enough of that… The U.S. Data Cupboard today has the Case/ Shiller Home Price Index for January, you might recall that December’s HPI was up 10.4%… I can’t imagine that January’s HPI dropped… with mortgage rates still in the 2’s home values are soaring, and people can’t spend enough to get in before the house is gone… thus pushing prices higher and higher..

We’ll also see the stupid Consumer Confidence Index, which is expected to soar in March, because consumers got their stimmy checks!

To recap… The currencies held their ground for the most part on Monday, but Gold & Silver lost major ground on the day …   stocks didn’t collapse as was expected by many analysts yesterday, but now they’ve moved the goalposts and said it will be an April event… So, hold onto your hats, make sure your stop losses are in place, and roll with the tide… Chuck point out why he would prefer the Gov’t to get out of the infrastructure business, and then goes the whole nine yards on ways to reduce our deficit… like anyone cares…

For What it’s Worth…  I’ve been talking about Russia and China’s de-dollarization plans for some time now, and I do believe that it is worth it to circle back and see what’s happening there from time to time, and so, that’s the FWIW article today, which talks about Russia’s new move to dedollarize, and it can be found here: Russia’s National Wealth Fund gets greenlight for gold investments as Moscow pursues de-dollarization policy — RT Business News

Or, here’s your snippet: “Russia’s Finance Ministry has allowed the National Wealth Fund (NWF) to diversify its assets by investing part of the funds into precious metals, including gold.

The share of gold, which is seen as one of the most “protective” assets, has been significantly boosted in Russia’s foreign exchange reserves, the ministry said.

The step is aimed at diversifying the assets allocated by the NWF for ensuring the safety of the funds, as well as for increasing the yields, according to the ministry which will make the draft public in the near future.

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov had previously supported the idea of allocating the NWF assets more efficiently, highlighting that precious metals are much more sustainable for investments than financial market assets in the long-term.

In February, the Ministry of Finance reduced the portion of US dollars and euros in the currency structure of its National Wealth Fund from 45% to 35%. Instead, it turned to more Japanese yen and increased the share of assets held in the Chinese yuan by 15%. State investors retained a 10% stake in the British pound.

The NWF, a part of Russia’s federal budget assets, was created to support the national pension system. Its funds can be used to cover budget deficits in times of crisis. As of November 1, the assets of the fund amounted to more than $167 billion, which is about 12% of the country’s GDP.

Chuck Again… Ok… so the question is this: Just how much Gold will they be buying? Could change the direction for Gold these days… I’m just saying… 

Market prices 3/30/21: American Style: A$ .76120,  kiwi .6981,  C$ .7932, euro 1.1733, sterling 1.3753, Swiss $1.0611, European Style: rand 14.9828, krone 8.5764, SEK 8.7342,  forint 309.70,  zloty 3.9709,  koruna 22.269, RUB 75.77, yen 110.36, sing 1.3475, HKD 7.7743, INR 73.64, China 6.5592, peso 20.67, BRL 5.7634,  Dollar Index 93.19,  Oil $60.62,   10-year 1.76%, Silver $24.38, Platinum $1,175.00, Palladium $2,614.00, Copper $4.01, and Gold… $1,669.70

That’s it for today… Well, this will be the first Easter that’s not at my house for 30 years this Sunday… I don’t know how that got changed from the way I always wanted it to be, but it did…  Opening Day for Baseball is Thursday… And in my opinion, it should be a National Holiday!  I told you yesterday that I would bug daughter Dawn about a link… and she came through… National Anthem at Cardinals Spring Training 2021….  Do a YouTube search with that info, and hopefully you’ll see and hear my darling granddaughter sing the national anthem!  So, how have you done with their NCAA basketball bracket? Mine was toast the first weekend when Illinois lost… I should have known better than to pick a Big 10 team! HA! So then I picked a Sweet 16 bracket, and that too has been turned to burnt toast! I guess I’m not very good at picking basketball teams! What a winter down here it has been for yours truly… I have been truly relaxed here, enjoying the sun each day, and reading, reading, reading…  I sure hope it’s warm back home, because it wouldn’t take much to get me back on plane to come here until it is warm back home!  Three Dog Night takes us to the finish line today with their song: Out In The Country…  (before the breathing air is gone, before the sun, is just a bright spot in the nighttime)  I hope you have a Tom Terrific Tuesday and will Be Good To Yourself?

Chuck Butler