April 5, 2018
* Trade War talk softens on Wednesday…
* The PPT spreads its wings…
Good Day… And a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday to you! I’m not in the mood for Tub Thumpin’ this morning, so hopefully that changes by this afternoon! I reacquaint myself to my St. Louis Oncologist today. She’ll be amazed at the shrinkage of the tumor in my jaw. At least I think she’ll be amazed! Nice win for my beloved Cardinals who if they hadn’t blown the game the night before would be on a 4 game winning streak! UGH! Our Blues lost their game on a goal scored on the home team’s ice with 8-seconds left in the game… I watched it, and still don’t believe it… 10CC great me this morning with their song: Dreadlock Holiday… I don’t like cricket, I love it!
It’s Opening Day here in St. Louis today. The Baseball season should always open in St. Louis, as we do Opening Day better than any other organization. It’s quite the spectacle and you should put it on your bucket list to be here for Opening Day!
Well the PPT (plunge protection team) were busy again yesterday saving the world… I was doing some reading yesterday and came across some research that talked about how the PPT has brothers across the oceans of the world. The ECB and BOJ both stepped up their bond buying programs late last week when it looked like U.S. stocks would lead stocks around the world for a ride on the slippery slope…
I can hear the phone call now.. Hello ECB, this is the U.S…. Since we’ve ended our bond buying programs, we need for you, who still has one, to step up the bond buying to save the word. And then the same phone call goes to the BOJ… Of course I’m making that stuff up, but can you see how that all played out?
For heaven’s sake! These two Central Banks were getting prepared to do some unwinding of their respective bond portfolios, and out of the blue, they both decide to step up their bond buying? This scenario has the PPT’s fingerprints all over it… And Charles Hugh Smith had this to say about how hard the PPT’s all over the world have been working… .”Global Plunge Protection Teams must be ordering take-out food; every night is a long one now.”
The effects of the bond buying only helped for one day, but Shoot Rudy, they could do this for a long time to let the stocks of the world down easy, instead of these one-day crashes! And here’s another telling sign that something fishy is going on.. Peter Navarro of the President’s administration sent out a message the other day to U.S. investors to not fear the markets and to buy the dip…
The price manipulators were driving the bus again yesterday… Gold traders were pushing the appreciation envelope quite nicely , and Gold reached $1,352.50, and then the price manipulators woke up and saw it above their line in the sand of $1,350, and they proceeded to flood the markets with short Gold paper trades and by the end of the day Gold was $20 lower from their high of the day, and 326,000 contracts traded, of which I’m quite sure there were quite a few short Gold paper trades.. UGH!
Gold did actually end up gaining 60-cents on the day, Big Whoop, eh? The same fate was Silver’s trading yesterday, and the two industrial metals of Platinum and Palladium saw their values chopped off at the knees, even with the surprising auto sales data, that was propped up by pick ’em up Trucks and SUV’s… Like I said yesterday, everything I’ve read leading up to the auto sales data print, wasn’t pointing at a better than expected auto sales print… So, I still think the auto sales print was done with smoke and mirrors.. I’m just saying…
The currencies continue to allow the dollar bugs to beat them up, but not too badly, to keep the currencies coming back for more… UGH! The euro continues to trade sub-1.23, and the Aussie dollar (A$) can’t seem to gather enough strength to get past 77-cents. The price of Oil gained nearly a dollar back after giving up $3 since last week, but the Petrol Currencies saw their reactions mixed… The Russian ruble and Brazilian real lost ground, while the Canadian dollar / loonie and Norwegian krone gained ground on the day. I wonder what gives with that? Well, now I have the job of researching that! Hey! it gives me something to do while I wait to see the oncologist! HA!
The Trade War talks saw a softening of the stances yesterday, and we had The White House’s National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow reminding everyone that would listen to him that none of the tariffs discussed have gone into place yet… We also heard that both the U.S. and China have mentioned that there’s still time for negotiation… Recall that previously, it was only China talking about talking… What brought the U.S. into the discussion, when they seem to hell bent and whisky bound to hurt China? Well, China went for the motherlode of tariffs when they included soybeans and other agriculture from the Midwestern states that Trump needs… Now that’ll get the U.S to the negotiation table in a NY minute!
Oh, the tangled webs we weave, eh? There’s a lot on the plate of the U.S. right now… A teetering stock market, a Trade War, directing the PPT, and bringing the ECB and BOJ into the fray, and on cherry on top continues to be the debt, at $21 Trillion and now scheduled to have more than $1 Trillion added to it every year.. YIKES…
I was talking with my son Andrew on Sunday, and asked him if he still showed the I.O.U.S.A documentary to his class, and he said yes, but it had gotten old. The Debt at the time of filming was $8.5 Trillion… So, he’s gotten some updates, and tries to educate his students about the rising debt and what it would mean to them as they grow older…
He told me that he had some students that just didn’t get it, and said that their parents told them that the U.S. just needs to print enough money to pay off the debts… He asked me to come in to talk to them and explain how that would not be a very good solution… So, I guess at sometime in the next two months I’ll be heading to Lindbergh H.S. for something other than a swim meet or water polo game! The Butler Patio goes to school! HA!
The US. Data Cupboard yesterday saw the ADP Employment report show that jobs created in March were 241,000, but we’ll have to wait-n-see what gruel the BLS has put into the jobs surveys, maybe some crow’s feet, or eye of newt… Whatever it is, it won’t be the same as the ADP report.. We also saw that Factory Orders tried to recover the negative -1.7% January print yesterday with a 1.2% positive print for Feb… The 1.2% figure was good, but didn’t match the expectations for 1.7% gain… Hmm… Oh well, they’re only expectations!
Today’s Data Cupboard doesn’t really have another market moving so we’ll just move along here for these aren’t the droids we’re looking for!
To recap… The PPT has morphed into PPT for Europe and one for Japan, as they were recruited to help out late last week… Gold had a nice day going yesterday, until the price manipulators showed up, and Gold’s nice day turned into just a 60-cents gain… UGH! And the Trade Wars talk softened yesterday, after China had gone for the gut with tariffs on agriculture including soybeans… Whatever gets the talks going is good with me! The currencies continue to allow the dollar bugs to have the hammer, and the price of Oil recovered nearly $1 of its $3 dollars loss this week.
For What It’s Worth… Since I spent some time talking about the U.S. debt this morning, I thought when I saw this article that it played well, as U.S. consumer debt is soaring just like the U.S. National Debt… This article can be found hhttps://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/04/growing-debt-among-older-americans-threatens-retirement.htmlere:
Or, here’s your snippet: “Debt among older Americans is rising fast. In 2016, the average debt in families in which the head of the household is age 75 or older was $36,757. That is up from $30,288 in 2010, according to a recent report by the non-profit Employee Benefit Research Institute in Washington.
The average monthly Social Security check is $1,404, and more than 40 percent of single adults receive more than 90 percent of their income from that check, according to the government.
“There’s just fewer options that you have at that stage of the game,” said Justin Halverson, a financial advisor and co-founder of Great Waters Financial in Minneapolis. ”
Chuck Again… This is a very disheartening article, but it’s better if you know about the problems so you can adjust, improvise, and deal with it…
Currencies today 4/5/18… American Style: A$ .7689, kiwi .7289, C$ .7833, euro 1.2266, sterling 1.4055, Swiss $1.04… European Style: rand 11,92, krone 7.8086, SEK 8.3976, forint 253.39, zloty 3.4294, koruna 20.6420, RUB 57.62, yen 107.02, sing 1.3141, HKD 7.8491, INR 65.02, China 6.2982, peso 18.09, BRL 3.3401, Dollar Index 90.18, Oil $63.13, 10-year 2.82%, Silver $16.27, Platinum $913.72, Palladium $924.41, and Gold… $1,333.10
That’s it for today… I’m really tired today, and don’t know why, but I’m sure it has to do with the new chemo I’m taking by pill every day… The new chemo has also ramped up my blood pressure, so my BP medicines change, UGH! But as the oncologist in Florida told me, we can take care of the BP as long as the chemo is shrinking the tumor! I’m not worries about my BP, they’ll get it in order, I’m sure! This is what I’m thinking folks… I’m thinking about taking Friday’s off, which would mean only 4 days of Pfennigs a week… What do you think? Bad night for the Blues, good night for the Cardinals last night… The Turtles takes us to the finish line today with their song: It Ain’t Me Babe… I hope you can get out and make this a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday, and please Be Good To Yourself!
Chuck Butler