May 24, 2023
* currencies & metals get sold on Tuesday…
* Isn’t there a shortage of Copper?
Good Day… And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! No problems in traveling yesterday, other than having to get up to go to the airport at zero dark thirty… Thanks to our friend, Lynn, for driving us to the airport at that ungodly time of the early morning… I said to Kathy, “one good thing about going this early, there’s no traffic!” I then realized that this was the time that I used to get up and go to work, back in the day… Yes, I was nuts! But, by going so early, I could write the Pfennig, and still be ready to trade when the trading bell rung… England Dan, and John Ford Coley, greet me this morning with their song: Nights Are Forever Without You…
Well, the markets are still disillusioned about everything going on in the U.S. and are still buying dollars… The dollar got bought yesterday, with the BBDXY adding 3 index points, to follow up the 2 index points it gained on Monday, this week… The euro has lost the 1.08 handle, and the rest of the currencies all look very weak, compared with their levels of just two weeks ago… Here’s an anecdote about the U.S. economy… Yesterday, the first lef of our flight had only 65 passengers… That’s the first flight I’ve taken in many years, that wasn’t maxed out with people… Something strange is going on here, and the disposable income that people had has been all spent… And the reason that’s a Big Deal? Well without consumer consumption, GDP is dependent on Gov’t spending… And we all know that the Gov’t spending, right now, not what it used to be, because they have maxed out their spending… That’s why we have the Kubuki Theater going on with the debt escalator talks…
For those of you new to class or skipped to play horse hooky or something like that… I don’t reefer to the current drama as the debt ceiling… I call it the debt escalator, because it only goes up!
Gold & Silver are still having to scratch and claw for every bid so far this week… I thought after Friday’s $20 gain in Gold that the Good Witch, Glinda, had given us the “Ok to come back out” sign… And while Gold is up for the week, it’s been a tough row to hoe… Gold gained $3.90 yesterday, to close at $1,976, while Silver lost 20-cents on the day, to end the day at $23.53…
The price of Oil jumped higher by $2 and trades this morning with a $73 handle. And the 10-year’s yield touched 3.70% yesterday, but settled in to close at 3.69%… I think the bond boys see the writing on the wall with the U.S. economy, but that’s one thing you can’t count on, because bonds have been so wishy-washy lately, that you can’t really get an indication of where they are going…
In the overnight markets last night… the dollar buying continued, with the BBDXY gaining another index point to start the day today… What’s all this dollar buying about? Right now, the dollar is so overbought, that a short squeeze has probably occurred… When an asset is in an overbought position, the risk is that everyone heads for the exit door at the same time… We’ll have to watch for that. The price of Gold is up $1 buck this morning, and Silver is getting sold by 15-cents to start the day. The price manipulators just keep making Gold & Silver cheaper and cheaper, thus giving all those procrastinators the opportunity to finally get off their duffs and buy some physical Gold or Silver… I saw the percentage number last week, of how many households in the U.S. actually own some physical Gold or Silver, and I said to myself… “now that’s a number you won’t forget, Chuck, so no need to write it down”… And guess what happened? I forgot the number! Oh, these senior moments just drive me crazy! Any way, it was a very low number…
The price of Oil has bumped higher to a $74 handle… You know, ever since the Saudi’s announced that they were going to wage war on speculators that were shorting Oil, it’s been on the move upward… And the 10-year is trading with a 3.68% yield this morning…
Well, another crypto clearing Corp has its hairs in the crossfires… This from Reuters: “The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, commingled customer funds with company revenue in 2020 and 2021, in breach of US financial rules that require customer money to be kept separate, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.”
Chuck again… it seems these crypto clearing corps can’t keep their hands out of the cookie jar… And if you are one of the investors that have your funds with them, doesn’t that give you a warm and fuzzy that your funds are safe? Right! They aren’t safe, they are being used to fund who knows what!
Things are getting out of control finances-wise… I pulled this from Twitter yesterday:
1. Median Mortgage Payment: $2,800
2. Median Rent Price: $1,850
It now costs nearly $1,000/month more to buy a house than to rent.
Meanwhile, the average new car payment is now at $750/month.
The average interest rate on a used car loan just hit a record 14%.
All while credit card debt is set to cross $1 trillion for the first time ever with record interest rates of 25%.
Basic necessities are becoming unaffordable for Americans.
OMG! how do the young folks make it from paycheck to paycheck? I don’t mean just the young folks, but at my age, everyone buying homes, and cars, etc. are younger than me! Could it be that this younger generation is depending on mom for their house payment, or rent, and the car payment, all the while they have the latest iPhone, eat out all the time, and travel… makes sense to me, given that these parents of the younger generation, have provided everything for their kids, and not made them go out on their own, and earn a living, career, life…
Sorry, to go down that rabbit hole, folks, just needed to get that off my chest…
Remember when I told you about all those folks that were buying Japanese yen, with the thought that the new Bank of Japan chairman would change the monetary policy in Japan, and I said that they should be aware of the fact that the BOJ has continually disappointed the markets… Well, how are those yen buys looking these days? I’m just pointing out their stupidity for not researching and doing the history on a currency and its Central Bank before jumping in with both feet…
And don’t look now but the price of Copper has fallen out of bed, which leads me to believe that someone, somewhere is shorting the hell out of Copper… I say that because I’ve shown you all the reports of a Copper shortage that is going to occur soon, and that should be pushing the price of Copper higher, not lower… Darn short paper traders… Have I told you lately how much I dislike these guys/ gals? I have? Then good, because they should never be invited to dinner for all the damage they’ve caused in the metals… I’m just saying!
Ok, in news that has been held back and not distributed widely… We have 3 continents that have volcanoes erupting… Does that mean anything to anyone? Active volcanoes have prompted ash warnings and set nerves on edge in Italy, Mexico and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Could this be? … nah… don’t go there Chuck, that’s all myths and here say…
OK, moving on… The U.S. Data Cupboard today, just has the FOMC Meeting Minutes. There’s nothing that should surprise the markets in the minutes, so in reality, there’s no real data to move the markets today… And tomorrow, we’ll see the 1st revision of quarter 1 GDP… And then Friday, will be a datapalooza! Big movers potentially on Friday, so grab a chair and sit back and watch…
To recap… The dollar continues to defy the odds, and get bought daily… The dollar bugs are really just ignoring all the things mounting up against dollar strength, but I say, go on… have your days… but you’ll be stuck holding dollars that are getting sold like funnel cakes at a State Fair…. I hope you get your rear ends handed to you!
For What It’s Worth… Those dastardly banks… Not all banks, but the casino banks… This article came to me from the good folks at GATA, and its from a BBC story of banks that rigged interest rates, and it can be found here: Interest rate ‘rigging’ evidence ‘covered up’ by banks – BBC News
Or, here’s your snippet: “UK and US regulators were told of a state-led drive to “rig” interest rates in the 2008 financial crisis, but covered it up, evidence indicates.
Documents suggest lenders sharply dropped their interest-rate estimates after pressure from central banks.
Evidence was not shown to juries at the time when bankers were jailed for smaller-scale interest-rate “rigging”.
Regulators said they had followed disclosure rules, declined to comment or in one case rebutted the claims.
Some evidence has previously emerged of Bank of England and UK government involvement in manipulation of interest rates. But the evidence indicating it was part of a broader, international drive not just by the UK but by central banks across the western world to push key interest rates down in October 2008 has never been published before.
The evidence indicates that in October 2008, central banks including the Bank of England, the Banque de France, the European Central Bank, Banca d’Italia, Banco de Espana and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York intervened on a large scale in the setting of Libor and Euribor.
At the height of the 2008 financial crisis, when bank lending had almost ground to a halt, central banks around the world urged calm. But my investigation reveals evidence that, behind the scenes, they were pulling levers to restore calm artificially – measures which would later be ruled to be against the law in the UK.”
Chuck again… need I say more about the casino banks? And wait until you see what good friend, Dennis Miller, has in his www.milleronthemoney.com letter next week, about the derivatives these casino banks have… AYE, AYE, AYE….
Market Prices 5/24/2023: American Style: A$ .6598, kiwi .6165, C$ .7407, euro 1.0786, sterling 1.2456, Swiss $1.1102, European Style: rand 19.1855, krone 10.9450, SEK 10.6071, forint 347.93, zloty 4.1560, koruna 21.9754, RUB 80.10, yen 138.32, sing 1.3457, HKD 7.8360, INR 82.69, China 7.0329, peso 17.96, BRL 4.9726, BBDXY 1,242.73, Dollar Index 103.75, Oil $74.12, 10-year 3.68%, Silver $23.28, Platinum $1,039.00, Palladium $1,430.00, Copper $3.59, and Gold… $1,976.52
That’s it for today… Back in the saddle down south for a few days… But the weather forecast for the coming week is rain every day… UGH!.. Oh well, I sat out on the balcony and watched the Cardinals win their game VS the Reds last night, with the ocean in the background… As Eric Clapton sang: Let It Rain… I love to watch the rain storms out on the ocean… Everything was just fine when we arrived, no problems, no fix its that needed to be done, now that’s what I call convenient! And the car started! without assistance from AAA! So, it’s all good down here in the South… Cardinals won last night, after losing in 10 innings on Monday night… They shoudn’t have lost that game on Monday, and it was a hiccup toward their goal getting back in the pennant race… Eric Burdon and the Animals take us to the finish line today, with their song: We Gotta Get Outta This Place… I hope you have a Wonderful Wednesday today, and please Be Good To Yourself!
Chuck Butler