Gold and Silver reach for the stars

• Currencies & metals rally on Friday last week

• The Chinese renminbi is on the move!

Good Day... And a Tom Terrific Tuesday to you! Well, did you remember yesterday that I had told you there would be no Pfennig on Monday? I was off having blood work done... My blood levels are still way below minimum levels... UGH! As my oncologist said, "At least it has stabilized", but that's no solace for me... I'm still weak, and out of breath all the time! No baseball for me last night, so I was subjected to the NFL, without RedZone! UGH! My beloved Cardinals only have 6 more games to play this year, after taking 2 of 3 from the Indians, I mean the Guardians... It's a very strange feeling for me, when the baseball playoffs start, without the Cardinals... England Dan, and John Ford Coley greet me this morning with their song: Night Are Forever Without You... 

Well, last Friday, I saw the dollar falling in the BBDXY by 2 index points, to 1,220, and then suddenly it was 1,224.... 1220 was a multi-month low for the dollar and it looked to me as though the PPT had interfered with the dollar once again, to keep it from falling off a cliff... I know I questioned just how much more in funding the PPT has at its disposal in the past, but apparently, they had more than I anticipated... UGH!

But guess what happened then? The dollar ended the day/week flat at 1,223...  Gold on the other hand kicked some tail on Friday, but first it was up $10 on Thursday, and Then on Friday it was up $36.30 to close the week above $2,600 at $2,622.40... Silver got in on the buying on Friday, after seeing selling on Thursday that took it down 60-cents... But on Friday, Silver closed above $31 (Yay!) at 31.24 up 39-cents on the day...  

While we're talking about Gold... The good folks at GATA sent me this snippet from Gold master, Andrew Maguire,   "Central banks not aligned with the United States have figured out U.S. gold price suppression policy and are blowing it away with steady purchases of physical gold, London metals trader Andrew Maguire tells this week's edition of Kinesis Money's "Live from the Vault" program with Shane Morand.

Maguire says there are many indications that these central banks plan to reincorporate gold into international trade payments, avoiding the U.S. dollar, and the more the U.S. Federal Reserve tries to knock the gold price down, the more those central banks acquire real metal.

Via intermediaries to evades U.S. and European Union economic sanctions, gold already is being used increasingly as a trade currency, Maguire adds.

Russian traders anticipate a gold price of $3,500 soon, Maguire says."

Chuck again... WOW! Now wouldn't that be the bee's knees to have the short paper traders get sent to the woodshed, and made to stay there?  Now, that reminds me of what I've always told you about, what would end this short paper trading, remember? I always said that there was enough physical buying of Gold, that it would run the short paper traders out of the market.... Well, bring it on, you foreign buyers... 

Ok, back to the dollar... Yesterday, while the nurses tried to find a vein they could puncture, and remove blood, the dollar was set adrift in the sea, to bob up and own all day, in a very tight range... The BBDXY remained withing the 1,223 handle all day, up down and all around, but no great move up or down.  The euro has been the drag on the BBDXY losing ground, in that the European Central Bank (ECB ) did cut rates last week, 25 Basis Points. The Bank of England and Bank of Japan, left their internal rates unchanged... You see, the euro has no PPT to keep it from falling off a cliff, and so when the Central Bank debases the currency, it gets sold... 

The good news for the euro is that it held the 1.11 handle, and now the rate cut is in our rear-view mirror, so the when the dollar gets back to getting sold, the euro will benefit again... For, it is, the offset currency to the dollar! 

I think the ECB thought that with the FOMC cutting rates 50 Basis Points, that they could cut rates 25 Basis Points and not upset the euro's applecart that much, and that's exactly what happened... 

The price of Oil ended the week trading with a $71 handle, and yesterday Oil got sold a bit and it fell to $70.55 on the day... The bond boys just aren't buying what the FOMC is selling these days... They have sold bonds every day since last Wednesday's rate cut... The 10-year's yield rose to 3.75% yesterday, after ending the week at 3.74%... 

Could this be the work of those German traders that I wrote about a week or so ago, that were shorting the 10-year? I said at the time that I personally didn't think that it was a good time to be shorting Treasuries with the Fed Heads ready to cut rates, and probably announce more cuts were coming.... Shows to go you, that I called that one wrong... 

So, what happened yesterday? Gold closed up $6 to $2,627.50, and Silver closed down 2-cents, but apparently had lost the $31 handle somewhere over the weekend, so Silver was $30.62 to end the day... The dollar traded up, down and all around the 1.223 handle in the BBDXY, and never broke out of it...  I think the markets heard that I was away, and so they decided to not move any of the asset classes that I follow... You think that's what happened? Well, I do!

In the overnight markets last night... All that looking backward at what happened, has my head spinning this morning... The dollar ran into some selling overnight, and the BBDXY is down 2 index points this morning... Not a lot of selling, but some... Gold is basically flat this morning, up a buck or two, as I write, and Silver is up 20 -cents to start our day today... The Price of Oil is back to trading with a $72 handle this morning, and the 10-year's yield continues to rise and trades this morning with a 3.80% yield... 

I have to point out this morning that the Chinese renminbi has been allowed to rally VS the dollar in recent times, as I've previously discussed, but this latest move by the renminbi has been something for the ages... The renminbi is trading this morning with a 7.03 handle! And I thought it was very interesting that the People's Bank of China had allowed the currency to rally to 7.08 last week? Shows to go you that you can't believe everything you hear about China... I'm just saying.. 

My friends, (Rich and Michael) over at Asset Strategies, Inc. had this to report late last week, this is a doozy so stay with me here: "According to the new Ramsey Solutions State of Personal Finance report, nearly 40% of Americans carry a higher credit card balance than they have saved for retirement. In addition, over 60% of Americans feel that they are not making meaningful progress on their retirement goals."

Chuck again... You've got to feel for these people... Or no...  But at some point, in the future, they're going to realize that they are not prepared to retire, and therefore will have to remain part of the workforce until they keel over... I'm just saying... Or, maybe these folks are thinking that the Gov't will pay their way through retirement, since the Gov't bails out everything/ body else... That's got to be it... By Joe, you've nailed it Governor! 

Well, are you prepared for what's coming? It's not going to be pretty folks... The Gloom and doom is all over the news wires, and each one paints an ugly picture of what is coming... From Bond Defaults, to riots in the streets, to a financial system collapsing, to digital currencies... I swear if we get 20% of all those things, it'll still be like Armagedón, because most people in the markets these days have never seen a collapsing stock market, or financial system... All I'll say about all of this is: Got Gold?

I have to apologize for not knowing what the hell happened to Silver over the weekend... Did you hear the story about how the Saudi's have been caught buying physical Gold through the back door? The Good Folks at GATA sent me this: that the Saudi's are buying Gold instead of Treasuries, is BIG NEWS! And I'll be on the watch out for more information on this in the future, but for now, keep in mind that the whole Petrol currency status for the dollar hinged on the Saudi's playing along...  And that maybe, now, they've changed their minds...  

And finally, the good folks at Gata also sent me something on how Financial Times discovers that the Federal Reserve serves only the banking industry... I found that this was a real sharp stick in the eye of the Financial Times... You see, for years, the folks at GATA tried to get the Financial Times to write about price suppression of Gold & Silver, and they wouldn't budge, but having them admit this about the Fed / Cabal/ Cartel is a step in the right direction... 

Before I head to the Big Finish today, I wanted to mention that I saw that Mercury Morris had died this past weekend at 77... Mercury Morries was a running back alongside Jim Kiick, and Larry Csonka... They are the only undefeated team in the Super Bowl era... 1972... I always see a TV ad that shows Morris talking about how he has a bottle of Champagne for the next team that goes undefeated... RIP Mercury Morris... 

The U.S. Data Cupboard is void of much economic reporting this week... In fact, I don't see anything worth mentioning until Thursday, when Durable Goods will print for August, and expected to be negative...  Speaking of Thursday, we'll also see the weekly Initial Jobless Claims, it will be interesting to see if the Mass layoffs by GM that were announced last week show up here....  

To recap... The dollar was rescued on Friday, after falling to a multi-month low on Thursday... The euro, was not rescued because the euro doesn't have a fairy godmother to come to its aid, every time it appears to be falling off a cliff... The European Central Bank cut their internal rate 25 Basis Points last Thursday, and the Bank of England and Bank of Japan sat on their hands, and kept their powder dry... Americans are NOT preparing for retirement... I guess they all think the Gov't will pay their way through retirement...  Tsk, tsk, tsk.... 

For What It's Worth... Last Thursday, I went all postal on the Fed Heads, and their leader, Jerome Powell, about saying that the size of the rate cut was "for the people"...  I pointed out that in the past, whenever the Fed Heads opted for a larger rate cut, that the economy was in trouble... Well, this article points all that stuff out again, and I think it should be read again, and again, and again... 

Here's your snippet: "If there was a strong case for a 50 bps cut, Powell did not make it at his press conference. He repeatedly stressed that the US economy was strong, but we should see the strong move as a commitment to keep the economy strong.

Doctor: “We’ll give you extra strong medication.”

Patient: “Is my condition that bad?”

Doctor: “No, you’re healthy, but we’re committed to keep you healthy.”

In the end, it looks like Powell felt the level of the policy rate was out of sync with the progress on inflation and the rise in the unemployment rate. After all, he used the word ‘recalibration’ several times. This was also evident in the FOMC projections now showing a 100 bps reduction compared to the pre-meeting level of the target range, rather than the 25 bps in the June projections. Although Powell denied that the Fed had fallen behind the curve, this is exactly what recalibration means. However, the latter obscures the former and Powell did not want to admit that they should have cut 25 bps in July. It got really funny when he said that the FOMC had been patient in waiting and this allowed them to make a strong move. Yes, if you get behind the curve, you have to make a big leap forward to catch up!

The recalibration argument is clashing with the message this large cut sends. When asked during the Q&A what his message to the US consumer is, Powell said that the US economy is in a good place and our decision is to keep it there. Really? A 50 bps cut as a message that the economy is strong? So if they cut by 75 bps the economy is booming? This sounds like something out of George Orwell’s 1984:

WAR IS PEACE.

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY.

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.

Understandably, a reporter asked whether the 50 bps cut meant that he was more concerned about the labor market than about inflation. However, Powell denied this and said that the risks are roughly balanced. This exchange underlined the problem.

During the press conference, Powell had trouble clearly explaining the reason for the large cut, because he did not want to admit that this ‘recalibration’ was needed because the FOMC had fallen behind the curve. Meanwhile, the large cut seemed counterintuitive to the repeated claim that the economy was strong.

In the past, the Fed only cut 50 bps at the start of a cutting cycle in case of a severe deterioration in the economy or markets, such as the dot com bubble and the Global Financial Crisis."

Chuck again... You know, the more I think about this 50 BPS rate cut, the more I believe it was a political move to help the Administration's entry to the POTUS campaign.... Now, that was a very delicate way of saying what I was saying, wasn't it?  

Market Prices 9/24/2024; American Style: A$ .6962, kiwi .6299, C$ .7407, euro 1.1144, sterling 1.3388, Swiss $1.1796, European Style: rand 17.3216, krone 10.4310, SEK 10.1381, forint 353.94, zloty 3.8271, koruna 22.5630, RUB 93.04, yen 143.90, sing 1.2974, HKD 7.7846, INR 83.63, China 7.0322, peso 19.32, BRL 5.6882, BBDXY 1,222.00, Dollar Index 100.73, Oil $72.01, 10-year 3.80%, Silver $30.82, Platinum $975.00, Palladium $1,054.00, Copper $4.48, and Gold... $2,630.50.

That's it for today... Well? Did you miss me? HA! I know, I've been gone longer than that! Spoiler Alert, good friend, Dennis Miller has a doozy for his readers coming out this Thursday, that will be posted to: www.milleronthemoney.com  The last time I met with good friend, and former Big Boss, Frank Trotter, he gave me a Battle Bank baseball cap... I wore it to Ireland, and sine then it's been sitting here on my makeshift desk... I don't know how he keeps his patience with how long its taking the FDIC to bless his bank and he can open to the public... I would be on the phone with those folks daily, beating them up, taking no prisoners... And there you see the difference in our personalities! My beloved Mizzou Tigers won last Saturday, didn't I say last week that this could be a "trap game"? Well, it almost turned out to be just that! As the Tigers won in OT.... The team is on bye this week, and that's a good thing, for they need to get their heads on straight before the next game! Jimmy Cliff takes us to the finish line today with his song: Hello Sunshine... I hope you have a Tom Terrific Tuesday to day, and that you will Be Good To Yourself!