The Japanese Yen is getting whipsawed just about every day

• The Dollar continued to get bought on Tuesday

• Costco brings physical Gold to the masses.

Good Day... And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! The night started out not so great for my Beloved Cardinals last night, and the middle of the game worked out fine, but then the 9th inning... Too much drama for my tastes! But, the Cardinals won the game 4-3... Despite them trying their darndest to give the game away! Well, I want to let you know now that there won't be a Pfennig tomorrow... I'll be taking my beautiful bride to have cataract surgery on one eye... Then in a couple of weeks the other eye... I have a cataract too, and I'm kind of chicken to have it removed, since I only have one eye... The eye doc said, "when it effects your seeing so much that you can't stand it, you'll want to have it removed"... So, I'm going with that! The Kinks greet me this morning with their song: Sunny Afternoon...

Well, the heat here in the Midwest, broke yesterday, without any rain to bring the relief... So, that was strange... The markets are strange these days, the weather is strange these days, and Chuck is still feeling strange... 

The dollar continued to get bought yesterday, and is trying to recover its losses from late last week... The BBDXY gained 3 index points to rise to 1,249... The dollar buying has been just strong enough to give it a boost to start the week... Remember what I thought on Monday this week, that there is little to no real economic data this week, and after last week's awful showing in the Data Cupboard, and the dollar getting whacked, I suggested that the power that be could be holding back economic reports, this week to give the a breather... I know, I know, that's a real far fetched idea, but you never know, do you? 

I mean going into last weekend, the dollar was getting hung out to dry, and it appeared that the fears of a recession had been the cause, and those fears were generated by awful real economic data... So, I merely put 2 & 2 together, and came up with that Idea... Because without any additional awful economic data prints this week, the dollar has rebounded... I'm just saying... 

Gold never found a bid yesterday, and lost $19 on the day to close at $2,391.70, and Silver was in the same no bid boat as Gold and lost 13-cents to close at $27.07...  The price of Oil gained a bit yesterday and closed very close to a $73 handle at $72.99..... And if you can tell me what int he world the bond boys are doing these days, I'll buy you beer! The 10-year's yield rose again yesterday closing at 3.91%... 

In the overnight markets last night... The dollar continued to get bought, but this time at a much slower pace, with the BBDXY gaining 1 index point overnight. The bloom is off the rose, with the Swiss franc... Just a few days ago, the franc was getting bought like funnel cakes at a State Fair, and it reached 1.18... This morning, the franc has come back down from its lofty perch, and trades with a 1.16 handle... Still much better than a month ago when the franc was trading with a 1.11 handle!  

Gold is up $9 in the early trading today, and Silver is flat as a pancake (Head East) right now... Stocks rallied yesterday, so there was no Gold that had to be sold to pay for the margin calls, etc. I read a note this morning, that Costco, who's been selling Gold bars in recent months, has basically brought physical Gold to the masses... I love it, because the stock jockeys won't even discuss Gold with you, much less sell it to you and hold it for you... This is the avenue that was needed to get the youngsters to buy Gold, for if Costco sells it, they've got to have it! I recall my last trip to Las Vegas to speak in probably 2015, and I ran into a vending machine that sold Gold bars, I was surprised to see that then, but now? Par for the course... 

The price of Oil has bumped higher to trade with a $74 handle this morning... And the 10-year continues to add yield, and trades this morning with a 3.94% yield...  

The Japanese yen is getting whipsawed just about every day, since the Bank of Japan (BOJ) hike rates... Well, the BOJ isn't helping things either, as they came out and said that they were not entertaining any further rate cuts, as long as the markets are unstable...  Those comments saw yen lose some ground and trades this morning with a 145 handle... Well, since the 90's I have called Japan, "a basket case"... And they still are...

Demographics are awful, and the Central Bank is so wishy-washy that you can never get a read on them... I'm just saying... 

Well, I talked a lot yesterday about stocks, as a whole, not individual... And it was brought to my attention that the stocks in Japan have fared much worse than those in the U.S.... It was recently, not that long ago, that the Japanese stock market had finally gotten back to the level it was when the stock market crashed in 1990... And now the bottom has fallen out of the Japanese stock market again... 

Wall Street economists are in utter denial of the idea that a recession is coming... several economists and equity strategists believe that while the risks of recession have risen amid weakening economic data, the last few days of market action have been an overreaction.... Really? Have you not noticed that these bad economic prints have been building momentum? Apparently, not! These guys are doing nothing but "talking their books"... They can't come out and agree that the economy is heading to a recession and keep their jobs! 

In my humble country boy opinion, the risks have risen, leaning toward the Fed starting off with a more aggressive pace of rate cuts, and to me that just speeds things along, once the Fed Heads start cutting rates... I never said that we were in a recession now... I said that it appears that we're heading to a recession... 

All eyes may be on the stock market, which is seeing volatility it hasn't experienced in two years. But Americans' kitchen table finances are also in a precarious place, with credit card balances reaching a new high.

The news comes from the New York Federal Reserve's Report on Household Debt and Credit for the second quarter of 2024, which finds that credit card balances rose 2.4% to a record-high $1.14 trillion—a 48% increase since the first quarter of 2021.

Delinquency rates for credit card debt and auto loans stabilized in the second quarter, but have also been increasing."

Chuck again... That old debt! Yes, a lot of people run up their credit card debt throughout the month, and then pay it off in full at month-end. But not $1.14 Trillion worth! This report to me, is scary... Scary for the economy, because after a consumer has gone out and run up their credit card buying all the latest technical gear, what do they have left? They have a maxed-out credit card, and then something comes up that they need credit for... Uh-Oh! Then Banks that issue the credit cards have to write off the debt when it doesn't get paid, and the economy has a whole goes to hell in a hand basket.... Got Gold? 

Speaking of Gold... I read last night that "Buy gold’ Google searches up 64% in one week as recession fears spike" That's a good sign for Gold, folks... For all my dear readers, if you have questions regarding "buying Gold", I suggest you don't go to Google, but instead give my metals guru, Tim Smith a call at 1-800-926-4922...  Tim knows all the ins and outs, the costs, the ways to hold Gold, etc. So, give him a call! 

Oh, and I don't get a plug nickel from Tim's company, for mentioning him... I do that out of the goodness of my heart! 

I also read that Gold's safe haven status right now is higher than it was in 1971... And it wasn't until December 31, 1974 that consumers were able to buy physical Gold again...  Remember back then? I was playing my guitar traveling the country at that time... So, basically I had no idea what was going on then, until years later I was working at Mark Twain Bank, and we sold Gold & Silver and safekept for clients in our vault... I studied the history of Gold at that time, and found out then... 

So, for 41 years it was illegal for consumers to own physical Gold... I would have found a way to get that done, if I had been around then... Remember Gold certificates? It was a way to get around not being able to buy physical Gold...  

This little history lesson has been brought to you by the good folks. They are the folks that publish this letter each day... And I strongly recommend that if you're tired of your current bank taking advantage of you, to click on that link and get on their waitlist... Once they get the wink and nod from the FDIC to open, they will contact you and give you the steps needed to transfer your balances to them! 

Well... The euro has remained in the 1.09 handle with all this dollar buying the first two days of this week. I really thought that after Friday's rally in the euro that, it would be trading with a 1.10 handle this week... And apparently the safe haven status buying of the currencies has taken a pause for the cause, as all these Wall Street Economists have pooh-poohed the threat of a recession... I can only imagine the egg on their faces in the coming months... So, the euro, yen and sterling have all backed off their highs from Friday last week. And obviously, Gold has backed off its high from last week.. Gold is the ultimate safe haven ... I'm just saying... 

Yesterday's U.S. Data Cupboard had the June Trade Deficit, and while it was weaker than the previous month, it came in stronger than expected, thus printing at $73.1 Billion... Today's Data Cupboard doesn't have anything to speak of printing, so we'll just move along here... For these are not the droids we're looking for... 

To recap... The dollar selling ended Monday, and on Tuesday dollar buying was back on the table... That marked two consecutive days of dollar buying, after a massive selling of the dollar last week. Gold & Silver couldn't find a bid all day yesterday, and therefore posted losses on the day. Consumer are racking up the credit card debt, and Chuck thinks that is scary... Gold is back to being the top pick for a safe haven... And "Buy Gold" searches on Google were up 64% last week... no data again today... 

For What It's Worth... I came across this article and found it to be quite interesting, and therefore FWIW wortthy..

Here's your snippet: "beacon of hope has long buoyed Uncle Sam's workforce: The idea that, if a person works hard enough, they can achieve success no matter where they come from.

But the American dream is slowly slipping out of sight—in fact, nearly half the nation no longer believes it's attainable at all.

In an opinion piece for The Washington Post, the 68-year-old laid out what he believes the policies of the next administration should be.

The self-proclaimed "full-throated, red-blooded, patriotic, unwoke, capitalist CEO" said he wanted to see the next president focus on "smarter policies that provide protection, progress and prosperity to all."

Dimon, who has led the 240,000-strong workforce at America's biggest bank since 2006, explained: "The American dream is disappearing for many because opportunity is not shared equally. Many inner-city and rural schools do not teach students the skills they need to get good jobs. Some of these problems aren’t necessarily intractable.

"For example, we can easily reform our mortgage policies to make homeownership more affordable for lower-income Americans."

Whether or not the American dream is still an option—let alone attainable—depends on who you ask.

Last month Pew Research asked 8,709 Americans if they believe the dream is still achievable: Only 53% believe it's still possible.

Of the remaining respondents, 41% believe the American dream was once possible and 6% believed it was never possible at all."

Chuck again... Well, you can always depend on Jamie Dimon to come out and talk about stuff that he knows is never going to happen... But at least he sees the problem in housing right now, and it was about time he said something about it... I'm just saying...

Market Prices 8/7/2024: American Style: A$ .6563, kiwi .6022, C$ .7276, euro 1.0915, sterling 1.2724.00, Swiss $16.18, European Style: rand 18.3508, krone 10.7911, SEK 10.4641, forint 365.01, zloty 3.9598, koruna 23.1557, RUB 86.06, yen 145.60, sing 1.3273, HKD 7.7971, INR 83.95, China 7.1793, peso 19..26, BRL 5.5386, BBDXY 1,250.11, Dollar Index 103.19, Oil $74.96, 10-year 3.94%, Silver $27.05, Platinum $929.00, Palladium $897;00 Copper $3.98, and Gold.... $2,400.93.

That's it for today and this week, sorry about tomorrow, but family duties called, and I answered! My beloved Cardinals really needed a win last night, so it was good that they got one... My City SC team has really gone through some changes... They were having a bad season, and so they decided to change the players, and they began trading away my team! I'm glad I didn't buy a team jersey with a player's name on it! My next game is Sept 1st... Maybe by then I'll be able to walk from the parking garage to the stadium without pain, weakness, and fatigue! Fingers crossed! The band, Yes, takes us to the finish line today with their song: Long Distance Run Around... I've always contended that to properly enjoy Yes music you need to listen to it with headphones on! OK... I hope you have a Wonderful Wednesday today, and please Be Good To Yourself!