Another bear raid on Gold and Silver

• The dollar continues to soar.

• And are youngsters finally getting the message?

Good Day... and a Tom Terrific Tuesday to you! You won't believe what happened to me this past weekend, but after all my trials and tribulations through the years, maybe you'll say... lucky Chuck once again... Van Morrison greets me this morning with his song: Brown Eyed Girl...

Friday night my oldest son , Andrew and his beautiful family arrived... but I was not feeling in tiptop shape... So , I went to bed, and at 4 o'clock a.m., I began this ordeal... 911 was called, the strapped me in and drove me to the hospital ER... I was in dire straits here folks..

After hours in ER I was taken to a room where I continued to have my problem over and over Again. Sunday morning they put an endoscope down me and found that I had a bleeding ulcer, that had been bleeding for a few days... lots of blood loss, so much that it took 3 units of blood just to get me back to the lowest allowable level!  

More bleeding problems all day Sunday and Sunday night, and then early morning, Monday the bleeding stopped. The hospital fed me iron, and another blood transfusion, and suddenly, I could get out of bed, stand up, and walk with a walker... It was a miracle! From not being able to stand without passing out, to be able to amble down the hallway. Soon my latest blood test showed I was good to go home... Now, that's a long intro to the Pfennig this morning, but... I thought that you deserved to know why I didn't write yesterday, when I told you last week that I would... Another life taken from my cat's nine lives... 

While I was ailing so much, so were the metals... Gold lost 43.70 on Friday last week and ended the week at $2,400.80... Silver was also bashed last week losing 59-cents on Friday, to close the week at $29.17... The short metals traders were having a field day with Gold & Silver last week, there's no two ways about that! Why? Because they can, and will continue to do so, whenever they feel the urge or they get the Bat signal from the White House / Treasury... 

Yesterday, Gold lost $2 on the day, and closed below $2,400 at 2,398... Silver gained 2-cents to close at $29.19... It was a strange day, as the most the markets along with the country, tried to digest the news that the POTUS was not going to run for re-election... An that the challenger avoided an assignation...

So, today, we should get back to business at hand, which is trying to figure out, why in the world the dollar is soaring right now, with all the talk about rate cuts... Tell me, that this makes sense, and I still won't believe it... And after I went out on a big fat limb and told you that the dollar was in trouble going forward... My thought there hasn't changed, and I'm not going to change my mind either... If all this rate cut talk doesn't get the dollar in a world of hurt, then I'm going to give up, mail it in to the good folks at Battle Bank, and tell them I just don't have it any longer, that they need to find a new writer... Seriously... 

In the overnight markets last night, there was little to no movement in the dollar or metals... Gold is up $11 to start our day today, so that's a good sign... 

Well, the stronger dollar is really putting the kyboshes on the housing market... where they tell us that foreign buyers, in the last 12-months through March this year had bought 54,300 homes worth a staggering $42 Billion, but since then the sales to foreigners have fallen out of bed... Here's MarketWatch's view: "Currency shifts attributed to the declining sales to foreign buyers. “The strong U.S. dollar DXY makes international travel cheaper for Americans but makes U.S. homes much more expensive for foreigners,” Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the NAR, said in a statement. “Therefore, it’s not surprising to see a pullback in U.S. home sales from foreign buyers.”

You know, whenever the dollar goes on one of these bull runs, it reminds me of a time on the old EverBank World Markets Trading desk, when colleague, Ty Keough, would tell his customers that when the dollar is strong, is the time to buy more currencies, because they are cheaper...  That's a good thought right now... I'm just saying... 

The $35 Trillion in current debt and over $200 Trillion in unfunded liabilities and had this to say: "We have two parties here, and only two. One is the evil party, and the other is the stupid party. .… Occasionally, the two parties get together to do something that’s both evil and stupid. That’s called bipartisanship.”

No matter which party reigns, the beat goes on, wasting trillions to foster political power.

The politicos have racked up almost $35 trillion in debt, and are on the hook for another $200+ trillion in “unfunded promises.” Together they broke it, make no reasonable attempt to fix it, and they want voters to believe they can change their spots and right the ship. Fiscal sanity? Impossible – an unnatural act for the ruling class.

When is the mainstream media going to finally admit we are past the point of no return?"

Chuck again... I'll tell ya Dennis when the media will finally admit we are in deep dookie... When the walls come crashing down, and they all begin to scream "the sky is falling"... No Chicken Littles are they... It'll be too late, to duck for cover, so... Once again I ask... "Got Gold"... 

This will be short-n-sweet this morning, because I've been "out of pocket" for 4 days... I didn't even turn on the TV in the hospital room, as I was so out of it... 

The U.S. Data Cupboard this morning, there's only some existing home sales data, and the cupboard was bare yesterday, so the the start of the week is data void... At the end of this week, the markets are looking forward to seeing the latest PCE... (personal consumption expenditures) This is a preferred inflation calc that the Fed Heads use... Without any interference with funny numbers, massaging figures, and cooking the books, I expect the PCE to be steady, and show no gains in inflation fighting... I'm just saying...

To recap... The dollar is soaring, and after Chuck said that it was in trouble going forward... Gold & Silver have been bashed and the short paper traders have had a field day all last week... Gold is up $11 this morning, so let's see if we can get this turned around... 

Here's your snippet: What asset class do millennials and Gen Z investors both want to own?

Here is an answer you may not have guessed: Gold.

Among wealthy investors under the age of 43, 45% own gold as a physical asset, and another 45% are interested in holding it, according to a recent study by Bank of America Private Bank.

Those are far higher percentages than other age groups.

Usually this demographic is not interested in assets like gold, cash or Treasuries, because they are considered to be "boring," says Liz Young Thomas, head of investment strategy for digital financial services firm SoFi.

"As Treasury yields rise, cash is paying a high interest rate, and gold is rising along with it. We are seeing returns we normally don’t see in such a short period of time," Thomas says.

"Naturally, when assets have strong returns, younger audiences start to perk up.”

This confirms another study by money managers State Street, which finds that millennials have the highest allocation to gold in their portfolios, at 17%, far outpacing both boomers and Gen X at 10%.

So what is going on? Why are younger investors so intrigued by a somewhat stodgy asset that has been around for thousands of years?

Part of gold’s renewed buzz is its healthy spot price, which as of this writing is above $2,400 per ounce.

It is also increasingly on the shelves in popular retail environments, which boosts visibility. Big-box chain Costco started selling 1-oz gold bars last fall and has been doing a brisk trade of up to $200 million monthly, according to Wells Fargo estimates."

Chuck again... Well, maybe the new youngsters have learned something that the other generations didn't... And that is Gold is a store of wealth... I'm just saying... 

Market Prices 7/23/2024: American Style: A$ .6626, kiwi .5965, C$ 7266, euro 1.0860, sterling 1.2895, Swiss $1.1224, European Style; rand 18.3582, krone 11.0069, SEK 10.7459, forint 359.30, zloty 3.9392, koruna 23.3564, RUB 86.95, yen 156.05, sing 1.3455, HKD 7.8074, INR 83.69, China 7.2749, peso 17.97, BRL 5.5763, BBDXY 1,254.60, Dollar Index 104.43, Oil $78.17, 10-year 4.23%, Silver $29.04, Platinum $958.00, Palladium $921.00, Copper $4.16, and Gold... $2,407.87.

That's it for today... It was nice to get back to our place on the beach yesterday evening... I then watched my beloved Cardinals lose a game 2-1... Their offense goes hot and cold all year, and yesterday it was cold, and tonight's game they'll be ice-cold, in my opinion... I'm still not 100%, but much, much better than when the paramedics strapped me to the gurney, and loaded me into the paramedic's truck... That's twice now that the local paramedics have come to get me... I'm not hoping for a third time, for sure! Having little Evie, and brother Braden here is fun, as the tv show used to say, "kids say the darndest things"... Kathy just loaded them up to go to the donut shop... This will be an interesting day for sure, with those two darling amped up on donut sugar! Wheee! The Electric Light Orchestra takes us to the finish line today with their song: Strange Magic... I hope you have a Tom Terrific Tuesday today, and please Be Good To Yourself!