Gold and Silver take off for higher ground

• The dollar continues to get bought... strange, I know...

• So long Blue Light Specials....

Good Day... And a Marvelous Monday to you! What a great comeback for my beloved Mizzou Tigers last Saturday! I loved it when QB Brady Cook said after the game that "there was no way we were going to lose this homecoming Game"... Well, until he returned to the game it certainly appeared to be a loss! These are the things that legends grow from... For much of the game the QB was at the hospital! When he returned to the sidelines the fans went bezerk and the rest is history... The Alan Parsons Project greets me this morning with his song: Games People Play in the Middle of the Night... 

Well, bust my buttons! What a 2-day performance by Gold & Silver last week! Gold ended the week over $2,700 and Silver ended the week over $33! Here's the skinny on their moves... Gold gained $18 on Thursday, and on Friday added $28. To end the week at $2,720.90... Silver never got out the starter's blocks on Thursday, but that's ok, because on Friday, Silver closed up $2.02, to close the week at $33.67... 

OK, so remember me saying over and over again that the thing that will send the short paper traders packing is that if everyone began buying physical Gold & Silver?  Well, the good folks at Gata sent me this note: "London metals trader Andrew Maguire, appearing on Kinesis Money's "Live from the Vault" program with Shane Morand, says physical demand now is overwhelming derivatives trading in silver, just as it has done in gold, and he expects a similarly explosive rise in silver's price soon."

So, once again, Chuck's thoughts are proven to be correct! I just hope the physical demand for the two metals continues to keep the short paper traders at bay, otherwise they will come back with a vengeance for sure! 

The dollar continued to get bought until Friday last week, when it began to see some profit taking and other sales that brought the BBDXY down nearly 3 index points to 1,251.... I've said just all I have to say about this dollar strength, so I won't repeat myself again this morning... Just know, that there has to be some intervention going on to keep the dollar strong... I'm just saying.... 

The price of Oil slipped again on Friday and ended the week trading with a $69 handle....  I'm now convinced that the Gov't is intervening in the Oil market... Gotta keep the price of gas down before the election...  

And the intervention in the 10-year's yield works some days, and other days, well... It doesn't... And Friday was one of those days when it didn't work, as the 10-year's yield ended the week trading with a 4.08%

In the overnight markets last night... Gold & Silver are picking up where they left off, last Friday, with both metals shining brightly this morning... Gold is up $18 to extend its current rally, and Silver is up 43-centss, and has passed another number this morning trading at $34 and change.... All this in the face of a rallying dollar... The dollar got bought in the overseas markets last night, with the BBDXY gaining 2 index points to 1,253.... 

I don't think that we're there yet, but when we do get there this rally with the metals will get some real legs and run even hotter... I'm talking about FOMO... Fear of Missing Out..... When you get into a cab and the driver tells you about how he secured some physical Gold or Silver, because everyone is out of supply...

That's when you know that TOMO has taken over, and the rally is nearing its end... We're far from that in my opinion, so go ahead and back up the truck! 

The price of Oil bumped higher again, and trades with a $70 handle this morning. To me, this looks like it's range-bound, and it's going to remain in this range until something comes along to change the range... The 10-year's yield is on the warpath to higher levels this morning... Maybe the Fed Heads threw their hands in the air and said, "We give up!" The 10-year's yield has risen to 4.13%, and looking like it will go even higher... 

Well, in a sign of the times... I had this sent to me: The last full-scale Kmart in the continental US is set to close Sunday in Bridgehampton, New York, marking the end of an era for the once-iconic retailer. Known for its "Blue Light Specials"—flash discount announcements—and celebrity partnerships, the chain struggled over the years to compete with Walmart, Target, and online retailers.

Chuck again... Man, do I remember those Blue light Specials... Well, so long K-Mart, wish you could've stayed longer... Not that I had stepped foot in a K-Mart in 25 years.... 

I have Bill Bonner all ready for the FWIW article today, so if you want to skip past me, and go directly to him, without passing GO or collecting $200, go on, you won't' hurt my feelings any...  All I ever do is whine about this, that, and the other thing, any way! 

I receive at least one email a week from a dear reader who wants to know what's wrong with Silver, and why it can't narrow down the Gold/ Silver ration, which right now is around 80 to 1....  There's nothing wrong with Silver, folks... The demand for physical Silver is off the charts, and the deficits in supply are growing... For three straight years, now, Silver production hasn't met the demand, but the metals dealers made up the deficit from their stocks... I personally don't get all that tied up in the Gold/ Silver ratio... It is what it is... The thing to remember is that even in Gold's good years, Silver usually outperforms Gold on a percentage basis....  

So, what I'm saying is to forget about the Gold/ Silver ratio, and concentrate on the physical demand in both metals...  

Well, all the news that's out there regarding the BRICS has me reminiscing about when I would go out on the road and speak at conferences, and talk about how China was getting countries to sign currency swap agreements with them to eliminate the dollar from the terms of transaction... I used to tell the crowd that when the Saudi's and other OPEC Countries came around to sign these agreements, it was the beginning of the end of the dollar as the reserve currency in the world, and thus the end of the dollar as a "petrol currency", and the end of the dollar, period... 

Why would I be reminiscing about that? Because what I warned investors about, many years ago, is coming to fruition, and that has me beaming from ear to ear... In June of this year, the Saudi's announced that they would remove the dollar from its terms of transaction with China & Russia... Uh-Oh! This is the beginning, folks... The beginning of the end for the dollar... Now this won't happen overnight, but you bet your bottom dollar that it will occur in the years to come...  

Why didn't you hear about this on the nightly network news? Or the Cable 24-7 news? Because they are under orders to eliminate any news that is detrimental to the dollar/ U.S.  That's got to be it, right? 

The U.S. Data Cupboard late last week had some real economic data to print... First up was the Retail Sales for Sept, which were exactly what the BHI said they would be, OK... Not great, just OK... They were up .4%, but without auto sales there were only up .1%... We also saw the color of Industrial Production in Sept, and it was an awful -.3%... Capacity Utilization saw some weakness to, falling from 77.8 to 77.5%...  Just a friendly neighborhood spiderman reminder that Capacity Utilization is one of two forward looking pieced of data... 

The U.S. Data Cupboard this week has the other piece of data that is forwrd looking for us today as Sept, Leading Indicators will print... This data set has been negative for months now, and I don't see anything that would change that... And then the rest of the week, up to Friday, is void of any real economic data... So, it's all about Leading Indicators today... 

To recap... Gold set another all-time high on Friday last week, while Silver outperformed Gold on the day... Chuck tells of how is thought that if everyone one bought physical Gold / Silver that it would send the short paper traders packing, is playing out right now... But the physical demand has to remain strong!  R.I.P. K-Mart.... And the Saudi's just stuck a knife in the U.S.'s back, but you didn't hear about that did you? 

Here's your snippet: " And Jerome Powell et al. are on the job. They had no reason to cut rates last month…except that they are trying to cause inflation, not eliminate it. Spread over the last three years, price inflation is more than three times what the Fed was supposedly looking for. That is, at a 2% annual gain, prices should be about 6% higher than they were in 2021. Instead, they are, officially, 20% higher. 

Unofficially, prices are even higher. This week’s Wall Street Journal, for example, tells us that cost of medical care insurance has gone up at a 7% rate for the last two years:

Health Premiums Soar Even as Inflation is Cooling

The average cost of family coverage reached roughly $25,500 this year... projected to rise rapidly again in 2025.

Or, just look at transportation. The Ford F-150, the most popular pickup in history, left showrooms at $30,000 in 2021. At 2% inflation, the price of this year’s model ought to be $31,800. It’s not. It’s $38,000 — a 26% increase... or four times what it ought to be.

And how about housing? Lower mortgage rates suckered home buyers into big mortgages based on inflated prices and low monthly payments. Then, in 2008, housing prices fell... mortgage lenders went broke... and millions of families lost their homes.

So, the Fed lowered rates even further... and anchored them below zero, in real terms, for a 10-year period. This, of course, led to more housing inflation... and then, to the absurd situation where people had a hard time either buying or selling a house.

With big mortgages, locked in at low rates, sellers couldn’t afford to sell. And with big, new mortgages at much higher rates, buyers couldn’t afford to buy. New housing starts are now back to the level of 1974 — fifty years ago, when the US had 120 million fewer people.

The average house cost about $300,000 in 2007. At 2% inflation, it should cost about $420,000 today. Instead, it’s close to $500,000. And now the Fed has begun a new loosening cycle to make it easier for people to buy a new house. The result? Anticipating more inflation, lenders increased long-term mortgage rates making housing less affordable than ever! "

Chuck again... And still the Gov't tells us that inflation is only 2.2%...  Liars all of them! Cheats, all of them! But then what else would you expect? It Is An Election year! 

Market Prices 10/21/2024: American Style: A$.6696, kiwi .6064, C$ .7236, euro 1.0860, sterling 1.3033, Swiss $1.1582, European Style: rand 17.5882, krone 10.8926, SEK 10.5136, forint 369.79, zloty 3.9795, koruna 23.2724, RUB 96.29, yen 149.77, sing 1.3117, HKD 7.7725, INR 84.01, China 7.1129, peso 19.95, BRL 5.7227, BBDXY 1,253.29, Dollar Index 103.52, Oil $70.26, 10-year 4.13%, Silver $34.36, Platinum $1.024.00, Palladium $1,055.00, Copper $4.41, and Gold... $2,637.81.

That's it for today... Well, my blood levels are nearing normal again, and I feel much stronger once again... It took its time getting there, but I guess I didn't have any marathons to run, so it just seemed long....  I'm off the oxygen now, and I'm back to where I was, weight wise before all these escapades began at the beginning of June... Once again, the Good Lord pushed me to the edge, and brought me back... I've now used up at least 6 of my lives... I'm all by myself here these days, and doing fine... But my kids keep checking on me, so I'm so lucky to have them near me... I have a stand-in writing desk that I work from, as my old desk was trashed after our flood in the house last year... I haven't been able to pick out a new desk that I like... I want one just like the one I had! Oh well, I carry on... Hall & Oates take us to the finish line today with their song: Sara Smile....  I hope you have a Marvelous Monday today, and please remember to Be Good To Yourself!