The RBNZ does the dirty deed

• Currencies and metals rally overnight VS the Dollar.

• Gold & Silver are getting ready to take off!

Good Day... And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! Well, I went yesterday mid-morning to get my iron infusion... And when I returned home, half expecting to feel stronger, I sat down and fell asleep the rest of the afternoon... UGH! I'm sure my blood level isn't anywhere near where it's supposed to be, at this point... I'm getting frustrated for sure! This getting old isn't for sissies... But it beats the alternative! Player greets me this morning with their song: Baby Come Back...

Well, the dollar saw a rocky road, and not the ice cream, yesterday... As I left you yesterday, the BBDXY was trading in the same clothes as it wore the day before... But all that changed, suddenly, the dollar was getting sold, and the BBDXY lost 4 index points on the day... The euro got to within spittin' distance of 1.10... Of course, the euro has been here before only to be knocked back down by the PPT's buying of dollars... It will be interesting to see if the PPT enters the markets again after today's STUPID CPI prints... 

You might recall me saying that I thought that the STUPID CPI would show a greater gain in the month of July than forecast... Well, that was before PPI printed yesterday showing no further gains in wholesale inflation, and that means Consumer inflation could very well come in with just a .2% gain on the month, as forecast... Of course that's not what the Fed Heads are looking for, as they get all geared up to cut rates in a couple of weeks when they meet... 

The price of Gold didn't get bought yesterday, and with PPI printing where it did, I would have expected the rate cut bugs to come crawling out of the baseboards, and that would help Gold move higher... But noooooo, Gold lost $8 yesterday, and closed at $2,464.20, and Silver lost 3-cents on the day to close at $27.93...  

The price of Oil remained trading with a $79 handle... The news articles telling us about the fire power the U.S. is moving to the Middle East, has been enough to keep Oil trading at a this higher price... 

And the 10 year Treasury's yield remained at 3.90% yesterday... 

In the overnight markets last night... The dollar continued to get sold... The BBDXY is down 2 index points to start the day today at 1,240... And the euro has finally popped above 1.10 as we trade this morning... I guess the dollar bugs got tired of waiting for the STUPID CPI to print, and got to the business of selling the dollar based on the rate cut thoughts.... All of the currencies are looking healthier this morning, and one thing I want to point out is that the Eurowannabes, forints, zloty, and koruna are all on the rally tracks VS the dollar, which indicates the dollar is in trouble folks... So, when does the PPT step in to save the dollar once again? Or... Has the Exchange Stabilization Fund, run low on cash, and the PPT has run out of arrows in their quiver? I guess we'll see going forward, eh? 

Gold is up $10 to start the day today, and Silver is flat at this moment... Here is another case of the metals trades going out on a limb and going with the forecast of a weakening STUPID CPI... 

The price of Oil slipped a buck overnight and trades this morning with a $78 handle... And talk about folks that have gone out on limb to be the first person on their block to have believed the forecasts for a weak STUPID CPI, and have gone about getting bonds sold, and the 10-year's yield has dropped to 3.83%....

Well, the news last night from New Zealand wasn't what I hoped it would be... The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RNBZ) decided that inflation has gotten close enough to their inflation target and decided to cut their OCR 25 Basis points to 5.25%... The OCR is the Official Cash Rate, so their internal rate, like our Fed Funds rate that only the high and mighty get to use... The New Zealand dollar / kiwi got sold on the rate cut news, and last night lost about ½ of a cent... UGH!  

And keeping with rate cuts.. Bloomerg.com is reporting this morning central bank is set to keep borrowing costs on hold on Thursday and reiterate plans for a more aggressive policy than most other rich-world peers as the krone’s recent weakening risks hampering its fight with inflation.

Chuck again... Norway's Norges Bank (central bank) is known to be very prudent with its decisions regarding interest rates, and for that I applaud them... If inflation isn't at the Central Bank's target rate, then why go ahead and cut rates like they will do in U.S.? If you're not going to be beholden to the target rate, then why have on in the first place? Any answers? 

Well, are you waiting for the answer to this question, of what are you going to do about the Debt, and deficit spending? Coming from either candidate for President? I'm not going political here this morning, I'm just pointing out that either one of them has given us any details about what they intend to do about This Sword of Damocles that hangs over our futures... That's shameful... But, what do we expect? The elites, oligarchs, dark side, whatever you want to call them are calling the shots, and these candidates that we will vote for, are nothing but figure heads for the elites, oligarchs, dark side. 

That means that the deficit spending will continue, and our national Debt will continue to soar higher, until it breaks, and when that happens, you had better have gotten hold of your physical Gold... Got Gold? 

Look folks... This is all simple Simon, easy greasy, a layup... If the STUPID CPI comes in weaker in July, then all hell will break loose, the dollar will get sold, Gold will soar, and bonds will be bought... And one would think that I would be all for that scenario... But I'm not... We, as a country, need a recession! It's been a long time coming, and it'll be a long time gone (CSNY) if we don't get one... At that point, we'll know what the Fed Heads have chosen as the thing that will kill the economy, and that's inflation... Inflate or die... either way you die... Inflation just takes longer to get to financial collapsing party... Sort of like the old saying about dying by a thousand cuts...  

Circling back to talk about Gold again... Reuters is reporting that the Perth Mint saw sales of Gold in July rise 50%, and sales of Silver rise 13%, both from the previous month... The Perth Mint in Australia, is one of the largest depositories and sales agents in the world, so when they report that sales of physical Gold & Silver are rising, its a good sign for the metals... I'm just saying...

And before we head to the Big Finish today, I wanted to make note of the rally the Japanese yen is back to afer a brief bump in the road when the Bank of Japan (BOJ) lifted rates, which should be good for yen, but wasn't because observers thought the BOJ had squelched what little economic growth there was... But now, all the dust has settle on Japan, and Japanese investors are buying yen again... Not that I think you as a currency investor should partake in this yen reprisal, in my mind Japan is still a basket case... I'm just saying... 

The U.S. Data Cupboard today is the day that the STUPID CPI prints for July... I noticed that the forecasters have upped their forecast for annual STUPID CPI to 3.0%... Do you think that maybe they read the Pfennig, and read where I said that I thought consumer inflation would be higher than expected, which was 2.5%...  Look, the dollar is need some real strong data to boost it out of these doldrums it's in right now, and a stronger STUPID CPI would do the trick, for the markets would have to back off their calls for a rate cut!  

Speaking of rate cuts... I read on Ktico.om that there are some major banks saying that the Fed Heads will cut rates 175 Basis Points by mid 2025... (175 Basis Points is equal to 1.75%)... So, if that's to be taken with a gran of salt, that would mean the Fed Heads would be cutting rates at each of their meetings until next June... That seems a bit far-fetched in my opinion...

To Recap... The dollar finally succumbed to further selling yesterday, There was nothing to cause this selling to take place other than pent up frustration...  The euro traded within spittin' distance of 1.10.. Chuck points out that we've seen this before...  The STUPID CPI prints today, so the markets and media will be happy campers again... And some major banks are calling for the Fed Heads to cut rates by 175 basis points by mid 2025!  That's really choosing to inflate the economy, isn't it?

For What I'ts Worth....Well, this is another entry from Russ and Pam Martens and this one is about how banks are teetering as many of them show HUGE losses.

Here's your snippet: "Here’s a look at three FDIC-insured banks that have lost 69 percent, 57 percent and 40 percent, respectively, of their share price year-to-date. The decline represents the change from their share price at the close on the last trading day of 2023 (Friday, December 29) and their close yesterday, (Monday, August 12, 2024).

New York Community Bancorp (Ticker NYCB): YTD Stock Performance, Down 69.33 Percent

New York Community Bancorp, Inc. is the parent company of Flagstar Bank, N.A., headquartered in Hicksville, Long Island, New York with 420 branch offices in 12 states. As of March 31, 2024, Flagstar had $112.8 billion of assets, ranking it the 28th largest bank in the United States according to a listing compiled by the Federal Reserve.

For more on what’s going on at NYCB, see our report: Steve Mnuchin, Trump’s Treasury Secretary/Foreclosure Kingpin, Joins with Hedge Fund Guys to Grab a Teetering, Federally-Insured Bank for $2 a Share.

Adding insult to injury, effective after the market closed on July 11 of this year, the stock did a 1-for-3 reverse stock split, meaning that for every three shares of stock that you previously owned, you now owned just one.

Patriot National Bancorp (Ticker PNBK): YTD Stock Performance, Down 57 Percent

Patriot National Bancorp is the parent of Patriot Bank, N.A. with headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut. As of March 31, it had just eight branch offices and a tiny $1 billion in assets. Its share price reflects ongoing losses being reported by the bank.

First Foundation (Ticker FFWM): YTD Stock Performance, Down 40 Percent

First Foundation is a small regional bank with 30 branches in five states. Like New York Community Bancorp, it has an over-concentration in loans on multifamily real estate. It reported $13.6 billion in assets as of March 31, 2024.

The share price took a particularly brutal beating in early July when it announced a $228 million equity infusion from a group led by Fortress, leading to serious dilution of existing shareholders. The deal came at a big cost, giving 49 percent ownership to the new investors, according to media reports."

Chuck Again... Ok, its obvious that this article is much longer than the snippet, so go ahead and click the line above to read the article in its entirety...

Market Prices 8/14/204: American Style: A$ 6625, kiwi .6019, C$ .7292, euro 1.1029, sterling 1.2865, Swiss $1.1594, European Style: rand 18.0564, krone 10.6655, SEK 10.4037, forint 357.78, zloty 3.8973, koruna 22.8565, RUB 88.16, yen 146.84, sing 1.3152, HKD 7.7891, China 7.1393, peso 18.95, BRL 5.4553, BBDXY 1,240.80, Dollar Index 102.46, Oil $78.23, 10-year 3.83%, Silver $27.92, Platinum $944.00, Palladium $950.00, Copper $4.10, and Gold... $2,474.30.

That's it for today... Man when I was a young man, I was strong as an ox... I told my good friend, Mike Karvas, the other day when I called him on his birthday, that "if someone tried to start a fight with me, I would just say, "you win"... That's not the person I used to be... But right now, I'm just so weak... And overweight again! This loss of blood, tricked my body into storing fats because it believes I'm in dire straits... I couldn't believe the scale when I stepped on it Monday... Well, it'll take time, the doctor tells me, for me to recover the loss of blood, and get my strength back... So, I'm glad you're here with me to go through this with me... The original Journey takes us to the finish line today with their song: Everybody's Everthing... This is a classic rock song that was recorded before Steve Perry joined the group to sing... I hope you have a Wonderful Wednesday and please Be Good To Yourself!