Good day… And a wonderful Wednesday to you! Well… It’s Groundhog Day, and Punxsutawney Phil will be coming out soon to see if he sees his shadow or not… to tell the true believers if Phil sees his shadow and if there will be another six weeks of winter . (Hint: there are always six extra weeks of winter from February 2 to March 20.) It’s a tradition and you know me and the traditions… And this one is so silly, that I find it interesting, to follow… Winter is over here, and the days are starting to warm up again… Mid to high 70s are forecast for next week, so you can rest assured I’ll be in the sun, soaking up as much vitamin D, as I can. possible! I’m treated this morning to my favorite Temptations song… I Wish It Would Rain… “Sunshine, blue skies, please go away, my girl has found another and gone away”…
Ok… Well, according to the debt clock… The United States is now $30 trillion in debt! We surpassed that number yesterday, and since all it does is add debt to the total every second, it’s better to talk in big numbers… Let’s hope $30 trillion didn’t cause Americans to become comfortably numb… And here are some interesting numbers… Right now every citizen would have to write a check for $90,218 to pay off the current debt… But, if we were just counting the taxpayers, these lovely people would have to do a check for $239,808… That’s a big discrepancy in the amounts of the checks, huh?
And for the weird markets yesterday… The Dollar traded in a very tight range, ending the day down a bit from Monday’s close… BBDXY started the day at 1,179.58 and ended the day at 1,179.33… Gold saw a wide price range yesterday… You may remember me telling you yesterday that Gold was up $12 at the start of trading… Eh well, from there it went up another $8 for a gain of $20, but… then came the price manipulators, and they knocked gold’s gains down until the shiny metal didn’t further shows a gain of $4.20 on the day to close at $1,801.80…
It was the same for silver yesterday… Silver was up 54 cents yesterday morning and had gained another 10 cents when price manipulators stepped in to cut silver’s gains to just 17 cents on the day , to close at $22.70… Gold and silver price action yesterday was enough to sway even the biggest naysayers of price manipulation…
In other trading yesterday, the price of oil climbed back above $88 yesterday after slipping below the previous night’s figure. Bonds were sold yesterday, with the 10-year yield hitting 1.79%. We’ve seen the 10yr yield bouncing in a 5bps range for a few weeks now, and it seems to me that’s just the wait time until it starts to rise… Stocks have risen, and Bitcoin went higher too…
There are rumors going around, someone is underground, no waiting! I mean there are rumors floating around that the POTUS is going to issue an executive order on bitcoin… And one of the great bitcoin cheerleaders said, “It could be good for bitcoin because the regulation would give the crypto space a measure of respectability that would attract more investors. Yeah, Ok… I give… where’s the punchline? Oh, and I got this info from Dave Gonigam’s 5 Minute Forecast yesterday…
Last night in overnight markets…the dollar sold off again, then some more…BBDXY fell over 4 points overnight and today starts at 1,175.15…Another times is a far cry from the 1,190.24 we started with at the start of the week, after Friday’s currency massacre. Gold is up $3 in early trading and silver up 21 cents. I just shook my head hearing the back and forth with the price manipulators yesterday, I kept saying, “what do they want?” Bonds and oil are stuck in the mud with yesterday’s prices, and it looks like the shoe is on the other foot for the dollar… And I doubt any of the economic data to follow this week, culminating with the Jobs Jamboree on Friday, will help the dollar to regain strength… I guess, we’ll see, huh?
So like Tom Brady retiring…not retiring…retiring…not retiring, and eventually retiring… The Fed/Cabal/Cartel, the discussion is about the hike in March, or not will they not, will they or won’t they… I really don’t care… because it will be too little too late… And even if they come back in April and then increase again in May, the rates will only be around 0.85%… Still not even a full $1, and still negative if you factor in the rate of inflation…
Speaking of the Fed/Cabal/Cartel… On May 31, 2021 James Bullard, Chairman of the St. Louis Fed/Cabal/Cartel, spoke at a conference and told people there that “ inflation is expected to rise this year between 2.5 -3.0%”… I wonder if any reporter took it to the stake for this horrible forecast…. But here is the thing I keep coming back to that bothers me endless… It’s that Powell, was wrong, Bullard, was wrong, everyone in the Fed/Cabal/Cartel got inflation wrong last year… So they got it all wrong but now they’re ‘expect us to believe they’ll get this next phase, okay? Give me a break! I’m not a trader anymore and I’ve never been a busted trader, but if I was one today, I’d sell dollars, stocks, bitcoins and bonds short!And go long…Gold…Oil…and some commodity related currencies…
I told you about the Atlanta Fed GDP NOW showing the 1st QTR of this year so far at a 0.1% gain, very close to negative… Then there was this ditty: “Boosted by A massive restocking and cash-strapped consumers last year saw the U.S. economy grow at its fastest pace since 1984.
Don’t expect a repeat performance in 2022.
In fact, the year is starting with few signs of growth as the year-end spread of the omicron, coupled with a tailwind from fiscal stimulus, causes Wall Street economists to revise down their forecasts for gross domestic product.
Combine that with a Federal Reserve that has gone from the simplest policy in its history to warmongering inflation fighters, and suddenly the picture has changed dramatically. – CNBC.com
Chuck again…I’m surprised the media talked about what rate hikes could do to the nascent economy…
There isn’t much in the US Data Cupboard today other than the January ADP jobs report which is currently forecasting a gain of 200,000 which is NOT a good number for the economy… Quarterly Treasury refund to be announced… Luckily it’s being done, bore yields rise next month with a rate hike…
To recap… The dollar was stuck in the mud yesterday, but gold after an early rally lost ground all day to gain just $4.20, and silver which had a 67 cent gain early in gave back most of it to only earn 17 cents on the day… Chuck points out that this price action should have caused even the biggest opponent of price manipulation to see things my way! And inflation is really high right now, wait until you get to the FWIW section today to see what I have for you there!
For what it’s worth…. OK… here it is… This is an article on how renters are finding HUGE increases… And it can be found here: US Rent Inflation on Real Estate Allows Landlords to Regain Leverage – Bloomberg.
Here’s your excerpt: “If you’re a renter and moved in the last year, you’re probably already paying more for housing. If you haven’t, you could soon find yourself in a similar situation when your lease expires.
Outsized residential rent increases spreading from new to existing leases have been a distinct trend in places like metro Atlanta and Detroit, where rents rose in 2021 at the fastest rate in decades, according to Labor Department data, propelled in part by an influx of newcomers fleeing the most expensive cities. In 2022, the model is set to become a national phenomenon, as landlords reclaim the bargaining power they lost at the start of the pandemic when unemployment rose and governments responded by enacting eviction bans.
* Production employees and non-executives.
Data: Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Housing rent is the largest expense for the typical American household and, therefore, the largest component of official government consumer price indexes, accounting for about 32% of them by weight. Inflation in this category topped 4% in 2021, after averaging 3.3% per year in the five years before the pandemic.
Many forecasters expect it to remain elevated for much of this year, even as other overheated categories, such as autos and other durable goods, begin to moderate. (Several private-sector indicators of rent inflation showing double-digit growth nationwide in 2021 focus on new lease prices, while the Department of Labor measure also accounts for the much larger category. range of existing leases renewed”.
Chuck again… And can you blame the owners for the price increase? Not me… I said back when they were told they couldn’t raise rents or seize people, that would be the other side of that… Cartel money printing is the root of all this inflation…
Market price 02/02/2022: American style: A$0.7153, 0.6648 kiwi, C$0.7891, 1.1325 euro, 1.3572 sterling dollar, 1.0888 Swiss$, European style : 15.2808 rand, 8.7680 crown, 9.1857 SEK, 313.40 forint, zloty 4.0116, Koruna 21.4473, Rub 75.99, Yen 114.29, Sing 1.3469, HKD 7.7933, China 6.3612, PESO 20.48,6 BRL 5.247. BBDXY €1,175.15.15.00, Oil $88.24, 10.78%, Silver $22.92, Platinum $1,046.00, Palladium $2,482.00, Copper $4.46 and Gold …$1,805.40.
It’s just in people… Phil saw his shadow this morning, and so we’ll have another 6 weeks of winter… I got this straight from Gobbler’s Knob, PA live stream… He there were probably 40,000 people there to witness this tradition… So there you have it!
That’s all for today… Well, happy Groundhog Day to you! Back home in St. Louis they are hit with a major snowstorm today… Kathy is going back to St. Louis on Saturday, to this mess I’m not… I hate the cold so much I come here for the winter, and for all winter! This is my 6th year of wintering, and this year so far hasn’t been as warm as previous years… But it’s even warmer than my home! 12 days and counting… just a reminder… Baseball negotiators are still talking, and that’s a good thing, I think! The January tenants have left and the February tenants have moved in… The monthly rents in this building I am in have skyrocketed, and some regular tenants are reluctant to pay the premium rates… There is always someone who will pay those prices…. The Rolling Stones take us to the finish line today with their song: Wild Horses… I hope you have a Wonderful Wednesday, and Please Be Good To Yourself! Be positive, test negative!
Comments are closed.