Precious metals news

You can thank the Fed and your long-term spendy government for creating this mess. It is what happens when you don’t pay for what you do as you go and fund it all with practically free Fed funds until you can’t anymore because inflation starts burning up your backside. If the Fed jumps back in to buying US Treasuries, thus expanding reserves, and thereby creating more monetary supply, it will be dumping gasoline from its firefighting plane into the fire tornado, and all hell will break loose.

Now that the US economy is totally dependent on trillions of dollars in stimulus and speculative gains reaped from the stimulus, there is no Real Economy left to pick up the pieces when the credit-stimulus-speculation bubbles all pop.

From huge to somewhat less huge? Because they’re still six times the magnitude of the prior worst-record in 2018...

From crisis to crisis to raging inflation. This is the long view of total assets on the Fed’s balance sheet:...

Some say it has taken weeks to withdraw their money and that the bank’s instructions have differed.

Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) will disrupt the banking industry, forcing traditional lenders to innovate and helping small businesses access financing, according to a report by Standard Chartered and PwC China. In addition to facilitating cross-border payments, the CBDCs - fiat virtual currencies issued by central banks - are expected to motivate lenders to integrate their traditional services with other payment service providers to provide more innovative products and services to cust

The UK housing market is sputtering again, with economists predicting that the downturn has further to run as rising interest rates bite into the budgets of consumers.

With consensus expecting a modest payroll drop from 291K to 195K, the whisper number coming in alittle higher at 225K and Goldman's trading desk nfp matrix as follows: "a print sub 100k likely hits the tape by ~100bps and a print north of 375k hits the tape by 25 – 50bps", literally nobody was expecting a print above 252K which was the highest forecast among economists, moments ago the BLS reported yet another blowout stunner: according to Biden's Dept of Labor, in May the US added a whopping 339K jobs, almost double the median estimate and well above the highest forecast.

US employers expanded their payrolls by 195k, according to the median forecast, but what is perhaps more remarkable is that the scatter of opinion is the smallest we have seen since the markets convulsed in March 2020.

Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Patrick Harker said the US central bank is close to the point where it can stop raising interest rates and turn to holding them steady in an effort to further bring down inflation.

New economic projections to be issued at the end of the June 13-14 meeting will force central bank officials to give the sort of hard guidance through numbers that they've been reluctant to provide through words.

Japan's government will pledge to pull the economy out of deflation through bold monetary policy, flexible fiscal policy and a growth strategy, according to a draft outline of its long-term economic policy platform obtained by Reuters on Friday. "The government hopes the Bank of Japan achieves its 2% inflation target in a stable, sustained fashion accompanied by wage growth," the draft outline said.

Weak profit forecasts from department store chain Macy's to discounter Dollar General on Thursday underscored the fragile health of the U.S. consumer as persistent inflation curbs spending.

Almost $1.5 trillion of US commercial real estate debt comes due for repayment before the end of 2025. The big question facing those borrowers is who’s going to lend to them? “Refinancing risks are front and center” for owners of properties from office buildings to stores and warehouses, Morgan Stanley analysts including James Egan wrote in a note this past week. “The maturity wall here is front-loaded. So are the associated risks.”

Signs of renewed weakness are emerging in the residential market, with a rebound in home sales slowing in May to just 6.7% from more than 29% in the previous two months. “The sector is still sick,” Bloomberg Economics and Intelligence analysts including Chang Shu and Kristy Hung wrote in a May note. Having never met 'stimulus' measures they didn't like, Europe's real estate sector is leading the charge after the Hang Seng jumped over 4% and US futures are extending yesterday's melt up.

Investors across Asia earmarked China’s ballooning levels of municipal borrowing as the region’s number one financial risk this year in a survey that ranked their biggest concerns.

Global stocks and commodities rose on Friday while the dollar headed for its biggest weekly drop since January, as sentiment was buoyed by signs the Fed will skip a rate hike at its next meeting and the approval of U.S. debt ceiling legislation. Markets are now focused on U.S. jobs data due 0830 EST (1230 GMT), the most significant macro economic release of the week, for more cues on the Federal Reserve's rate hike path. The U.S. Labor Department's employment report is likely to show nonfarm payrolls increased by 190,000 jobs last month after rising 253,000 in April, according to a Reuters survey of economists.

The Fed reduced its balance sheet by $177 million last month. The majority of this was actually in Treasuries with less than 1-year maturity, totaling $102B. The next biggest reduction was in loans, totaling $40B.

As expected, gold has turned in a fairly strong start to the month on the COMEX. It’s below April but is still early in the contract.

If you buy gold or silver, you're going to pay a premium. So, what exactly is a premium and how is it determined? In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey answers common questions about premiums. He also discusses the debt ceiling deal and reveals where Americans rank gold as a long-term investment.