Precious metals news

“The lion’s share of the tightening has now been completed by the Fed and there are elevated risks of recession as the impact of that tightening begins to play out this year. That is likely to mean the US Dollar weakens this year.”

The NFIB survey continues show real concerns about the economy in 2023 and suggests a recession is still coming.

The macroeconomic situation in Japan seems to be coming to a head.

After French protestors took the street to complain about the increase in the retirement age, I read quite a few jokes in social media about how protesting in France is the local pastime.

The Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) on Wednesday raised the target policy interest rate (the federal funds rate) to 4.75 percent, an increase of 25 basis points.

Money supply growth fell again in December, falling even further into negative territory after turning negative in November for the first time in twenty-eight years. December's drop continues a steep downward trend from the unprecedented highs experienced during much of the past two years.

Here are the major companies that laid off workers in recent weeks:...

Inflation and higher interest rates boosted credit card debt to a record $930.6 billion at the end of 2022, a 18.5% jump from a year earlier, TransUnion found.

And that, dear readers, is how you convert a 2.5 million plunge in jobs into a 517K, market blow-out 9-sigma payrolls beat, which moments ago allowed Biden to brag on TV just how strong his economy truly is...

Lavrov says idea will be discussed at upcoming summit this August in South Africa - Anadolu Agency

When unstable systems start to falter, the pace at which they unravel speeds up. Which is why we're bringing back James Rickards to the program today, even though he was last on just a few months ago.

“As BRICS, we will also build on our shared commitment to improving the lives and livelihoods of our people, of advancing the interests and developmental goals of the global South, and our founding vision of a more just, equitable and fair global political, economic, and financial landscape with increased representation and voice,” Pandor said.

Will a shift away from the dollar in the global oil trade really lead to a big relative decline in the dollar? Probably and eventually. But a number of other dominoes would need to fall first, most especially the domino we call “Eurodollars.”

Change is already afoot. The current account surpluses of China, Russia and Saudi Arabia are at a record. Yet these surpluses are largely not being recycled into traditional reserve assets like Treasuries, which offer negative real returns at current inflation rates. Instead we have seen more demand for gold (see China’s recent purchases), commodities (see Saudi Arabia’s planned investments in mining interests) and geopolitical investments such as funding the BRI and helping allies and neighbours in need, like Turkey, Egypt or Pakistan. Leftover surpluses are held increasingly in bank deposits in liquid form to retain much-needed options in a changing world.

Central banks resumed trend of consistent monthly net buying during 2022...

Russians bought an all-time record number of gold bars in 2022, finance ministry data showed on Friday, as tax cuts on precious metals encouraged people to stock up on bullion as a safe asset.

China's foreign exchange reserves rose in December, official data showed on Saturday, as the dollar fell against other major currencies.

Is that the picture that the market is clinging to when it prices in rate-cuts this year? And if that's true, why did the BLS just report a massive surge in jobs?

If central banks are not stopped from doing what they are doing—causing booms and busts by manipulating market interest rates downward and relentlessly expanding the quantity of money created out of thin air—their actions will eventually lead to a level of inflation well beyond what we have witnessed over the past year and a half. From this perspective, the sharply contracting real money stock in the world economy is—it has to be feared—the harbinger of a new round of super-easy monetary policy and super-high inflation, even hyperinflation, further down the road.

'Good' news on the labor market is a disaster for the 'soft landing' narrative and sent rate-hike expectations soaring above pre-Powell levels...