Precious metals news

Gold flowed into gold-backed ETFs for the second straight month in February.
Net inflows of gold into ETFs globally totaled 35.3 tons last month. Total ETF gold holdings globally ended February at 3,650.6 tons, according to the latest data from the World Gold Council.

Fundamentally and technically there is plenty of upside in gold and miners. Here are a few charts to consider.

If so, we can anticipate that sentiment will become more negative in the short-term to trigger the Fed to act. Dollar weakness will not come about because the Fed extended swap lines. Rather, the socionomic way to think about it is that dollar strength (often associated with a deflation lurch) will cause the Fed to act.

For almost two years (starting in 2020 before you could see any consumer inflation at all), I have faithfully and consistently traced our trajectory toward scorching inflation that would cause a market disaster. Prior to that, inflationary burn-out was not an argument I ever made on this site (unlike some who perennially hyperventilate about hyperinflation).

Jerome Powell testified on Capitol Hill last week. He said the central bank plans to hold the course on rate hikes and monetary tightening despite the global chaos caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He also continued to dodge any responsibility for rampant inflation. In fact, he repeated a lie Ben Bernanke told in 2008 and insisted the Fed isn't monetizing federal government debt because it doesn't intend to hold those Treasuries forever. But as Peter Schiff said in his podcast, it doesn't matter what the Fed intends to do. All that matters is what it actually does.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has confirmed the United States is talking to its European allies about banning Russian oil imports.

Analysts have warned that crude prices could go as high as $150 per barrel if the West decides to slap sanctions on Russian energy exports, but even without sanctions, oil could see further upside

The dollar was up on Monday morning in Asia, with the euro falling to a fresh 22-month low against the dollar and hitting multi-year lows on the yen, Swiss franc, and the pound. The ongoing conflict in Ukraine drove up commodity prices and stoked fears of a stagflationary shock that would hit Europe the hardest.

European markets were in a sea of red as the threat of a potential ban on Russian oil imports helped spur a surge in prices.

The metal used in stainless steel and lithium-ion batteries added more than $10,000 to trade at a 15-year high above $40,000 a ton, in the biggest-ever daily dollar gain in the 35-year history of the contract. Palladium also spiked sharply higher amid rising risks to shipments from one of the world’s top producers of the metal.

“Downside risk remains most acute over the next 6-8 weeks,” Morgan Stanley’s Michael Wilson wrote in a note to clients. “We are firmly in the grasp of a bear market that is incomplete in both time and price.”

Russia is considered more likely to default on its debts than Iraq, Ecuador or Ethiopia after Moody’s slashed the country’s credit rating to the second-lowest rung.

Sberbank PJSC said it’s looking at the possibility of issuing cards using Russian payments system Mir and China’s UnionPay after Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. suspended operations following the invasion of Ukraine.

Recession concerns are showing up more prominently in the U.S. Treasury yield curve, as soaring commodity prices in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine fuel worries over inflation and slower growth.

JOE BIDEN: I understand, our top priority must be getting prices under control. Look, our economy roared back faster than most predicted, but the pandemic meant that businesses had a hard time hiring enough workers to keep up in production in their factories.

Last week, some on Wall Street were quietly gloating when the "Lehman Weekend" consequences predicted by repo guru Zoltan Pozsar failed to materialize and central banks did not flood global markets with a torrent of liquidity, in a repeat of what happened in September 2008.

All hell is breaking loose in the Sunday evening session where S&P equity futures and Asian markets tumbled, while havens such as sovereign bonds and gold soared amid fears of an inflation shock in the world economy as oil soared on the prospect of a ban on Russian crude supplies.

Several factors are converging for the Next Major Silver Bull Market.  While the silver price has underperformed versus gold during the Russian-Ukraine War, that will change when large institutions and investors begin moving into silver to protect wealth as the Global Financial System breaks down...

The Treasury added another $278B in debt during February. Similar to January, the Treasury stopped converting short-term to long-term, and instead increased Bills by $94B, larger than any other security type.
Debt issuance has fallen since the binge in December when the Treasury had to replenish its “extraordinary measures” stockpiles (government employee retirement funds). Still, issuance is relatively high.

In this week's episode, Lance explains how the economic sanctions & trade embargo against Russia is spiking the prices of many key commodities higher, further stoking inflation.