Precious metals news

The reason the Fed has an underlying inflation gauge is predict coming inflation; the CPI is merely a current snapshot in time. And the underlying now predicts one thing, writ large: surging inflation, and soon.

There was a lot of trade war talk at the end of last week. In fact, on Friday, some pundits said the trade war officially began. Last Thursday, President Trump said the US may ultimately impose tariffs on more than a half-trillion dollars' worth of Chinese goods, and a round of tariffs went into effect. The United States began collecting tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese goods. China implemented additional tariffs on some import products from the United States immediately after US tariffs took effect, according to Chinese state media.
The stock markets shrugged it off. Both the NASDAQ and Dow were up over 100 points. In his latest podcast, Peter Schiff said the markets seemed to be saying, "Who cares about a trade war? Bring it on!"

European gold-back ETFs continued to add yellow metal in June, but globally, total holdings fell for the first time in nearly a year as gold flowed out of North American and Asian funds.
Global gold-backed ETF holdings fell by 49.3 tons to 2,434 tons in June, according to the latest data released by the World Gold Council. It was the first month of net outflows since July 2017.
Even with the sharp June drop, total ETF gold holdings globally remain up on the year by 63 tons.

The 10-year yield remained firm around 2.86%, but the DX pulled back to the $94.05-$94.10 level. Gold was $1,258 bid at 4PM with a gain of $3.

Reversal of trend? Gold futures prices settle higher Monday, buoyed by the recent retreat in the U.S. dollar, as metals investors test key chart territory for bullion.

Eric Dubin & Dave Kranzler dive into latest action in the markets to answer the question, WTF just happened in gold and silver?

If you are sure a stock is going to fall to $50, and it's currently at $60, you sell that stock, which drives the price down. Banks who see an inverted yield curve as an inevitability may help cause it by acting in a similar manner.

While COMEX has shown low trading volume of paper gold & paper silver, this is not the case around the world. Here's the details...

As the trade war tariff standoff escalates, both China and the US may be preparing for a race to the bottom as each attempts to devalue their currency and make their exports more attractive to would-be foreign buyers.

Yield desperation is real. With some sovereign bonds returning literally nothing, even central banks, long concerned with basic asset protection, find themselves investing in high-risk assets.

Keith explains why nobody should look forward to the monetary reset, and why we should change course to avoid a reset if possible...

QT continues, but let's keep perspective. Last month's selling brought the Fed balance sheet assets down from highs of $4.5B to $4.3B. Prior to QE1, this number was below $1B.

Almost no single economic variable hurts the US economy, and the vast majority of Americans, more than sharply and directly than rising gas and oil prices.

In a stock market driven by Fed-funded corporate buybacks, which buy, buy, buy no matter what, basic economic factors have ceased to matter in the short term. But the trade war poses massive risks.

SD Outlook: There's a few reasons why gold and silver may indeed shine this week. Here's the details...

When black clouds are overhead, thunder is booming, winds pick up, and the air is thick...and it just doesn't rain. Yield curve flattening, Fed on "auto-tighten", QT, tariffs, sky-high historical valuations, exploding federal deficit.

An entire generation of bankers knows nothing other than Fed-rigged markets, where good news is good news & bad news is better news because it spells Fed market support.

The underpinning of the 30+ year bull market has been the Fed cutting rates when more than 50% of government bonds traded below par. Another example of the Fed painted into a corner.

When despondency helps statistics: At what point do official unemployment numbers become completely meaningless because so many have completely dropped out of the officially counted labor market?

In Bernankian echoes, Powell is trying to sell the market on a 'very strong' economy even as an inverted yield curve, which has predicted recession all nine time it has occurred, draws near.