Precious metals news

The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis announced today that the goods and services deficit was $74.6 billion in April, up $14.0 billion from $60.6 billion in March, revised.

The U.S. trade deficit widened by the most in eight years in April as imports of goods rebounded while exports of energy products declined, a trend that if sustained, could result in trade being a drag on economic growth in the second quarter.

Global stock markets were steady on Wednesday and the U.S. dollar drifted lower as attention turned towards next week's pivotal inflation data and Federal Reserve meeting, where chances of a rate hike continued to ebb. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.7%, led by gains in Hong Kong and Taiwan, while Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 1.8%, its sharpest fall in 12 weeks to snap a four-day winning streak. That left the MSCI's broadest index of world shares up just under 0.1% but close to its highest level in 13 months reached on Monday.

Gold-backed funds reported an inflow of gold for the third straight month in May, flipping global ETF demand positive on the year.

I warned you.
I said when the fake debt ceiling fight ended, the real problems would begin.
Well, the debt ceiling fight is over, and here we are.
On the first working day after the so-called Fiscal Responsibility Act went into effect, the national debt surged by $359 billion.

The April trade deficit came in at -$74.5B which was the largest trade deficit since October 2022.

With the passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, the fake debt ceiling fight is over.
The federal government walked away from the deal with a shiny new credit card that has no limits.
And what did we get?
Spending "cuts" that actually increase spending and another great big tax increase.

Most people in the mainstream concede that the economy is heading for a recession, but the consensus seems to be that downturn will be short and shallow. Projections by the World Bank undercut that optimism.
According to the World Bank, global growth in 2023 will slow to the lowest level since the 2008 financial crisis.

Gold prices steadied in a tight range on Tuesday as optimism that the U.S. central bank will not hike interest rates this month kept the dollar under pressure. Spot gold XAU= held its ground at $1,960.89 per ounce by 0239 GMT. U.S. gold futures GCcv1 edged 0.1% higher to $1,976.80.

Under a CBDC, a time-stamped ledger of every single transaction by every single individual and/or firm would create threats to privacy.

Pretending things were not as they really were left us all with a worse world — just as the media did with the Fed when it pretended the Fed was right about inflation being transitory and all simply parroted the narrative they were force-Fed.

For many, the jobs data is just too good to be true. The BLS has a long history of cooking the data to paint a rosy picture.

Gensler has been in the spotlight for months, as his agency ramps up enforcement against crypto companies. When he testified before Congress back in April, Gensler refused to answer whether ether was a security or a commodity.

Gensler didn’t hold back his feelings on the industry’s significance: “We don’t need more digital currency. We already have digital currency. It’s called the U.S. dollar, it’s called the Euro, it’s called the Yen. They’re all digital right now […] so what’s the real underlying value of these tokens?”

Two Federal Reserve decisions next week will shape a global economy whose growth the World Bank predicts will slump this year and remain “frail” through 2024.

The last time UPS workers walked of the job more than two decades ago, it crippled the shipping company. An emboldened union is threatening to do the same and this time the disruption would be far greater. The 24 million packages UPS ships on an average day amounts to about a quarter of all U.S. parcel volume, according to the global shipping and logistics firm Pitney Bowes. UPS says they deliver the equivalent of about 6% of nation’s gross domestic product. The Teamsters, representing about 350,000 UPS workers, say they'll strike if there's no deal by the time the current contract expires July 31.

The Fed’s man-made housing market downturn has been so sharp that when the Fortune 500 list was unveiled on Monday, it was missing four major real estate companies, which had been on the list last year. That includes Rocket Companies (which was No. 282 on the Fortune 500 list unveiled in June 2022), Zillow (No. 424 last year), Anywhere Real Estate (No. 427 last year), and Compass (No. 495 last year).

As a serial entrepreneur who co-founded Tesla Inc., revolutionized the electric car industry and is sending rockets into space, Elon Musk isn’t known for being a real estate guru. But lately, the billionaire has been sounding the alarm for the sector. “Commercial real estate is melting down fast,” Musk said in a recent tweet. “Home values next.”

Blackstone real estate investment trust (BREIT) is known as one of America’s largest and most dependable privately held REITs when it comes to delivering investor returns. However, 2023 has proven to be a difficult year for real estate investors, and Blackstone is not immune. As of May 1, 2023, Blackstone announced it is limiting investor withdrawals from its REIT, which is worth an estimated $70 billion. This move is not a new trend, as Blackstone has been limiting monthly investor withdrawals

Virginia-based REIT Park Hotels & Resorts has opted to cease payments on a $725 million loan, as the SF Business Times reports today, essentially surrendering over 2,900 hotel rooms and hospitality facilities to its lender. This includes the 1,921-room Hilton San Francisco Union Square, which is San Francisco's largest hotel, occupying an entire city block, and one of the country's largest hotels outside of Las Vegas.