Precious metals are apparently waking up. And here is where you can find the best deals.
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Tens of thousands of federal government employees, including IRS workers, stole taxpayer money allocated for pandemic-era assistance programs, according to the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee.
Feb 2, 2023 - 07:00:06 PST
...The risk-taking and debt buildup from the prior era will pose significant financial stability risks that threaten to cause catastrophic damage. Without undertaking a frank, unbiased, and data-driven assessment of the Fed’s prior actions, we risk repeating the same mistakes and putting the U.S. in a series of highly abnormal boom-and-bust cycles that are almost entirely driven by monetary policy.”
Feb 2, 2023 - 05:57:39 PST
Silver has sharply outpaced gold’s gains in the past three months, and its classification as both an industrial and precious metal may lead it on a path to even higher prices.
Gold prices extended gains on Thursday to touch their highest in more than nine months, after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by an expected 25 basis points and Chair Jerome Powell’s comments were read as dovish by the market. Spot gold was up 0.2% at $1,953.28 per ounce after hitting its highest since April 2022 earlier in the session. U.S. gold futures
rose 1.3% to $1,968.30.
Plan advisers say a rise in hardship withdrawals from retirement accounts is driven by financial strain and looser regulations.
If the Saudi regime does indeed embrace substantial trade in currencies other than the dollar as part of its oil-export business, this would signal a shift away from the dollar as the dominant currency in global oil payments. Or measured another way, this would signal the end of the so-called petrodollar.
Shell became the latest oil giant to post a record annual profit last year, joining U.S. peers in surging back from early pandemic losses on soaring energy prices.
(Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s commodities traders reeled in one of their largest hauls ever last year, solidifying their renewed status inside the firm’s center of power.
The dollar tumbled on Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve said it had turned a corner in the fight against inflation, giving markets a confidence boost that the end of its rate-hike campaign is near.
Fed’s Powell Says No Rate Cuts This Year, and Markets Hear It DifferentlyFeb 2, 2023 - 05:46:32 PST
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell had a clear message on Wednesday: as "gratifying" as it is that inflation has begun to slow, the central bank is nowhere near to reversing course or declaring victory.
Powell’s optimism may have been subtle, but it was evident throughout the Q&A session. While he maintained that price pressures were still unacceptable, he repeatedly said that the “disinflationary process” was underway. Moreover, he said he saw a “pathway” to bring inflation back to the Fed’s 2% target without “a really significant economic decline or a significant increase in unemployment.”
Policy makers want to convince investors that smaller rate increases won’t be a prelude to rate cuts. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday the central bank will raise interest rates a quarter-percentage-point. Powell said more increases will likely be needed to continue lowering inflation.
‘Big Short’ Investor Michael Burry Issues Warning After the Latest Stock Market Rally: ‘Sell.’Feb 2, 2023 - 05:35:08 PST
Burry is known for spotting bubbles, and he’s worried stocks are still in the midst of one—despite the drop in 2022.
The European Central Bank on Thursday delivered an expected half-point rate hike and said it intends to raise by another half point in March.
ECB Hikes 50bps As Expected, Issues Dovish Forward Guidance, Unveils Climate QEFeb 2, 2023 - 05:33:38 PST
In a mirror image of the dovish BOE earlier this morning, which hiked 50bps but signaled that its tightening cycle may well be over sending sterling and gilt yields sliding, moments ago the ECB, which continues to believe erroneously that if only it can crash the European economy it will somehow have control over Russian commodity prices, hiked interest rates by 50bps, as expected.
Traders in the interest rate swaps market have concluded after the Federal Reserve rate decision that policy direction is set for a deeper dovish pivot from the middle of this year.
U.S. Layoffs Hit Two-Year High as Tech Slashed Thousands of Jobs: Challenger ReportFeb 2, 2023 - 05:22:13 PST
Layoffs in the United States hit a more than two-year high in January as technology firms cut jobs at the second-highest pace on record to brace for a possible recession, a report showed on Thursday. The layoffs impacted 102,943 workers, a more than two-fold jump from December and an over five-times surge from a year earlier, according to the report from employment firm...
Pound Tumbles After BOE Hikes 50bps In 7-2 Vote, Signals Pause At Lower Rate Of 4%Feb 2, 2023 - 05:20:53 PST
In the first of two big central bank decisions today, moments ago the Bank of England hiked by 50bps - as expected - raising the overnight rate for a 10th time to 4%...
The European Central Bank is about to deliver another half-point increase in interest rates, though investors will be more interested in clues about where borrowing costs are headed beyond this week.
Yes there were caveats about it being too early to declare victory and policy will need to be more restrictive. But even then he was blase about another "couple of hikes", and spent more time trying out his new favourite word "disinflation".