The NYSE Composite, which was the only index to make gains in the prior week, suffered the worst of it, along with the Dow, which still hovers just above correction territory. All of the indices were down at least 10% from their highs at some time during the week. With markets so utterly contrived and manipulated by the Fed and their covert - and overt - agents the message being sent seems to be one of confusion and contradiction, though it's becoming apparent that all is not well with the global or US-based economies.
Mainstream media continues to promote the "killer" COVID-19 narrative, though it's about as likely that there is going to be a second wave as there was an actual "first" wave. Between panicked hospital administrators, "warp speed" vaccines, unconstitutional government edicts, quarantines, lockdowns, tests famous for false positives, conflicting messages from the CDC and WHO, and nearly universal acceptance of mask-wearing, the psy-op that is the coronavirus and COVID-19 has made a mockery of a free press to say nothing of the impression and malleable nature of the world's population.
Not everybody has bought into the global panic, but the numbers of resistors are small. Most people who don't believe in the boogeyman of a particulate-based, invisible killer virus are playing along, wearing masks when not doing so would upset others, privately decrying the existence of a deep state conspiracy. Very few are willing to risk bearing the wrath of the authorities for poor social behavior, so most just play along. Meanwhile, contradictions are everywhere.
Fans are allowed at football games but not baseball games; The NFL has tested an average of 8,554 people over four periods since mid-August and produced 25 positives, a takeup rate of 0.70%, whereas the general population in most states is producing positives at rates between 4 and 15%. The same applies to Major League Baseball, which has suffered few setbacks due to the virus since the early days of their shortened season.
On the contrary, college football has had a raft of games postponed due to positive test results from players or coaches. On the whole, however, none of the very few athletes which tested positive nationwide have suffered anything more than mild symptoms similar to a common cold. Could it be that as a group they possess strong immune systems and maintain a healthy regimen of good diet and exercise?
It's obvious that the best defense against the COVID nightmare and any disease is simply being healthy. The vast majority - over 93% - of people who died from COVID-19 were over 55 years old and had at least one other medical condition. Countries in Europe are supposedly experiencing a second wave (increased testing with faulty tests producing more cases, replete with abundant false positives) and more lockdowns and stay-at-home orders are coming soon. Call it a hoax, a conspiracy, or whatever, all the COVID craziness has managed to do is make people crazy and torpedo the global economy, which, as some believe, was the plan in the first place.
With coronavirus being kept top of mind the coming week will feature one major event, the first presidential debate, in which the world will finally be able to judge the two candidates - President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden - in a face-to-face environment and see for themselves if the persistent rumors of Biden's failing mental acuity are for real. Tuesday night's live, prime time event is a 90-minute affair beginning at 9:00 pm ET.
For the past week, as stocks and precious metals continued to sink, two markets that remained somewhat stable were those of treasury securities and oil. With the short end of the treasury curve consistently at the zero-bound, longer-dated maturities remained range-bound with the 10-year note yield falling four basis points to close out the week at 0.66%, the 30-year yield dropping five, to 1.40%. Both have remained in a tight band throughout the month, the 10-year between 0.63 and 0.72%, the 30-year between 1.34 and 1.46%.
WTI crude, which had fallen as low as $36/barrel early in the month, has recovered nicely and spent the week neatly between $39.31 and $40.31, closing out the week at $40.25. The $40 per barrel price seems to be the sweet spot for everybody from frackers to drillers to explorers.
As for precious metals, gold and silver have exhibited the kind of counterintuitive price action that only the futures market - dominated by international banking consortiums and bullion banks - can provide.
From last Friday (9/18) to this one (9/25), gold fell from $1950.86 to $1861.58. Over the same time span, silver declined from $26.79 to $22.88, a 15% drop. Nothing says "flight to safety" like rapidly declining prices of real money. Yeah, sure.
For the rest of us playing the in real world, there is the physical market, best exemplified at eBay. As has become a regular feature of the WEEKEND WRAP, here are the latest actual sale prices for commonly-purchased items on the world's top trading platform (numismatics excluded, shipping - often free - included):
Item: Low / High / Average / Median
1 oz silver coin: 31.50 / 45.00 / 37.62 / 37.68
1 oz silver bar: 30.00 / 41.23 / 33.89 / 33.75
1 oz gold coin: 1,815.00 / 2,147.22 / 1,994.04 / 1,999.94
1 oz gold bar: 1,950.00 / 1,981.80 / 1,968.12 / 1,965.62
As can be clearly seen, premiums remain high, but silver, especially, is not bowing to the spot and futures overlords one bit. Median price for a one ounce coin is more than $14 over spot, a one ounce bar, $11 over spot. It would not be surprising to see silver separate completely from the futures and spot prices and become a true world "currency of the people" if only because central banks despise silver with such unbridled passion. They would like nothing more than to push the futures and spot price down to $3 an ounce or lower.
The repeated recent attempts to shunt the value of silver are failing miserably. The physical market is close to a complete separation from the paper price.
Here's Mike Maloney discussing when he will sell his gold and silver:
At the Close, Friday, September 25, 2020:
Dow: 27,173.96, +358.56 (+1.34%)
NASDAQ: 10,913.56, +241.26 (+2.26%)
S&P 500: 3,298.46, +51.87 (+1.60%)
NYSE: 12,485.38, +119.88 (+0.97%)
For the Week:
Dow: -483.46 (-1.75%)
NASDAQ: +120.28 (+1.11%)
S&P 500: -21.01 (-0.63%)
NYSE: -348.19 (-2.71%)
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