WEEKEND WRAP: New Normal; Gold, Silver Soar

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Not Saying Sell In May

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Bitcoin Bounce / Crypto Crash

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Silver $28, Gold $1900; COMEX/LBMA/Central Bank Fraud

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Taking A Day Off

Taking a much-needed day off.

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WEEKEND WRAP: The US Government and Federal Reserve Are A Complete Mess and Bitcoin Gets Beaten for It

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Stocks Reverse; Cryptos Recovering

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3rd Straight Day, 3rd Straight Week; Fed FUD

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Everything Bubble Becomes Everything Crash

The madness could last only so long before the magic carpet of endless stimulus, government checks and supplemental unemployment benefits was yanked out from under the markets.

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At the Close, Tuesday, May 19, 2021:
Dow: 34,060.66, -267.13 (-0.78%)
NASDAQ: 13,303.64, -75.41 (-0.56%)
S&P 500: 4,127.83, -35.46 (-0.85%)
NYSE: 16,337.73, -85.23 (-0.52%)

Patterns, Shortages, Stagflation, and the Fed

Read today's complete note for free at Downtown Magazine's Money Daily At the Close, Monday, May 17, 2021: Dow: 34,327.79, -54.34 (-0.16%) NASDAQ: 13,379.05, -50.93 (-0.38%) S&P 500: 4,163.29, -10.56 (-0.25%) NYSE: 16,422.96, +7.61 (+0.05%)

WEEKEND WRAP: Nikkei Bounce; Gas; Gold, Silver

Read today's complete note for free at Downtown Magazine's Money Daily At the Close, Friday, May 14, 2021: Dow: 34,382.13, +360.68 (+1.06%) NASDAQ: 13,429.98, +304.99 (+2.32%) S&P 500: 4,173.85, +61.35 (+1.49%) NYSE: 16,415.36, +233.73 (+1.44%) For the Week: Dow: -395.63 (-1.14%) NASDAQ: -322.26 (-2.34%) S&P 500: -58.75 (-1.39%) NYSE: -175.08 (-1.06%)

Stocks Rebound, Japan's Nikkei Gains

Read today's complete note for free at Downtown Magazine's Money Daily At the Close, Thursday, May 13, 2021: Dow: 34,021.45, +433.79 (+1.29%) NASDAQ: 13,124.99, +93.31 (+0.72%) S&P 500: 4,112.50, +49.46 (+1.22%) NYSE: 16,181.63, +138.66 (+0.86%)

Dollar Rush, US Stocks, Nikkei Correction, Musk

Read today's complete note for free at Downtown Magazine's Money Daily At the Close, Wednesday, May 12, 2021: Dow: 33,587.66, -681.50 (-1.99%) NASDAQ: 13,031.68, -357.75 (-2.67%) S&P 500: 4,063.04, -89.06 (-2.14%) NYSE: 16,042.97, -312.65 (-1.91%)

Nikkei Drops; LBMA Silver; CPI

Read the complete note at Downtown Magazine's Money Daily LBMA only off by 2960 tons. #silversqueeze At the Close, Tuesday, May 11, 2021: Dow: 34,269.16, -473.66 (-1.36%) NASDAQ: 13,389.43, -12.43 (-0.09%) S&P 500: 4,152.10, -36.33 (-0.87%) NYSE: 16,355.62, -161.21 (-0.98%)

Money Daily 5/11/2021 Japan Crashing; Europe, US Carnage

Money Daily's LAEST POST CAN BE READ IN ITS ENTIRETY at Downtown Magazine's Money Daily site. Still FREE, as always, just without Google peering over everybody's shoulders, finally ;-) Follow Money Daily and dtmagazine.com on Gab. At the Close, Monday, May 10, 2011: Dow: 34,742.82, -34.98 (-0.10%) NASDAQ: 13,401.86, -350.34 (-2.55%) S&P 500: 4,188.43, -44.17 (-1.04%) NYSE: 16,516.83, -73.57 (-0.44%)

WEEKEND WRAP: Elon Musk, SNL, BIS, Gold, Retail Silver, Gas

This week's edition of the world famous WEEKEND WRAP CAN BE READ IN ITS ENTIRETY at Downtown Magazine's Money Daily site. Still FREE, as always, just without Google peering over everybody's shoulders, finally ;-)

April Jobs Come in at 266,000, Missing Expectation of 1 Million; Futures Down, Gold, Silver Surge

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a record high on Thrusday with the S&P 500 falling just 10 points shy of its own record (4,211.47, April 29) and the NASDAQ finally back with a positive close after losing 500 points over the past four sessions.

The NYSE Composite also closed at a record level, surpassing its previous high of 16,376.00 from April 29.

New all-time highs have become rather routine over the past three, five, ten years. Stocks just seem to have a magical levitational ability that sets them apart from other asset classes, except maybe some cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the newest darling, Dogecoin. Bitcoin has been the best-performing asset over the past 10 years, easily beating everything else.

Meanwhile, precious metals have languished. While gold made a fresh all-time high back in August, it has since fallen from over $2000 an ounce to under $1700, but recently has bounced off those levels and on Thursday headed back above $1800. Silver never even got to $30 an ounce, not even close to its record price of $48.70 from 2011, the anniversary of the all-time high having just passed last week (April 30, 2011).

On Thursday, silver managed to close in New York above $27 an ounce for the first time since January. Speculators, dealers, miners, stackers and just about anybody who keeps tabs on silver appreciated the move. Silver is undeniably the most undervalued asset on the planet. Everything else is going up, up, up, like lumber, food, used cars, except for silver, which, truth be told, is actual money even though it also has industrial uses.

It's well known that central bankers and bullion banks have to keep a lid on gold and they've done well with that. They've exceeded all expectations in their efforts to keep silver prices depressed. It's been said in previous notes of Money Daily that central bankers hate (and fear) silver more than gold. That's not going to change. But their grip on the price seems to be slipping, little by little, as more and more individuals appreciate its fineness, durability, and, eventually, its use as a measurement of exchange, i.e., money.

Whether the price of gold's kissing cousin ever does rise to levels compatible with the runaway inflation in everything else remains to be seen. It's not like the bullion banks, central banks, LBMA, and futures riggers are going to abandon their pricing scheme any time soon. Market forces, however, are putting pressure on the retail end of things. Supply shortages at retail have occurred twice in the past year. First, in the initial stage of the virus scare back in March of 2010, dealers ran dry of supply, forcing higher premiums and shipping delays. The reddit-inspired silver squeeze in January of this year caused supplies to dry up again and they have persisted. Premiums are still high, though supply seems to be in a sweet spot for dealers. Most, if not all, online dealers are capable of delivering in timely manners.

Though the price of silver hasn't really moved much of late, it may not be a bad idea to pick some up at the current relatively bargain prices. If anything, the price is stable, which is more than can be said about any other asset, all of which seem to be going up these days. There are biases among goldbugs and crypto adherents, but, having a diverse mix of alternative assets is usually a good idea and silver should be included, keeping in mind that the alternatives are not supposed to be investment vehicles, per se, but rather, stores of value.

Moving on, futures for Friday were higher in anticipation of the April non-farm payroll report, which was supposed to deliver blockbuster results of more than a million new jobs created over the course of the month.

The number came out moments ago at 266,000, missing expectations by a country mile and a half. March's non-farm payroll gain was also revised sharply lower, showing a gain of 770,000 versus the 916,000 previously reported.

Maybe all the stimulus and enhanced unemployment benefits are keeping people from returning to work? Dow futures fell from +95 to -50 on the jobs announcement. Gold and silver moved sharply higher. Keep an eye out today on 10 and 30-year treasury yields. Yields below 1.50% and 2.20%, respectively, could be in the cards.

Stocks look to close out the week with a bang of some kind, though possibly not the kind expected.

Happy trading. Look for Money Daily's regular WEEKEND WRAP around 10:00 am ET, Sunday morning. Weather permitting (j/k).

At the Close, Thursday, May 6, 2021:
Dow: 34,548.53, +318.19 (+0.93%)
NASDAQ: 13,632.84, +50.42 (+0.37%)
S&P 500: 4,201.62, +34.03 (+0.82%)
NYSE: 16,459.60, +111.19 (+0.68%)

Hundreds of US Banks To Offer Bitcoin To Customers This Year: Multiple Reports; #Bitcoin Will Moon

In what may be the biggest news in finance this year, multiple news outlets are reporting that NYDIG, a subsidiary of $10 billion New York-based asset manager Stone Ridge, and it has partnered with fintech giant Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) to enable U.S. banks to offer Bitcoin (BTC) in the coming months, according to the two firms. According to Crypto Gazette, hundereds of banks are already enrolled in the program. Originally reported by financial news network, CNBC, customers of some U.S. banks will soon be able to buy, hold and sell bitcoin through their existing accounts. The move into cryptocurrency is more about competition and timliness than anything else, as banks see their customers sending dollars to Coinbase and other crypto exchanges, according to Yan Zhao, president of NYDIG. The story is making its way through the crypto world with great enthusiasm though tempered by the understanding that anonymity, originally hailed as one of Bitcoin's strongest features, will be lost as all bank transactions are recorded and regulated. That does not seem to be much of a concern, however, as Bitcoin and other cryptos - especially Etherium (ETH) and, lately, Dogecoin - have made headlines over the past ten years as superlative investments, with returns far outstripping those of competing asset classes such as stocks or precious metals. If the reports turn out to be true - and there's little reason to believe they're not - this development could skyrocket Bitcoin to new heights. While other cryptos were not mentioned in the original report, as has been observed in opening up new avenues to Bitcoin, such as with PayPal or Square, the others eventually follow. By the end of 2021, depositors in US banks may see their accounts enhanced with the ability to buy, hold, and sell Bitcoin and to use it for transactions. It appears that the promise of Bitcoin going mainstream is about to materialize in an astounding manner, to the benefit of millions of new users. Though there may still be regualtory roadblocks ahead, it appears that the banks sorely want to be in on the action, collecting fees on Bitcoin purchases, sales, and transactions. With the heft of the banking industry behind it, any red tape will likely be easily overcome. The federal government may be welcoming the development as well, because any Bitcoin gains are financial events, subject to capital gains taxes, which might help explain why Joe Biden wants to see capital gains increased from 20% to 39.5%. Government never has enough of other people's money and the crypto market looks like a tax honeypot. If all goes according to plan, using Bitcoin may soon become as easy as swiping a credit card and buying or selling the granddaddy of cryptocurrencies as easy as buying shares of stock online. Mass adoption is on the way. There is no stopping it now. Bitcoin is going to moon. For more, see the following articles: FX Street: Hundreds of US banks to offer Bitcoin trading as deposits into crypto exchanges skyrocket Cointelegraph: Bitcoin back above $57K as 'hundreds' of US banks prepare to HODL for clients pymnts.com: FIS Teams With NYDIG To Allow Bitcoin Purchases From Bank Accounts Forbes: The Coming Bank-Bitcoin Boom: Americans Want Cryptocurrency From Their Banks At the Close, Wednesday, May 5, 2021: Dow: 34,230.34, +97.34 (+0.29%) NASDAQ: 13,582.42, -51.08 (-0.37%) S&P 500: 4,167.59, +2.93 (+0.07%) NYSE: 16,348.41, +59.11 (+0.36%)

Janet Yellen Needs To Be Retired; Comments Spark Mass Selloff

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Post 3030: Nikkei 225, Dow 30 Send Bearish Signals

Post 3030. Read it here. Or, on Substack, here. Editor's Note: This blog is moving off the blogspot platform due to ongoing search-related and revenue issues. Complete posts will no longer be displayed here, but links will be provided to the full Money Daily articles. Sorry for the inconvenience. Your continued patronage is appreciated. --FR

WEEKEND WRAP: Cryptos #Bitcoin and #Ethereum Ramp Higher; Stocks Flat Second Straight Week; Silver Squeeze 2 Underway

The final seven days of April was a week in which nothing of importance happened. There were no earth-shattering, mind-numbing, sensationalist stories. Stocks were moribund. The S&P 500 gained one point. One point. Nobody's getting rich on that. Google, Amazon, and a host of other big names reported first quarter earnings. The aforementioned two big tech giants posted sensational numbers and their share prices moved ahead substantially. Across the market, many companies beat estimates and contented shareholders, for now, though there was a hint of suspicion with some about the sustainability of the bull run, the prices of stocks, weary consumers, and runaway inflation.

It's that last point, inflation, that concerns people the most. Supply chain issues are cited as the proximate cause of price hikes for various goods and services, but that's mostly a cover story for the one-blind-eye corporatism that has overwhelmed world markets. In the United States, consumer goods are rising because everything consumed is imported, mostly from China, and shipping transit rates have exploded. Container ships coming West to East across the Pacific Ocean are full and return empty. That's not a supply chain issue. That's the end result of strip-mining American manufacturing down to the last screw and bolt and sending all to China.

China, in textbook communist manner, owns all the means of production. Owning little to none, the United States has been reduced to a colony of spenders and hoarders, useless eaters and takers. Multi-national companies, most listed on US exchanges, benefit greatly at the expense of consumers and small business. Since Donald Trump was taken off the world stage, China became free to raise prices, control movement, dictate consumer taste, and distort markets at will. The US government will do nothing to stop it. Skeptics attest that the government quietly is encouraging China's behavior to usher in an era of dependency and the ascent of the nanny state to extreme levels.

It took forty years or more, depending on your historical perspective, but America's industrial base has been completely demolished and now the hollowing out of the middle class is well underway, all thanks to inefficiencies or purposeful disinterest by the federal government. The declining condition in America is likely to worsen. There are widespread reports of businesses unable to fill open job positions due to the unwarranted continuation of extended unemployment benefits, rent and mortgage mortariums and other medical-related regulations, rules, or mandates. If anything, slack in the labor market on the job-seeker side should improve wages, leading to more inflation.

Otherwise, everything is just peachy.

Treasury yields bumped up a little bit over the course of the week but remained in the Fed's comfort zone. The 10-year note was up seven basis points, from 1.58% to 1.65%. Yield on the 30-year bond crept up five basis points, from 2.25% to 2.30%. These rates are leaning toward the recent high end from March, when the 10-year topped out at 1.74% and the 30-year was 2.45%. It was at that level that the Fed and investors became uncomfortable at the same time and rates were systematically screwed back down. Even at this week's levels, yields are a far cry from the start of the year, when the 10-year was 0.93% and the 30-year, 1.66%.

Not to get too math-frenzied, those increased yields represent 77% and 39% increases over four months. That's not normal, but, then again, what is normal now?

Cryptocurrencies continue to make mainstream inroads. JP Morgan's CEO, Jamie Dimon, announced that his firm would enable its high-end clients to toy around in the crypto sandbox with a managed investment vehicle while the European Investment Bank (EIB) plans to issue a two-year 100-million euro digital bond on the Ethereum blockchain network, with the sale to be led by Goldman Sachs, Banco Santander, and Societe Generale, according to analysts. Everybody with fiat-based assets wants entry to the blockchain environment, apparently.

These headlines and others sent Ethereum soaring to record highs and stopped dead the decline in Bitcoin, which dropped to $47,000 last Sunday but has since recovered to as high as $58,550 and currently is in a range between $56,000 and $57,000. Ethereum was the darling of the crypto universe, gaining over 30% on the week to just short of $3,000. It has outperformed Bitcoin over the past year, by leaps and bounds, even taking some market share from the granddaddy of cryptocurrencies.

Oil prices went haywire during the week, ascending rapidly from just under $62 a barrel for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) all the way to 65.01 on Thursday. Friday's across-the-board selloff came just in time to take the closing New York price down to a more reasonable $63.58. Gas prices didn't really respond as the national average stayed just below $2.90 a gallon with highest prices on the West coast and the lower end in the Southeast. For now, at least, prices at the pump have leveled off after the national average had risen pretty quickly in two main moves, from $1.74 to $2.24 last Spring and Summer, and the latest, protracted advance from $2.09 to $2.89 from mid-November to the present.

Much like the absurd lumber market, which has been entirely manipulated by major producers, oil prices are not quite reflective of true supply and demand forces. There's still a glut of crude and economies are not moving forward or re-opening as quickly as the rising price of crude and distillates would suggest.

Despite Thursday's obvious naked shorting on the NYMEX which took gold and silver off of their week's highs, precious metals survived another period of price dislocation by the LBMA and futures market riggers. Silver rocketed from $25.57 the ounce to $26.67 by Tuesday, then was guided lower the remainder of the week to finish Friday at $25.92. Gold's smallish gains were tempered by Thursday's $25 takedown on the NYMEX, leaving the futures price to finish the week at $1769.10, resulting in a net decline of $11 for the week.

An attempt to garnish some favor with silver stackers and the reddit.com horde at r/WallStreetSilver by Sprott Money's Craig Hemke may have re-energized the forces opposed to "paper silver" prices or turn out to be a real dud. Proof will come Sunday night into Monday morning when the futures markets open in Asia, then Europe and then to the Americas. Hemke called for a massive silver raid on May 1, urging people to purchase 100 ounces of silver on that day, which, obviously known to Hemke, was a Saturday, when futures markets were closed, thus rendering any market reaction a delayed reaction or moot point.

Having never stopped their relentless retail silver squeeze, the reddit "apes" were having fun with it, though some regard Hemke as a representative of the establishment Sprott Physical Silver Trust (PSLV) and potentially part of the problem in keeping a lid on the silver price.

However, the ongoing retail buying spree has had and is having some effect on the EFTs, SLV and PSLV, which were negatively affected by February's first silver strike by the redditers and have since been offloading inventory according to this insightful article by Austrolib of The End Game Investor at Seeking Alpha. Keeping an eye peeled on silver and gold this week should be top of mind for anti-fiat proponents.

Here are the most recent prices for common 1 ounce gold and silver items sold on eBay (numismatics excluded, shipping - often free - included):

Item: Low / High / Average / Median
1 oz silver coin: 38.00 / 58.00 / 43.87 / 42.48
1 oz silver bar: 35.00 / 49.97 / 40.91 / 40.22
1 oz gold coin: 1,895.49 / 1,993.00 / 1,929.80 / 1,917.59
1 oz gold bar: 1,818.25 / 1,970.00 / 1,871.06 / 1,869.27

The weekly eBay survey shows both gold and silver to be stubbornly holding onto premia, with Money Daily's Single Ounce Silver Market Price Benchmark (SOSMPB) advancing 33 cents to $41.87 over the week. Coins remain preferable to bars in both metals, with roughly a three percent (3%) premium for coins over bars at median prices.

While this week may be regarded as hum-drum or otherwise subdued, movements in precious metals and cryptocurrencies suggest that a storm is brewing and nothing will be able to stop its advance over time. Changes, especially radical currency reassignment, take time, measured in years and decades rather than moments and hours. It's worthwhile to disregard market noise in these situations, focusing on longer-term conditions. Being prepared for chaotic events in political, societal, and economic arenas is not for the feint-hearted mor pound-foolish. It requires vigilance and steadfast nerves as the daily drone of mass media often paints a picture that is far removed from actual on-the-ground reality.

Changes are happening all around us. Perception, being able to discern the real from the imagined, underpins the acquisition of useful knowledge.

Many more big cap companies report first quarter earnings this coming week, but after that the earnings deluge will begin to wind down. Money Daily purposely did not report on the Fed's FOMC meeting in this edition of the WEEKEND WRAP as it was a major nothing-burger and completely inconsequential.

A bit of housekeeping to close out the WRAP: This coming week may be the end of regular Money Daily posts on Google's Blogger platform. The posts have been simultaneously published there and on the home site at dtmagazine.com. It seems as though Google's bots are interpreting some traffic on the home site as "invalid." As is usual with the behemoth, no explanation has been forthcoming and Fearless Rick has been getting a little tired of the regularity of Google's one-sided authoritarianism. The plan, so far, is to post a title and a link to the actual post here on blogger, but publish only on the hoe site and possibly on Substack, which appears to be more "author-friendly."

Money Daily and Downtown Magazine create this work. Google and Blogger are nothing more than platforms and facilitators. They don't own our work, nor should we be subject to censorship, be it overtly or otherwise. Enough is enough.

At the Close, Friday, April 30, 2021:
Dow: 33,874.85, -185.51 (-0.54%)
NASDAQ: 13,962.68, -119.86 (-0.85%)
S&P 500: 4,181.17, -30.30 (-0.72%)
NYSE: 16,219.33, -156.67 (-0.96%)

For the Week:
Dow: -168.64 (-0.50%)
NASDAQ: -54.13 (-0.39%)
S&P 500: +1.00 (+0.02%)
NYSE: +13.13 (+0.08%)