Federal Government to Re-Open, Possibly Today; Veteran's Remembered; Gold, Silver Resume Rally

Who knew that reopening the government was such a great thing?

Apparently, allowing congress, the president, and the enormous bureaucracy to get back to the business of bankrupting the country and continuing to devalue the currency has plenty of backers, including, not just Wall Street stock market enthusiasts, but hoarders and stackers of precious metals as well.

With the Senate apparently on course to resolve the shutdown dynamics and keep the lights on until at least the end of January, the federal government should be back humming right along as early as today if House Speaker Mike Johnson can assemble enough members for a quorum and a vote on the cosmetic changes to the continuing resolution they passed back in September.

There are some added details, such as reversing President Trump's firings of furloughed workers along with back pay, a 'minibus' that would fund military construction, the VA, the legislative branch, agriculture, and the FDA, funding for food stamps (SNAP) through fiscal 2026 (September 30, 2026), and a promise to vote on extending Obamacare subsidies sometime in December.

The general consensus among the punditry is that the Democrats caved once food riots didn't take place, but the nation's airlines began to suffer delays and cancellations at various important destinations. It wasn't a complete takedown, however. The only Democrats willing to cross the aisle and make a deal were those not running for re-election in 2026.

The breakdown:

• John Fetterman, Pennsylvania
• Angus King (Ind.), Maine
• Dick Durbin, Illinois
• Maggie Hassan, New Hampshire
• Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire
• Tim Kaine, Virginia
• Catherine Cortez Masto, Nevada
• Jackie Rose, Nevada

Dick Durbin and Jeanne Shaheen are retiring. Fetterman and Cortez Masto aren't up for re-election until 2028. The remaining four aren't up for re-election until 2030. Surely, their constituents and donors will have completely forgotten about this episode of putting pragmatism over politics by then.

So, with a whimper, the longest government shutdown in America's glorious history will end roughly around the same time as World War I, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, or, something like that.

Positive prospects for the re-opening of the government pushed stocks forward, but were surprisingly bullish for gold and silver. Gold was up more than $140 on the day, with silver advancing more than four percent, with spot prices rising from $48.33 to $50.50. Both metals are higher Tuesday morning, as the reality of a resumption of overspending by congress strikes home.

With stocks having recovered most of the losses from last week in one fell swoop, traders may be taking a break on Tuesday. Stock futures are lower for the NASDAQ and S&P, Dow futures showing a slim gain of less than 20 points as the opening bell approaches.

Crude oil prices are slightly higher, but WTI continues to gravitate towards $60/barrel or lower. Good news for home heaters and auto drivers.

So, with the shutdown apparently nearing an end and the AI blowout having reached terminal madness, what will they think of next to get the muppets to buy more stocks?

At the Close, Monday, November 10, 2025:
Dow: 47,368.63, +381.53 (+0.81%)
NASDAQ: 23,527.17, +522.64 (+2.27%)
S&P 500: 6,832.43, +103.63 (+1.54%)
NYSE Composite: 21,566.41, +157.85 (+0.74%)

WEEKEND WRAP: Friday's "Dip and Rip" and the Myth of Free Markets; Patience Equals Prosperity for Precious Metals Stackers

Stocks were being sold off like ten-cent tarts at a church bake sale Friday, until heavy-handed market manipulators came to their rescue, turning what looked to be a washout into a minor loss on the NASDAQ and a plus-side finish on the Dow and S&P.

Not that this was the first time stocks reversed course or at all unusual. The practice of pumping stocks when they seem to be falling into a void has been a feature of equity exchanges in Europe and the U.S. for decades. The practice of "supporting your stock" is as old as the 1929 crash and puts the lie to what are supposed to be "free and fair" markets.

The harsh reality is that there's absolutely nothing free nor fair about equity markets. They are controlled by the biggest banks and brokerages, giant holding companies like Berkshire-Hathaway, BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street, and given additional support by the New York Fed's trading desk, the government's Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF) and the President's Working Group on Financial Markets (colloquially known as the Plunge Protection Team, or PPT), created by President Reagan after the 1987 stock market crash.

Individual investors that haven't been bankrupted by the antics of the big money rollers can only hope to pick stocks they believe will do well and go along for the ride. Fundamentals and valuations have not mattered for a very long time. The ultimate goal of the stock market insiders is to keep stocks going higher and higher, and to keep everybody in the game by projecting strength and vitality in American - and European - enterprise.

Friday's "dip and rip" was just another in a long history of sudden reversals. It should be noted that stocks almost never make similar moves off highs intra-day. In other words, stocks don't normally zoom up and then reverse to the downside. That goes against the narrative and doesn't benefit the financial industrial complex that controls Western economies. Stock markets are inexorably tied to nations, as if the health and wealth of mega-corporations are the only things that matter. It's complete bull hockey and probably will never end. The Federal Reserve pumps money into financial markets on a regular basis and the entire structure of the Western financial system has become dependent on keeping stocks elevated and going forever higher and higher, just as the purchasing power of the underlying currencies - euros, pounds, dollars, yen - collapses.

As hyper-inflation becomes embedded into daily life, expect stocks to just fly to new levels of exhilarating excess. It happened in Weimar Germany and Zimbabwe. It will happen in Europe, Japan, the UK, and the United States. It's nearly a mathematical certainty and why short-sellers regularly are carried out on stretchers during the rare, brief downturns in the markets. There hasn't been an actual bear market since 2008, which, incidentally, was when the entire global financial system imploded for good. Since then, it's just been fraud after fraud, control freaks freaking and geeking, and stocks to the moon. Meanwhile, the economies of Western nations have been crumbling. Standards of living have fallen. Housing has become unaffordable. Food costs are now threatening to bankrupt the middle class.

Wealth disparity is at levels never seen before, not during the gilded age, the 1920s, or any other time in recorded history. The top 10 percent of the population in the U.S. owns 87% of all stocks. 42 million Americans are on food assistance (SNAP) and the government is doing its level best to deprive them of that.

The average interest rate on credit cards is now 24%, but, corporations can borrow at 3-5% and banks, well, 0.50%. Outstanding student loans are now $1.8 trillion. Those loans are federally-mandated and federally administered, but, college degrees, outside of engineering and the sciences, are virtually worthless. The same federal government has decreed that those loans are not dischargeable in bankruptcy. Thank Bill Clinton for that.

Not choosing sides, the current government shutdown is now in its 40th day, the longest in history. The whole thing is a psy-op. Both sides, both parties were in on it from the start. The goal, whatever it may be, is probably not going to be to the liking of most Americans. The government is conditioning the populace for something bigger, much like they did with COVID. Maybe martial law. Maybe something worse.

On the Sunday talk shows, not a word was spoken about the delayed SNAP funding. That 42 million Americans rely on government aid in order to eat is a national disgrace, but, the government conditioned these people, over generations in some cases, to expect a monthly stipend, a hand-out, and now it's been delayed and soon will be denied. Meanwhile, reducing air traffic by 10% borders on a national disaster according to the media. Oh, people can't travel? Boo-hoo. Try not eating for a few days and see how that works out.

If you're not already fully disgusted with the U.S. congress and the entirety of the federal government - the president and the courts included - you're either willfully ignorant, probably suffering from TDS or normalcy bias that is keeping you from seeing the reality of the situation. The U.S. government, like the government in the UK, EU, Japan, Canada, Australia, and elsewhere, isn't there to protect or enforce your rights or to provide for the general welfare of the people. These governments are there to feed off your wealth, to impoverish you for the benefit of the elected officials and the donor class, to further the beaurocracy,and to keep the open wage and tax slave plantation operating. It's as simple as that. Wake the F-- up.

Financialization has destroyed Europe, the UK, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Australia, and the United States.

The BRICS are thriving while Western nations shrivel up and die. Deal with it.

Stocks

The Friday dip and flip kept stocks from suffering severe damage, scaring investors, and possibly causing further flight from the AI bubble, tech bubble, all-stocks-all-the-time bubble. What caused stocks to turn on a dime and head higher was purported to be some kind of deal in the Senate to end the government shutdown. Even though the news was out by 2:00 pm ET that the Republicans had rejected the Democrats' proposal without so much as a vote, stocks continued to rally through the end of the session.

The Democrat proposal to vote for to fund the government if the Republicans agreed to a one-year extension of Obamacare tax credits wasn't even close. It was more theatrics. There was nothing real about the Friday afternoon rally. It was 100% fake.

On Friday, the Dow was down more than 400 points just after noon, but rallied to finish 74 points to the upside. The S&P had dropped 89 points. It closed up eight. The unlucky NASDAQ was down 490 points. It closed down 49, effectively cancelling out 90% of the day's losses. It was an object lesson in the lie of free markets and the financial equivalent of saving face in front of the whole world.

Generally speaking, stocks are so wickedly overvalued only those with a vested interest in keeping their valuations at nose-bleed levels for their own satisfaction should own them. People who hold them in 401k plans or otherwise should run, full speed, away from these corrupt markets and nver look back. Going along for the free ride is only going to end in tears and recriminations.

For anybody still interested, a number of stocks will be reporting third quarter earnings this coming week. While that's all well and good, whatever profits or losses are reported should bear in mind that the longer the government shutdown extends, the more horrific will be fourth quarter results.

Keep in mind that the first estimate of third quarter GDP was not reported as it usually is, on the last Thursday of October, because the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis isn't working because of the shutdown. Thus, there's no indication of whether the third quarter was good, bad, or indifferent. It was probably bad, which is yet another reason the government chose to shut itself down. After a while, it should begin to become obvious that the government shutdown isn't about funding the government for another few weeks or subsidies for families stuck in the (un)Affordable Care Act maelstrom. It's about taking a wrecking ball to everything the government touches and turns into fecal matter. This is a shutdown unlike others. Americans better get used to not relying on Uncle Sam to be there in times of need or even in normal times. Normal has been eliminated. There is no normal. There is only chaos, sown by the government to the detriment of the people.

The government and the propaganda mainstream media want the public to believe that reopening the government will be an improvement over it being shut down when the exact opposite is true. The government and its $38 trillion in debt needs to be permanently put to rest, power returned to the states and to the people. Holding faithfully onto financial assets, as opposed to hard assets like silver, gold, machinery, self-owned business assets, and real estate (which is actually only rented from the government - see your local tax bill), is sheer lunacy.

Here are the big, publicly-owned (where 1 share equals 1/10,000,000,000th ownership or worse) companies reporting in the week ahead:

Monday, November 10: (before open) Instacart (CART), Vonage (VG), Barrick (B); (after close) Plug Power (PLUG)

Tuesday, November 11: (before open) Orla Mining (ORLA); (after close) Oklo (OKLO)

Wednesday, November 12: (before open) Autolus (AUTL), Innovis Technologies (INVZ); (after close) Cisco Systems (CSCO)

Thursday, November 13: (before open) Walt Disney (DIS), Canadian Solar (CSIQ), JD.com (JD), Gambling.com (GAMB); (after close) Applied Materials (AMAT), Beazer Homes (BZH).

Don't expect life in the United States to improve, though stocks may rally - or not - despite your personal pessimism. At this stage of the game, virtually anything is possible.

Treasury Yield Curve Rates

Date	1 Mo	1.5 mo	2 Mo	3 Mo	4 Mo	6 Mo	1 Yr
10/03/2025	4.24	4.17	4.11	4.03	3.96	3.82	3.64
10/10/2025	4.19	4.16	4.10	4.02	3.96	3.81	3.60
10/17/2025	4.18	4.15	4.08	4.00	3.95	3.79	3.56
10/24/2025	4.11	4.06	4.02	3.93	3.89	3.76	3.58
10/31/2025	4.06	4.02	4.04	3.89	3.87	3.79	3.70
11/07/2025	4.01	3.96	3.98	3.92	3.83	3.76	3.63

Date	2 Yr	3 Yr	5 Yr	7 Yr	10 Yr	20 Yr	30 Yr
10/03/2025	3.58	3.59	3.72	3.90	4.13	4.69	4.71
10/10/2025	3.52	3.52	3.65	3.83	4.05	4.60	4.63
10/17/2025	3.46	3.47	3.59	3.78	4.02	4.58	4.60
10/24/2025	3.48	3.49	3.61	3.79	4.02	4.56	4.59
10/31/2025	3.60	3.60	3.71	3.89	4.11	4.65	4.67
11/07/2025	3.55	3.57	3.67	3.87	4.11	4.68	4.70

Honestly, interest rates don't really matter much under current conditions unless you're an active bond trader and they are subject to tinkering by the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department exercising what might be called "yield curve control" or YCC. The separate bodies can work in unison to achieve certain results. Under the current regimes, there is an ongoing attempt to lower rates, though the long end, dominated by so called "bond vigilantes" has not complied, with rates moving higher even in the face of back-to-back FOMC rate cuts. The Fed has surrendered its integrity and continues to be torn between saving the economy and saving the currency. It is currently losing on both fronts. The general economy is in tatters and the currency has lost 98% of its purchasing power since 1913. The rising spreads are indicating expectations for improving financial conditions, but a return of high inflation along with it.

For what it's worth, 2s-10s spreads expanded to +56 while full spectrum ripped up to +69, matching a double high in June. The instant indication is toward improvement in business conditions along with inflation at the consumer and producer level. Regionals banks are finding out how fragile their commercial real estate portfolios are with defaults and write-downs on financed real estate continuing to escalate.

Spreads:

2s-10s
2025
1/3: +32
1/10: +37
1/17: +34
1/24: +36
1/31: +36
2/7: +20
2/14: +21
2/21: +23
2/28: +25
3/7: +33
3/14: +29
3/21: +31
3/28: +38
4/4: +33
4/11: +52
4/17: +53
4/25: +55
5/2: +50
5/9: +49
5/16: +45
5/23: +51
5/30: +52
6/6: +48
6/13: +45
6/20: +48
6/27: +56
7/3: +47
7/11: +53
7/18: +56
7/25: +49
8/1: +54
8/8: +51
8/15: +58
8/22: +58
8/29: +64
9/5: +59
9/12: +50
9/19: +57
9/26: +57
10/3: +45
10/10: +53
10/17: +56
10/24: +54
10/31: +51
11/7: +56

Full Spectrum (30-days - 30-years)
2025
1/3: +38
1/10: +54
1/17: +41
1/24: +40
1/31: +36
2/7: +32
2/14: +32
2/21: +31
2/28: +13
3/7: +24
3/14: +25
3/21: +23
3/28: +26
4/4: +5
4/11: +38
4/17: +44
4/25: +40
5/2: +41
5/9: +46
5/16: +52
5/23: +68
5/30: +59
6/6: +69
6/13: +67
6/20: +69
6/27: +66
7/3: +51
7/11: +59
7/18: +65
7/25: +55
8/1: +32
8/8: +37
8/15: +44
8/22: +41
8/29: +51
9/5: +49
9/12: +40
9/19: +54
9/26: +55
10/3: +47
10/10: +43
10/17: +42
10/24: +48
10/31: +61
11/7: +69

Oil/Gas

WTI crude closed out the week at $59.84, a $1.04 decline from last Friday's close of $60.88. Futures were lower every day except Friday, catching a tailwind from the stock-buying binge. Remember how Russia was going to suffer from the new sanctions on their two biggest oil companies? That's all been relegated to the trash heap of history. The U.S. and Europe don't actually control any markets anymore. The BRICS, especially India, China, Russia, Iran, and increasingly, Indonesia, are taking hold of the global economy and shaping it to their liking.

The U.S. national average for gas at the pump was up a nickel, to $3.07, according to Gasbuddy.com, though that number would appear to be an anomaly. Gas prices should continue to decline the longer the government shutdown continues, the economy contracts, and demand is slashed.

California remains the priciest, at $4.71 per gallon, up five cents, followed by Washington ($4.24), lower by another five cents on the week. Oregon ($3.81), was down another four cents. The lowest prices remain in the Southeast, with Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Mississippi sharing the low price point at $2.53. Tennessee ($2.56) and Texas ($2.58) follow. The remaining Southeast states are all below $2.84 (Florida).

In the Northeast, prices were higher. All except New Hampshire ($2.93), Rhode Island ($2.97) and New Jersey ($2.99) were at or above $3.00, with Pennsylvania ($3.24) easily the highest. New York and Maryland are the closest ($3.11).

In the midwest region, Illinois ($3.27) was joined in the $3.00+ club by Indiana ($3.02), West Virginia ($3.05), Ohio ($3.07), and Michigan ($3.11). At the low end were Colorado ($2.68) and Missouri ($2.72).

Sub-$3.00 gas was reported in 28 states, a sharp drop of seven from last week.

Bitcoin

This week: $103,678.70
Last week: $110,406.10
2 weeks ago: $113,471.40
6 months ago: $103,161.70
One year ago: $78,990.80
Five years ago: $17,734.38

In case the diamond-handed haven't noticed, bitcoin first crossed over $100,000 in early December of last year. Those who bought at levels above $103,000, have made no gains for the past 11 months, and are, instead, losing bitcoin. All of crypto will eventually be discarded. It only serves the master-slave arrangement as a ready depository for dodgy funds and criminal activity, much of which is carried out by banks and governments. Bitcoin hasn't been legal tender in El Salvador since February of this year and isn't legal tender anywhere else, except maybe the Maldives or Pago-Pago or places where nobody actually lives.

With liquidity becoming a real issue, bitcoin and other cryptos will be sold off for greenbacks and stocks, but the smart money will go into gold and silver.

Precious Metals

Gold:Silver Ratio: 82.76; last week: 82.16

Per COMEX continuous contracts:

Gold price 10/10: $4,035.50
Gold price 10/17: $4,267.90
Gold price 10/24: $4,126.90
Gold price 10/31: $4,013.40
Gold price 11/7: $4,007.80

Silver price 10/10: $47.51
Silver price 10/17: $50.63
Silver price 10/24: $48.41
Silver price 10/31: $48.25
Silver price 11/7: $48.22

SPOT:
(stockcharts.com)
Gold 10/17: $4250.59
Gold 10/24: $4110.63
Gold 10/31: $3997.10
Gold 11/7: $3999.89

Silver 10/17: $51.88
Silver 10/24: $48.59
Silver 10/31: $48.65
Silver 11/7: $48.33

(Kitko)
Gold 10/19: Bid: $4,250.80; Ask: $4,252.80
Gold 10/26: Bid: $4,111.20; Ask: $4,113.20
Gold 10/31: Bid: $4001.10; Ask: $4,003.10
Gold 11/7: Bid: $3,999.60; Ask: $4,001.60

Silver 10/19: Bid: $51.86; Ask: $51.98
Silver 10/26: Bid: $48.53; Ask: $48.65
Silver 10/31: Bid: $48.60; Ask: $48.72
Silver 11/7: Bid: $48.23; Ask: $48.35

Gold and silver were under pressure, though not significantly. Gold remains stuck right around $4,000, and silver just below $50. As most hardened advocates of hard money understand, patience equals prosperity. These levels provide solid entry points for accumulation of real money. Eventually, prices will not be expressed in dollar amounts, but in ounces, which is all that matters.

It's fairly evident that the gold stored in Fort Knox and elsewhere in the United States is not unencumbered, having been lent out and re-hypothecated quite frequently over the past 80-odd years. The United States has not added to its gold stores in many, many years and will soon reap what it has sown. In terms of ounces of gold and silver held by the government, businesses, and individuals, Western nations are among the poorest on the planet. This fact will become self-evident in coming years. The current government shutdown is merely a symptom of the underlying monetary problem of fiat currency and fractional reserve banking, which are failing.

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

Item/Price	Low	High	Average	Median
1 oz silver coin:	53.61	59.99	56.80	56.50
1 oz silver bar:	54.02	59.95	56.75	56.59
1 oz gold coin:	4,116.87	4,466.30	4,314.36	4,343.22
1 oz gold bar:	4,106.00	4,272.79	4,212.57	4,225.00

The Single Ounce Silver Market Price Benchmark (SOSMPB) gained positive ground over the week, to $56.66, a a gain of 48 cents from the November 2nd price of $56.18 per troy ounce. The small-denomination, physical market continues to add premia to, and depart from, spot.

WEEKEND WRAP

This quote by Samuel Adams seems an appropriate way to wrap up this week in the evolving Age of Delusion.

“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”

At the Close, Friday, November 7, 2025:
Dow: 46,987.10, +74.80 (+0.16%)
NASDAQ: 23,004.54, -49.46 (-0.21%)
S&P 500: 6,728.80, +8.48 (+0.13%)
NYSE Composite: 21,408.55, +120.11 (+0.56%)

For the Week:
Dow: -575.77 (-1.21%)
NASDAQ: -720.42 (-3.04%)
S&P 500: -111.40 (-1.63%)
NYSE Composite: -51.03 (-0.24%)
Dow Transports: +319.05 (+2.01)

Government Shutdown Having Adverse Effects on U.S. Economy and Stock Market; Venezuela Invasion on Hold; Gold, Silver Advancing

Normally, the first Friday of the month would offer the BLS release of non-farm payroll data for the prior month, but, with the government shutdown now at 38 days and counting, the BLS staff has been furloughed and all of the usual data drops simply aren't happening.

Oddly enough, the president saw fit to keep some of the number-crunchers working as the shutdown began. Back on October 24, a skeleton crew produced the September CPI figures, which showed an uptick of inflation to an annual rate of 3.0% and a monthly increase of 0.3%. The numbers were considered important enough to keep market-watchers happy, and it certainly did the trick, as the interpretation was supposedly that since the figures were below Wall Street's expectations, everything was just fine, or, the higher numbers gave the Fed a solid rationale to lower the federal funds rate, which they did the following Wednesday. Stocks were up on the 24th, a Friday. After the Fed's rate hike, stocks were satiated to a degree, though there was disappointment when Fed Chairman Jerome Powell expressed an opinion putting a further 0.25% rate cut in December in doubt.

So, for the second month in a row, there will be no non-farm payroll report, which, in a way, is refreshing, since the BLS data is usually so corrupted and massaged, it normally gets revised the following month, and again, on an annual basis, usually resulting in job numbers well below those originally reported. The BLS has been a great boon to politicians wishing to show a strong, vibrant U.S. economy when the reality is often vastly different.

Thus, interested parties had to rely on the ADP Employment Report for October, released on Wednesday, which showed an uptick in private employment to 42,000, with small and mid-sized companies shedding jobs and companies with more than 500 employees adding.

"Private employers added jobs in October for the first time since July, but hiring was modest relative to what we reported earlier this year. Meanwhile, pay growth has been largely flat for more than a year, indicating that shifts in supply and demand are balanced."

-- Dr. Nela Richardson, Chief Economist, ADP

As the government remains in shutdown mode, Senate Democrats have been huddling, seeking to find a suitable solution to reopen the government without betraying their priorities. The current scuttlebutt has Republican leader, John Thune, calling for a 15th vote on the House bill on Friday. The Democrats have reportedly culled together a plan that would make changes to the House bill, that, if passed, would require the new legislation to go back to the House for reconciliation. It's likely, even if something comes of this new tactic today, over the weekend, or early next week, that the government might reopen, but there's uncertainty that the House would agree. They've been out of session since late September, and Speaker Mike Johnson has repeatedly said that he won't reconvene the chamber until the Senate passes the bill already before them. Changes to the bill, would, naturally, force the Speaker to call the House back to session.

With all that baggage, the shutdown is beginning to affect stocks and the general economy. 40 airports have already announced a reduction in the number of arrivals and departures due to staffing problems with unpaid air-traffic controllers. SNAP, the food stamps program, still has not been funded for November, though President Trump has agreed to comply with a court order forcing him to release contingency funds. However, the Agriculture Department, which handles the program, says its funds will only cover about two-thirds of the usual benefits and that making the changes to millions of food stamp accounts at the state level will take some time. Meanwhile, food banks are being overwhelmed across the country, as SNAP recipients have been forced to seek hand-outs elsewhere.

At the same time, there are roughly 750,000 federal employees who have missed paychecks since early October, putting strain on their personal lives and family budgets. The military is being funded with money that was earmarked for other projects, which, for the time being, are on hold, the money being used to pay soldiers, sailors, airmen, and civilian military contractors.

Those issues are beginning to become concerning to Wall Street, as the flow of capital is being negatively affected. Adding to their anguish are concerns that the AI boom may have resulted in some overpricing of tech stocks (no, really?). The air is slowly beginning to come out of the tech bubble. Stocks have suffered this week especially.

Through Thursday's close, the Dow Industrials were down 650 points for the week; the NASDAQ had shed nearly three percent, or, 670 points; and the S&P 500 was down 120 points. A few Mag7 stocks were under pressure. Meta Platforms (META) is off 4.5% through Thursday's close; Nvidia (NVDA) is off by more than seven percent.

As the opening bell approaches for the final session of the week, things aren't looking very rosy for the Wall Street faithful. Just beofre 9:00 am ET, Dow futures are down 140 points, NASDAQ futures are lower by 176, and S&P futures are down 31.

Bitcoin dipped below $100,000 again this morning after a few days of "whale boating" took the price off Wednesday’s lows just above $99,000 back up to $104,000 and change. Social media sites, especially X, have been inundated with all manner of postings featuring Michael Saylor, Tom Lee, and ARK Invest's Cathie Wood, touting bitcoin projections of anywhere from $400,000 to over a million dollars within months or by 2030. The lid is off the crypto Pandora's Box. Along with declines of close to 20% for bitcoin, other crypto coins have fallen even further over the past month, with Ether down 28%, and Cardano off $39%.

WTI crude oil continues to weaken as the prospect for higher prices due to sanctions against Russian oil companies has failed to scare anybody. China and India have continued uninterrupted purchases of Russian crude. The U.S. and European Union gambit - like all of the previous 17 tranches of sanctions - has failed miserably. WTI crude is holding around $60/barrel, but prospects for higher prices are slim to none.

Gold and silver are showing showing resilience, with gold back above $4,000 and silver closing in again on $50, after the U.S. announced that silver was added to the strategic metals list and China placed limits on silver exports.

Things are beginning to get interesting, so this may not be the optimal time to launch an invasion on Venezuela.

At the Close, Thursday, November 6, 2025:
Dow: 46,912.30, -398.70 (-0.84%)
NASDAQ: 23,053.99, -445.80 (-1.90%)
S&P 500: 6,720.32, -75.97 (-1.12%)
NYSE Composite: 21,288.44, -73.13 (-0.34%)

Federal Reserve Has Injected $125 Billion in Five Days to Shore Up Bank Liquidity; Government Shutdown Costing $5 Billion a Day

On Friday, October 31, the Federal Reserve injected $29.4 billion into repo markets, shoring up dwindling bank reserves, but since then, the number has grown substantially, to the point at which the Fed has pumped in a total of $125 billion in just five days October 31 - November 4).

That's a rather large sum of money - about $360 for every American citizen - and it indicates the degree of stress and lack of liquidity in financial markets. Money is being drained from the system by various means, some of it related to the government shutdown, now the longest in U.S. history, which some people suggest is costing the economy $5 billion per day. The math almost adds up. With the government shutdown now in its 37th day, at a rate of $5 billion per day, that would amount to $185 billion.

Maybe the $5 billion per day number isn't quite right, but it appears to be close. Without adequate money flows, from people to businesses to banks and vice versa, with the government acting as a kind of middleman, the system seizes up and money stops flowing. Stress is usually experienced at the margins, with poor people the first to notice. Suspension of SNAP benefits for November are beginning to have an effect in poor communities, with food banks and private charities seeking to fill the void, but, since the government isn't very good at partial measures - recent court decisions have forced the government to use emergency funds though they're only enough to supply roughly two-thirds of the usual $9 billion a month - rejiggering 42 million individual accounts at state levels isn't going to happen overnight.

Thus, the money that usually flows through the system is caught in a bottleneck of the government's own making. While it is shameful that so many Americans need to receive assistance just to buy groceries, the overall effect of choking off the flow of funds affects not only the people who receive the money, but small merchants, grocery chains, and food providers all the way up to corporations like Tyson Foods, Pepsico, Yum! Brands and Coca-Cola, eventually showing up as decreasing deposits at commercial banks, which is why the Fed has stepped in to fill the void so aggressively.

But, what about December, January, and beyond? And what about all the government employees that have been furloughed or are working without pay? The usual flow of money has been adversely affected by the government shutdown and it doesn't seem to be anywhere near being resolved. After a while, investors will begin to notice, which is why stocks and crypto issues went south on Tuesday. Albeit a little overdue to reflect on the ground reality, people and institutions are beginning to sense that the problems in financial markets are deeper and more structural than monetary easing by the Fed can handle.

Tuesday's predictable deat cat bounce supplied some temporary relief in the stock markets, but the indices began to swoon as the session drew to a close. While the S&P 500 did manage to finish ahead by 24 points, it was up nearly 60 just prior to 2:00 pm ET. Not everybody was sold on the idea of buying the dip or that the economy is fundamentally sound, probably because it's not. The U.S. economy is weak and it gets weaker every day the government shutdown continues, and maybe that's the point. Maybe the government has finally decided to throw up its hands and declare that it cannot continue on the long path of debt and deficits, inflation and growing poverty that has become endemic. Maybe they won't reopen the government after all, though one wonders how the neocons in congress and the administration plan on funding the bombing of Venezuela... and Ukraine... and Gaza.

To be perfectly honest, the U.S. government isn't fully shut down, only the parts deemed non-essential, which raises the question, if they're not essential, why are we paying for them in the first place? Beyond that casual observation, the IRS is still functioning, so there is some tax money coming in, and Treasury auctions continue, so the government hasn't stopped borrowing. There's some money coming in, but, not as much. The kicker is that some expenses have been curtailed, for now, so Treasury Secretary Bessent has plenty of wiggle room to move money to wherever it is needed. Such a deal!

Approaching the open, stock futures are modestly higher based on the notion that spiraling corporate layoffs due to AI are increasing the odds for a December rate cut. Seriously, you can't make this stuff up. Could it be that corporate layoffs are due to business slowing and not AI? Maybe? And, so, that would be bad for stocks, no? Um, no, layoffs reduce overhead, leading to higher profits, but, rate cuts, too. The goal here is to have robots and AI bots doing all the work, Americans out on the streets, the federal funds rate at 0.25% and stocks to the moon.

Makes perfect sense.

Gold and silver are rebounding. China has tightened export controls on silver, along with tungsten and antimony. Spot silver is bid at $48.33. Spot gold, $4,006.80. WTI crude futures, after a few days in the 60s, is back down to $59.79.

At the Close, Wednesday, November 5, 2025:
Dow: 47,311.00, +225.76 (+0.48%)
NASDAQ: 23,499.80, +151.16 (+0.65%)
S&P 500: 6,796.29, +24.74 (+0.37%)
NYSE Composite: 21,361.57, +78.86 (+0.37%)

Bitcoin and Crypto Have No Utility; U.S. Government Needs to Cease and Desist from Its Pursuit of StableCoin Crypto Utopia Because It Doesn't Exist

Bitcoin has been taking a beating of late, and, on Tuesday, it got beaten like a rented mule, from $107,000 down to $99,095.

It was the first time Bitcoin had not been priced in six digits since early May. At that time it was quickly recovering from some turbulent trading that had sent the price tumbling from $105,000 in late January down as low as $75,000 during the first tariff scare in early April, so, it appears that the alternative to the fiat US dollar is subject to wild swings valuation based on political activity.

One question that really needs to be addressed by the crypto crowd concerns the ultimate utility of bitcoin and the thousands of other "alt-coins" and various vacuous specie traversing the ether. Just what is the point of an electronic currency that has, over its 16 years of existence, failed to engender mass adoption, is owned largely by "whales" and institutional money managers like BlackRock or the inscrctible MicroStrategy of Michael Saylor, or even the government of El Salvador?

Taking the example of El Salvador as a prime example of its lack of traction, the government of that Central American country had mandated bitcoin as legal tender in 2021, yet, after four years of the public eschewing its use at the retail or wholesale level, the government, with little fanfare and even less coverage in the financial media, backed away from the failed experiment in February of this year. The exceptional experience of an entire nation rejecting use of the "miracle in the void" should have served as proof enough that bitcoin, and, by inference, the entire crypto-universe of tokens, alt-coins, NFTs, and stablecoins needs to be relegated to the scrapheap of history.

Crypto has no utility.

Say it again: crypto has no utility.

It is nothing but idle speculation with excess capital amidst the biggest financial bubble in the history of mankind. The followers - cultists, really - continue to cling to debunked notions that it is anonymous, private, peer-to-peer, trustless, frictionless money. Tell that to anybody who's bought, sold, or traded any kind of crypto-currency over any of the exchanges like Coinbase or Binance. There's absolutely nothing private about it at all, transacting in crypto is a pretty large pain in the behind overall, there are fees for every transaction, and people routinely lose control of "their" crypto, via scams, missing keys, theft, and all kinds of other misanthropic misadventures.

Bitcoin and the rest of the crypto space is imploding, while at the same time the U.S. government has promoted a crypto sovereign fund and use of stablecoins as a means fo salvation from its $38 trillion debt abyss. The dealings of President Trump, his two sons, Eric and Don Jr., crypto czar David Sacks and certain Senators - particularly Senator Cynthia Lumis of Wyoming - need to be scrutinized, not by congress (many of whom back the Ponzi stablecoin scheme) or any government regulators, but by the American public, because attempting to establish crypto as legal tender or currency in America reeks of insider dealing and malfeasance.

After all, bitcoin was tested in El Salvador. What makes the U.S. government think it can make it work on a much larger scale when it was completely rejected in a trial run. Are American politicians smarter than the people of El Salvador? They probably think they are, yet they've proven to be among the most deceptive, larcenous, traitorous assemblage in the history of politics, and that includes some very, very unsavory creatures.

Senator Cynthia Lumis of Wyoming needs to be run out of town on a rail.

So too, the Trump brothers, Eric and Don Jr. and the president's crypto czar, David Sacks and while we're at it, Treasury Secretary Bessent and the president himself, for guiding America to being the "crypro capital of the world," which is simple shorthand for the biggest financial fraud since John Law's Louisiana ventures.

Blackrock's Larry Fink should be in a federal prison. As CEO of Blackrock, he's responsible for some of the worst financial deals of this or any decade. Led along by Michael Saylor, a convicted felon, the U.S. government - still shut down after 35 days, now the longest in history - has perpetrated massive malinvestment and malfeasance. Isn't it time to flush out all the fraud that encompasses the "crypto industry" and start naming names, ridding the financial industry of the grifters, thieves, and con men, including a good number of Senators and House Representatives, and getting back to sound money, like silver and gold, upon which the United States of America was founded?

To think that the U.S. government would go so far as to establish a "crypto sovereign fund", pass the GENIUS Act, enabling more corruption and burning of the nation's wealth, and have the support of both parties in enabling "stablecoins" as a means to pay down the $38 trillion in government debt, is in any way the actions of a responsible government would be tantamount to calling Bernie Madoff a "square dealer."

While the U.S. government is shut down, it's probably a good idea to keep it that way. After all, should they re-open, all they'll do is spend money they don't have on projects that are already proven failures. The people who populate the environs of the United States of America would be far better off without any government of any kind, federal, state or local, than the amalgamation of misguided takers that encompass the entirety of the government leviathan bureaucracy.

Americans need to face up to the reality that the country is at a very dangerous turning point, at the brink of failure, mostly due to the lack of discipline at the very height of government, in the Senate, House, White House and the Supreme Court. For mercy's sake, they cannot balance a budget and now they can't even keep the lights on. American people need to prepare for the worst, because, whether intentional or accidental, it matters not, the managers of the government are either completely incompetent or entirely corrupt, and probably both.

Looking ahead, it's hard to imagine the NASDAQ rebounding from Tuesday's bloodbath, but there will be a concerted effort made by the usual suspects to put a happy face on the market.

With the opening bell on Wall Street just moments away, futures are flat-lining, bitcoin has revived from $99,000 to $103,000. There's likely to be a dead cat bounce Wednesday, but, in the end, the cat is still dead, the government is still closed, and America is failing on many levels.

At the Close, Tuesday, November 4, 2025:
Dow: 47,085.24, -251.44 (-0.53%)
NASDAQ: 23,348.64, -486.09 (-2.04%)
S&P 500: 6,771.55, -80.42 (-1.17%)
NYSE Composite: 21,282.71, -133.88 (-0.63%)