U.S. - Russia Peace Talks Stalled; ADP Reports November Payrolls -45,000; Bitcoin Remains in Bear Market; Are Trump Accounts Any Good?

With the holiday season in full swing, Wall Street made up for lost ground on Tuesday, sending all the indices higher on promises for no peace and ill will toward other countries, which kind of goes against the biblical rendering, "peace on earth, good will toward men."

Most of the world is at Defcon 1 or 2 by now, getting ready for World War III, which Europe, the UK, and the United States appear to be intent on starting.

Meanwhile, Steve Witcoff and President Trump's son in-law, Jared Kushner, have traveled to Moscow, negotiating terms of their 18-28 point peace plan with Russian president Putin. Word has it that negotiations went deep into the evening, past midnight, and that the talks were "constructive", which is a media dog whistle for "we got nothing." This is the same messaging that was issued over the weekend from the meetings in Miami with officials from Ukraine. The whole "peace deal" is just plain bunk, made for media spin. The war in Ukraine will end when Russia completely wipes out the Ukraine's armed forces, which is happening on a continuous basis. Figure by June or sooner, Russia will own all of Ukraine east of the Dnieper River.

In the meantime, NATO and friends have been targeting oil tankers which are supposedly carrying Russian oil, a big no-no from an American perspective but also not something of which Mr. Putin is very fond. Russian pipelines and energy facilities have been under heavy assault the past few months. This is apparently how the West negotiates. With explosions and targeting Russia's energy infrastructure. That should work out just fine for the comedy team of Witkoff and Kushner.

Also, sooner or later, the U.S. is going to invade Venezuela, for their oil, not because they traffic drugs, as we've been told. These people are insane.

So, stocks should go up because, um, America, yeah!

Elsewhere, whether you believe last Friday's CME outage was real or a devious ploy to hide severe stress in the silver market, the usual suspects were back at work, sending the price of silver on the globex down from $59 to $57.53 in a matter of an hour right around midnight ET. Silver is gaining as the sun rises over Wall Street, trading just above $58.

Around the same time, gold received similar treatment. At around 7:30 am ET, gold was trading just above $4,200 per ounce.

The continuing suppression effort by the LBMA, CME, COMEX underlings, Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF), and/or anybody else, has become something of a running joke to serious investors. Everybody knows what they're doing, and everybody also knows that the jig is just about up. The rising price of gold and silver at various rates of change in different countries is not that gold and silver are becoming more valuable, it's that the currencies used to purchase them are losing value. Yen, yuan, euros, dollars, pounds are basically becoming toilet paper.

Gold and silver endure. Get some soon, because today's prices - even at or near all-time highs - are going to look ridiculously cheap in the not-so-distant future as the entire facade of Western prosperity and productivity meets the reality of the emerging BRICS nations. Western economies are deeply in debt and unable to escape the clutches of inflation and boom-bust cycles. The stock market cannot go up indefinitely, though it appears that the money behind the gains of the last five years, at least, aren't yet satisfied.

There's money to be made in stocks. That's for certain. How much is a matter of investing acumen, timing, and capital willing to be employed. With the Fed all but certain to cut the federal funds target rate by 0.25% next Wednesday, stocks should see solid gains between now and then and probably beyond. There just isn't any kind of anchor in the system. Nothing seems to shake the confidence level of the confidence men or the back room antics of the string-pullers.

Nobody with a functioning brain dares short this market, so the upward slope is practically guaranteed. What might it take for the markets to correct? Who knows? Wall Street manages to spin every bit of news - good or bad - into a positive for stock ownership.

So, why worry?

Maybe because the narrative doesn't quite match reality. AI hasn't produced any significant scientific breakthroughs, any significant increase in knowledge or productivity, or any other tangible result beyond writing pretty good high school and college term papers and enhanced porn. Big tech companies are investing hundreds of billions of dollars on a technology that is unlikely to ever produce positive ROI.

Then, there's bitcoin and the crypto con. Since November 22, bitcoin has gained from a low of $84,000 to over $93,000 this morning. That's all well and good and the crypto bros are once again touting "new highs, soon, real soon," and other rubbish. Bitcoin and most of the other popular copies are still 25-30% down from recent all-time highs. For all intents and purposes, crypto remains in a bear market.

What's even more concerning about bitcoin and crypto in general is that it serves no useful purpose other than providing a means to soak up excess liquidity and fund illegal activities. It's not a store of value or a viable means of exchange. Bitcoin and all the other "coins" are just speculations. Eventually, like fiat currencies, they will be worth little if anything.

Not that it matters much, but, this morning, the November ADP employment report registered a loss of 32,000 jobs in the month, missing expectations of +40,000 by a mile and well below the +47,000 upwardly-revised from October.

According to Dr. Nela Richardson, Chief Economist, ADP:

Hiring has been choppy of late as employers weather cautious consumers and an uncertain macroeconomic environment. And while November's slowdown was broad-based, it was led by a pullback among small businesses.

Thank you, Captain Obvious.

Normally, the ADP report presages the BLS Non-farm Payroll report issued the first Friday of each month, but, according to the ever-efficient federal government bureaucrats, the November report has been delayed until December 16 and will include partial data from October. Well, isn't that special? After the FOMC meeting (December 9-10).

Moving on, Money Daily did a little investigating on Trump Accounts after Michael Dell and his wife pledged to put $250 into 25 million Trump Accounts, for a total contribution of $6.25 billion. Americans have about 3.6 million births a year, so over four years time, that amounts to 14.4 million. In order for the Dells to reach the $6.25 billion target, the US birth rate would have to pretty much double, and nearly every parent of a child born during the eligibility period would have to open a Trump Account.

As usual, the hype overshadows the reality.

Q: Should you open a Trump Account if you have a baby born on or after Jan. 1, 2025, through Dec. 31, 2028?

A: Not until you read the 44-page notice the IRS has prepared. Nobody can open a Trump account until sometime next year. Contributions to Trump Accounts cannot be made before July 4, 2026. The IRS is still in the process of creating Form 4547, which has to be filed when opening a Trump Account.

The federal government will supposedly make a contribution to eligible Trump Accounts in the amount of $1000. It's free money, but the beneficiary of the account - your kid - can't touch it until they're 18. The money has to go into a bank or other non-bank custodian trustee acount and be invested in either mutual funds or ETFs. The contribution limits are $5,000 a year. After the beneficiary turns 18, any distributions are taxed as ordinary income.

Here's a thought: How about, instead of dealing with the government, banks, taxes, and the stock market, you buy $1000 worth of gold, silver, baseball cards, and comic books, store them in a safe place (like an actual "safe") and don't tell anybody? Then, you can add to it whenever you please, spend it whenever you like, do whatever you want with it. If that sounds easier and more desirable, it's because it is.

Some people may have a problem with this latest vote-buying-stock-market-pumping scheme. The $1,000 that will be donated by the government to each account is taxpayer money, or, rather, about 60% taxpayer money and about 40% borrowed from the Federal Reserve. Did anybody ask American taxpayers if they wanted their money spent this way? No.

Beyond that, the money, including any contributions made by parents, grandparents, or anybody else, goes into the system, is tracked, then eventually taxed. As usual, the government has plenty of hooks into the whole thing and is tied to Wall Street investment banks who will be getting a nice boost from these accounts which can't be touched for 18 years. Talk about building a floor under the stock market!

Here's a prediction. No more than 5 million Trump Accounts will be created, and the money invested in them will vanish, just like in the famous South Park episode.

Stock futures are pointing to a positive open. Go get 'em.

At the Close, Tuesday, December 2, 2025:
Dow: 47,474.46, +185.13 (+0.39%)
NASDAQ: 23,413.67, +137.75 (+0.59%)
S&P 500: 6,829.37, +16.74 (+0.25%)
NYSE Composite: 21,650.48, -15.98 (-0.07%)

Stocks Look to Rebound After Poor Start to December; Silver Continues Gains on Pathway to Triple Digits

As stocks entered the home stretch, they began to fade with the finish line in sight... story to be continued.

There are just 20 trading days left in 2025, and all indications suggest that it will go down as a solid, though unspectacular, year for equities. The Dow is up 11%; S&P up 16% and the NASDAQ ahead by 20% as of Monday's close. Those are pretty good returns, if they hold, which is why many fund managers have already closed their books and will resume buying or switching out in January. Life is good spending December in the Bahamas or Caymans.

The Dow took the worst of Monday's selloff, losing nearly one percent. As usual, it could have been worse... or better. The major indices erased most of the steep, early losses by midday, but all faded into the close. This is the kind of volatility that can be expected in an uncertain environment. Thank the government for that, at least partially, by delaying the usual economic reports - NFP and GDP in particular - and blaming their own shutdown for the lack of data.

Silver, after Friday's big run, cooled off a bit on Monday, especially after Arcadia Economics' Chris Marcus posted a note about it hitting 59 (and keeping going) in the futures market. Silver lost a bit of its mojo, but that's probably to be expected from an asset that's up 99% year-to-date. Silver won't stop rising, though there may be a few pullbacks, stutters, and surprises on its way to triple digits, where it belongs. Considering that the price of an ounce of silver would be $128 if the gold:silver ratio were a realistic 25:1 and even higher by historical standards of anywhere from 8:1 to 16:1.

Silver will be triple digits within 24 months, possibly within six.

Meanwhile, be on the lookout for the Santa Claus Rally, which usually occurs in the week between Christmas and New Year. Considering current valuations and the levels of naked greed and avarice on Wall Street, it may kick off sooner. Then again, December remains a great time to lock in gains and impress your friends.

Keep your stop losses close.

At the Close, Monday, December 1, 2025:
Dow: 47,289.33, -427.09 (-0.90%)
NASDAQ: 23,275.92, -89.76 (-0.38%)
S&P 500: 6,812.63, -36.46 (-0.53%)
NYSE Composite: 21,666.47, -158.21 (-0.72%)

WEEKEND WRAP: CME Shutdown Analysis with Commentary from Vince Lanci, Mike Maloney, David Morgan, Mario Innecco, Others, and the Silver Splurge

Without a doubt, though the mainstream media won't readily admit it, the biggest story of the week was the shutdown of the CME and COMEX late on Thanksgiving night (Thursday) and into Friday morning.

With that in mind, the usual sections in this week's WEEKEND WRAP will be shortened versions, focusing on the big story in gold and silver. Detail can be found in the Precious Metals section below.

Stocks

Stocks had one of the best weeks of the year, as the major averages advanced every day of the holiday-shortened week. Adding in the Friday prior, the majors have finished on the upside five consecutive sessions.

Treasury Yield Curve Rates

Date	1 Mo	1.5 mo	2 Mo	3 Mo	4 Mo	6 Mo	1 Yr
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
11/14/2025	4.04	4.02	4.01	3.95	3.88	3.80	3.70
11/21/2025	4.03	4.01	4.00	3.90	3.84	3.75	3.62
11/28/2025	4.05	3.97	3.99	3.88	3.86	3.74	3.61

Date	2 Yr	3 Yr	5 Yr	7 Yr	10 Yr	20 Yr	30 Yr
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
11/14/2025	3.62	3.61	3.74	3.92	4.14	4.73	4.74
11/21/2025	3.51	3.50	3.62	3.82	4.06	4.67	4.71
11/28/2025	3.47	3.49	3.59	3.78	4.02	4.62	4.67

Spreads remain wide. Fed speakers are in "quiet mode" prior to the next FOMC meeting, so there will be no Fed speakers in the week ahead. Otherwise, the treasury market is functioning, though there is crowding out due to excessive issuance by the U.S. Treasury, with more than $1 trillion in refunding ongoing.

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
11/14: +52
11/21: +55
11/28: +55

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
11/14: +70
11/21: +68
11/28: +62

Oil/Gas

WTI crude closed out the week at $58.48, which was very close to the high of the week on Friday, though numbers were skewed everywhere due to the "cooling" issue with the CME's computer banks. WTI hit a low of $57.23 on the Tuesday, November 25th, and continues to manifest weakness due to dwindling demand and a glut on world markets, the laughable sanctions against Russia's largest crude producers, Lukoil and Rosneft, not withstanding.

The U.S. national average for gas at the pump fell to $2.98, the lowest price in nearly five years, according to Gasbuddy.com. Gas prices should continue to decline over the near term and through winter.

California remains the highest in the lower 48 states, at $4.55 per gallon, down 11 cents over the past two weeks, followed by Washington ($4.15), the two constituting the $4+ club. Oregon ($3.75), was down two cents. The lowest prices remain in the Southeast, with Oklahoma checking in near the lowest price in about a year, $2.45. Louisiana ($2.50) and Mississippi ($2.51) were next. Texas ($2.52) and Arkansas ($2.54) follow. The remaining Southeast states are all below $2.80 with the exception of Florida ($3.01) down 10 cents from last week.

In the Northeast, prices remained elevated. Only New Hampshire ($2.94), Delaware ($2.98) and Maryland ($2.99) posted under $3.00, with Pennsylvania ($3.22) easily the highest. Vermont ($3.11) and New York ($3.12) were the next.

In the midwest region, where the price relief was felt the most, Illinois ($3.13) was the only state above $3.00. At the low end were Colorado ($2.49) and Kentucky ($2.61).

Sub-$3.00 gas was reported in 31 states, a gain of three from last week and five over the past two weeks.

Bitcoin

This week: $91,709.19
Last week: $87,373.34
2 weeks ago: $95,387.89
6 months ago: $104,494.50
One year ago: $96,490.37
Five years ago: $19,156.46

Bitcoin has recovered from a low of around $81,000 on November 22. It remains 26% below its all-time high of October 7 ($124.310.60).

Precious Metals

Gold:Silver Ratio: 74.80; last week: 81.33

Futures, per COMEX continuous contracts:

Gold price 10/31: $4,013.40
Gold price 11/7: $4,007.80
Gold price 11/14: $4,084.40
Gold price 11/21: $4,099.20
Gold price 11/28: $4,256.40

Silver price 10/31: $48.25
Silver price 11/7: $48.22
Silver price 11/14: $50.40
Silver price 11/21: $50.33
Silver price 11/28: $57.08

SPOT:
(stockcharts.com)
Gold 10/31: $3997.10
Gold 11/7: $3999.89
Gold 11/14: $4,080.00
Gold 11/21: $4,063.98
Gold 11/28: $4216.71

Silver 10/31: $48.65
Silver 11/7: $48.33
Silver 11/14: $50.50
Silver 11/21: $49.97
Silver 11/28: $56.37

What happened late-night on Thanksgiving (Thursday, November 27) was nothing less than pure panic in international markets. While the official story of the nearly 12-hour "dark" period of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), which includes COMEX trading, halted all futures and options trading due to a cooling failure at the CyrusOne CHI1 data center in Chicago. The technical issue forced the CME to shut down its Globex electronic trading platform, crucial for price discovery in commodities such as wheat, corn, oil, gold, silver, and U.S. equity futures.

The outage affected trading in global markets, leading to volatility and disruptions in pricing. Traders faced challenges as they reverted to traditional methods of contacting brokers due to the lack of live trading. Following the shutdown, there was a notable surge in silver prices, which increased by more than $3.00.

CyrusOne's engineering teams were actively working to restore full cooling capacity at the affected data center throughout the night and early morning. CME officials indicated that they were working to stabilize the data center and provided updates on the resumption of trading. Finally, at 8:00 am ET, CME announced that trading on its platform would resume at 8:30 am ET, in time for stock futures to price before the cash market open.

That was the official story from market operators, which almost nobody believes. The reason for the CME "pulling the plug" on its entire network run the gamut from wild conspiracy theories to more mundane explanations, such as the sheer volume of paper contracts - which are usually magnitudes higher than actual commodities available for delivery, especially gold and silver - overwhelmed the system.

Among the more assiduous claims was Vince Lanci's of Arcadia Economics on youtube.com. Lanci spoke from personal experience, outlining three scenarios:

1) The failure was technical. CMEs software or hardware malfunctioned. Lanci points out that the last two CME outages - in 2014 and 2019 - were at a time when they had no competition, but notes that the global condition has changed and the Shanghai Futures Exchange and the Shanghai Gold Exchange now compete with the CME "to define the price the world references." The outage exposes CME vulnerability.

2) Lanci observed the speculation of some traders and analysts, that at the time of the outage, silver was at an all-time high, platinum was surging and China had, on that day, launched its platinum contract. The concerns of traders put on display the erosion of confidence in Western systems as opposed to the emergence of China's platforms.

3) Lanci then looked at actual silver and gold trading during the outage, which included spiking prices at highs just as the platform shut down, then, in the "darkness" a drop in both prices, due to a lack of corresponding prices, or, counterparty affirmation. The fragmentation in these markets points up the need for comparison pricing platforms to be in continuous operation, lest price discovery becomes a one-sided affair, which does not work for global pricing.

Lanci also pointed out that the Thanksgiving event should not have happened, relating that CME has built data centers with multiple levels of redundancy and fail-safes.

Elijah K. Johnson at Miles Franklin's Liberty and Finance interviewed analyst Mario Innecco, who pointed out various efforts in Dubai, India, South Korea and elsewhere to bring silver into the global monetary universe. Central banks have begun buying silver alongside gold. Innecco cites examples from November 1979 to January 1980 when silver tripled, and 2004-05 when silver experienced $5 gains in single sessions.

Innecco called the shutdown "suspicious," and thought that CME not having backups was "far-fetched", especially on a relatively quiet post-holiday trading session. He believes premiums will go higher on Monday and thereafter, advising small investors to focus on pre-1965 "junk" silver and American Silver Eagles (ASE). He also believes silver will provide more liquidity than gold in day-to-day transactions. He called the recent moves in silver "historic", citing the bimetallic period in the U.S. prior to 1873 and the fact that silver was used as money as lately as the 1960s.

Perhaps the most emotionally-charged and circumspect analysis was that of Daivd Morgan in his weekly Morgan Report, titled "Silver’s Breakout, CME’s Breakdown, and the Quiet Hands Behind the Curtain", which is featured below. Morgan described the outage as improbable, citing, as did Vince Lanci, the redundancy and fragility in and of CME's systems.

Morgan cited Nobody Special Finance and Bob Coleman as sources backing the rumor that none other than Paul Tudor Jones made multiple market moves in silver just prior to the CME shutdown and may have been instrumental in the events of Thanksgiving evening and Friday morning.

Morgan said the story is that "paper price discovery broke" and that silver is entering what he has long-called the "recognition phase, when the world finally realizes that the metal is industrial, indispensable, and monetarily irreplaceable." Nearing the end of his report, Morgan pointed out, "above all, understand, this is not a spike but a signal. You're watching the early stages of a historic transition, the slow, grinding collapse of paper promises and the rise of real assets that cannot be printed, erased or defaulted upon. Silver just sent its warning shot. Now the real game begins."

Mike Maloney of goldsilver.com does not believe that the shutdown was necessarily tied to silver in particular, but he doesn't rule it out, saying such speculation is reasonable considering the market conditions. In his video presentation, Maloney offers examples of posts on the social platform X, which point up what othe analysts have expressed, that regardless of the cause, the system broke.

William Middlekoop, who notably has signaled a global monetary reset is imminent, posted: "'A cooling issue' Translation: We need to cool off the silver market, reposition, to avoid silver exploding higher. Markets will re-open (gold and silver) when we know we can hammer prices lower..."

The X personality known as "Ben Rickert" (played by Brad Pitt in the film, "The Big Short") (@Ben_Rickert) was highlighted in Maloney's piece. Rickert's post included the ominous message: "Money is unraveling. Confidence is eroding. Price signals are returning. And silver - the underestimated monetary metal - is leading the revolt. The bull run didn't pause. The exchange did. And that tells you everything you need to know about where this cycle is going."

Due to temporal limitations - it's now 2:30 on Sunday afternoon - it would be impossible to cite all the experts, so Money Daily will hopefully be featuring opinions from the likes of Luke Gromen, Ronald Stoeferle, Andy Schectman, Andrew Maguire, Craig Hemke, and others as events unfold beginning Monday December 1.

Money Daily's take on the issue remains the same as when first reported Friday morning. The CME shutdown is part of a larger pattern that's been developing over decades. Ordinary Americans are relentlessly cheated, conned, swindled, hustled, and lied-to by the government and its vassals in the mainstream media because, in their simple minds, "they" know what's good for "us." Lately, the con game has gone deeper, with technology strings attached, from the LGBTQ gaslighting and Covid mandates from the Biden administration to Trump's campaign promises of the tariff golden age, ending the Ukraine conflict in 24 hours, and releasing the Epstein files to the U.S. being the "hottest" country in the world, according to Trump.

Now, it's been ramped up to shutting down the government for 42 days, "losing" all the data for the October Non-farm payrolls and CPI, and delaying the release of 3rd quarter GDP figures until just before Christmas, so, it shouldn't surprise anybody when the CME goes dark, a story, by the way, that didn't even receive a headline on the Sunday talk shows. Not important, apparently.

The CME shutdown, whatever the cause, did show just how broken and untrustworthy the system has become. It's somewhat of a miracle that mail keeps being delivered. The government is bankrupt, $38 trillion in debt, China and Russia are running circles around Europe and America militarily, politically, economically, and socially. Anybody giving the government anything more than a casual shrug in anything they do or say is simply not reading the tea leaves correctly. The US government is nothing more than a massive skimming operation and the American citizens are the marks.

In specific terms as pertains to silver, the pricing on the evening of November 27 suggests that it was about to do with nickel did back in March, 2022. The March 2022 nickel spike was one of the most dramatic market events in modern commodity trading. Prices briefly soared above $100,000 per ton, forcing the London Metal Exchange (LME) to suspend trading and cancel billions of dollars’ worth of contracts. Between March 4–8, 2022, nickel prices on the LME nearly quadrupled in three trading days, rising from around $25,000/ton to over $100,000/ton, the proximate cause a short squeeze.

This could tie into the massive positions in options rumored to be the work of Paul Tudor Jones. Silver, which has been massively suppressed by the COMEX, LBMA, CME, and others, could have been spooked by huge contracts and options being placed, putting all the shorts and bullion banks at severe risk. It would explain the panic in terms of shutting down the market if silver was about to go parabolic. Consider that if silver merely tripled in price to $150 an ounce, the gold:silver ratio would still be 28, roughly double the historic level.

Back when gold first broke out in 1979-1980, above $800, silver pushed near $50 before the exchanges put the kibosh on both, by changing the rules, limiting silver trades to "sell only", which trapped the Hunt Brothers in their leveraged positions and made them the scapegoat for the collapse in gold and silver prices. Back then, between November, 1979 and February, 1980, the gold:silver ratio was in the teens, as in 15-19, closer to historic levels. If something like that, triggered by aggressive traders - not necessarily Paul Tudor Jones, but, traders in Singapore, Dubai, Shanghai, Moscow perhaps, was about to unfold, the CME, Globex, and COMEX would be sure to hit the panic button.

China and Russia have been well ahead of this trend. They've been stockpiling silver for years. Russia made it official policy in 2023.

The analysts are correct when they say the system broke down. When the truth is revealed - and it always is, eventually - it is likely that silver was about to spike to $100 an ounce all at once, wiping out the short, the specs, and maybe a couple of bullion banks with one swat. We will keep watching... and stacking.

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:	56.00	71.00	61.75	61.28
1 oz silver bar:	59.00	76.00	64.61	64.10
1 oz gold coin:	4,357.90	4,656.48	4,462.34	4,447.83
1 oz gold bar:	4,245.00	4,511.05	4,425.12	4,429.47

The Single Ounce Silver Market Price Benchmark (SOSMPB) showed an incredible gain for the week, to $62.94, up $4.89 cents from the November 23 price of $58.05 per troy ounce. The small-denomination, physical market continues to add high premia over spot and derivative market pricing.

WEEKEND WRAP

The markets are quiet, for now. Silver on Kitko is quoted at 56.33, +3.09 (+5.80%). That's a pretty big move. Monday will either be a day of reckoning for the CME and COMEX (which would be a liberating day for silver stackers), or more of what everybody's become used to over the past 40 years, more suppression in price. But, ebay prices tell a different story, as do dealers, who have one-ounce coins and bars priced from $58-$65 depending on quantity and payment method.

The silver breakout is real. The story behind the CME "blackout" is probably not.

At the Close, Friday, November 28, 2025:
Dow: 47,716.42, +289.30 (+0.61%)
NASDAQ: 23,365.69, +151.00 (+0.65%)
S&P 500: 6,849.09, +36.48 (+0.54%)
NYSE Composite: 21,824.67, +111.54 (+0.51%)

For the Week:
Dow: +1471.01 (+3.18%)
NASDAQ: +1092.61 (+4.91%)
S&P 500: +246.10 (+3.73%)
NYSE Composite: +647.69 (+3.06%)
Dow Transports: +571.91 (+3.57%)

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Orwellian Dysfunction as Government Hides Data, CME Outage Disrupts Trading Prior to Black Friday Open; Is India Pegging a 10: Gold:Silver Ratio?

Are we sensing a trend here?

A few weeks ago, the White House announced that data for October Non-farm Payrolls and CPI (implying PPI as well) was lost due to the government shutdown from October 1st through November 12.

On Monday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) announced that they would not be releasing the advance estimate for third quarter GDP, and gave no timeline for when the report would be released.

For reference, GDP reports are usually released on the last Thursday of the three months following the end of a quarter. In this case, the initial estimate would have normally been released on October 30. Because of the shutdown, that released was skipped. Effectively, what was cancelled this week was the second estimate, which, because Thanksgiving was Thursday, would probably have been released today, Friday, November 28.

Today, the Wall Street Journal reports that the BEA will release the initial GDP estimate on December 23, just in time for Christmas. A delay of the third quarter GDP estimates is somewhat odd, given that the quarter ended on September 30, the day before the government shutdown. It all seems rather fishy, from the shutdown itself to the "lost" data, to delays in reporting important government findings.

These kinds of things happen in other countries, arguably in third world dictatorships, banana republics or communist regimes. The defunct USSR and, more recently, China, are famous for fabricating data. The current climate reeks of Orwellian doublespeak statements, like "chocolate rations have been increased from 10 grams to six."

Today's oddity comes from the CME Group, where options, gold, silver, and stock futures - among other derivative products - are traded regularly. Around 9:44 pm Thursday night, the platform went dark. Strangely enough, right at that time, silver was peaking above $54 an ounce and gold had jest beforehand been rising rapidly toward $4,200. Prices of the two prominent precious metals are the most severely suppressed of any commodity or product, the main conduit for manipulation being the CME, COMEX and GLOBEX platforms, though nobody would really imagine that the U.S. government would go to such extremes to keep the prices of real money under wraps and their precious fiat US$ afloat, would they?

Moments ago, as of this writing, the CME announced that their systems would return to normal operations at 8:30 am ET. as if by magic, NASDAQ futures popped up 83 points, Dow futures rose 80 points, and S&P futures gained 13.

So, never mind, we've (government moles) got this.

Something that came to the attention of Money Dialy was a report in the Jerusalem Post that the Royal Bank of India (RBI) had proposed new rules allowing silver to be employed as collateral for loans, alongside gold, which has for decades been a normal practice.

The intriguing message in the story was that India's regulators propose the new policy, which goes into effect in April 2026, sets collateral eligibility at 10 kilograms of silver versus 1 kilogram of gold, a de facto implied 10:1 silver:gold ratio.

Initially, our desk brushed the story off as fake news, as it was not reported anywhere else, though upon doing some sleuthing, it appears that the story is true. How deeply the collateral ratio in India will affect gold and silver prices remains obscure and yet to be seen. Currently, the gold:silver ratio has been upwards of 80:1, in the past year as high as 100:1. If the suggestion that silver should be valued at 1/10th the price of gold, it would be enormous news and shake markets globally.

Since historically, the gold:silver ratio has been anywhere from 8:1 to 20:1 it would mark a return to sanity in monetary matters, at least regarding real money: gold and silver.

One more thing: The atomic clock at Money Daily HQ, which receives its signal broadcast from station WWVB by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Fort Collins, Colorado, sometime last night or early this morning (we were sleeping off the Thanksgiving dinner) displaying the time eight hours ahead of the actual time. Odd.

Equity exchanges close at 1:00 pm today, so get your bets in early.

Happy Black Friday! Enjoy the show!

At the Close, Wednesday, November 26, 2025:
Dow: 47,427.12, +314.67 (+0.67%)
NASDAQ: 23,214.69 +189.10 (+0.82%)
S&P 500: 6,812.61, +46.73 (+0.69%)
NYSE Composite: 21,713.13, +161.39 (+0.75%)

Trump's AI Genesis Mission, Pick for Next Fed Chair Gooses Wall Street Stocks Higher

Ok, hardly anybody paid much attention to Monday's launch of the "Genesis Mission" via an executive order by President Trump, except, um, Wall Street, apparently already in holiday trading mode.

President Trump's latest "mission" is all about the AI "race" against China, seeking to combine America's scientific knowledge into one, massive database, promoted by White House tech czar Michael Kratsios, who graduated from Princeton University with a B.A. in politics and a certificate in Hellenic studies in 2008, making him uniquely unqualified in technology, but that's OK since prior to joining the Trump administration as deputy assistant to the president, Kratsios was a principal at Thiel Capital and served as chief of staff to entrepreneur and venture capitalist Peter Thiel.

OK, the Peter Thiel connection led to Kratsios recently marrying a woman who was Public Policy Manager for Google UK and is now associated with Coinbase.

This new AI and Energy grift that is being managed by Trump, for those "behind the curtain" is already HUGE. Americans will pay for all of it and the tech oligarchs will get the profits along with all the infrastructure and info-tech built with American tax dollars.

According to this article from Venture Beat:

What the administration has not provided is just as striking: no public cost estimate, no explicit appropriation, and no breakdown of who will pay for what. Major news outlets including Reuters, Associated Press, Politico, and others have all noted that the order “does not specify new spending or a budget request,” or that funding will depend on future appropriations and previously passed legislation.

President Trump has unleashed the “Genesis Mission,” a Manhattan Project-scale AI blitz designed to cement U.S. technological dominance. Signed via an executive order Monday, the plan marshals the country’s largest federal data stores, supercomputers, and 40,000 elite scientists to accelerate breakthroughs in energy, health, and national security—while leaving global competitors in the dust. White House tech czar Michael Kratsios and Energy Secretary Chris Wright hailed it as America’s “Apollo-moment moonshot,” with Wright invoking wartime triumphs and likening the mission to the Manhattan Project that helped end WWII.

The executive order frames AI as the latest frontier for scientific discovery and economic growth, demanding a historic national effort to accelerate research and innovation. The Genesis Mission will create an integrated AI platform leveraging decades of federal scientific datasets to train foundation models, build AI research agents, automate workflows, and test new hypotheses at unprecedented speed.

It pulls together the full spectrum of American innovation: DOE national labs, pioneering private companies, world-renowned universities, production plants, and national security sites. The initiative promises to harness advances in high-performance computing and semiconductors, driving faster scientific discovery, enhanced productivity, energy security, and stronger national defense—all while delivering maximum taxpayer ROI.

Kratsios emphasized the scale of the effort, calling it “the largest marshaling of the federal government scientific apparatus since the Apollo Project,” and framing it as a historic surge in U.S. power. Trump’s Genesis blitz, combining federal resources with private-sector know-how, seeks to eclipse China’s AI advances, weaponize federal data lakes for breakthroughs, and secure unchallenged global dominance in science and technology.

For Americans watching the chaos online, the Genesis Mission is both awe-inspiring and terrifying—a full-throttle, no-holds-barred sprint into an AI-fueled future where the U.S. refuses to play catch-up, turning panic-scrolling doom into a spectator sport.

Fabulous.

Stocks powered ahead on Tuesday, and look to add to gains again on Wednesday, and, after the Thanksgiving break, again on the half-session Friday. Wall Street is not waiting for any results from AI or anywhere else, satisfied that more than a trillion dollars in AI investment will lead ot massive profits. At least that's the current understanding, along with the Fed making money easier by cutting the federal funds rate by another 25 basis points at the December 9-10 FOMC meeting.

Traders are also jazzed about the prospects for Trump's pick to be the next Fed Chairman, ostensibly to cut interest rates even further. The leading candidate is the dovish Kevin Hassert.

While monetary and fiscal policies go into inflation overdrive, stocks will benefit, but gold and silver may skyrocket.

With US markets set to open within minutes, stock futures are higher across the board, along with gold and silver.

Away we go!

At the Close, Tuesday, November 25, 2025:
Dow: 47,112.45, +664.15 (+1.43%)
NASDAQ: 23,025.59, +153.59 (+0.67%)
S&P 500: 6,765.88, +60.76 (+0.91%)
NYSE Composite: 21,551.73, +280.13 (+1.32%)