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Weekly Survey of Gold and Silver Prices
Single Ounce Silver Market Price Benchmark
Money Daily has been providing business and financial market news, views, and coverage on a nearly continuous basis since 2006. Complete archives are available at moneydaily.blogspot.com.
PRIOR COVERAGE:
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Friday, May 24, 2024, 9:18 am ET Buy the rumor, sell the news. That tired adage sums up what happened on Thursday, in the aftermath of Nvidia's blowout earnings report, issued after Wednesday's closing bell. While NVDA was up nearly 10% on the day, the rest of the "market" got skewered. All 30 Dow components closed in the red. That leaves Friday to figure out where stocks are headed as the three-day Memorial Day weekend approaches. As of Thursday's close, the Dow is down 938 points for the week. The NASDAQ is up 50 points, which is less than NVDA's gain on Thursday alone (88 points). As far as the S&P is concerned, a 35-point loss for the week has been largely aided by NVDA and a few of the Magnificent 7 stocks. Elsewhere, it's not looking very swell. The NYSE Composite is sporting a loss of nearly two percent, down 359 points. At the best, stocks could end the week with a split decision, but, for all intents and purposes, this looks like the end of a four week winning streak for the majors, except for the Dow, which has finished positively in each of the last five weeks. Stocks may be the end-all for some people, but the Bidenomics messaging is beginning to show some serious flaws. Housing is at its most unaffordable ever, inflation is still not under control and consumers have been slaughtered, stretched so thin that major retailers, Target and Walmart, have already begun rolling back prices on thousands of items. It's not like these companies have big hearts. Their motivation is to keep the customers they have rather than lose them to lower-priced competitors like Aldi, Dollar General, and online merchants. Many of the price cuts are on ood items, which have skyrocketed during the reign of King Brandon. Those companies are joined by fast-food purveyors Burger King, McDonald's, and Wendy's, each of which have announced plans to bring back popular $5 meal deals and other budget-minded offerings. Wall Street's obsession with NVDA over the past four days showed exactly how thin and fickle the stock markets actually are and how quickly losses can accumulate in the absence of over-hyping one stock, or AI, or cutting interest rates. Clownish behavior has become the stock in trade as opposed to investing for real profits and growth. Pump, dump. Rinse, repeat. Having made new all-time highs recently, the major indices are poised for a pullback. Whether or not that happens is up to the string-pullers and pump-and-dumpers behind the front lines. Elections in November throw a cloud of uncertainty over everything. Since elections have become anything but free and fair, rigging markets to favor incumbents isn't such a far-fetched concept. Neither is letting them fall apart to hand the next in line a world of hurt. On the topic of being serially out-of-touch, we have the U.S. Chamber of Commerce promoting the rebuilding of Ukraine via the Ukraine Business Initiative, which glibly assumes that U.S. companies will be at the forefront of rebuilding the country once Russia is done overrunning it. A little more than a month ago, the Chamber hosted the Ukraine Partnership Forum, featuring "the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Restoration of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine's Economic Recovery Penny Pritzker, and Chamber President and CEO Suzanne Clark, among other government and business leaders." Nice lineup. Here's what PM Shmyhal had to say:
"We have lost a lot, but we can also regain much if our reconstruction is accompanied by modernization and renewal. The reconstruction of Ukraine will be the most extensive international project since World War Two. And for this we are creating all the necessary conditions: we are implementing reforms that create a favorable investment climate. This includes regulation, digitization, bureaucratization, and public-private partnership." Certainly, every business leader desires heavy doses of regulation, digitization, bureaucratization, and public-private partnership, especially those with an interest in sharing in some of Russia's $300 billion in stolen assets. It's uncertain whether billionaire Penny Pritzker, sister of Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker, has the best interests of Ukrainians close to her heart or is more interested in divvying up parts of cities and countryside for her real estate firms Pritzker Realty Group, Artemis Real Estate Partners, and Inspired Capital. With the U.S. Chamber of Commerce supporting impossible causes like this, why does the U.S. need enemies? Maybe an enema would be more appropriate for these people who are so full of themselves and other foreign elements. Somebody needs to inform these turgid halfwits that the spoils of war go to the actual victors.
At the Close, Thursday, May 23, 2024:
Thursday, May 23, 2024, 8:48 am ET Thank heavens Nvidia (NVDA) beat their numbers! Now the financial world can get back to its usual business of inflating stock prices based on hype and hope and knocking down the price of gold every day on the overnight exchanges, already well underway. Re-electing zombies at the federal level also fits into the script, as if anybody actually cares. My three to four daily readers may have noticed that Money Daily hasn't exactly been a beacon of financial insight the past few days or weeks. It's not that I'm opposed to people making money, it's just that I've grown tired of the incessant propaganda that comes out of the government-and-corporate-controlled media about how wonderful life in America currently is. I've soured on everything from mega-corporations to government, especially when they're working together to destroy the lives of ordinary working folks. In a prior time, that was known as fascism. In some circles, it still is, and it's just as destructive to society and economies as it was when it was popular in Italy in the 1920s and 30s.
The Fascist accepts and loves life; he rejects and despises suicide as cowardly. Life as he understands it means duty, elevation, conquest; life must be lofty and full, it must be lived for oneself but above all for others, both near bye and far off, present and future. Really? Where do I sign up? Up until recently, America's prevailing social, political, and economic ideals were based upon freedom and democracy. Those concepts are now just used as dog whistles for the masses, firing them up in support of whatever poppycock they might have on hand any given day. Maybe it's transgenderism today, or climate change, or Artificial Intelligence (the real problem I have with AI is in its definition. Artificial, meaning not real, makes of mockery of the subject, Intelligence. I'll take real intelligence or knowledge for $1000, Alex.) moving the needle. Tomorrow it will be Russians or anti-semitism or the NBA to keep the people under thumb. It's really kind of sad and discouraging to see how far from its original principles the once-great nation has become. Sadder yet are the throngs of people who just go along to get along. Most people in America don't have enough functioning brain cells to figure out how badly they're being fleeced every day by big government, big pharma, the MIC, congress, et. al. A shame really, and probably too late to fix it. Since the financial world was completely consumed by the fate of one company, Nvidia, this week, it gave me time to train my focus elsewhere, to more yard work and gardening, and some needed self-reflection. You can buy stocks, that's fine. You can even dabble in crypto if you like, especially if you're young and don't mind the government knowing every little thing about you (which is why you constantly are staring into your smartphone, isn't it?). For me, it's real estate, silver, a little gold, other things of value or usefulness. Isn't that what money and wealth are all about? Spending it on things that have lasting value. It's not the person who has a million stashed in a safe who's rich, it's the one with a nice place to live, paid for, some polished vehicles, art, silver, gold, maybe even a swimming pool and probably a small business backing all of that with regular income. That's where one wishes to be, happy, content, surrounded by assets, not digits on a computer screen or painted faces of dead presidents on linen. In the end, I guess I'm just disenchanted with the current state of affairs, of truth being characterized as disinformation, of the world ruled over by a handful of elitist companies and governments, operated by lunatics let loose in the asylum. I'm looking for a way out. BTW: If silver was valued at somewhere close to the historical gold:silver of 12:1 or 16:1, like 20:1, it would be $120 an ounce right now. I expect that ratio to return, hopefully, before I'm too old to enjoy it.
At the Close, Wednesday, May 22, 2024:
Wednesday, May 22, 2024, 7:44 am ET Nvidia (NVDA), which reports after the close Wednesday, is projected to report a 243% gain in revenue, according to Wall Street estimates, but its 90% year-to-date share rally sets a high bar for further gains. Shares have hit a fresh record high this week ahead of the result. Really, who gives a flying F--k? AI is about as over-hyped as the impact of HIMARS or ATACMS in Ukraine or the efficiency of surgical masks in combatting a fictitious malady (COVID). Simply put, it's nothing more than screeching marketing for high-tech companies. It contributes little to nothing in terms of human advancement and wastes massive amounts of energy and resources for little in terms of usefulness, unless busty models with six fingers is where the future lays. Nvidia, which manufactures the fastest chips supposedly capable of harnessing AI, has been the focus on Wall Street all week. The company will be all the talk Wednesday and Thursday, as everybody analyzes the results. Friday may see a shift in tone back to rate cuts or Trump's trial, equally useless topics. Wall Street has become less of a casino and more of a carnival, complete with clowns and barkers. It is seriously not worth the effort to cover any of this because none of it actually matters at all. Gold is $50 higher in Shanghai than in New York or London. That matters. Get a life. Get over the fixation with stocks, which, whether you're a casual investor, fund participant or active trader, you don't actually own and may become worthless.
At the Close, Tuesday, May 21, 2024:
Tuesday, May 21, 2024, 9:12 am ET It doesn't take much to get the Wall Street minions excited. That's why they're generally outfitted with blinders (or, in horsey terms, blinkers). They have to look straight ahead and not see what's happening on the periphery of their Potemkin village. They're not supposed to see the illegals coming across the border, or their president incapable of cogent thought, or rampant crime, black hatred, Zionism, Ukraine being overrun by Russia (actually a good thing). No, these people only see the pot of fake gold (US$) at the end of their imaginary rainbow called the stock market. They see Nvidia (NVDA) reporting earnings on Wednesday. That excites them. The price of gold and silver continues to rise. When will they see the light? When gold is $5,000 an ounce and a can of tomato soup is $6.50? Silver is even better, but, stocks, they always go up. Stocks are likely to keep making new highs as the dollar is debased into extinction. NVidiots will likely never get it, even when they're buying a slice of pizza for $10. Bitcoin doesn't fix this. AI doesn't fix this. Nvidia doesn't fix this. Honest money fixes this.
At the Close, Monday, May 20, 2024:
Sunday, May 19, 2024, 11:35 am ET Nearly everything that mattered was up this week. The Dow, S&P, NASDAQ, NYSE Composite all closed the week at record levels. The NASDAQ slipped back 12 points on Friday, but that small defect doesn't matter. Spoiling the stock market party was the Dow Transportation Average, which actually lost ground, falling below its 50-day moving average. Perhaps it's a matter of being old tech, or aging infrastructure, or lower volumes, higher costs, but, whatever it is, the transportation sector is hardly playing along. It's an eyesore, a sharp pain in the side of macro calculations in the fiat system. Gold closed out the week at record highs, right as Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Chinese President Xi Jinping. It was Putin's first state visit following his re-election and more than simply ceremonious. He brought all of the major figures of his government along, including finance minister Anton Siluanov and Governor of the Russia's central bank, Elvira Nabiullina. Western bloc nations were more concerned about strengthening military ties between to two Asian behemoths, but the meetings and discussions were likely more about global trade and finance than fending off the feeble aggressions of NATO nations, underscoring the continued price advances of precious metals and other valuable commodities. Stocks As previously noted, all the major U.S. indices set records over the course of the week. That's good news for the top 1% and the funds managing retirement accounts for millions of Americans and foreigners. The Dow ended the week above 40,000 for the first time ever. The cheering over achieving this milestone was somewhat subdued. Most interested parties understand that the high levels of stocks cannot be sustained for long or that the these gains are primarily the result of high inflation, stock buybacks, and the helping hands of insiders. The financial press, giddy over recent developments, have neither the intention nor moral backbone to report that silver and gold have massively out-performed stocks year-to-date. Bitcoin remains the slush fund that keeps on giving.
Scorecard: The big event this week is earnings from Nvidia (NVDA) on the 22nd. There will be promiscuous mentions of AI before and after. There may be some more data releases and a smattering of earnings announcements, but they will all be secondary to the obscenity of inflated asset pricing, which proceeds in its own tawdry and increasingly cheap thrill manner. For all its flash and glitz, Wall Street is becoming more and more loathsome with each passing day.
Yields continue to slump in long-dated treasury notes and bonds, though the pace seems to be moderating. The 30-year yield of 4.56% and the ten-year note yield of 4.42% are not that far removed from the recent highs of 4.82% on the 30 and 4.70% on the 10s (both, April 25). Spreads remain in the safety zones. 2s-10s at -39 is comfortably within the range of -19 to -41 that's held since February 2nd. Full spectrum spread steepened to -94, indicating possible defection (China). Primary dealers will step up buying to keep yields contained below $5.00% only to be made whole by the Federal Reserve, which, at some future date will buy everything at par, rescue the insolvent banks, inflate their own balance sheet, and foster higher inflation. The Fed is intent on cutting rates, despite arguments that inflation will never approach their "target" rate of two percent, barring systemic collapse. Should the Fed cut in September - which seems ot be the latest "go" date - it would send a clear signal that it is neither serious nor apolitical. Like most of America's long-standing institutions, the Federal Reserve lacks integrity and is rapidly losing what few shreds of credibility remain. At some point it will become irrelevant. For now, it is not, but the clock is ticking. House Representative Thomas Massie's (R, KY) introduction this week of the Federal Reserve Board Abolition Act (H.R. 8421) was a shot across the bow of debt monetization and the entire notion of central banking outside the overt control of Congress. It may be nothing more than grandstanding by Massie and its 20 co-sponsors (all Republicans) and a revival of the original proposal by Representative Ron Paul (R-TX) in 1999, but it is a telling sign of the dangerous economic conditions facing America and the world. Spreads:
2s-10s
Full Spectrum (30-days - 30-years)
WTI crude oil ended the week at $79.52, up from $77.79 per barrel the prior week. Despite the nearly $2 gain, this appears to be more noise than signal regarding the neutral price of oil, which likely resides closer to $75 than $80. That is an area in which producers (even shale drillers) are profitable and consumers aren't punished too severely. A price closer to $60 would be more palatable to drivers and homeowners, though that outlook appears unreasonable given the influence of global producers. It's notable that priced in silver or gold, il is becoming cheaper by the day. Gasbuddy.com reports the national average for a gallon of unleaded regular gas at the pump eased in response to recent declines and stabilizing in crude prices, down another two cents to $3.58, still an unreasonably high level. California continues to offer the highest price for gas, with a gallon of unleaded regular running $5.18 on Sunday, down eight cents from last week and well off recent nose-bleed highs. Pennsylvania is still the leading consumer crusher in the Northeast, at $3.74, with New York close behind at $3.68. Prices remained elevated in the Mideast leader, Illinois, at $3.86 a gallon. There have been no states with gas prices sub-$3.00 for ten straight weeks, though Mississippi ($3.01) is pushing the envelope, followed by Oklahoma at $3.04 and Louisiana at $3.08. Other than Georgia ($3.37) and Florida ($3.43), the Southeast cluster from Oklahoma east to South Carolina are all hovering in a range between $3.04 and $3.18. The upper Midwest is approaching Southeast levels. Iowa and South Dakota each report a price of $3.20. Arizona remained below $4.00 ofr a second straight week ($3.92), leaving California, Washington ($4.58), Nevada ($4.33), and Oregon ($4.37) the four members of the $4+ club, though each of those states saw prices come down last week. Utah ($3.67) and Idaho ($3.79) continue to see prices easing.
This week: $66,934.60 Bitcoin got a boost along with stocks this week, but it remains below the March 13 high ($73,096). The trend is clearly to the downside. Crypto: a con almost as heinous as the Federal Reserve.
Gold:Silver Ratio: 76.17; last week: 83.34 Per COMEX continuous contracts:
Gold price 4/19: $2,406.70
Silver price 4/19: $29.03 Gold continued its momentous run to fresh all-time highs in $US terms and almost all other fiat currencies, gaining $52.90 on the week. Silver, which was noted last week in near break-out condition, actually did, slaughtering short-sellers on the COMEX, with a massive gain of $3.37, an 11.87% rise. Year-to-date, gold is up 16.59%, silver, 30.52%. At long last, as fiat counterfeit continues its terminal path toward self-immolation, gold and silver have become money once again and the world is taking notice. Rapid appreciation in prices and values of precious metals has the impression of something of a mania, in ways reminiscent of bull runs of 1978-80 and 2003-2010. In the late 1970s and 2000s, gold's price rose by multiples of five to eight times, depending on the chosen base price. If one assumes a median price of $1800 which was maintained from 2021 to 2023, a five-fold increase produces a gold price of $9,000 per ounce. Even starting from a 2013-2019 base of $1200 per ounce, a seven-fold increase results in a price of $8,400. Considering the depth and scale of ongoing currency debasement in the current climate, it's easy to see gold above $10,000, implying silver at a minimum of $133 (with the gold:silver ratio at 75), and possibly as high as $400 per ounce, with an historically reasonable ratio of 25. Precious metals are making a shambles and a mockery of so-called "currencies" around the world, aided by stone-headed government and central bank policies that encourage endless debt and impoverishment of large swaths of the global population. Over the near and mid-term (six months to two years), gold can be seen rising beyond $3,200 and silver setting new all-time highs above $50/ounce. This optimism minimizes the suppression effects that have been standard Western policy since the 1970s. It's becoming increasingly clear that deeply-ingrained policies of suppression via the COMEX and LBMA "fixing" are being overwhelmed and overruled by entities outside their sphere of influence in Shanghai, Moscow, Dubai, and elsewhere. The gold standard of gold analysis, Incrementum's annual "In Gold We Trust" report for 2024 was released late in the week. The production of authors Ronald-Peter Stoferle and Mark J. Valek is exhaustive and penetrating. Here are the most recent prices for common one ounce gold and silver items sold on eBay (numismatics excluded, free shipping included):
The Single Ounce Silver Market Price Benchmark (SOSMPB) gained spectacularly for a second straight week, to $41.43, a rise of $1.26 from the May 12 price of $40.17 per troy ounce. This represents the highest price in our survey since September, 2022.
Whether it be by design or incompetence, the unmistakable flow of power, influence, and financial dominance is flowing West to East. Western nations, especially the U.S., UK, and EU, continue their programs of threats, sanctions, political upheavals and military adventurism, which has forced the hands of BRICS+ and allied interests into bilateral trade and circumvention of Western hegemony, relying on cooperation and mutually beneficial policies. Though the East maintains an overwhelming advantage over the West in technology, weaponry and production capacity, the major players, Russia, China, and Iran, have thus far demonstrated high levels of restraint against Western aggression. This is most likely not always going to be the case, though Eastern leaders are wary of being conned into retaliatory or escalationist militarism, strategic preference being containment of conflicts, as in Ukraine and the Middle East. The West is on the losing end of this historic bargain, and this is only the beginning. Outcomes for NATO nations and its allies are expected to be overwhelmingly destabilizing to their economies, politics, and societies. Peace will eventually reign over war.
At the Close, Friday, May 17, 2024:
For the Week:
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