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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 30, 2025, 8:56 am ET With the final day of trading for the month just ahead, May turned out to be a fairly good month for stocks, with the Dow up 3.80%, the S&P ahead 6.16%, and the NASDAQ rocketing 9.91% higher. The prestigious Wall Street Journal blares that the S&P is on track for its best month since 2023 - wow! a whole two years! The bulk of the gains were made on just two days, Monday, May 12 and Tuesday, the 27th (this week). That stocks would rip higher to start weeks two weeks apart reeks not only of systemic rot and corruption, it also might be considered by some to be fake and gay. Stocks continue to be vastly overvalued, but that doesn't matter to the horde of traders crowded into options, most of which expire on Fridays. The game, which has driven more than a few former options players to the sidelines due to extraordinarily-high premiums, is fairly straightforward. Slick traders will select which options they wish to unload later in the week and bump those shares higher at the first opportunity, i.e., Monday, or, in the current case, the first trading session of the week, Tuesday. As expiry approaches, the choice is to either hold shares or sell them, but the options are unloaded. Ka-ching! Instant profit. Beyond the algorithms which guide trading minute-by-minute, there are large players at major brokerages, family offices, and hedge funds playing their trade in the options market, the volume on which years ago exceeded that of the actual stock exchanges. If stocks are overvalued by multiples, the derivative options are extreme at the margin. While stocks can - and even these days, sometimes are - held for long periods, options have the unique feature of expiry, disappearing into the ether of the global financial structure, ephemeral, fleeting, and often insanely profitable. Of course, there are multiple uses of stock, index, commodity options in a wide variety of flavors, from 0DTE (Zero days to expiry) to LEAPS (Long-term Equity AnticiPation Securities) which expire at much longer intervals than ordinary options (think years instead of months), and expert traders employ them to hedge risk and other purposes, but mostly, they're simply gambling, nothing more, which is why Wall Street is often referred to as a casino. Options trading has become increasingly pervasive in recent years, taking advantage of the market's instability, or, volatility, which works in both directions. The preponderance of large traders in options markets makes it difficult, if not impossible, for the individual investor to profit in options. These large money-movers can exert tremendous force over individual issues, forcing option movement whichever ways they prefer. Of course, the game becomes more complex the more players involved. Winning at options, however, remains largely the province of brokerages and hedge funds. Venturing away from the options sidetrack back into the actual market, the Shiller PE stands at 36.33, just shy of the October 2024 peak of 37.36, the third-highest levl ever. Analysts touting new all-time highs in stocks in the near term have completely disregarded fundamental analysis, and the recurring trend of earnings by major companies falling well short of year-ago measures. Focused merely on "beating the Street" estimates, the current crop of stock-pickers are more akin to momentum traders than actually finding value. Their "analysis" consists of measuring against any arbitrary number thrown out at the rubes in a manner similar to betting against the spread on a football or basketball game. "Sure, Ohio State will beat Rutgers, but will they cover the 27 points they're laying?" This is yet another perversion of Wall Street that leads to false conclusions. Companies that beat Wall Street-generated earnings or revenue estimates but fall short of prior quarter or year-ago figures aren't actually growing at all. They're shrinking, often masked by stock buybacks that reduce the number of shares outstanding and produce better results based entirely on gaming the math as opposed to growing the business. These are just a few of the reasons Fearless Rick and Money Daily are generally critical of stocks and stock markets. They're highly sophisticated and geared for professionals, though, admittedly, passive investors - because of the systemic gaming and perpetual yield-chasing that defines the Wall Street hustle - have profited handsomely. That's what happens in rigged environments. While the big players win big, smaller players can hitch a ride on the express train to riches. The one-percenters have grown extremely fat and happy. The small fry are still munching on the crumbs. The lack of regulation and enforcement also helps stocks run higher and higher, seemingly every year. Nobody is going to be happy if stocks aren't growing, so government regulators - the few of them left - have become so adroit at shading their eyeballs they're practically blind to any and all abuse that occurs regularly in markets. It's why gold and silver stay down, oil stays up, and stocks keep flying higher, all without the least hint of collusion, misappropriation, or any other nefarious activity. They're all saints on Wall Street. Not a bad apple amongst them. Trust them. In the current environment, being critical of the Wall Street hustle is about as useful - and even less popular - as shooting fish in a barrel. It's a fun, and very easy, activity, but eventually, holes shot through the barrel drain all the water, leaving dying, and eventually rotting, dead fish. Will the day ever come that Wall Street has its reckoning, its date with destiny a la 1929, or 1987, or 2000, or 2008? It almost certainly will, but waiting it out on the sidelines isn't exactly a winning strategy. As long as the plates are spinning, there's money to be made and plenty of people to make it. It's been 17 years since the wheels fell off in 2008, and, to some, it's nothing more than a fading bad memory or a fairy tale from some distant land long ago. Financial crises come and go, but stocks, well, they always go up, and they have, on steroids. Given the current environment, there's about as good a chance of a severe stock market correction or extended bear market as there is congress passing a balanced budget. Ha, ha. It'll never happen. It's a party. Until it's not. ...and then there's social media. After Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent complained to media that trade talks with China had "stalled", President Trump dumped futures this morning with the following comments:
Two weeks ago China was in grave economic danger! Minutes later, the BEA released the Fed's BFF, the monthly Personal Consumption Expenditure Index (PCE), which fell to its lowest since April 2021 at +2.5%. So, bad news, good news. Futures are tanking. This is how Americans "save." There has to be a better way.
At the Close, Thursday, May 29, 2024:
Thursday, May 29, 2025, 9:25 am ET (Editor's Note: When warranted - and often, even when not - publisher Fearless Rick pens these Money Daily posts in first person singular. Today is one of those occasions.) It has become increasingly obvious that whatever President Donald A. Trump desires to do, as he is (so we thought) empowered as President of the United States, will be met with hard resistance by deep state forces working to undermine the constitutional government. Late Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled that the president overstepped his authority by imposing reciprocal tariffs on a variety of nations with which the United States trades. Not only have these judges rules the tariffs void, but they ordered that all monies collected under their auspices be returned, an order that very well might bankrupt the government since it is already operating without headroom on the debt ceiling. Initial reaction to the ruling, in addition to the usual glee over Nvidia earnings, was unsurprisingly positive for the Wall Street brat pack, sending stock futures flying higher overnight. Since then, the BEA issued their second estimate of first quarter GDP, showing it a little better than the advance estimate last month, at -0.2, as opposed to -0.3 initially projected. What matters here is not that the market sees a less-severe tariff regime as positive, but that the president has been rendered powerless for all intents and purposes. So far, the government, via activist judges have thwarted every action taken by President Trump, denying the citizens of the mandates they voted for in November of last year. I actually predicted this sort of behavior from the radical left deep state controllers back in January, 2024, when I published, in idleguy.com January 2024, my opinion piece, Joe Biden, Fall Guy, asserting, at the time, that Biden would lose to Trump or be dead or incapacitated, pitting the utterly useless and uninformed Kamala Harris against Trump, who would win handily, because the deep state knew full well that they could impose their will upon any and all executive operations, much as they did in the first go-round, when Trump won in 2016. Since Trump, via dictates from various federal courts, cannot deport people, fire people, stop sending arms to Ukraine and Israel, reduce the size of government in any meaningful manner, or perform any of the duties without being sued, harangued by the press, and vilified by Democrats and members of his own party, there's certain to be reactions on Wall Street, in Washington, and among the citizenry, that cannot, at this time, be qualitatively or quantitatively measured or understood. What we have is a country run by backgrounders who do as they please, the will of the people - as guaranteed in the constitution - be damned. Thus, any predictions or outlooks regarding the economy, the stock market or practically any other important metric, would be pure folly. Prepare for chaos because that's what the deep state desires most. Best of luck. You'll need it.
At the Close, Wednesday, May 28, 2025:
Wednesday, May 28, 2025, 9:22 am ET It doesn't take much to enflame Wall Street's animal spirits - a tweet, a headline, Nvidia earnings - and ignite a stock market rally, and it wasn't much that led to Tuesday's massive gains, all but wiping out the losses from the previous week. A headline that Europe wished to "fast-track" trade and tariff talks with the Trump administration greeted traders returning from the Memorial Day weekend, with the algorithms tuned up to maximum volume. Adding to the euphoric early vibe was the Conference Board, the usually-stodgy gang reporting blowout numbers in consumer expectations. The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index rose 12.3 points in May to 98, up from April's 85.7, its lowest reading since May 2020. Another measure, that of Americans' short-term expectations for income, business conditions and the job market jumped 17.4 points to 72.8. Investors went all in on stocks, disregarding last week's bond rout while looking ahead to Nvidia (NVDA) earnings after the bell Wednesday. The Dow gained 740 points after losing more than 1,000 last week. The NASDAQ and S&P also shot higher and continued to rally throughout the short week's opening session. The NASDAQ finished just 8 points short of wiping out all of last week's losses. Traders and speculators were keen on earnings from Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF), Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS), and Macy's (M), all reporting first quarter results prior to the open Wednesday. Dick's, which announced a buyout of Foot Locker last week, was all the rage, the stock jumping more than five percent in pre-market gambling. The buzz was even greater for clothing retailer, Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF), the stock rocketing pre-market, up 27% as management is seen executing well on turnaround plans. Enthusiasm was less pronounced for Macy's (M), with the stock only gaining about three percent prior to the bell. Macy's, once one of America's leading general merchandise retailers, has been trading below $20 per share for the past two years and is currently quoted at $12. With Nbidia's earnings due out after the closing bell, Wednesday looks to be a continuation of the push back toward all-time highs. Stock futures are moderately higher at 9:00 am ET. Dow: +13; S&P: +7.75; NASDAQ: +57.
At the Close, Tuesday, May 27, 2025:
Sunday, May 25, 2025, 12:55 pm ET The week saw stocks reverse recent trands by losing ground, while fixed income, instead of providing a safe haven for those fleeing risk assets, also was hit, as treasury yields spiked higher. The downgrade of U.S. debt by Moody's overhung all markets. Less reported was Moody's Monday downgrade of the banks which benefit from association with the U.S. government, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, and Wells Fargo. Moody's lowered deposit ratings, senior unsecured debt, and counter-party risk assessments for key subsidiaries and branches of the banks to Aa2 from Aa1. Bitcoin and precious metals were the main beneficiaries of paper assets' decline, bitcoin hitting a record high above 111,000, gold topping $3,350 and silver up above $33. Progress in foreign affairs stalled, with negotiations concerning Russia, Ukraine and Israel/Gaza and Iran seemingly going nowhere. On the upside, President Trump's "big beautiful bill" passed the House by the slimmest of margins, one vote. Passage of the continuing resolution in the Senate is less assured, with several Republicans senators, including Kentucky's Rand Paul, either in opposition or expressing significant doubts. The bill, while it keeps Trump's 2017 tax cuts intact, increases defense and border security spending and is projected to add another $2 trillion in fiscal 2026 to the nation's already burgeoning debt, which will exceed $37 trillion by the middle of June.
On Friday, after President Trump messaged on his social media platform, truth.com, that Europe would be facing a 50% tariff and Apple a 25% tariff on iPhones manufactured outside the United States, equity markets didn't exactly crash as futures had presaged, but they did not go green either after a week filled with nagging irritations from a variety of sources. Tech stocks took a hit during the week, with semis down 4.5%. Banks were also on the receiving end of the selling, with the financial sector down 4.1%. Overall, the Dow, S&P and NASDAQ were each down more than two percent on the week. Dow Transports dropped the most, down 4.11%. The week ahead will be highlighted by Nvidia (NVDA) earnings on Wednesday, Thursday's second estimate of U.S. Q1 GDP growth, and April core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index - widely seen as the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge. There are still companies reporting first quarter earnings, including: Tuesday: (before open) AutoZone (AZO), Scotiabank (BNS); (after close) Semtech (SMTC), Box (BOX) Wednesday: (before open) Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF), Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS), Macy's (M), Bank of Montreal (BMO); (after close) Nvidia (NVDA), Salesforce.com (CRM) Thursday: (before open) Best Buy (BBY), Foot Locker (FL), Hormel Foods ((HRL), Burlington (BURL); (after close) Costco (COST), Dell (DELL), Gap Inc. (GAP), American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) Friday: (before open) Shoe Carnival (SCVL), Canopy Growth (CGC). Of interest will be reports from Dick's Sporting Goods, and Foot Locker, the shoe retailer being acquired by Dick's.
Rather than providing a backstop for falling equities, treasuries instead were sold off during the week, with interest rates rising the most on the longest durations. The 30-year bond gained a smashing 15 basis points (0.15%), approaching levels last seen in 2007. Similarly, the benchmark 10-year note was being shedded, gaining 8 basis points in yield over the course of the week. With the 2-year note only up 0.02, the spread on 2s-10s widened to 51, as full spectrum (30-days out to 30-years) spread widened most of all, to +68, the widest since Money Daily began tracking, 18 months ago. Spreads between junk (Baa) and High Yield corporate bonds and treasuries are still historically low, but bear watching. It appears that treasuries themselves are under assault, with the gap between them and corporates being squeezed, the inference being that treasuries themselves may no longer be considered "risk-free", with corporate high yields preferred. Spreads:
2s-10s
Full Spectrum (30-days - 30-years)
WTI crude oil closed out the week in New York trading at $61.76, down from the prior Friday reading of $62.49. The price of oil remains higher than fundamentals suggest, and further production raises by OPEC countries may be forthcoming. As it is, this level is somewhat appealing to both producers and consumers, providing profit for the former and lower prices for the latter. Gasbuddy.com is reporting the national average for a gallon of unleaded regular gas at the pump at $3.15, down a couple of cents from last week, and the lowest price over a Memorial Day weekend since 2020. The high price remained the province of California at $4.81, down seven cents on the week. Mississippi retained the low spot at $2.63. The only other state reporting a fuel price under $2.70 is Louisiana ($2.67). The remainder of the Southeastern states - including Oklahoma and Texas - range from Alabama at $2.71 and South Carolina at $2.72, to the high end of North Carolina ($2.84) and Georgia ($2.88). Florida remained above $3.00, at $3.04. The Northeast continues to be led by Pennsylvania ($3.29). New England and East coast states all range between $2.89 (New Hampshire) and $3.08 (New York). Prices were pretty stable compared to the prior week. Midwest states are led by Illinois ($3.41), the price a nickel higher than last week. Kentucky is the lowest in the region, at $2.82, followed by Kansas and Missouri ($2.89). Indiana drivers are paying $3.23. Similarly, Michigan's prices rose from $3.18 last week to $3.22 currently. The rest of the Midwest ranges from $2.90 (North Dakota) to $3.05 (Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota). Along with California, Washington is the only state above $4.00, eight cents higher than last week, at at $4.39. Oregon ($3.99) was higher this week, while Nevada ($3.84) was a nickel lower. Arizona ($3.35) is still priced at a premium to neighboring New Mexico, a relative bargain at $2.86. Idaho and neighboring Utah were the most stable, at $3.25 and $3.23, respectively. Sub-$3.00 gas is found in one fewer state this week than last, with just 20 hitting the mark. Prospects of lower gas prices for American drivers remain hopeful.
This week: $107,017.20 Bitcoin ramped above $111,000 during the week, setting yet another record high. The response by bitcoin to trouble in risk assets (stocks) and fixed income paper (treasuries and corporate bonds) was echoed by similar moves in precious metals. In some people's minds, bitcoin is as good a safe haven as gold and silver, the split being somewhat generational, with Boomers preferring the metals and GenX and GenZ types going with crypto. Millennials are seemingly split between the two. On Wednesday, May 21, a motion to proceed passed in the U.S. Senate, 69-31, moving the GENIUS Act closer to a vote on final passage, which is expected following Congress' Memorial Day recess. The vote clears the way for the legislation to move to full debate on the Senate floor. The bill would place safeguards and regulations on stablecoins and is being promoted as a positive development for U.S. dollar interests.
Gold:Silver Ratio: 99.81; last week: 98.84 Per COMEX continuous contracts:
Gold price 4/27: $3,330.20
Silver price 4/27: $33.34 Gold and silver each rebounded sharply as risk appeared to be re-emerging. Between trade issues, the U.S. budgetary issues of excessive debt and runaway spending, and geo-politics (Ukraine, Middle East), precious metals are increasingly seen as safe havens. With Japan's 30, 40, and 50-year bonds at historic highs (over 3%) and U.S. treasuries being increasingly shunned (especially by BRICS-related central banks), gold, which will become a Tier-1 asset for U.S. banks in a little more than a month (July 1), seems a natural fit. Silver will respond, at some point, to the absurdly high gold:silver ratio which continues to hover around 100. Since gold continues to rise, it could be quite some time before the silver rally ensues, though, considering the extreme price suppression and volatility in all markets, silver might take off unexpectedly. It's difficult to get a good reading on timing for silver, since the GSR has almost never been this high. The optimal approach would be to buy both, with slight favoritism toward silver. Here are the most recent prices for common one ounce gold and silver items sold on eBay (numismatics excluded, free shipping):
The Single Ounce Silver Market Price Benchmark (SOSMPB) rose rapidly through the week, to $42.32, a $2.37 gain from the May 18 price of $39.95 per troy ounce.
As we honor our fallen veterans this Memorial Day weekend, bearing witness to the freedoms they supposedly died to protect, we, the living, should be inspired to do more while we can to return America to its former glory. The United States, while still considered a freedom-loving nation, has gradually ceded a host of individual rights to the power of the federal government, a trend, that, if continued, does not augur well for future generations.
At the Close, Friday, May 23, 2025:
For the Week:
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