And the selling stopped

Good Day... And a Tom Terrific Tuesday to you! Friday this week is the circus that surrounds the Jobs Jamboree... That should hole the market's attention for a few minutes on Friday! They are such a fickle group, so who knows? The SPTs and short timers were still selling Gold & Silver yesterday, so no healing in those two just yet, but I do believe it will come... Again, I'm going to shout this from the roof tops... "Nothing has changed" except the selling now holds court over the metals. 10cc greets me this morning with their song: the Things We Do For Love.. 

The dollar continued its brief rally based on the thought in the markets of "no more rate cuts", with the BBDXY gaining 3 index points on the day. Do I need to remind you that the dollar's weak trend is not a ONE-WAY Street? I didn't think so, but I did any way.... But in the meantime, what's a poor boy to do? Well, I suggest that you do either of two things.... 1. Batten down the hatches and wait for the storm to blow over or 2. Back up the truck and buy currencies at cheaper prices... 

Gold lost $230 yesterday, and Silver lost $6.03... The SPTs and short timers are trying to show you that what goes up big, must come down big...  "Although gold and silver have seen extreme selling pressure, the fundamental outlook for the precious metals has not changed.

“Metal prices didn’t just correct on Friday - they deleveraged. Gold fell 10%, exceeding the largest intraday drop since the 2008 global financial crisis and the biggest daily decline since the early 1980s. Meanwhile, silver collapsed 30%,” the analysts said. “These extreme moves tells you this was not fundamentally driven; it was about positioning.”

Chuck again... I highlighted the statement above because that's what I keep saying over and over again with no luck in turning Gold & Silver's selling around.. 

In the overnight markets last night... The selling of Gold & Silver ended last night, thank goodness! Gold is up $262 to start our day today, and Silver is up $8. The turnaround has brought the "risk" back into the markets, and that is basically here because of Gold & Silver... The overnight markets said, "enough is enough and bought physical metals at the cheaper prices, which you should have been doing!  But we procrastinate, and say, "I'll do that tomorrow", and then tomorrow comes, and we forget what we were supposed to do... I get it... So, that's why I continue to harp on you to diversify your investment portfolio currencies and metals.... 

If you're one of those that procrastinated, it's not too late to diversify your investment portfolio, you can get started by sending an email to : [email protected]

The dollar buying stopped overnight too and the BBDXY is down 2 index points to start our day today, with the currencies recovering a bit... The Chinese renminbi was allowed take another step in the right direction and starts today trading with a 6.93 handle... that's quite a bit lower than a couple of months ago... Longtime reader, Bob, sent me a note that he found that says something that I used to tell audiences in my presentations, and that is that "China's Xi wants to move the renminbi to achieve reserve status for the currency"...  Yes, a wider distribution of not only the currency but the bond market is required fundamentals of a reserve currency, which the dollar holds tentatively now... 

I've explained this before, but it bears repeating now... China is not interested in short term moves, they look into the future and have long term visions of how things will be... So, don't expect China to be rapidly making the renminbi widely distributed, and open up their bond markets... They will take their time and come about their mission on their timetable... 

I also used to tell audiences that I thought to achieve the reserve status for the renminbi, they would need to attach gold conversion in some percentage to the renminbi ... Well, I told you months ago that the Chinese were doing just that in some form... So, it's all coming into focus now...  

The price of Oil remained in trading in the $62 handle overnight, and the 10-year Treasury is inching higher with its yield again... This morning's yield is 4.28%

Yesterday, I told you that the price of Oil had remained at $62, but failed to mention that on Friday it dropped $3 because the U.S. held off attacking Iran... Apparently, the Oil guys had thought that the U.S. would attack Iran, thus slowing the Oil flow out of the country...  

More from Oilprice.com... "Winter Storm Fern exposed deep structural fragility in the U.S. power grid, with outages affecting up to a million customers despite years of warnings from reliability watchdogs."

Chuck again... I know, I switched from Oil to electric on a dime there, but it's still energy... And the cold weather really put the grid guys on high alert... I've been pointing out the problem with all the AI... strain on the electrical grid... And now this polar vortex that has taken control of 1/3rd of the country.... Shoot Rudy, the polar vortex, even touched us down in South Florida!

I actually had to turn on the heat in our place for the first time since we've owned it... The overnight lows hadn't been seen here in over 15 years, far before I came south... Back to the high 60's today, and 70's tomorrow, should at least put a smile on most S. Floridians faces... I know it will mine, for I'll be able to go outside and read in the sun! 

The game of tug-o-war between the SPTs and China is going to play out a few more times as this plays out, in my humble opinion, but sooner or later the SPTs will give up the ship rather than but heads with China every time they try to take the metals down... 

On Friday this week, we'll see the Jobs Jamboree... I wonder if the BLS will add thousands of jobs out of thin air, or will they leave the surveys alone? I would bet a shiny quarter on the former of the two options here... The BLS gets chastised by the POTUS, it gets its chief el jefe fired, but they still play games with the surveys from companies that tell what they did with labor during the previous month. There's no way, that the BLS will allow a bad report at this point... 

I've said this previously, but it bears repeating... The U.S. economy is working in some parts and not working in other parts... The observers call this a "K economy" Well in my humble opinion, the spikes in the K will flatten out as the year goes on... that is as long as the POTUS's plan to mine the heck out of Federal land and turn our economy's dire straits into happy days are here again..... I told you about it a few months ago, as James Rickards reported it, but like I said then, I'm from Missouri, they are going to have to show me".... 

The other thing that will go on and happen later today, is the refinancing announcement by the Treasury... They have a large refinancing today, and it will be interesting to see if the Treasury opts for a spread-out issuance, or will he bulk up the T-Bills and other short bonds? I think with all the questions going around the merry-go-round these days regarding rate cuts (yes or no?)

The Treasury will not want to go out too long.... Yes, interest rates are much lower this year than in the past few years, but the debt servicing costs will continue to take a HUGE bite of our finances, given that the size of the issuance continues to grow... 

The U.S. Data Cupboard doesn't have much on the docket today and only has the ADP Employment Report for our viewing tomorrow morning, it is NOT forecast to show a recovery in jobs during December...

I think that call centers are already going in the automated direction, along with clerical staff, and others... It's already started in my humble opinion... I'll have that for you in tomorrow's FWIW, so make sure you come back to read it!

To recap... The selling of Gold & Silver continued on Monday... Chuck is waiting for the Chinese to step in from of this selling bus and say no mas! Chuck repeats his thought that everyone that owns Gold & Silver should take to heart and that is: that nothing has changed in the fundamentals as to why you bought Gold.... the U.S. didn't attack Iran and so the price of Oil drops... And what Chuck has been waiting for started last night... 

For What It's Worth... I found this on Kitco.com and it's about the recent pull-back of the metals and then goes about talking about how it should be short-lived... This is a very long article but I carved out the piece I wanted you to read...

Here's your very long snippet: "Roughly $9–10 trillion of U.S. Treasury debt will mature in 2026, forcing markets, not policymakers, to decide what long-dated capital is worth in a country running persistent primary deficits with no political appetite for restraint from either side of the aisle.

Inflation will rise even further when the money supply expands beyond productive output. Politicians have lost all discipline because government continually votes to raise budgets and prolong a problem the Fed is powerless to stop.

The debt crisis has been rapidly snowballing in magnitude, with those in power having zero intention of stopping it from destroying the dollar’s purchasing power further.

Following the U.S. government shutdown in Q4 2025, what began to shift is not the existence of debt but how it is considered.

Capital is no longer free, duration is no longer ignored, and credibility is no longer assumed. None of this is sudden, or even radical. It is simply arithmetic reasserting itself after decades of being deferred.

After deciding to research how the financial system functions over twenty years ago, I discovered that the system was living on borrowed time - financially, politically, and institutionally.

The sharply rising gold price could be telling us that 2026 may be the year when the bill comes due, while global investors simultaneously decide they need hard assets as a hedge against an obvious dollar destructive policy choice.

A weaker dollar drives more gold and silver buying, as more gold and silver buying validates the dollar diversification trade.

Therefore, central banks are set to continue piling in with record purchases, and now private investors are following with Wall Street's blessing.

After spending years of mostly telling clients silver was too industrial to be considered "precious," and holding gold "paid no interest," Bank of America has a $170 silver price target, while Citi just upgraded their short-term forecast to $150 from $100. In October, BofA raised its gold forecast to $5000, then raised it to $6000 coming into the new year.

The explosive moves in the precious metals complex we are experiencing is not merely just another bull market rally. Gold blowing through $5000/oz and silver clearing $100/oz so quickly represents a fundamental breakdown in confidence in the world monetary system that has been building since the 2008 financial crisis.

The extraordinary rise in both precious metals is the marketplace screaming that the global sovereign debt spiral has reached terminal velocity intermixed with increasing geopolitical turmoil, while generalist investment institutions and retail investors have only recently returned the precious metals mining space after leaving en masse in 2012.

Their recent return to this tiny sector is evidenced by several important benchmark precious metals sector ratio trades set to break out above significant 12-year resistance levels from long-term accumulative bases."

Chuck again... yes, it was like he was writing about the pull-back in metals and then thought, "but the dollar is in trouble and that means the metals will rally"...  I find that sometimes I'm writing about something and then I think of something else, and I lose all conscientiousness with what I was doing! I'm such a dolt sometimes! HA! 

Market Prices 2/3/2026: American Style: A$ .7011, kiwi .6039, C$ .7320, euro 1.1796, sterling 1.3689, Swiss $1.2863, European Style: rand 15.9808, krone 9.6816, SEK 8.9429, forint 322.67, zloty 3.5820, koruna 20.6150, RUB 76.88, yen 155.88, sing 1.2707, HKD 7.8127, INR 90.26, China 6.9379, peso 17.31, BRL 5.2316, BBDXY 1,189, Dollar Index 97.56, Oil $62.55, 10-year 4.28%, Silver $87.50, Platinum $2,245.00, Palladium $1,828.00, Copper $6.06, and Gold... $4,923.

That's it for today... Man, that was frustrating to watch last night, as our Blues blew a 5-1 lead and lost to the Predators 6-5... For a period there, I thought that the Blues were playing their best hockey of the year, and then suddenly they weren't! The Billikens play tonight and put their 14-game win streak on the line... On Groundhog day, Phil saw his shadow, so 6 more weeks of winter... (Don't get too upset, he's only right 35% of the time!) Only 2 weeks until pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training... I bet they are hoping for warmer weather for their start! It looks like on the weather calendar that "sunny and 80" won't be in the cards this early spring, but sunny and 70's will be in its place... Bob Dylan takes us to the finish line today with his song: Knockin' On Heaven's Door... I hope you have a Tom Terrific Tuesday today