BIS Joins "The Boys In The Band"

Gold gets whacked again! UGH!

Currencies drift ahead of FOMC

Mexico to monetize silver coin?

Good day... And a Tom Terrific Tuesday to you! Well, here I am once again in the middle of the night, awake, and unable to get back to sleep, so I come downstairs to my writing desk and begin putting together the Pfennig for the day... So, this should show up in your email box quite early this morning, that is if I can wake up the squirrels on the treadmill that generates the power for my email server! HA! Styx greets me in the middle of the night with their song: Suite Madame Blue...

The fears of what may happen with N. Korea are backing off once again, and that's a good thing, I guess... But not for Japanese yen, Gold, Treasuries and euros... And that's our thought for the day. Thank for you coming, there's a nice parting gift for you at the door!

The currencies, for the most part yesterday, drifted about and there was no real conviction to buy or sell them VS the dollar. I have the feeling that this is the pattern we'll see leading up to the FOMC meeting that will conclude days of board game playing tomorrow afternoon. Currencies like sterling, loonies, Aussie dollars (A$), have slipped from recent highs, but on the other side of the coin, currencies like the euro, krone, krona, have gained VS yesterday morning's levels.

Gold got whacked again yesterday, losing $12... I was sitting here scratching my balding head, trying to figure out why Gold has become persona non gratis these days, when I received an email from the GATA folks explaining it all… Let’s listen in… “Gold swaps by the Bank for International Settlements, Dave Kranzler of Investment Dynamics writes today, correlate inversely with the gold price. That is, the more gold is swapped by the BIS, the more metal is made available to bullion banks for sale into the market and shipment to Asia to prevent demand there from boosting gold's price.”

They then went into just how much Gold is being used by the BIS… Again, let’s listen in, “Disclosures in the August statement of account published by the BIS indicates that during August the bank increased “substantially” (I put those quotation marks around the word substantially), the use of Gold swaps. An estimated 130 Tonnes of new gold were make last month, worth about $59 Billion at the month-end Gold price, and the total level of Gold swap a the end of August was close to 500 Tonnes”

Well, I wasn’t aware that “the boys in the band” had a new member to their group, but apparently they do! All I’ll keep saying over and over again is that these things give investors that want to buy Gold, an opportunity to buy it cheaper than it was a week ago, and so on…

I was writing down the prices of the currencies and metals for the currency roundup when I came to Palladium and stopped... Yes, Palladium has gotten caught up in the metals selloff, but to a lesser degree... And that got me looking back at the price history of Palladium... In January of 2016, Palladium had fallen to a price of $450, and this morning it has a price of $929.71...

Earlier this year I wrote about the CEO of a mining company who made a bold prediction that the price of Palladium would exceed the price of Platinum by year end... Well, right now Palladium is narrowed the spread to Platinum to less than $30...

And one more thought about Palladium and Platinum... These two are industrial metals that are used in the making of catalytic converters in new cars... Well, we all know, because I told you so, that the new car auto industry has been circling the bowl... But... here's a sliver lining from all the flooding from the hurricanes... There's bound to be a HUGE amount of new car buying when it's all said and done, because those flooded autos, even if they start up again, won't be worth holding onto... And that would be good for Palladium and Platinum if new car buying ramps upward... 

So... the euro is knocking on the 1.20 handle's door again this morning, which is interesting given the drifting of the other currencies. I would think that some of the euro's strength is coming vis-a-vi the cross with sterling. Yes, sterling which a couple of trading days ago, was soaring on the rate hike talk that come from the Bank of England's (BOE) meeting last week. But then some calmer heads, using the logical thinking side of their collective brains, thought more about this rate hike talk, and decided that it was a little premature, and went back to sell sterling to fill in the gaps that it passed on its way to Mars last week...

The Aussie dollar (A$) seems to get a little light headed every time it climbs to 80-cents... the 80-cent air must be difficult for the A$ to breathe, because every time, in recent days, the A$ get to 80-cents and above, it doesn't last very long... In reality, I would bet a dollar to a Krispy Kreme that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is intervening to keep the A$ from getting to strong... 

The price of Oil has reached $50 once again, and that has helped the Norwegian krone and Brazilian real to strengthen, but the other Petrol Currencies of Russian rubles, Canadian loonies, Mexican pesos, and pound sterling are not rallying along with Oil this morning... Sometimes the ruble seems to lag Oil's price moves, which seems to be a prudent thing to do, given the price of Oil doesn't stay at one level very long these days, and just as easily it could be heading downward again tomorrow...

So, have you heard the news regarding the Libertad Silver Coin in Mexico? Apparently, there is a group making a plea to the Mexican congress to monetize the coin at a fixed rate, so that the Mexican people would have a coin they could invest in and save with... The proposed plan would center around a fixed price that's higher than the current spot price of Silver that would be held steady by the Central Bank even if the spot price of Silver falls, but would rise with the spot of Silver should Silver enjoy a rise in price.

And Interesting plan, if I do say so myself, and one that has seen several attempts to get the Mexican congress to agree to through the years. It reminds me of the great Gold price reset scenario that James Rickards talks about in his book: A New Case For Gold. I won't give the scenario away, but I will say that James Rickards has updated his scenario for the great Gold price reset... And Gold holders will be happy as they can be IF his scenario comes to fruition...

Let me give you a heads up... IF you hear of a meeting of international heads at the President's Florida Mar-a-lago, you might want to be calling Gold dealers and buying before everybody else wants to buy Gold... wink, wink...  

OK, Chuck enough of that stuff! It's all up in the air, and we don't really know if it's going to come down to earth and reality... So, let's talk about something else! OK... Well then, the retail Armageddon continues, as Toys 'R Us filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy last night... The company has been hurt by shrinking sales, online competition, and a massive debt load from a leveraged buyout more than a decade ago!

The key word/ problem there "massive debt"... Eventually it gets to everyone and when it does, there's no turning back, either you just keep adding on debt like the U.S. Gov't, or you cry out, "no mas"...

The U.S. Data Cupboard today has the Housing Starts and Building Permits data prints for August, and the Current Account Deficit will also print for the 2nd QTR... The deficit is expected to be around $117 Billion, but I think it will be higher than that...

To recap... Gold got whacked again and now we're seeing a driving force behind the selling, with the BIS operating in the Gold Swaps arena BIG Time... The currencies, for the most part, drifted about yesterday, with some selling in sterling, loonies, and A$'s... The price of Oil is back to $50 this morning, and Chuck wonders for long it will stay there this time? The so-called safe havens of yen, treasuries, Gold and euros are being treated rudely, except for euros, due to a backing off of the tensions regarding N. Korea... 

Before I head to the Big Finish… I wanted to highlight something that was sent to your email box yesterday evening from my good friends, and now publishers, Mary Anne and Pamela Aden of the Aden Forecast… They wanted to make sure that you dear Pfennig Readers were aware of the excellent newsletter that the Aden Forecast is each week. And they offered you a special price to subscribe, or take a 3 month trial…

Longtime readers know that I’ve very seldom asked you for things… your prayers, your support for my son Alex’s Ironman fund raiser, and that’s about it… I take our relationship very seriously, and wouldn’t want to mess it up with frivolous things. And so I wanted to make certain that you knew that I was aware of this and I wholeheartedly agreed that Pfennig Readers should have the research available to them in the Aden Forecast each week! So, I hope it was something that you found worth a couple of minutes to read, and that now you’re contemplating whether to subscribe or not… I think you will be very satisfied with your decision if you do decide to subscribe! Go forth now… onward and upward!

Or, here's your snippet: "Tens of thousands of euros have been flushed down the toilet in Geneva, leaving Swiss prosecutors scratching their heads over whether the money is dirty.

Wads of €500 notes were discovered cut to shreds in the sewer system of a branch of Swiss bank UBS, while three more large deposits turned up in the toilets of nearby bistros.

Prosecutors confirmed the notes were worth tens of thousands of euros in total but said they had yet to identify the person who felt flush enough to dispose of the bills.

Swiss investigators said the money appeared to have come from a safe deposit box in Geneva belonging to unidentified Spanish women.

A lawyer for the women appeared at a local police station, according to the Tribune de Genève, but only offered money to pay for plumbing work at the UBS branch and the three restaurants."

Chuck again... Can I say it? Go ahead and say it! No, Can I say it? Ok, I'm going to go ahead and say it... That's what I call dirty money!

Currencies today 9/19/17... American Style: A$ .7987, kiwi .7295, C$ .8131, euro 1.1996, sterling 1.3520, Swiss $ .96, ... European Style: rand 13.3027, krone 7.8048, SEK 7.9385, forint 257.75, zloty 3.5763, koruna 21.7736, RUB 57.80, yen 111.71, sing 1.3482, HKD 7.8031, INR 64.21, China 6.5619, peso 17.77, BRL 3.1179, Dollar Index 91.81, Oil $50.24, 10-year 2.21%, Silver $17.24, Platinum $929.17, Palladium $929.71, and Gold... $1,312.50

That's it for today... No baseball for me last night, and I just can't get into the NFL yet this year, maybe because we no longer have a team in St. Louis, or maybe because the NFL did nothing to address the antics of players on the sidelines during the National Anthem... that's all I'm saying about that.. Just a baker's dozen of games left in the baseball regular season. After the Cardinals laid an egg in Chicago last weekend, there's not much hope left the games left that they can rally to be a playoff team... UGH! The Cure takes us to the finish line today with their song: Close To Me... And with that, I'll get out of your hair today, and send you on your way to a Tom Terrific Tuesday... Be Good To Yourself.