Fed Heads have no choice but to keep rates either where they are, or hike them

• Currencies rally on Monday, but get sold overnight.

• Digital currencies are coming, I can feel in the air tonight (Phil Collins!).

Good Day... And a Tom Terrific Tuesday to you ! What Month are we in here? Yesterday, it was like an August day in S. Florida, as the day heated up, rain moved in for about an hour, and then the sun came back out and warmed up again... My beloved Cardinals were rainout out in Detroit yesterday, and will play a conventional old-time style double header this afternoon... So, with no Cardinals on TV, I watched the Orioles / Yankees game, of which the Orioles won 2-0... Things are going good down here so far... I haven't bled since I was on the plane Saturday, and for some unknown reason, I always feel better when I'm down here... I'm going to be on another new chemo soon, as soon as all the t's are crossed and i's dotted... I have to stop taking the current chemo some days ahead of taking a new one, so that it's out of my system, and during that time, the tumor grows in my mouth... UGH! Oh, well, I carry on despite my shortcomings and trials... Al Stewart greets me this morning with his song: Time Passages.

Well, yesterday began with the dollar down 4 index points in the BBDXY, and the dollar immediately lost another index point when trading began in the U.S. but then... Everything ground to a halt, and the dollar didn't move either way the rest of the day, thus ending the day down 5 index points. Gold , which was down a buck to start the day, ended the day down $2 at $2,335.50.

Silver, which was up 15-cets to start the day, ended the day down 5-cents at $27.11... There isn't much going on in the markets as we grow nearer to the FOMC meeting that will take place tomorrow afternoon... No one knows for sure what the Fed Heads will do tomorrow, or what they might say, and that leads to everyone battening down the hatches and waiting for the announcement. 

The price of Oil dropped a buck yesterday and ended the day trading with an $82 handle... The cause for the drop was attributed to the news that a cease fire may be in the works in the Israel conflict with Hamas... Did you know that this is the 5th time Israel and Hamas have faced off? Can't we all just get along? As if! 

And there was more buying of the 10-year yesterday, as the bond's yield dropped to 4.61%... I call this bond buying, stranger than fiction, because to me the Fed Heads have no choice but to keep rates either where they are, or hike them... And that should keep yields higher, not falling... But it is what it is.

In the overnight markets last night... Well, I guess the overnight folks didn't get the memo that they were supposed to wait for the FOMC announcement because they said, "we know what the Fed Heads are going to do so, and that is they are going to sound hawkish, and we had better sell gold"... And sell Gold & Silver they did... Gold is down $23 to start the day, and Silver is down 50-cents... This is all strange to me, because if these folks had been paying attention, they would have known that the Fed was pivoting from their dovish stance of a couple months ago... so why all the panic now? Oh well, isn't life strange? (Moody Blues) The dollar rallied a bit and gained 2 index points back from its losses yesterday... Strange overnight markets for sure, but, hey! It's a new day! And you never know what can happen, right? Bless the new day! 

Well... Blacklisted news.com had this little ditty for us yesterday... "‘Over 98 percent’ of world’s central banks gearing up for new system of programmable, trackable ‘digital cash’ and 24 nations will have ‘live CBDCs’ by 2030."

Chuck again... Yes, I told you all 4 years ago, now, that this was coming, and I'm sure most people thought, that it was just Chuck spouting off another conspiracy story... Well, looks like he wasn't was he? 

You know, no one ever asked me how I knew 4 years ago that the U.S. was moving to a digital currency that would eliminate all your freedoms? Well, all I did was put two-and two together, and this is what popped into my brain... Of course I thought then that a defaulting country, and not ruling out the U.S., would be the trigger for implementation of digital currencies... And we still may have that to look forward to, but nevertheless, digital currencies are coming and there's not a think you can do to stop it... Remember what Gandalf the White said.... I told you that yesterday! And what does Chuck say? Got Gold?

And the good folks at GATA sent me this little ditty: "Consumers in China bought 308.9 tons (10.9 million ounces) of gold in the first quarter, representing a 5.9 per cent increase compared with the same period in 2023, according to data released by the China Gold Association on Friday."

The Chinese "get it"... I'm just saying... IT would really be something if one day, I wrote that U.S. consumers feeling scared about the U.S.'s finances, bought record amounts of physical Gold...  Now, that'd be the day, when you say goodbye, that'd be the day when make me cry... Ahh, a little Buddy Holly on this fine Tuesday morning! 

Ok, I was reading a bit in the needtoknownews.com email that I get daily, from G. Edward Griffin, and the article was about how the First Republic Bank failed, and that we should expect hundreds more of these small regional bank failures... Why? Because the Commercial Real Estate problems belong to the small regional banks that wrote the loans... Now, they may have sold them to Bigger Banks, but I doubt they even thought that Commercial Real Estate would turn to problem in the coming years.

On a sidebar... years ago, I was called on the carpet for highlighting an G. Edward Griffin story... Apparently he had talked about something that was out of his lane, and the marketing folks at EverBank went ballistic! I tried to explain to them that G. Edward Griffen was the man who wrote the book: The Creature From Jekyll Island, that exposed the Fed Heads at the beck and call of the Big Banks... It didn't matter to the marketing folks, and they made me stop referring to him in the Pfennig... Well, I'm no longer bound by those chains, so neener, neener, neener! Oh come on, Chuck, that's very sophomoric even for you!

This is where, because there's not that much going on in the markets right now ahead of the FOMC meeting tomorrow, that I refer to something that Bill Bonner said in his letter.

"Federal policies — ultra low interest rates — exaggerated the tops. Now, as if guided by an “invisible hand,” they will exaggerate the bottoms. That is, the feds will spend too much money, get involved in too many wars, limit trade, reward their cronies... punish their opponents... and enact regulations and policies that will curtail output, thus raising real consumer prices and increasing poverty.

We have no authority for this, the tail end part of our outlook. It is a guess. But it’s what a late, degenerate empire tends to do. And so far, the feds are doing it!

Chuck again... Yes, the U.S. Empire is degenerating, in my humble opinion it began as we turned the century, so therefore we are now 24 years into our decline... Comforting news, eh? 

The U.S. Data Cupboard has the first quarter's Employment Cost Index for our review today... I suspect that this has increased, judging from the increases in Personal Income that have been printing lately... Any sign of higher Employment Costs and that will be the last nail in the rate cut coffin... 

We will also see the Feb, Case/ Shiller Home Price Index (HPI)... Home prices have been falling for months now, and I don't expect to see this change.... Except for the fact that in Feb, all the world, sans Chuck, thought that the Fed Heads would be cutting rates in March and June! So, maybe just thinking that would help the home prices rise a bit... I doubt it, but we'll see soon this morning...

To recap... Well, the markets have already gone into a wait-n-see mode, with regards to the FOMC meeting tomorrow afternoon... The dollar didn't move once the data got started yesterday, and everyone said, "wait! The FOMC meets tomorrow!" Gold & Silver lost some minor ground yesterday, nothing to worry about... The Chinese consumers are picking up the buying in physical Gold... We have G. Edward Griffin and Bill Bonner for everyone today! How could you ask for more? 

Here's your snippet: "Regulators must equip themselves with tools such as "bail-in" bonds to deal quickly with a failed clearing house for stocks, bonds or derivatives without having to call on taxpayers for cash, the G20's risk watchdog said on Thursday.

After the global financial crisis of 2007-09, regulators mandated clearing for a wider range of derivatives, meaning they must pass through a clearer backed by a default fund to ensure completion of trades.

More recently, the United States has adopted rules to force more trades in the $26 trillion U.S. Treasury market through clearers.

As a result of such changes, some clearers have become vital to financial systems in more than one jurisdiction, meaning their failure could damage financial stability unless they can be stabilized or "resolved", meaning closed down, in an orderly way.

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) said its new standard, which builds on previous guidance, requires that adequate liquidity, loss-absorbing, and recapitalization resources and tools are available to maintain the continuity of a clearer's critical functions, and mitigate adverse effects on financial stability should a shutdown become necessary.

It sets out seven resources and tools that regulators are required to pick from, such as "bail-in" bonds issued by clearers that can be written down to plug losses, resolution funds, cash calls during resolution, and equity in a first-loss position in resolution."

Chuck again... not the greatest FWIW article I've ever had, but... it goes to show you that at least someone is looking ahead at what's coming and attempting to plan for it... 

Market Prices 4/30/2024: American Style: A$ .6626, kiwi .5946, C$ .7303, euro 1.0722, sterling 1.2542, Swiss $1.0963, European Style: rand 18.7104, krone 11.0194, SEK 10.9571, forint 364.17, zloty 4.0268, koruna 23.0986, RUB 93.36, yen 156.92, sing 13610, HKD 7.8268, INR 83.43, China 7.2410, peso 16.98, BRL 5.1199, BBDXY 1,260.10, Dollar Index 105.74, Oil $83.02, 10-year 4.62%, Silver $26.60, Platinum $937.00, Palladium $957.00, Copper $4.62, and Gold... $2,312.52

That's it for today... Well, I'll be glued to the TV this afternoon, for the Cardinals / Tigers doubleheader... Or, maybe I won't be, depending on how the red birds are playing! They have actually looked a bit better in recent games, and so there's hope, where there was none before! The NFL draft is over, and 6 Mizzou Tigers were drafted, with 3 others signing free agent deals with teams... Good Show... for Mizzou made! I was surprised that I didn't receive one email asking me where I was last week... Apparently, you all get a Gold Star for paying attention in class! I forgot to tell you that my primary care doctor, while he's pleased that I've lost 120 lbs in the last 3.5 years, he's concerned that I need to lose more... I agreed with him, and told him, "it's very difficult for me to lose weight, because I'm so inactive... "..  So, we left agreeing that I need to lose more, but unaware as to how to do it! J.D. Souther takes us to the finish line this morning with his song: You're Only Lonely... I hope you have a Tom Terrific Tuesday today, and will Be Good To Yourself!