Lies and more lies

Good Day... And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! Well, more lies and false numbers ruled the day in the markets yesterday... I'll have more on that a minute... Our Blues played in Miami last night, and they shocked me and the rest of the NHL with a 3-0 win over the best team in the NHL... But that's the Blues... play to the level of your competition...  Sweet greets me this morning with their song: Love Is Like Oxygen.

Just whom do the BLS think they are fooling with their STUPID CPI report? I don't get it, I mean, I think even the Fed Heads know their report is a bunch of lies... This is really getting ridiculous... The BLS reported that inflation remained at 2.7% year on year, while John Williams says that inflation is really 16%... Who will you believe? I know whom I'm going to believe, and that's John Williams of shadowstats.com who calculates inflation the way it was calculated before Bill Clinton, Alan Greenspan, and the Boston Commission started to change the way it was calculated... They provided tons of hedonic adjustments so that inflation would look lower, and the Fed would cut rates and make housing more affordable... That's the story behind the change, and it's fact, folks.

So, the dollar bugs went all-in on the dollar, because if inflation, per the BLS, is not a problem then there would be no more rate cuts, and that's good for the dollar... And the BBDXY immediately gained 2 index points and finished the day up 2 in the BBDXY at 1,211. And history is about to repeat itself... The rates have already been cut, so housing is going to go through the roof again if not already, and when the ride comes to stop... We'll see Armageddon in the markets and economy... But don't let me get in the way of a "feel good story about how inflation fell".

Gold fell early in the morning on Tuesday, but then rallied to a level of $4,644, but then the STUPID CPI printed, and the SPTs decided to make the Gold bugs pay for thinking inflation was a problem. Silver took off early in the morning, and never looked back as it nears $90 an ounce... Gold closed yesterday at $4,587 and Silver at $87.07... I do have to say that China taking over control of the Silver price has proved to be quite beneficial to Silver, eh?

The FWIW article today is about owning physical Gold VS other types of Gold (paper, ETFs, etc.) So, hold on to your horses until you get there, you will, as long as you keep reading! 

The price of Oil stayed above the $60 handle yesterday, and it now appears that the price of Oil is going to remain higher than the mid-$50's it has been stuck at for some time now... So much for going out and buying another gas guzzler! HA! The 10-year Treasury's yield had touched on 4.20% and then it wasn't, after the STUPID CPI printed... Everyone and their brother knows that the STUPID CPI is a great BIG LIE! But, the bond boys have to play the game sometimes... I'm just saying.

In the overnight markets last night... Gold & Silver took off for the moon early in the night, and remained at lofty levels throughout the night... And the dollar drifted... Like I said yesterday, I don't see what the dollar bugs are seeing in the dollar right now but I'm a sure as the sun will come out in S. Florida, that this brief rally will be short lived, so batten down the hatches and ride this dollar storm out.. That's my Pfennig worth.

Gold is up $48 to start the day today, and Silver is up a whopping $3.25... The large moves in Silver have me a bit concerned, but not too much.. I just get a little leery at an asset that continues to jump higher by large margins... But I'm going to put that leeriness aside this time and enjoy Silver's path to $100.... Yes, I do believe that Silver will be trading with a $100 handle by March... I guess we'll see, eh?

The price of Oil bumped higher yet again last night and trades this morning with a $61 handle.... Seems strange doesn't it considering that just a week ago, the doom and gloom were all over the price of Oil, and then it wasn't... And the 10-year's yield continued to see some downward pressure from buying overnight with the yield falling to 4.15%.

And the dollar buying stopped overnight once again... The BBDXY starts the day down 1 index point at 1,210, and the feel in the markets is that the dollar ran too far, too fast... I guess we'll see, eh?

The U.S. Data Cupboard has the delayed Retail Sales report from Nov. This morning... I don't even recall what the BHI indicated during Nov. I do believe that I gave it the month off, since the Gov't was in shutdown.

Furthermore, on yesterday's STUPID CPI... OK, here's the skinny on how the STUPID CPI came in lower in this report... Back in Rocktober and November, there was no CPI report because of the Gov't Shutdown, but the BLS not having any hard numbers to fudge, used their best estimations of what the numbers would have been and then carried those numbers forward to the Dec report that printed today and showed that inflation had gained .3% but remained at 2.7% year on year.

And their estimations caused that inflation would show at 2.7%.. Pretty useless in my humble opinion, but the markets seem to have their minds taken over, much like the sea witch in the old Popeye cartoons, when she would send out her sound, and Popeye would become entranced with it, and follow it anywhere... That's the markets reaction to the STUPID CPI every darn time! 

To recap... the dollar continued to get bought yesterday, and Chuck doesn't have a clue as to why the dollar bugs are so adamant about buying dollars right now, but he believes that it will be short-lived, so... batten down the hatches and only open them when he gives the all clear...  Or, you could buy the dips in the currencies and get them cheaper than they were to start the week.

Here's your snippet: "To those who are new to gold ownership (and I believe their numbers will soon be increasing exponentially), it would seem perfectly reasonable that gold could be purchased as simply as buying any commodity. If, for example, someone were to want to buy an apple, he would simply go to the grocery store and pay the price marked on the apple bin. If, however, he wanted quite a lot of apples, he might go to several stores and have a look at the prices marked, then choose the lowest price. Looked at from this perspective, it seems perfectly reasonable that the purchase of gold would not be significantly more complicated.

However, our local grocer, unfortunately, does not have bins full of Krugerrands and Maple Leafs with prices marked above them. While we sometimes have the opportunity to buy gold from private parties or coin dealers in which a selling price is stated up front, most gold purchases are done through middlemen (banks, investment funds, etc.) who do not actually own the gold they are selling. The middlemen, understandably, are forever seeking ways to maximise their profits on the transactions, and this has led to the number of permutations that exist today.

Risky business

One of the riskiest of these, to my mind, is the Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), investment funds traded on stock exchanges. Not surprisingly, this method of purchase is the favorite of stockbrokers. It is an easy sell for them, since it is structured by the way stocks are structured. It therefore seems safe to stock investors. It is not.

With most stocks, the buyer owns a portion of the company, rather than a specific number of the products that the company deals in. When investing in a fund, the fund generally owns a portion of the companies it has invested in. With buying gold through ETFs, however, the buyer is under the impression that he has bought the actual product, when he has not. In many cases, the fund does not have possession of the gold. Therefore, the buyer has bought the “promise” of future ownership."

Chuck again... Now, that wasn't that long of a FWIW as I thought, as I left a lot of the article alone, but I gave you the gist... he goes on to talk about how when the supply depletes, the ETFs will be the first to be sold... and you won't have anything to say about that! And again, if it's not in your pocket or safe, etc. whatever, you don't own it.

Markets Prices 1/14/2026: American Style: A$ .6688, kiwi .5741, C$ .7200, euro 1.1655, sterling 1.3455, Swiss $1.2482, European Style: rand 16.4094, krone 10. 0688, SEK 9.2007, forint 331.00, zloty 3.6142, koruna 20.7792, RUB 78.54, yen 157.68, sing 1.2878, HKD 7.7974, INR 90.29, China 6.9732, peso 17.82, BRL 5.3737, BBDXY 1,210, Dollar Index 90.32, Oil $61.88 10-year 4.15%, Silver $90.32, Platinum $2,405.00, Palladium $1,851.00, Copper $6.06, and Gold... $4,636.

That's it for today... The first week of weather down here was absolutely beautiful, but now we're seeing, the weather change, so winter in S. Florida... Lots of rain, and no 80's... This will be over soon, if past years down here are any indication and I believe they will be... Rams VS Bears, and 49ers VS Seahawks in the NFC, and The Bills VS Broncos and Texans VS Patriots in the AFC are the teams that will square off in this weekend's playoff games... I don't see how any team scores on the Texans defense... But I'm hoping that the Bills make it to the Super Bowl...  Mungo Jerry takes us to the Finish Line today with his one-hit wonder song: In The Summertime... I hope you have a Wonderful Wednesday today and Please Be Good To Yourself!