Mom, they're doing it again

Good Day... And a Tub Thumpin' Thursday to you! I got my laptop back in working order yesterday, thanks to my good friend Rick B! He was a lifesaver as far as I was concerned, for I was ready to go bananas, if not already! My beloved Mizzou Tigers won in Kentucky last night, and the StL Billikens won at VCU last night, I was going back and forth on their games, which ended about the same time... The Steve Miller Band (Stevie Guitar Miller) greet me this morning with their song: Livin' In The U.S.A... 

Well, Wednesday wasn't a good day for Gold & Silver, but a good day for the dollar... Makes you wonder doesn't it? I told you yesterday morning that the SPTs were back and taking a pound of flesh from Gold & Silver, and nothing changed much as the day went along... The dollar rose to end the day at 1,207... And that rise was questionable... 

You see, the Fed Heads have said that they were cutting rates because of the declining labor situation in the U.S. And then yesterday, the ADP Employment Report showed that only 41,000 new hires were taken on in Dec.  

Now, that would mean that the Fed Heads had more rate cuts up their sleeves... And THAT should have been a death knell for the dollar... Instead the dollar rallied... So, to me, this was the work of the PPT, making certain that the dollar didn't fall like a rock off a side of a cliff... So, there you have a synopsis of the markets that I care about from yesterday... 

The price of Oil remained trading with a $56 handle yesterday, and the 10-year stayed trading with a 4.14% yield... No changes here... So, no manipulation here... 

In the overnight markets last night... Well, the SPTs are not backing off and have taken Silver down over $3 overnight, and Gold down $41... Gold & Silver aren't the only metals that have had to deal with the SPTs, Platinum and Copper are also on the SPTs list of metals to short... UGH! This from Kitco.com "On Wednesday, commodity analysts at TD Securities published their latest trade, saying they were shorting silver futures and looking for sharply lower prices within the next three months as market fundamentals start to balance out."  

Chuck again, they are calling for Silver to retreat to $40... I hope they get their $*# handed to them on Silver platter! 

The dollar gained another index point overnight, and starts today at 1,208 in the BBDXY... I really can't get my arms around this dollar strength, with the labor market not showing any signs of recovering, and the Fed Heads saying they are cutting rates to alleviate the labor shortage.... The two don't mix, and that's why it's so confusing... 

The 10-year's yield rose to 4.16% overnight, so apparently the Fed Heads weren't in doing yield control overnight... And the price of Oil remains in the $56 handle... Did you hear that the U.S. seized two tankers yesterday, one of them under a Russian Flag? I don't like that one bit, for lessor things have caused wars to break out... I'm just saying... 

So, now, the U.S. is going to recover Oil revenue from Oil taken from Venezuela... But, to me, this is going to take SOME TIME, and not going to be a today thing for the U.S. revenues... But then, that's just me, thinking logically... 

But the thought here is that it will reduce the price of gas in U.S. to help families struggling to make ends meet now...  Which is way the price of Oil is falling... The key here is the words "now" and "some time"... They don't mesh... I'm just saying... 

So, this week I've been talking a lot about Silver and its prospects looking forward in 2026.. And then I saw this article from the good folks at GATA... " Silver miners have begun to print money"... Yes, it's been lagging, the earnings of the mining companies, but with Silver in a shortage, and the price of Silver going through the roof, it was only a matter of time before the Mining Cos began to book profits... here's a snippet from the article: "People unfamiliar with mining may think the industry's profits jumped in line with these price increases.

But that's not how it works. Profitability is increasing by multiples of the underlying metals. Especially for silver.

Pan American Silver (PAAS) is a large silver and gold miner (disclosure: I own it, along with most other big silver producers).

In the company’s most recent investor presentation, they show how much it costs them to mine each ounce of gold and silver. This is known as the all-in sustaining cost (AISC).

In Q1 of 2024, Pan American was mining silver at a cost of around $16.68 per ounce. They sold silver during that quarter at an average price of $22.61 per ounce.

So in Q1 2024, they made a profit margin of roughly $6 per ounce.

By Q3 of 2025, the price of silver rose to an average of around $39/oz. Pan American’s AISC decreased slightly, so their profit per ounce rose to $23. An almost 4x increase from Q1 2024.

When the company reports Q4 earnings, that profit per ounce will rise more.

And if silver stays around the current $80 level, and their costs stay around $16/oz, the profit/oz will rise to a crazy $64/oz."

Now, I'm not here to talk stocks, but to point out that the Silver miners are printing money... And that bodes well for the future price of Silver, as these miners will want to squeeze as much blood out of this turnip that it can... I'm just saying... 

This has been Silver Week in the Pfennig... and I hope you have enjoyed it!

OK, onto the currencies... With the dollar getting bought yesterday (by the PPT per Chuck) the currencies had to retreat from their lofty figures from Monday... The Chinese renminbi continues to improve in price VS the dollar, and as I said last week, it appears the Chinese are not concerned about the level of their currency as their exports continue to rise... 

The euro has remained below the 1.17 figure, but has stayed withing range that to reach that level again won't require a complete failing of the dollar... The euro closed yesterday at 1.1680... Longtime reader, Bob, sent me a link to a video that explained that 14 nations are leaving the dollar after our invasion of Venezuela... YIKES! Oh, well, the best laid plans of mice and men...  No wonder the PPT had to step in and provide the dollar a prop... I'm just saying... 

I just read an article about "why smaller houses can lead to happier lives"... And something hit me... Why didn't I move from my small home years ago, into a McMansion, when I very easily could have?.. Because a larger home was not going to buy us happiness... We were a family of 5 living in a 3 bedroom house, so what did we do? We built another bedroom in the basement and made do... So, I get the premise of the article and agree with it 100%!

But so many Americans didn't use their frugal side of the brain back in the day, and now they have a this Monstrous size home, and it's just them... The kids moved on, and so on...   And now... well, now things aren't calling for a McMansion house any longer... What to do?

The U.S. Data Cupboard yesterday had the aforementioned ADP Employment Report that wasn't good news for the economy, but also had the Nov Factory Orders and they too, were not good news for the economy as they showed a negative -1.3%... And then the Jobs Openings number showed a narrowing of the total from 7.9 Million to 7.1 Million... On the outside you might think, that's good... But the decline wasn't from citizens getting new jobs, but by Companies removing their want ads...  That's a completely different story... And one that's not good for the economy...

To recap... The SPTs made their presence felt yesterday, and sold Gold & Silver short throughout the day... Silver got the brunt of the short selling, but Gold wasn't far behind... Chuck believes that the PPT came in and intervened in the currency markets and bought dollars to keep it from falling too far too fast... And Chuck talks about McMansions, and how countries are leaving the dollar due to the U.S. invasion of Venezuela... 

For What It's Worth... I guess I could have used the GATA report above about the Silver miners here, but I think I have something better... This is from MarketWatch.com and is about how the manufacturing sector still is not coming back, as was the plan of the POTUS...

Here's your snippet: "A closely watched index that measures U.S. manufacturing activity fell to 47.9% in December, the Institute for Supply Management said Monday. This is the lowest reading of the year and the 10th straight month of contraction in the factory sector.

Any number below 50% signals contraction.

Economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal were expecting some stability in December, with the index forecast to inch up to 48.3% from 48.2% in the prior month.

“We still see weak demand,” with uncertainty from tariffs holding down activity, said Susan Spence, chair of the ISM’s manufacturing survey committee.

The ISM surveys executives every month about how their companies are doing. Business isn’t getting any better, they say.

“In the current environment, our company is struggling with customer orders and financially overall,” one manufacturing executive told ISM. “Our senior leaders are struggling to focus our business and get the company on track with quality products.

In November, layoffs impacted about 9 percent of our workforce, affecting all locations in the U.S. and Europe.”

Key details: New orders shrank for the fourth month in a row. Production dropped to 51% from 51.4% in the prior month.

The employment index rose 0.9 percentage point to 44.9 in the month.

Only two of 19 manufacturing industries reported growth in December.

Looking ahead: New orders need to rise to pull the manufacturing sector out of the slump, Spence said.

“I firmly believe when new orders start turning around … and expand for three, four, five months — then you’re going to see it flow to production as backlog and then everything should follow,” she said.

Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics, said “the manufacturing sector is sick” and does not appear to be responding well to President Donald Trump’s economic policies."

Chuck Again... So much for that resilient economy that the guy talked about yesterday, eh? And once again, the best laid plans of mice and men, often leave sorrow instead of joy... 

Market Prices 1/8/2026: American Style: A$ .6675, kiwi .5749, C$ .7210, euro 1.1673, sterling 1.3443, Swiss $1.2539, European Style: rand 16.5723, krone 10.0994, SEK 9.2158, forint 329.71, zloty 3.6059, koruna 20.8003, RUB 80.24, yen 156.76, sing 1.2842, HKD 7.7921, INR 90.02, China 6.9824, peso 17.96, BRL 5.3909, BBDXY 1,208, Dollar Index 98.76, Oil $56.85, 10-year 4.16%, Silver $74.55, Platinum $2,179.00, Palladium $1,728.00, Copper $5.85, and Gold... $4,415.

That's it for today... I was up until 4 am last night... darn steroids... I'm on the last few days of them now, so hopefully my sleep pattern gets back to normal.. There are some strange stories in the middle of the night to read, that's for sure! Big wins last night for the Tigers and Billikens... They both have good seasons going so far... We went to dinner last night with our good friend, Gus from Long Island, and it was yummy! Gus owns the famous Candy Kitchen on Long Island and he's been coming down here in the winter longer than I have! The Candy Kitchen is famous for the home made ice cream... I love to get their blueberry pancakes when I'm there... All this talk is making me hungry, I had better stop.. Montrose takes us to the finish line today with their song: Rock Candy... I hope you have a Tub Thumpin' Thursday today, and Please Be Good To Yourself!