Weak data on Friday gives metals and currencies room to rally

Good day... And a Marvelous Monday to you! I have some news this morning, I was not thinking on Thursday last week, and failed to alert you to the fact that I had a hospital appointment on Monday morning, for blood work, and wouldn't be writing a Pfennig... But I decided late last night that since I failed to tell you, I would get up extra early and get at least something out... So... Let's not dawdle around here, let's get to the stuff that matters! Carlos Santana greets me this morning with his song: Evil Ways...

Well, Thursday was another engineered takedown of the metals, and currencies... It got very ugly at one point in the day with Gold down $40, the short paper trades were flying around, and it was getting quite dark, and then in a space of time of a NY Minute, Gold turned, and fought back, ending the day down $37... But I said to anyone that would listen to me at the close of Gold, that the fight was a good sign for Friday's trading.

And that's exactly what we had on Friday, and recovery of sorts... Gold gained $21.20 on Friday, closing the week at $1,893.00, and Silver gained 38-cents to close the week at $27.91... What a whirlwind end of the week!

So, did the price manipulators know that the Jobs Jamboree of Friday would disappoint, or that Factory Orders would print at negative -.06% for April, and decide to take the wind out of the sails of Gold & Silver ahead of that news hitting the markets on Friday? I believe in my heart of hearts that's exactly what happened... Because when those two data items printed on Friday and were disappointing, Gold & Silver got bought by the truck load...

The Dollar really bounced higher on Thursday too, with the BBDXY moving from 1,117 in the morning to 1,124 at the end of the day... On Friday the index dropped back to 1,118.

In the overnight markets the dollar is getting bought again... As the data prints from Friday have been forgotten already... The BBDXY is up to 1,119 this morning, and the euro can't find a bid, as it has slipped down to 1.2150, after pushing toward 1.23 last week before the engineered takedown took place. Gold is down $6 this morning, and Silver is down 25-cents.

Well there was some news on Friday that really pushed the dollar down, and it came from Russia, where they announced that they will remove dollars from their Sovereign Wealth Fund, and buy Gold, euros and renminbi... I have that story reserved for you in the FWIW section today, so you can get the skinny on that there...

Late last week I reported that the Eurozone Inflation had risen to 2% for the first time in a month of Sundays... And wondered what the ECB would do next? Well there's been no news from any of the ECB members as to what their next move will be, but given the fact that Germany is the largest member of the European Union, and therefore has the largest vote in the ECB, and the fact that Germany is still scared to death of inflation, given their past, that the ECB will at least jawbone that they are going to act to combat rising inflation... Whew! that was a long winded sentence! My fat fingers need a rest after that one!

OK, let's go to the Data Cupboard. We've already talked about the Jobs Jamboree and Factory Orders from last week... The ADP Employment report on Thursday last week showed that nearly 1 Million new jobs were added in May... That marks two consecutive months where the ADP and the BLS Jobs report had very wide differences... The BLS said that 559,000 jobs were created, and that included 218,000 jobs that they added to the surveys... So, what gives with these wide differences? I'm going to dig into this further, and report back at a later date...

The Data Cupboard this week is basically emptied out for the first 3 days this week, and then on Thursday we'll see the stupid CPI for May... Recall that April's CPI (consumer inflation) had sprung higher, and I expect May's data to add to that... But in reality folks, you should pay no attention to the stupid CPI, unless you want to look at it for amusement purposes! I always make a quick visit to www.shadowstats.com for a report of what real inflation is, after the CPI prints...

To recap... Chuck is on the timer this morning and has to get to the hospital for blood work this morning, so the Pfennig is short-n-sweet. Gold & Silver got the snot kicked out of them on Thursday, but recovered a bit on Friday... Another engineered takedown is what happened on Thursday... Russia announced that they are removing dollars from their SWF... And the overnight markets are buying dollars...

Here's your snippet: "Russia said it will eliminate the dollar from its oil fund to reduce vulnerability to Western sanctions just two weeks before President Vladimir Putin holds his first summit meeting with U.S. leader Joe Biden.

The National Wellbeing Fund will shift its dollar holdings into euros, yuan, and gold, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said.

The dollar pared gains on the news today before bouncing back as analysts said the immediate market impact is likely to be limited. The transfer will take place within the central bank's huge reserves. It affects about $119 billion in liquid assets, of which about a third is held in dollars.

The central bank isn't planning to resume gold purchases as a result of the wealth-fund shift, a person familiar with the situation said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss matters that aren't public.

“Geopolitics does play a role,” Siluanov told state television at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. “We’re trying to protect our investments.”

Chuck again... I would think that this would eventually support the price of Gold... but then stranger things have happened... I'm just saying...

Market Prices 6/7/2021: American Style: A$ .7744, kiwi .7206, C$ .8275, euro 1.2152, sterling 1.4130, Swiss $1.1111, European Style: rand 13.4956, krone 8.2780, SEK 8.2735, forint 284.54, zloty 3.6743, koruna 20.8974, RUB 72.81, yen 109.47, sing 1.3240, HKD 7.7575, INR 72.73, China 6.3942, peso 19.84, BRL 5.0473, BBDXY 1,119.01, Dollar Index 90.22, Oil $ 69.38, 10-year 1.57%, Silver $27.66, Platinum $1,169.00, Palladium $2,919.00, Copper $4.46, and Gold... $1,886.40.

That's it for today, and again sorry about the shortness of the letter this morning, I'll do better tomorrow. Oh Woe is me for my beloved Cardinals, who were swept by the Reds this past weekend... Baseball is like that... The last time the Reds were here, the Cardinals did the sweeping... Oh well, move on to the next game... Andrew, Rachel, Braden and little Evie came to visit yesterday... Little Evie will steal your heart in the first 5 minutes she's around you, and yesterday she stole good friend, Duane's heart... I heard from the great Mogambo Guru last week! Talk about brightening my day! Here's short bit from his email to me: "And of course I am standing behind my enthusiasm for gold, silver and oil. I am constantly amazed that the idiots pushing a "green" economy don't understand how silly it is. With the sun providing roughly 3 watts per square meter of solar panel, I would be surprised if any of them can compute how many square meters of solar panels it takes to power a 1,500 watt hair dryer!" Ok... gotta go! James Taylor sends us to the finish line today with his song: Carolina In My Mind... I hope you have a Marvelous Monday, and Please Be Good To Yourself!