GOLD: $1322.60 UP $9.85 (COMEX TO COMEX CLOSING)
Silver: $15.56 UP 15 CENTS (COMEX TO COMEX CLOSING)
Closing access prices:
Gold : $1322.40
silver: $15.54
Comex options expire next week: Wednesday March 27
London/LBMA expires Monday March 31/2019.
The crooks continue with their whacking right in front of the authorities/regulators despite the criminal probe of precious metals manipulations.
For comex gold and silver:
MARCH
NUMBER OF NOTICES FILED TODAY FOR MAR CONTRACT: 0 NOTICE(S) FOR nil OZ (0.00 tonnes)
TOTAL NUMBER OF NOTICES FILED SO FAR: 384 NOTICES FOR 38400 OZ (1.944 TONNES)
SILVER
FOR MARCH
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0 NOTICE(S) FILED TODAY FOR NIL OZ/
total number of notices filed so far this month: 5380 for 26,900,000
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Bitcoin: OPENING MORNING TRADE $3987:DOWN $2
Bitcoin: FINAL EVENING TRADE: $3938 DOWN 66
end
XXXX
JPMorgan or Goldman Sachs are taking a huge issuance (stopping) of gold at the comex.
today 0/0
MONTH TO DATE: 384
Let us have a look at the data for today
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In silver, the total OPEN INTEREST CONTINUES TO RISE FOR THE FIFTH CONSECUTIVE TIME: THIS TIME BY A STRONG SIZED 1335 CONTRACTS FROM 190,915 UP TO 192,250 DESPITE FRIDAY’S 7 CENT FALL IN SILVER PRICING AT THE COMEX. TODAY WE ARRIVED CLOSER TO AUGUST’S 2018 RECORD SETTING OPEN INTEREST OF 244,196 CONTRACTS. WE MUST HAVE HAD CONSIDERABLE SHORT COVERING AGAIN TODAY.
WE HAVE ALSO WITNESSED A LARGE AMOUNT OF PHYSICAL METAL STAND FOR COMEX DELIVERY AS WELL WE ARE WITNESSING CONSIDERABLE LONGS PACKING THEIR BAGS AND MIGRATING OVER TO LONDON IN GREATER NUMBERS IN THE FORM OF EFP’S. WE WERE NOTIFIED THAT WE HAD A SMALL SIZED NUMBER OF COMEX LONGS TRANSFERRING THEIR CONTRACTS TO LONDON THROUGH THE EFP:
0 EFP’S FOR MARCH, 0 FOR APRIL, 378 FOR MAY, 0 FOR DECEMBER AND ZERO FOR ALL OTHER MONTHS AND THEREFORE TOTAL ISSUANCE: OF 378 CONTRACTS. WITH THE TRANSFER OF 378 CONTRACTS, WHAT THE CME IS STATING IS THAT THERE IS NO SILVER (OR GOLD) TO BE DELIVERED UPON AT THE COMEX AS THEY MUST EXPORT THEIR OBLIGATION TO LONDON. ALSO KEEP IN MIND THAT THERE CAN BE A DELAY OF 24-48 HRS IN THE ISSUING OF EFP’S. THE 378 EFP CONTRACTS TRANSLATES INTO 1.890 MILLION OZ ACCOMPANYING:
1.THE 7 CENT FALL IN SILVER PRICE AT THE COMEX AND
2. THE STRONG AMOUNT OF SILVER OUNCES WHICH STOOD FOR DELIVERY IN THE LAST NINE MONTHS:
JUNE/2018. (5.420 MILLION OZ);
FOR JULY: 30.370 MILLION OZ
FOR AUG., 6.065 MILLION OZ
FOR SEPT. 39.505 MILLION OZ S
FOR OCT.2.525 MILLION OZ.
FOR NOV: A HUGE 7.440 MILLION OZ STANDING AND
21.925 MILLION OZ FINALLY STAND FOR DECEMBER.
5.845 MILLION OZ STAND IN JANUARY.
2.955 MILLION OZ STANDING FOR FEBRUARY.
AND NOW: 27.120 MILLION OZ STANDING IN MARCH.
ACCUMULATION FOR EFP’S/SILVER/J.P.MORGAN’S HOUSE OF BRIBES, / STARTING FROM FIRST DAY NOTICE/FOR MONTH OF MARCH:
31,817 CONTRACTS (FOR 17 TRADING DAYS TOTAL 31,817 CONTRACTS) OR 159.085 MILLION OZ: (AVERAGE PER DAY: 1871 CONTRACTS OR 9.357 MILLION OZ/DAY)
TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA AS TO THE HUGE SUPPLY THIS MONTH IN SILVER: SO FAR THIS MONTH OF MAR: 159.085 MILLION PAPER OZ HAVE MORPHED OVER TO LONDON. THIS REPRESENTS AROUND 22.72% OF ANNUAL GLOBAL PRODUCTION (EX CHINA EX RUSSIA)* JUNE’S 345.43 MILLION OZ IS THE SECOND HIGHEST RECORDED ISSUANCE OF EFP’S AND IT FOLLOWED THE RECORD SET IN APRIL 2018 OF 385.75 MILLION OZ.
ACCUMULATION IN YEAR 2019 TO DATE SILVER EFP’S: 524.47 MILLION OZ.
JANUARY 2019 EFP TOTALS: 217.455. MILLION OZ
FEB 2019 TOTALS: 147.4 MILLION OZ/
RESULT: WE HAD A CONSIDERABLE SIZED INCREASE IN COMEX OI SILVER COMEX CONTRACTS OF 1335 DESPITE THE 7 CENT FALL IN SILVER PRICING AT THE COMEX /FRIDAY..THE CME NOTIFIED US THAT WE HAD A SMALL SIZED EFP ISSUANCE OF 378 CONTRACTS WHICH EXITED OUT OF THE SILVER COMEX AND TRANSFERRED THEIR OI TO LONDON AS FORWARDS. SPECULATORS CONTINUED THEIR INTEREST IN ATTACKING THE SILVER COMEX FOR PHYSICAL SILVER (SEE COMEX DATA) .
TODAY WE GAINED A GOOD SIZED: 1788 TOTAL OI CONTRACTS ON THE TWO EXCHANGES:
i.e 378 OPEN INTEREST CONTRACTS HEADED FOR LONDON (EFP’s) TOGETHER WITH INCREASE OF 1410 OI COMEX CONTRACTS. AND ALL OF THIS DEMAND HAPPENED WITH A 7 CENT FALL IN PRICE OF SILVER AND A CLOSING PRICE OF $15.41 WITH RESPECT TO FRIDAY’S TRADING. YET WE HAVE A GIGANTIC AMOUNT OF SILVER STANDING AT THE COMEX FOR DELIVERY
In ounces AT THE COMEX, the OI is still represented by JUST UNDER 1 BILLION oz i.e. 0.936 BILLION OZ TO BE EXACT or 134% of annual global silver production (ex Russia & ex China).
FOR THE NEW FRONT FEBRUARY MONTH/ THEY FILED AT THE COMEX: 0 NOTICE(S) FOR NIL OZ OF SILVER
IN SILVER,PRIOR TO TODAY, WE SET THE NEW COMEX RECORD OF OPEN INTEREST AT 243,411 CONTRACTS ON APRIL 9.2018. AND AGAIN THIS HAS BEEN SET WITH A LOW PRICE OF $16.51.
AND NOW WE RECORD FOR POSTERITY ANOTHER ALL TIME RECORD OPEN INTEREST AT THE COMEX OF 244,196 CONTRACTS ON AUGUST 22/2018 AND AGAIN WHEN THIS RECORD WAS SET, THE PRICE OF SILVER WAS $14.78 AND LOWER IN PRICE THAN PREVIOUS RECORDS.
ON THE DEMAND SIDE WE HAVE THE FOLLOWING:
- HUGE AMOUNTS OF SILVER STANDING FOR DELIVERY (MARCH/2018: 27 MILLION OZ , APRIL/2018 : 2.485 MILLION OZ MAY: 36.285 MILLION OZ ; JUNE/2018 (5.420 MILLION OZ) , JULY 2018 FINAL AMOUNT STANDING: 30.370 MILLION OZ ) FOR AUGUST 6.065 MILLION OZ. , SEPT: A HUGE 39.505 MILLION OZ./ OCTOBER: 2,520,000 oz NOV AT 7.440 MILLION OZ./ DEC. AT 21.925 MILLION OZ JANUARY AT 5.825 MILLION OZ.AND FEB 2019: 2.955 MILLION OZ/AND NOW MARCH: 27.120 MILLION OZ/
- HUGE RECORD OPEN INTEREST IN SILVER 243,411 CONTRACTS (OR 1.217 BILLION OZ/ SET APRIL 9/2018) AND NOW AUGUST 22/2018: 244,196 CONTRACTS, WITH A SILVER PRICE OF $14.78.
- HUGE ANNUAL EFP’S ISSUANCE EQUAL TO 2.9 BILLION OZ OR 400% OF SILVER ANNUAL PRODUCTION/2017
- RECORD SETTING EFP ISSUANCE FOR ANY MONTH IN SILVER; APRIL/2018/ 385.75 MILLION OZ/ AND THE SECOND HIGHEST RECORDED EFP ISSUANCE JUNE 2018 345.43 MILLION OZ
AND YET, WITH THE EXTREMELY HIGH EFP ISSUANCE, WE HAVE A CONTINUAL LOW PRICE OF SILVER DESPITE THE ABOVE HUGE DEMAND. TO ME THE ONLY ANSWER IS THAT WE HAVE SOVEREIGN (CHINA) WHO IS ENDEAVOURING TO GOBBLE UP ALL AVAILABLE PHYSICAL SILVER NO MATTER WHERE, EXACTLY WHAT J.P.MORGAN IS DOING. AND IT IS MY BELIEF THAT J.P.MORGAN IS HOLDING ITS SILVER FOR ITS BENEFICIAL OWNER..THE USA GOVERNMENT WHO IN TURN IS HOLDING THAT SILVER FOR CHINA.(FOR A SILVER LOAN REPAYMENT).
IN GOLD, THE OPEN INTEREST ROSE BY A CONSIDERABLE 2562 CONTRACTS, TO 518,742 WITH THE STRONG RISE IN THE COMEX GOLD PRICE/(AN INCREASE IN PRICE OF $5.00//FRIDAY’S TRADING).
THE CME RELEASED THE DATA FOR EFP ISSUANCE AND IT TOTALED A STRONG SIZED 7182 CONTRACTS:
MARCH HAD AN ISSUANCE OF 0 CONTACTS APRIL 7148 CONTRACTS,JUNE: 34 CONTRACTS DECEMBER: 0 CONTRACTS AND ALL OTHER MONTHS ZERO. The NEW COMEX OI for the gold complex rests at 520,184. ALSO REMEMBER THAT THERE WILL BE A DELAY IN THE ISSUANCE OF EFP’S. THE BANKERS REMOVE LONG POSITIONS OF COMEX GOLD IMMEDIATELY. THEN THEY ORCHESTRATE THEIR PRIVATE EFP DEAL WITH THE LONGS AND THAT COULD TAKE AN ADDITIONAL, 48 HRS SO WE GENERALLY DO NOT GET A MATCH WITH RESPECT TO DEPARTING COMEX LONGS AND NEW EFP LONG TRANSFERS. . EVEN THOUGH THE BANKERS ISSUED THESE MONSTROUS EFPS, THE OBLIGATION STILL RESTS WITH THE BANKERS TO SUPPLY METAL BUT IT TRANSFERS THE RISK TO A LONDON BANKER OBLIGATION AND NOT A NEW YORK COMEX OBLIGATION. LONGS RECEIVE A FIAT BONUS TOGETHER WITH A LONG LONDON FORWARD. THUS, BY THESE ACTIONS, THE BANKERS AT THE COMEX HAVE JUST STATED THAT THEY HAVE NO APPRECIABLE METAL!! THIS IS A MASSIVE FRAUD: THEY CANNOT SUPPLY ANY METAL TO OUR COMEX LONGS BUT THEY ARE QUITE WILLING TO SUPPLY MASSIVE NON BACKED GOLD (AND SILVER) PAPER KNOWING THAT THEY HAVE NO METAL TO SATISFY OUR LONGS. LONDON IS NOW SEVERELY BACKWARD IN BOTH GOLD AND SILVER AND WE ARE WITNESSING DELAYS IN ACTUAL DELIVERIES.
IN ESSENCE WE HAVE A VERY STRONG SIZED GAIN IN TOTAL CONTRACTS ON THE TWO EXCHANGES OF 9744 CONTRACTS: 2562 OI CONTRACTS INCREASED AT THE COMEX AND 7182 EFP OI CONTRACTS WHICH NAVIGATED OVER TO LONDON. THUS TOTAL OI GAIN OF 9744 CONTRACTS OR 974400 OR 30.30 TONNES.
FRIDAY WE HAD A GAIN IN THE PRICE OF GOLD TO THE TUNE OF $5.00....AND WITH THAT, WE HAD A HUGE GAIN IN TONNAGE OF 30.30 TONNES!!!!!!.
ACCUMULATION OF EFP’S GOLD AT J.P. MORGAN’S HOUSE OF BRIBES: (EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL) FOR THE MONTH OF MARCH : 118,809 CONTRACTS OR 11,880,900OR 369.54 TONNES (17 TRADING DAYS AND THUS AVERAGING: 6988 EFP CONTRACTS PER TRADING DAY
TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA AS TO THE STRONG SIZE OF THESE EFP TRANSFERS : THIS MONTH IN 17 TRADING DAYS IN TONNES: 369.54 TONNES
TOTAL ANNUAL GOLD PRODUCTION, 2018, THROUGHOUT THE WORLD EX CHINA EX RUSSIA: 2555 TONNES
THUS EFP TRANSFERS REPRESENTS 369.54/2550 x 100% TONNES = 14.49% OF GLOBAL ANNUAL PRODUCTION SO FAR IN DECEMBER ALONE.***
ACCUMULATION OF GOLD EFP’S YEAR 2019 TO DATE: 1238.51 TONNES
JANUARY 2019 TOTAL EFP ISSUANCE; 531.20 TONNES
FEB 2019 TOTAL EFP ISSUANCE: 344.36 TONNES
WHAT IS ALARMING TO ME, ACCORDING TO OUR LONDON EXPERT ANDREW MAGUIRE IS THAT THESE EFP’S ARE BEING TRANSFERRED TO WHAT ARE CALLED SERIAL FORWARD CONTRACT OBLIGATIONS AND THESE CONTRACTS ARE LESS THAN 14 DAYS. ANYTHING GREATER THAN 14 DAYS, THESE MUST BE RECORDED AND SENT TO THE COMPTROLLER, GREAT BRITAIN TO MONITOR RISK TO THE BANKING SYSTEM. IF THIS IS INDEED TRUE, THEN THIS IS A MASSIVE CONSPIRACY TO DEFRAUD AS WE NOW WITNESS A MONSTROUS TOTAL EFP’S ISSUANCE AS IT HEADS INTO THE STRATOSPHERE.
Result: A CONSIDERABLE SIZED INCREASE IN OI AT THE COMEX OF 2562 WITH THE GAIN IN PRICING ($5.00) THAT GOLD UNDERTOOK FRIDAY) //.WE ALSO HAD A STRONG SIZED NUMBER OF COMEX LONG TRANSFERRING TO LONDON THROUGH THE EFP ROUTE: 7182 CONTRACTS AS THESE HAVE ALREADY BEEN NEGOTIATED AND CONFIRMED. THERE OBVIOUSLY DOES NOT SEEM TO BE MUCH PHYSICAL GOLD AT THE COMEX. I GUESS IT EXPLAINS THE HUGE ISSUANCE OF EFP’S…THERE IS HARDLY ANY GOLD PRESENT AT THE GOLD COMEX FOR DELIVERY PURPOSES. IF YOU TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE 7182 EFP CONTRACTS ISSUED, WE HAD A VERY STRONG GAIN OF 9744 CONTRACTS IN TOTAL OPEN INTEREST ON THE TWO EXCHANGES:
7182 CONTRACTS MOVE TO LONDON AND 2562 CONTRACTS INCREASED AT THE COMEX. (IN TONNES, THE GAIN IN TOTAL OI EQUATES TO 30.30 TONNES). ..AND ALL OF THIS STRONG DEMAND OCCURRED WITH A RISE IN PRICE OF $5.00 IN FRIDAY’S TRADING AT THE COMEX!!!!!
we had: 0 notice(s) filed upon for nil oz of gold at the comex.
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With respect to our two criminal funds, the GLD and the SLV:
GLD...
WITH GOLD UP $9.85 TODAY
A HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/
A DEPOSIT OF 2.94 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD
INVENTORY RESTS AT 781.03 TONNES
TO ALL INVESTORS THINKING OF BUYING GOLD THROUGH THE GLD ROUTE: YOU ARE MAKING A TERRIBLE MISTAKE AS THE CROOKS ARE USING WHATEVER GOLD COMES IN TO ATTACK BY SELLING THAT GOLD. IT SURE SEEMS TO ME THAT THE GOLD OBLIGATIONS AT THE GLD EXCEED THEIR INVENTORY
SLV/
WITH SILVER UP 15 CENTS IN PRICE TODAY:
NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV TODAY
/INVENTORY RESTS AT 309.488 MILLION OZ.
end
First, here is an outline of what will be discussed tonight:
1. Today, we had the open interest in SILVER ROSE BY A CONSIDERABLE SIZED 1335 CONTRACTS from 190,915 UPTO 192,325 AND CLOSER TO THE NEW COMEX RECORD SET LAST IN AUG.2018 AT 244,196 WITH A SILVER PRICE OF $14.78/(AUGUST 22/2018)..THE PREVIOUS RECORD WAS SET ON APRIL 9/2018 AT 243,411 OPEN INTEREST CONTRACTS WITH THE SILVER PRICE AT THAT DAY: $16.53). AND PREVIOUS TO THAT, THE RECORD WAS ESTABLISHED AT: 234,787 CONTRACTS, SET ON APRIL 21.2017 OVER 1 1/3 YEARS AGO. THE PRICE OF SILVER ON THAT DAY: $17.89. AS YOU CAN SEE, WE HAVE RECORD HIGH OPEN INTERESTS IN SILVER ACCOMPANIED BY A CONTINUAL LOWER PRICE WHEN THAT RECORD WAS SET…..
.
OUR CUSTOMARY MIGRATION OF COMEX LONGS CONTINUE TO MORPH INTO LONDON FORWARDS AS OUR BANKERS USED THEIR EMERGENCY PROCEDURE TO ISSUE:
0 CONTRACTS FOR MARCH. 0 CONTRACTS FOR APRIL., 378 FOR MAY AND AND ALL OTHER MONTHS: ZERO. TOTAL EFP ISSUANCE: 378 CONTRACTS. EFP’S GIVE OUR COMEX LONGS A FIAT BONUS PLUS A DELIVERABLE PRODUCT OVER IN LONDON. IF WE TAKE THE OI GAIN AT THE COMEX OF 1335 CONTRACTS TO THE 378 OI TRANSFERRED TO LONDON THROUGH EFP’S, WE OBTAIN A GAIN OF 1700 OPEN INTEREST CONTRACTS. THUS IN OUNCES, THE GAIN ON THE TWO EXCHANGES: 8.50 MILLION OZ!!! AND YET WE ALSO HAVE A STRONG DEMAND FOR PHYSICAL AS WE WITNESSED A FINAL STANDING OF GREATER THAN 30 MILLION OZ FOR JULY, A STRONG 6.065 MILLION OZ FOR AUGUST.. A HUGE 39.505 MILLION OZ STANDING FOR SILVER IN SEPTEMBER… OVER 2 million OZ STANDING FOR THE NON ACTIVE MONTH OF OCTOBER., 7.440 MILLION OZ FINALLY STANDING IN NOVEMBER. 21.925 MILLION OZ STANDING IN DECEMBER , 5.845 MILLION OZ STANDING IN JANUARY. 2.955 MILLION OZ STANDING IN FEBRUARY AND NOW 27.120 MILLION OZ FOR MARCH.
RESULT: A STRONG SIZED INCREASE IN SILVER OI AT THE COMEX DESPITE THE 7 CENT FALL IN PRICING THAT SILVER UNDERTOOK IN PRICING// FRIDAY.BUT WE ALSO HAD A SMALL SIZED 378 EFP’S ISSUED TRANSFERRING COMEX LONGS OVER TO LONDON. TOGETHER WITH THE STRONG SIZED AMOUNT OF SILVER OUNCES STANDING FOR SEPTEMBER, DEMAND FOR PHYSICAL SILVER CONTINUES TO INTENSIFY AS WE WITNESS SEVERE BACKWARDATION IN SILVER IN LONDON.
BOTH THE SILVER COMEX AND THE GOLD COMEX ARE IN STRESS AS THE BANKERS SCOUR THE BOWELS OF THE EXCHANGE FOR METAL
(report Harvey)
.
2.a) The Shanghai and London gold fix report
(Harvey)
2 b) Gold/silver trading overnight Europe, Goldcore
(Mark O’Byrne/zerohedge
and in NY: Bloomberg
3. ASIAN AFFAIRS
i)MONDAY MORNING/ SUNDAY NIGHT:
SHANGHAI CLOSED DOWN 61.12 POINTS OR 1.97% //Hang Sang CLOSED DOWN 590.01 POINTS OR 2.03% /The Nikkei closed DOWN 650.23 POINTS OR 3.01%/ Australia’s all ordinaires CLOSED DOWN 1.15%
/Chinese yuan (ONSHORE) closed DOWN at 6.7136 AS TRUCE DECLARED FOR 3 MONTHS /Oil DOWN to 58.94 dollars per barrel for WTI and 66.90 for Brent. Stocks in Europe OPENED RED
ONSHORE YUAN CLOSED DOWN // LAST AT 6.7136 AGAINST THE DOLLAR. OFFSHORE YUAN CLOSED DOWN ON THE DOLLAR AT 6.7187 / TRADE TALKS NOW ON/MAJOR PROBLEMS AT HUAWEI /CFO ARRESTED : /ONSHORE YUAN TRADING ABOVE LEVEL OF OFFSHORE YUAN/ONSHORE YUAN TRADING WEAKER AGAINST USA DOLLAR/OFFSHORE YUAN TRADING WEAKER AGAINST THE DOLLAR /CHINA RETALIATES WITH TARIFFS/ TRUMP RESPONDS TO NEW TARIFFS AND IT NOW A FULL TRADE WAR COMMENCED
3A//NORTH KOREA
b) REPORT ON JAPAN
3 C/ CHINA
i)The USA demands that China uses the USA’s cloud computing services something that China refuses to budge on
( zerohedge)
4/EUROPEAN AFFAIRS
i)UK/Sunday
Chaos supreme as there seems to be a coup underway trying to remove Theresa May from her position of PM.
Should be an interesting next 48 hours.
(courtesy zerohedge)
b)UK MONDAY
Fat chance that this will happen: May offers Brexiteers a deal: back the withdrawal agreement and she will resign
( zerohedge)
ii)ITALY/CHINA
Italy is going nowhere fast with Brussels and the EU. This is why Italy’s decision to join the ‘one belt,one road’ initiative makes sense much to the angry of the uSA and EU officials.
iv)Germany/Germany foils a plot stopping a planned attack to kil as many infidels as possible.
(courtesy zerohedge)
5. RUSSIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS
i)Turkey
Interesting, on Friday regulators reported that Erdogan is burning through USA reserves like crazy. JPMorgan upon learning on the huge withdrawal of foreign reserves, gave a press release recommending a 5.90 target for the uSA/Turkish lira. Now Erdogan is launching a probe on the ‘manipulator’ JPM.
(zerohedge)
b)Expect an major Israeli assault on Gaza as Hamas fired a long range rocket that destroyed a house in the agricultural town of Mishameret, in the Sharon Valley(zerohedge)
c)ISRAEL strikes back as they rock Gaza and target the Hamas command centre.
6. GLOBAL ISSUES
GLOBAL EVENTS FROM FRIDAY
a)A good review of the major events that occurred on Friday and the weekend:
( Every Rabobank)
7. OIL ISSUES
8 EMERGING MARKET ISSUES
Venezuela/Russia/USA
a)Venezuela may become a powder keg. Venezuela is generally in the USA sphere of influence being in South America. However Russia and China have given huge loans to Venezuela. The USA is hoping for defaults which will cripple China and Russia.
Let us see how this plays out…
FINIAN CUNNINGHAM | 22.03.2019 | WORLD / | FEATURED STORY
(courtesy Strategic Culture/F. Cunningham)
b)This does not look good: Russian troops arrive in Venezuela as they deploy S300 missile defense systems
( zerohedge)
9. PHYSICAL MARKETS
( Bloomberg/GATA)
ii)I pointed this out to you on Friday but it is so important and I will repeat it: Trump is nominating to the Fed board a harsh critic of the Fed, Stephen Moore. Trump is going on the offensive.
( Reuters/GATA)
iii)He is correct: gold will be the last man standing in the crazy fiat currency world
Kingworldnews/Boockvar/GATA)
iv)this is interesting; according to the Wall Street Journal bitcoin trading is faked by unregulated exchanges:
(courtesy Vigna/Wall Street Journal//GATA)
10. USA stories which will influence the price of gold/silver)
MARKET TRADING//early this morning
ii)Market data
ii)USA ECONOMIC/GENERAL STORIES
i)Low interest rate and QE has caused inequality among investors as the wealthy can gain access to yield, something that the ordinary investor cannot.
A good commentary by Mises as they pound the table that the Fed has given up and we should be ready for increasing more QE
( McMaken/Mises)
(courtesy zerohedge)
iv)SWAMP STORIES
a)Mueller report: no collusion/no obstruction of justice!!
(courtesy zerohedge)
b)It starts: now that Trump et al have been cleared of the perpetuated hoax of Russian collusion, the House Intelligence committees are now ready for criminal referrals to the Attorney General Barr.
buckle your safety belt..this is going to be quite a bumpy ride..
(courtesy zerohedge)
b ii)The Republicans are now going full blast as Graham vows to investigate the FBI’s unprofessional conduct along with the troubling behaviour by Attorney General Loretta Lynch and of Comey and mcCabe.
(courtesy zerohedge)
c)Kim Strassel of the Wall Street Journal now urges the probe of the real scandal..the democrats trying to overthrough the duly elected President of the USA
(zerohedge/kim Strassel./WSJ
d)How this is cute: Michael Avenatti is now arrested in an extortion plan against Nike as well as embezzling client funds. What took them so long
( zerohedge)
end
Let us head over to the comex:
AFTER MARCH, WE HAVE THE NON ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH OF APRIL. HERE: APRIL LOWERS TO 777 CONTRACTS FOR A LOSS OF 20 CONTRACTS. AFTER APRIL, THE NEXT BIG ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH IS MAY AND HERE THE OI ROSE BY 733 CONTRACTS UP TO 136,659 CONTRACTS.
i)out of JPMorgan: 4932.05 oz
GATA STORIES WITH RESPECT TO GOLD/PRECIOUS METALS.
As noted on Friday we had treasury curve inversion especially on the 10 yr bond yield and the 3 month. This generally means recession:
(courtesy Bloomberg/GATA)
5.RUSSIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS
Turkey
Interesting, on Friday regulators reported that Erdogan is burning through USA reserves like crazy. JPMorgan upon learning on the huge withdrawal of foreign reserves, gave a press release recommending a 5.90 target for the uSA/Turkish lira. Now Erodgan is launching a probe on the ‘manipulator’ JPM.
(zerohedge)
6.GLOBAL ISSUES
7 OIL ISSUES
8. EMERGING MARKETS
Venezuela/Russia/USA
Venezuela may become a powder keg. Venezuela is generally in the USA sphere of influence being in South America. However Russia and China have given huge loans to Venezuela. The USA is hoping for defaults which will cripple China and Russia.
Let us see how this plays out…
FINIAN CUNNINGHAM | 22.03.2019 | WORLD / | FEATURED STORY
(courtesy Strategic Culture/F. Cunningham)
and special thanks to Robert H for sending this to us:
Russia Gives US Red Line on Venezuela
At a high-level meeting in Rome this week, it seems that Russia reiterated a grave warning to the US – Moscow will not tolerate American military intervention to topple the Venezuelan government with whom it is allied.
Meanwhile, back in Washington DC, President Donald Trump was again bragging that the military option was still on the table, in his press conference with Brazilian counterpart Jair Bolsonaro. Trump is bluffing or not yet up to speed with being apprised of Russia’s red line.
The meeting in the Italian capital between US “special envoy” on Venezuelan affairs Elliot Abrams and Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov had an air of urgency in its arrangement. The US State Department announced the tête-à-tête only three days beforehand. The two officials also reportedly held their two-hour discussions in a Rome hotel, a venue indicating ad hoc arrangement.
Abrams is no ordinary diplomat. He is a regime-change specialist with a criminal record for sponsoring terrorist operations, specifically the infamous Iran-Contra affair to destabilize Nicaragua during the 1980s. His appointment by President Trump to the “Venezuela file” only underscores the serious intent in Washington for regime change in Caracas. Whether it gets away with that intent is another matter.
Moscow’s interlocutor, Sergei Ryabkov, is known to not mince his words, having earlier castigated Washington for seeking global military domination. He calls a spade a spade, and presumably a criminal a criminal.
The encounter in Rome this week was described as “frank” and “serious” – which is diplomatic code for a blazing exchange. The timing comes at a high-stakes moment, after Venezuela having been thrown into chaos last week from civilian power blackouts that many observers, including the Kremlin, blame on American cyber sabotage. The power grid outage followed a failed attempt by Washington to stage a provocation with the Venezuelan military over humanitarian aid deliveries last month from neighboring Colombia.
The fact that Washington’s efforts to overthrow the elected President Nicolas Maduro have so far floundered, might suggest that the Americans are intensifying their campaign to destabilize the country, with the objective of installing US-backed opposition figure Juan Guaido. He declared himself “acting president” in January with Washington’s imprimatur.
Given that the nationwide power blackouts seem to have failed in fomenting a revolt by the civilian population or the military against Maduro, the next option tempting Washington could be the military one.
It seems significant that Washington has recently evacuated its last remaining diplomats from the South American country. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo commented on the evacuation by saying that having US personnel on the ground “was limiting” Washington’s scope for action. Also, American Airlines reportedly cancelled all its services to Venezuela in the past week. Again, suggesting that the US was considering a military intervention, either directly with its troops or covertly by weaponizing local proxies. The latter certainly falls under Abrams’ purview.
After the Rome meeting, Ryabkov said bluntly: “We assume that Washington treats our priorities seriously, our approach and warnings.”
One of those warnings delivered by Ryabkov is understood to have been that no American military intervention in Venezuela will be tolerated by Moscow.
For his part, Abrams sounded as if he had emerged from the meeting after having been given a severe reprimand. “No, we did not come to a meeting of minds, but I think the talks were positive in the sense that both sides emerged with a better understanding of the other’s views,” he told reporters.
“A better understanding of the other’s views,” means that the American side was given a red line to back off.
The arrogance of the Americans is staggering. Abrams seems, according to US reporting, to have flown to Rome with the expectation of working out with Ryabkov a “transition” or “compromise” on who gets the “title of president” of Venezuela.
That’s what he no doubt meant when he said after the meeting “there was not a meeting of minds”, but rather he got “a better understanding” of Russia’s position.
Washington’s gambit is a replay of Syria. During the eight-year war in that country, the US continually proffered the demand of a “political transition” which at the end would see President Bashar al Assad standing down. By contrast, Russia’s unflinching position on Syria has always been that it’s not up to any external power to decide Syria’s politics. It is a sovereign matter for the Syrian people to determine independently.
Nearly three years after Russia intervened militarily in Syria to salvage the Arab country from a US-backed covert war for regime change, the American side has manifestly given up on its erstwhile imperious demands for “political transition”. The principle of Syrian sovereignty has prevailed, in large part because of Russia’s trenchant defense of its Arab ally.
Likewise, Washington, in its incorrigible arrogance, is getting another lesson from Russia – this time in its own presumed “back yard” of Latin America.
It’s not a question of Russia being inveigled by Washington’s regime-change schemers about who should be president of Venezuela and “how we can manage a transition”. Moscow has reiterated countless times that the legitimate president of Venezuela is Nicolas Maduro whom the people voted for last year by an overwhelming majority in a free and fair election – albeit boycotted by the US-orchestrated opposition.
The framework Washington is attempting to set up of choosing between their desired “interim president” and incumbent Maduro is an entirely spurious one. It is not even worthy to be discussed because it is a gross violation of Venezuela’s sovereignty. Who is Washington to even dare try to impose its false choice?
On Venezuela, Russia is having to remind the criminal American rulers – again – about international law and respect for national sovereignty, as Moscow earlier did with regard to Syria.
And in case Washington gets into a huff and tries the military option, Moscow this week told regime-change henchman Abrams that that’s a red line. If Washington has any sense of rationale left, it will know from its Syria fiasco that Russia has Venezuela’s back covered.
Political force is out. Military force is out. Respect international law and Venezuela’s sovereignty. That’s Russia’s eminently reasonable ultimatum to Washington.
Now, the desperate Americans could still try more sabotage, cyber or financial. But their options are limited, contrary to what Trump thinks.
How the days of American imperialist swagger are numbered. There was a time when it could rampage all over Latin America. Not any more, evidently. Thanks in part to Russia’s global standing and military power.
end
This does not look good: Russian troops arrive in Venezuela as they deploy S300 missile defense systems
(courtesy zerohedge)
Venezuela Military Deploys S-300 Missiles Following Russian Troop Arrival
Following the major weekend development of Moscow unambiguously asserting its ‘red line’ concerning potential US military intervention in Venezuela, for which Russia sent a military transport plane filled with Russian troops which landed in Caracas Saturday, new satellite images reveal a major deployment of S-300 air defense missile systems to a key airbase south of Caracas.

Crucially the Russian An-124 transport plane which touched down in Caracas on Saturday carried no less than Russian General Vasily Tonkoshkurov, identified as chief of the Main Staff of the Ground Forces and First Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Land Forces of Russia, accompanied by 99 servicemen and 35 tons of cargo.
As we reported the flight came just days after a high-level meeting in Rome last week, during which Russia reiterated a grave warning to the US – Moscow will not tolerate American military intervention to topple the Venezuelan government with whom it is allied – thus it appears Russia is taking no chances with its South American ally.
One of those warnings delivered directly by Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov to US “special envoy” on Venezuelan affairs Elliot Abrams is understood to have been that no American military intervention in Venezuela will be tolerated by Moscow.
And just a day following the contingency of Russia troops landing in Caracas, Maduro’s National Bolivarian Armed Forces have reportedly activated S-300 missiles after completing military drills that previously took place in February.
The professional monitoring service Image Satellite International (or Image Sat) has published satellite imagery it analyzed, showing additional S-300 missiles that have been deployed to the Captain Manuel Rios Airbase in the Guarico state of Venezuela.
No doubt, the timing of the S-300 redeployment is purposeful, meant to send a strong message to Washington, though it remains unclear just how active the Russian military will be in Venezuela.
Image Sat commented on the new images: “The deployment includes five launchers and a 9S32ME multi-channel missile guidance radar (MMGR). Venezuela increases its operational readiness due to regional tension.”
Perhaps paralleling the Syria situation, this could be the start of a scenario where the greater the proxy action and threats from the United States, the more Russia will slowly intervene at the behest of Maduro.
All of these developments signalling closer Russian-Venezuelan military-to-military cooperation in the face of Washington saber rattling come after three months ago the two allies held military exercises on Venezuelan soil, which the US at the time had condemned as Russia encroachment in the region.
But now with a high level Russian commander on the ground, and with Russian-made S-300s under the control of Maduro forces, it is unlikely that the US will act forcefully following the failed coup attempt of the past two months.
end
Your early morning currency/gold and silver pricing/Asian and European bourse movements/ and interest rate settings MONDAY morning 7:00 AM….
Euro/USA 1.1375 UP .0010 REACTING TO MERKEL’S FAILED COALITION/ REACTING TO +GERMAN ELECTION WHERE ALT RIGHT PARTY ENTERS THE BUNDESTAG/ huge Deutsche bank problems + USA election:///ITALIAN CHAOS /AND NOW ECB TAPERING BOND PURCHASES/JAPAN TAPERING BOND PURCHASES /USA RISING INTEREST RATES /FLOODING/EUROPE BOURSES DEEPLY IN THE RED
USA/JAPAN YEN 110.12 UP .253 (Abe’s new negative interest rate (NIRP), a total DISASTER/NOW TARGETS INTEREST RATE AT .11% AS IT WILL BUY UNLIMITED BONDS TO GETS TO THAT LEVEL…
GBP/USA 1.3173 DOWN 0.0022 (Brexit March 29/ 2019/ARTICLE 50 SIGNED/BREXIT FEES WILL BE CAPPED
USA/CAN 1.3425 UP .0018 CANADA WORRIED ABOUT TRADE WITH THE USA WITH TRUMP ELECTION/ITALIAN EXIT AND GREXIT FROM EU/(TRUMP INITIATES LUMBER TARIFFS ON CANADA/CANADA HAS A HUGE HOUSEHOLD DEBT/GDP PROBLEM)
Early THIS MONDAY morning in Europe, the Euro FELL by 10 basis points, trading now ABOVE the important 1.08 level FALLING to 1.1308 Last night Shanghai composite closed DOWN 61.12 POINTS OR 1.97%/
//Hang Sang CLOSED DOWN 590.01 POINTS OR 2.03%
/AUSTRALIA CLOSED DOWN 1.15% EUROPEAN BOURSES DEEPLY IN THE RED/
The NIKKEI: this MONDAY morning CLOSED DOWN 650.23 POINTS OR 3.01%
Trading from Europe and Asia
1/EUROPE OPENED RED
2/ CHINESE BOURSES / :Hang Sang CLOSED DOWN 599.01 POINTS OR 2.03%
/SHANGHAI CLOSED DOWN 61.12 POINTS OR 1.97%
Australia BOURSE CLOSED DOWN 1.15%
Nikkei (Japan) CLOSED DOWN 650.23 POINTS OR 3.01%
INDIA’S SENSEX IN THE RED
Gold very early morning trading: 1317.25
silver:$15.53
Early MONDAY morning USA 10 year bond yield: 2.46% !!! UP 2 IN POINTS from FRIDAY’S night in basis points and it is trading WELL ABOVE resistance at 2.27-2.32%.
The 30 yr bond yield 2.90 UP 3 IN BASIS POINTS from FRIDAY night.
USA dollar index early MONDAY morning: 96.62 DOWN 3 CENT(S) from FRIDAY’s close.
This ends early morning numbers MONDAY MORNING
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And now your closing MONDAY NUMBERS \12: 00 PM
Portuguese 10 year bond yield: 1.30% UP 4 in basis point(s) yield from FRIDAY/
JAPANESE BOND YIELD: -.08% DOWN 1 BASIS POINTS from FRIDAY/JAPAN losing control of its yield curve/
SPANISH 10 YR BOND YIELD: 1.10% UP 3 IN basis point yield from FRIDAY
ITALIAN 10 YR BOND YIELD: 2.39 DOWN 6 POINTS in basis point yield from FRIDAY/
the Italian 10 yr bond yield is trading 129 points HIGHER than Spain.
GERMAN 10 YR BOND YIELD: FALLS TO –.03% IN BASIS POINTS ON THE DAY//
THE IMPORTANT SPREAD BETWEEN ITALIAN 10 YR BOND AND GERMAN 10 YEAR BOND IS 2.42% AND NOW ABOVE THE THE 3.00% LEVEL WHICH WILL IMPLODE THE ENTIRE ITALIAN BANKING SYSTEM. AT 4% SPREAD THERE WILL BE A MASSIVE BANK RUN…
END
IMPORTANT CURRENCY CLOSES FOR MONDAY
Closing currency crosses for MONDAY night/USA DOLLAR INDEX/USA 10 YR BOND YIELD/1:00 PM
Euro/USA 1.1323 UP .0026 or 26 basis points
USA/Japan: 109.83 DOWN 0.040 OR YEN UP 4 basis points/
Great Britain/USA 1.3182 DOWN .0013( POUND DOWN 13 BASIS POINTS)
Canadian dollar DOWN 5 basis points to 1.3418
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The USA/Yuan,CNY closed AT 6.7084 0N SHORE (UP)
THE USA/YUAN OFFSHORE: 6.7147 YUAN UP)
TURKISH LIRA: 5.5775
the 10 yr Japanese bond yield closed at -.08%
Your closing 10 yr USA bond yield DOWN 3 IN basis points from FRIDAY at 2.39 % //trading well ABOVE the resistance level of 2.27-2.32%) very problematic USA 30 yr bond yield: 2,84 DOWN 2 in basis points on the day /
THE RISE IN BOTH THE 10 YR AND THE 30 YR ARE VERY PROBLEMATIC FOR VALUATIONS
Your closing USA dollar index, 96.50 DOWN 15 CENT(S) ON THE DAY/1.00 PM/
Your closing bourses for Europe and the Dow along with the USA dollar index closing and interest rates for MONDAY: 12:00 PM
London: CLOSED DOWN 30.01 0.42%
German Dax : DOWN 17.52 POINTS OR 0.15%
Paris Cac CLOSED DOWN 9.28 POINTS OR 0.18%
Spain IBEX CLOSED DOWN 19.50 POINTS OR 0.21%
Italian MIB: CLOSED DOWN 19.16 POINTS OR 0.16%
WTI Oil price; 58.97 1:00 pm;
Brent Oil: 67.31 12:00 EST
USA /RUSSIAN / ROUBLE CROSS: 64.14 THE CROSS LOWER BY 0.51 ROUBLES/DOLLAR (ROUBLE HIGHER BY 51 BASIS PTS)
TODAY THE GERMAN YIELD FALLS TO –.03 FOR THE 10 YR BOND 1.00 PM EST EST
END
This ends the stock indices, oil price, currency crosses and interest rate closes for today 4:30 PM
Closing Price for Oil, 4:00 pm/and 10 year USA interest rate:
WTI CRUDE OIL PRICE 4:30 PM : 58.95
BRENT : 67.23
USA 10 YR BOND YIELD: … 2.41… VERY DEADLY//
USA 30 YR BOND YIELD: 2.86..VERY DEADLY
EURO/USA DOLLAR CROSS: 1.1314 ( UP 17 BASIS POINTS)
USA/JAPANESE YEN:109.97DOWN .010 (YEN UP 1 BASIS POINTS/..
USA DOLLAR INDEX: 96.55 DOWN 11 cent(s)/
The British pound at 4 pm: Great Britain Pound/USA:1.3197 UP 1 POINTS FROM FRIDAY
the Turkish lira close: 5.5775
the Russian rouble 64.03 UP .62 Roubles against the uSA dollar.( UP 62 BASIS POINTS)
Canadian dollar: 1.3401 UP 17 BASIS pts
USA/CHINESE YUAN (CNY) : 6.7094 (ONSHORE)/
USA/CHINESE YUAN(CNH): 6.7170 (OFFSHORE)
German 10 yr bond yield at 5 pm: ,0.08%
The Dow closed UP 16.56 POINTS OR 0.08%
NASDAQ closed DOWN 5.12 POINTS OR 0.06%
VOLATILITY INDEX: 16.56 CLOSED UP 0.08
LIBOR 3 MONTH DURATION: 2.609%//
FROM 2.601
And now your more important USA stories which will influence the price of gold/silver
TRADING IN GRAPH FORM FOR THE DAY/WEEKLY SUMMARY/FOLLOWED BY TODAY
S&P Swings Wildly After Breaching 2800 Support As Yield Curve Crashes
On the same day the MSCI Asia index posted its worst daily drop for 2019 as Asian markets caught up with Friday’s US pounding, it was another ugly day for US stocks which spent most of the day in the red, with the S&P breaching the 2,800 support level, although the Emini failed to drop below 2790 which has emerged as a new key resistance level.
One possible reason for the solid defense: as Nomura’s Charlie McElligott explained earlier, if and when the S&P dips below the “gamma” threshold sell level which is around 2777, both dealers and CTAs would see a pick up in selling, which would then make the market new “default” direction lower and potentially leading to a retest of the December lows.
Curiously, despite the Russell 2000 CTAs, which as McElligott noted earlier are currently 50.4% long, and would sell and flip to short under 1536.21 to get to -100% short, the small-cap index held on, and after some initial weakness, managed to stage a sharp rally into the European close, and successfully remained in the green as institutional buying appeared to offset systematic selling.
The Nasdaq closed just barely in the red, and even though most FAANG stocks were green, Apple disappointed, sliding after its major new services unveiling – including a new credit card, streaming video and a video game offering – disappointed traders, with the stock closing 1.3% lower.
But despite the sharp, if contained gyrations in US equities,the big action was in rates, where earlier today the 10Y yield plunged to the lowest level since 2017 shortly after 2pm, sliding below the effective fed funds rate of 2.40%, only to stage a modest rebound into the close.
Earlier in the session, Australia’s 10-year bond yield dropped to an all-time low and Japan’s hit the lowest since September 2016.
More concerning was the ongoing slide in the 3 Month-10 Year spread – the Fed’s favorite recession indicator – which briefly plunged as much as -7bps before recovering the drop to just -3bps.
It wasn’t clear what precipitated today’s aggressive buying across the curve, although according to Bloomberg’s Edward Bollingbroke, a reason for the move may have been convexity flows (as convexity hedging occurs as mortgage rates fall, making borrowers more likely to refinance; higher expected prepay rates reduce MBS duration, which portfolio managers can then offset via receiving in swaps. It was also a driver behind Friday’s Treasuries rally).
Whatever the reason for the aggressive purchases, the US Treasury “curve” is now anything but…
… and in fact looks like the infamous Nike swoosh, which itself was in the news today when it first Tumbled after Michael Avenatti tweeted he would hold a presser exposing criminality at the sport shoemaker, then quickly rebounded on news that the “creepy porn lawyer” had hoped to extort millions of dollars from the company, only to be arrested shortly after his tweet in the latest vindication for Donald Trump.
There were far less fireworks in the FX space today: after plunging the most since last summary, on Monday the turkish lira staged a powerful bounce as the USDTRY tumbled the most in almost a year, one day after Turkey threatened to probe JPM for its short lira recommendation and warned manipulators it would go after them personally.
The pound retreated as May said she doesn’t yet have enough support to put her Brexit deal to a vote in Parliament and will continue to try to convince MPs to back it. As lawmakers try to take control of the process, she’s wielding the threat of a long extension if her deal isn’t passed.
Meanwhile, the British pound retreated after fluctuating in early trading in the latest daily stop hunt, as Theresa May said she doesn’t yet have enough support to put her Brexit deal to a vote in Parliament and will continue to try to convince MPs to back it. As lawmakers try to take control of the process, she’s wielding the threat of a long extension if her deal isn’t passed. Yet while a plunge in the sterling would be welcome for May to reinforce the gravity of the situation, FX traders are increasingly ignoring the latest day to day developments in the neverending saga and instead focused on inflicting max pain to both longs and shorts.
Looking ahead the question is: will Asia continue its selling as the US bond market now screams global recession, and will the S&P finally breakdown as it breaches the next support level of 2,777 and if so, will it retest the December lows over 400 points lower, as so many bears have recently predicted.
MARKET TRADING/
This afternoon: 10 yr crashes to 2.375..something is seriously wrong with the global economy
(zerohedge)
Yield Curve Crashes: 10Y Yield Plunges Below Fed Funds With 3M-10Y In Freefall
Traders are watching in horror as the yield curve just took another sharp leg flatter (or more inverted as the case may be) as a sudden bout of 10Y buying sent the 10Y yield sharply below 2.40%, which as a reminder is the effective Fed Funds rate, sliding as low as 2.375%, the lowest since 2017, as the 10-year yield dropped as much as 6.4bps on Monday, after sliding 9.8bps on Friday.
This means that the curve is now inverted through the 10Y point: as shown in the chart below, all coupon tenors from 2Y to 10Y are now below the rate guaranteed by the Federal Reserve.
The 10Y yield has tumbled more than 20bp since the FOMC on March 20 cut its forecasts for growth and inflation and said it no longer expected to raise interest rates this year and would stop its balance-sheet run-off in September.
Meanwhile, the Fed’s favorite recession indicator – the spread between the 3 Month Bill and the 10Y Treasury – has plunged further into negative territory, and at last check had dropped as low as -7bps, as the next US recession is now barrelling toward the US.
As a result, the US Treasury yield “curve” now looks like… the Nike swoosh
Not surprisingly these recession alerts have hit risk assets, with stocks sliding as sentiment turns increasingly sour, not helped by Apple’s announcement that it will compete not only with banks, with the launch of its Apple Card 3% cash back, no fee credit card, but also with gaming stock companies which plunged after Apple unveiled a new arcade and gaming service, and lastly hitting Roku and Netflix as Apple discusses its “new” TV App which will offer HBO, Showtime and Starz on demand.
The fear of course is that with Apple now encroaching on several key “service” markets, this will lead to another bout of deflation as a new scramble to gain and preserve market share will take place as company after company slashes costs to remain competitive with the world’s most valuable company.
ii)Market data/
The Fed Has Given Up: Get Ready For More QE
Authored by Ryan McMaken via The Mises Institute,
The Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee on Wednesday voted unanimously to keep the federal funds rate unchanged. Overall, the FOMC signaled it has made a dovish turn away from the promised normalization of monetary policy which the Fed has promised will be implemented “some day” for a decade. Although the Fed began to slowly raise rates in late 2016 — after nearly a decade of near-zero rates — the target rate never returned to even three percent, and thus remains well below what would have been a more normal rate of the sort seen prior to the 2008 financial crisis.
Much of the Fed’s continued reluctance to upset the easy-money apple cart comes from growing concerns over the strength of the economy. Although job growth numbers have been high in recent years — and this has been assumed to be proof of a robust economy — other indicators point toward less strength. Workforce participation numbers, wage growth, net worth numbers, auto-loan delinquencies and other indicators suggest many Americans are in a more precarious position than headlines might suggest.
The Fed’s refusal to follow through on raising rates, however, has highlighted this economic weakness, and today’s front-page headline in the Wall Street Journal reads: “Growth Fears to Keep Fed on Hold”
Abandoning Plans to Reduce the Balance Sheet
For similar reasons, the Fed has also signaled it won’t be doing much about it’s enormous balance sheet which ballooned to over four trillion dollars in the wake of the financial crisis. Faced with enormous amounts of unwanted assets such as mortgage-backed securities, the Fed began buying up these assets both to prop up — and bail out — banks and to produce an artificially high price for debt of all sort.
This kept market interest rates low while increasing asset inflation — all of which is great for both Wall Street and for the US government which pays hundreds of billions in interest on federal debt.
At best, “total balance sheet will be around $3.8 trillion, down from $4.5 trillion at its peak.” Moreover, “the Fed will soon be a net buyer of Treasurys once again,” analysts said, and some estimate “the Fed is on course to be buying $200 billion of net new Treasurys by the second half of 2020.”
Put simply: the days of quantitative easing are back, and we’re not even in a recession yet.
Some observers might simply respond with “big deal, the economy’s growing, and better yet, the Fed has given us both growth and little inflation.”
But things are not all as pleasant as they seem.
Problems with Easy-Money Policy
First of all, even by the Fed’s own measures, inflation isn’t as subdued as the headline “core inflation” or CPI measure suggests. According to the Fed’s “Underlying Inflation Gauge” which takes a broader view beyond the small basket of consumer goods used for the CPI, inflation growth over the past year has returned to the elevated levels found back in 2005 and 2006.
This hasn’t been great for consumers, and it’s been especially problematic when coupled with ultra-low interest rates. The low interest rates are a problem because people of ordinary means — i.e., the non-wealthy — don’t have the ability to access the high yield investments that wealthier investors do.
Rising Inequality
Earlier this week, finance researcher Karen Petrou explained the problem that comes from ultra-low rates which lead to yield-chasing for the wealthy:
When interest rates are ultra-low, wealthy households with asset managers acting on their behalf can play the stock market to beat zero or even negative returns. We’ve shown in several recent blog posts how wide the wealth inequality gap is and how disparate wealth sources help to make it so. However, even where low-and-moderate income households can get into the market, their investment advisers should not and often cannot chase yields. As a result, ultra-low rates mean negligible or even negative return.
Thus, ordinary people are faced with rising asset prices — driven in part by the Fed’s balance sheet purchases — while also finding themselves unable to save in way that keeps up with inflation.
Meanwhile, the wealthy reap the most benefits from Fed policy as they’re able to more effectively engage in yield-chasing.
Ordinary people get the short end of the stick from Fed policy in other ways. Petrou continues:
Historically, pension funds and insurance companies have invested only in the safest assets. These are now in scarce supply due in large part to QE andcomparable programs by central banks around the world . Pension plans and life-insurance companies increasingly have two terrible choices: to play it safe and become increasingly unable to honor benefit obligations or to make big bets and hope for the best. Under-funded pension plans are so great a concern in the U.S. that the agency established to protect pensioners from this risk, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, faces its own financial challenges . Yield-chasing life insurers are also a prime source of potential systemic risk.
Middle class people who have been told for decades to rely on pensions are now imperiled by Fed policy as well.
Not surprisingly, this has led to rising income inequality. While some free-market advocates tend to dismiss inequality as an unimportant metric, this is not a good approach when we’re talking about public policy. Fed policy — and resulting inequality — does not reflect natural trends arising from market transactions. Monetary policy is something imposed on markets by policymakers. And that’s what’s going on when we witness rising inequality due to the Fed’s monetary policy.
This has been going on since the late 1980s when Alan Greenspan relentlessly opened the easy-money spigot to spur economic growth throughout the 1990s. But, there were problems that resulted, as noted by Daniell DiMartino-Booth:
[A]t the National Association for Business Economics recent annual conference, University of California-Berkeley economics professor Gabriel Zucman presented his findings on the widening divide between the “haves” and “have nots” in the U.S. His conclusion: “Both surveys and tax data show that wealth inequality has increased dramatically since the 1980s, with a top 1 percent wealth share around 40 percent in 2016 vs. 25 – 30 percent in the 1980s.” Zucman also noted that increased wealth concentration has become a global phenomenon, albeit one that is trickier to monitor given the globalization and increased opacity of the financial system.
Defenders of ultra-low policy tend to claim low rates aren’t the real culprit here because even middle-class buyers can take advantage of easy money.
But experience suggests this hasn’t been the case. Part of the problem is that banking regulations handed down by the Fed and other federal regulators make loaning to smaller enterprises and lower-income households less attractive. Writes Petrou:
But, wasn’t there a burst of lower-rate mortgage refinancings that allowed households to reduce their debt burden and thus accumulate wealth? Did low rates allow higher-risk households at least to reduce their mortgage debt through refinancings? Again, low-and-moderate income households were left behind. They continued to seek refis after the financial crisis ebbed, but subprime borrowers current on their loans regardless of loan-to-value (LTV) ratios were less likely than prime or super-prime borrowers to receive refi loans even though higher-scored borrowers may or may not have been current and lower rates enhance repayment potential.
The overall effect suggests the accelerating reliance on quantitative easing and near-zero interest rates has been great for some Wall Street hedge fund managers — but for those at the low end of the lending and saving apparatus, things are even more constraining than ever. It’s hard to get a loan, and it’s also hard to save.
But at least the aggregate numbers are great, right?
Well, the Fed can’t brag about even that. A policy that favors billionaires might work on paper, of course, so long as the aggregate numbers point toward sizable growth. But even those numbers are so iffy as to prompt growth fears at the FOMC, and to ensure that the Fed puts an end to its promises to return policy to something that might be called normal.
As it is, it looks like we should expect a continuation of the policies which have coincided with both an unimpressive economy and rising inequality.
If that’s not evidence of the Fed’s failure, it’s hard to imagine what is.
END
I knew this was going to happen: wealthy baby boomers bought huge homes and now that they want to downsize they cannot as there is nobody that can afford the home coupled with high taxes and high maintenance costs:
(courtesy Mike Shedlock/Mishtalk)
‘Too Big To Sell’ – Boomers Trapped In McMansions As Retirement Looms
Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk,
Wealthy baby boomers are trapped in homes that are too big to sell. They want to downsize but can’t get what they paid.
This was guaranteed to happen, and did. Baby boomers and retirees built large, elaborate dream homes only to find that few people want to buy them.
Please consider a Growing Problem in Real Estate: Too Many Too Big Houses.
Large, high-end homes across the Sunbelt are sitting on the market, enduring deep price cuts to sell.
That is a far different picture than 15 years ago, when retirees were rushing to build elaborate, five or six-bedroom houses in warm climates, fueled in part by the easy credit of the real estate boom. Many baby boomers poured millions into these spacious homes, planning to live out their golden years in houses with all the bells and whistles.
Now, many boomers are discovering that these large, high-maintenance houses no longer fit their needs as they grow older, but younger people aren’t buying them.
Tastes—and access to credit—have shifted dramatically since the early 2000s. These days, buyers of all ages eschew the large, ornate houses built in those years in favor of smaller, more-modern looking alternatives, and prefer walkable areas to living miles from retail.
The problem is especially acute in areas with large clusters of retirees. In North Carolina’s Buncombe County, which draws retirees with its mild climate and Blue Ridge Mountain scenery, there are 34 homes priced over $2 million on the market, but only 16 sold in that price range in the past year, said Marilyn Wright, an agent at Premier Sotheby’s International Realty in Asheville.
The area around Scottsdale, Ariz., also popular with wealthy retirees, had 349 homes on the market at or above $3 million as of February 1—an all-time high, according to a Walt Danley Realty report. Homes built before 2012 are selling at steep discounts—sometimes almost 50%, and many owners end up selling for less than they paid to build their homes, said Walt Danley’s Dub Dellis.
Kiawah Island, a South Carolina beach community, currently has around 225 houses for sale, which amounts to a three- or four-year supply. Of those, the larger and more expensive homes are the hardest to sell, especially if they haven’t been renovated recently, according to local real-estate agent Pam Harrington.
The problem is expected to worsen in the 2020s, as more baby boomers across the country advance into their 70s and 80s, the age group where people typically exit homeownership due to poor health or death, said Dowell Myers, co-author of a 2018 Fannie Mae report, “The Coming Exodus of Older Homeowners.” Boomers currently own 32 million homes and account for two out of five homeowners in the country.
Not Just the South
It’s not just big houses across the Sunbelt. It’s big houses everywhere. If anything, I suspect it’s worse in the north. There is an exodus of people in high tax states like Illinois who want the hell out.
Already big homes were hard to sell. Now these progressive states are raising taxes.
Triple Whammy
- Millennials trapped in debt and cannot afford them
- Millennials wouldn’t buy them anyway because tastes have changed.
- Taxes are driving people away from states like Illinois
Good luck with that.
For the plight of Illinoisans, please consider Illinois’ Demographic Collapse: Get Out As Soon As You Can.
END
This is going to hurt trade and commerce: dozens of tankers are stranded in Houston due to the fire and chemical leak. Also cancer producing benzene has leaked into the waters
(courtesy zerohedge)
Dozens Of Tankers Stranded In Houston Ship Channel After Chemical Leak Contamination
The Houston Ship Channel — already closed for days since last Friday afternoon a large-scale contamination of leaked chemicals from the Intercontinental Terminals Co. (ITC) fire spilled Benzene and other dangerous chemicals into and over waterway (especially via toxic smoke clouds) — could remain shut to regular through traffic for several more days, the Coast Guard has confirmed, trapping dozens of inbound and outbound oil and LPG tankers.
At the end of last week’s days-long massive fire engulfing multiple petrochemical tanks at the oil facility, emergency crews led by the Coast Guard noticed elevated Benzene levels in the area, and even what was described as a “benzene plume” hovering above the water. This as Deer Park area residents complained of illnesses ranging from nausea to headaches to irritation and burning in the skin, eyes, nose and throat from the disaster which began on March 17.
And though the ship channel is not a source for drinking water, the stretch of a roughly 2-mile-long no-go zone near the ITC facility had been shut down to boat traffic due to the potential danger to crew members from a cloud of cancer-causing benzene from the onshore tank fire, perBloomberg:
The U.S. Coast Guard is forbidding vessel traffic on a stretch of the key industrial shipping route after a wall collapse and fire at Intercontinental Terminals Co.’s already-damaged chemical storage complex on Friday. A mix of toxic gasoline ingredients, firefighting foam and dirty water flowed from the site into the channel, and a benzene plume above the water poses a threat to ship crews, said Coast Guard Capt. Kevin Oditt.
Fox Business has quoted a Coast Guard official who said Monday morning it could be “several more days” before a key section of the Houston Ship Channel will be opened up amid continuing clean up efforts.
The Coast Guard says it’s currently testing the possibility that a limited number of ships could be let through if they undergo a decontamination process:
The vessels are being decontaminated as they move through the roughly seven-mile portion of the Houston Ship Channel near the Lynchburg Ferry, extending from Tucker Bayou, where the ITC facility is located, to Houston Ship Channel light 116.
It’s a test to see when the Houston Ship Channel could be reopened.
Local sources cited that roughly half of the Ship Channel, vital to multiple industrial and energy sectors, was cut off from the Gulf of Mexico and Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, leaving some 31 ships stranded and waiting to move into or past the affected area as of Monday morning.
Later into the afternoon on Monday reports counted some 60 ships as blocked from getting through by emergency management operations.

The Houston Chronicle reports that “due to the closure’s central location, and no detours around it, roughly half of the Steel and energy companies are among those likely to be affected.”
Days into last week’s blaze which sent a plume of smoke a half mile into the air, city officials had released a statement alerting the public to elevated levels of benzene, described as “a colorless, sweet-smelling chemical that can be derived from natural gas, crude oil or coal, can cause cancer, infertility and birth defects in the developing fetus of pregnant women among other things” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Benzene is a known carcinogen which can cause devastating health effects based on various levels of exposure. Residents have become increasingly anxious and angry with ITC company representatives over what the Houston Chronicle described as “volatile compounds sitting in damaged tanks at the petroleum storage facility or streaming into nearby waterways.”

It is as yet unclear the full economic impact of the ship channel’s closure, as Claims Journal notes of one major logistics company, “LyondellBasell Industries N.V.’s Channelview and Bayport chemical facilities are experiencing constrained barge and vessel logistics because of the closure but are operating, spokesman Chevalier Gray said in an email. The company is evaluating the event’s effect on production.”
As of Monday afternoon, shipping agency Moran Shipping summarized the following while noting outbound ships could start to move first:
Vessel traffic has begun to loosen up slightly today. One ship has moved through the spill area inbound today, while another has been boarded inbound, according to shipping agency Moran Shipping. Another vessel sailed outbound, passed the spill area, and headed to a decontamination berth. By around 3:30pm ET ships with freshwater drafts under 34ft will start moving outbound, but will be inspected for contamination before being allowed to continue, according to Moran.
Oil facilities inside the spill area include Houston Fuel Oil, Jacintoport, Vopak, and ITC. The Houston Pilots plan to prioritize outbound sailings from the port, once ships are deemed able to move through the spill area without contamination, said Moran.
ITC response crews are still working on pumping thousands of barrels worth of benzene-laced refining byproduct and other chemical compounds out of the breached and damaged storage tanks since the fire was finally extinguished by the weekend.
SWAMP STORIES
Mueller report: no collusion/no obstruction of justice!!
(courtesy zerohedge)
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