GOLD:$1716.30 UP $4.00 The quote is London spot price

Silver: 17.36 UP 9 CENTS//LONDON SPOT PRICE

TOMORROW IS OPTIONS EXPIRY FOR LONDON’S OTC/LBMA GOLD/SILVER CONTRACTS. THEY ALMOST ALWAYS RAID ON THIS DAY. IF GOLD AND SILVER CAN HOLD AT CLOSE TO THESE LEVELS OUR BANKERS ARE COOKED

PLEASE STUDY THE ANDREW MAGUIRE TAPE//AND THE TWO LONDON FINANCIAL TIMES ARTICLE SHOWING THAT THE BANKERS ARE LEAVING THE COMEX FOR GREENER PASTURES IN LONDON.

Closing access prices: London spot

i)Gold : $1719.00 LONDON SPOT 4:30 pm

ii)SILVER: $17.38//LONDON SPOT 4:30 pm

CLOSING FUTURES PRICES: KEY MONTHS

MAY COMEX GOLD: XXX

JUNE GOLD: $XXX CLOSE 1.30 PM// SPREAD SPOT (LONDON) VS/FUTURE JUNE: $5.//BACKWARDATION

CLOSING SILVER FUTURE MONTH

JULY: 1:30 PM: $XXX//1:30 PM //SPREAD SPOT LONDON VS FUTURE JULY: 48 CENTS PER OZ//

the gold market continues to be broken as future prices are much higher than spot prices. The comex is desperate to fix things but they have no available gold.

If one is to buy gold and or gold coins, the price is around $2800. usa per oz

and silver; $31.00 per oz//

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: YOU ARE NOW WITNESSING FIRST HAND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PAPER GOLD/SILVER AND THE REAL PHYSICAL STUFF!!

DO NOT PAY ANY ATTENTION TO WHAT THE CROOKS ARE DOING AT THE COMEX AND LONDON LBMA..PHYSICAL IS THE NAME OF THE GAME AND NOTHING ELSE

COMEX DATA

JPMorgan has been receiving gold with reckless abandon and sometimes supplying (stopping)

today RECEIVING: 2/5

EXCHANGE: COMEX
CONTRACT: MAY 2020 COMEX 100 GOLD FUTURES
SETTLEMENT: 1,710.300000000 USD
INTENT DATE: 05/27/2020 DELIVERY DATE: 05/29/2020
FIRM ORG FIRM NAME ISSUED STOPPED
____________________________________________________________________________________________
132 C SG AMERICAS 1
152 C DORMAN TRADING 1
624 C BOFA SECURITIES 1
661 C JP MORGAN 2
690 C ABN AMRO 3
737 C ADVANTAGE 1
800 C MAREX SPEC 1
____________________________________________________________________________________________

TOTAL: 5 5
MONTH TO DATE: 10,277

NUMBER OF NOTICES FILED TODAY FOR MAY CONTRACT: 5 NOTICE(S) FOR 500 OZ (0.01552 tonnes)

TOTAL NUMBER OF NOTICES FILED SO FAR: 10277 NOTICES FOR 1027700 OZ (31.965 TONNES)

SILVER

FOR MAY

1 NOTICE(S) FILED TODAY FOR 5,000 OZ/

total number of notices filed so far this month: 9044 for 45,220,000 oz

BITCOIN MORNING QUOTE $9269 UP $65

BITCOIN AFTERNOON QUOTE.: $9451 UP $248

GLD AND SLV INVENTORIES:

WITH GOLD UP $4.00 AND NO PHYSICAL TO BE FOUND ANYWHERE:

WITH ALL REFINERS CLOSED//MEXICO ORDERING ALL MINES SHUT: WHERE ARE THEY GETTING THE “PHYSICAL”?

ANOTHER HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 2.34 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD

GLD: 1,119.05 TONNES OF GOLD//

WITH SILVER UP 9 CENTS TODAY: AND WITH NO SILVER AROUND

A HUGE CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/// A MASSIVE DEPOSIT OF 4.660 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV//

RESTING SLV INVENTORY TONIGHT:

SLV: 460.477 MILLION OZ./

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Let us have a look at the data for today

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

IN SILVER THE COMEX OI ROSE BY A GOOD SIZED 846 CONTRACTS FROM 158,185 UP TO 159,031 AND CLOSER TO OUR NEW RECORD OF 244,710, (FEB 25/2020. THE GOOD SIZED GAIN IN OI OCCURRED WITH OUR GOOD 13 CENT GAIN IN SILVER PRICING AT THE COMEX. IT SEEMS THAT THE GAIN IN COMEX OI IS DUE TO STRONG BANKER SHORT COVERING PLUS A GOOD EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL ISSUANCE, ZERO LONG LIQUIDATION, ACCOMPANYING A ZERO DECREASE IN SILVER OZ STANDING AT THE COMEX FOR MAY. WE HAD A NET GAIN IN OUR TWO EXCHANGES OF 1481 CONTRACTS (SEE CALCULATIONS BELOW).

WE HAVE ALSO WITNESSED A HUMONGOUS 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 STRONG SIZED NUMBER OF COMEX LONGS TRANSFERRING THEIR CONTRACTS TO LONDON THROUGH THE EFP ROUTE: MAY: 0 AND JULY: 635 AND ZERO FOR ALL OTHER MONTHS AND THEREFORE TOTAL ISSUANCE 635 CONTRACTS. WITH THE TRANSFER OF 635 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 635 EFP CONTRACTS TRANSLATES INTO 3.175 MILLION OZ ACCOMPANYING:

1.THE 13 CENT GAIN IN SILVER PRICE AT THE COMEX AND

2. THE STRONG AMOUNT OF SILVER OUNCES WHICH STOOD FOR DELIVERY IN THE LAST 12 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.:

27.120 MILLION OZ STANDING IN MARCH.

3.875 MILLION OZ STANDING FOR SILVER IN APRIL.

18.845 MILLION OZ STANDING FOR SILVER IN MAY.

2.660 MILLION OZ STANDING FOR SILVER IN JUNE//

22.605 MILLION OZ STANDING FOR JULY

10.025 MILLION OZ INITIAL STANDING IN AUGUST.

43.030 MILLION OZ INITIALLY STANDING IN SEPT. (HUGE)

7.32 MILLION OZ INITIALLY STANDING IN OCT

2.630 MILLION OZ STANDING FOR NOV.

20.970 MILLION OZ FINAL STANDING IN DEC

5.075 MILLION OZ FINAL STANDING IN JAN

1.480 MILLION OZ FINAL STANDING IN FEB

23.005 MILLION OZ FINAL STANDING FOR MAR

4.660 MILLION OZ FINAL STANDING FOR APRIL

45.220 MILLION OZ INITIALLY STANDING FOR MAY

WEDNESDAY, AGAIN OUR CROOKS USED COPIOUS PAPER IN ORDER TO LIQUIDATE SILVER’S PRICE…AND THEY WERE UNSUCCESSFUL IN KNOCKING THE PRICE OF SILVER DOWN (IT ROSE 13 CENTS).. AND, OUR OFFICIAL SECTOR/BANKERS WERE UNSUCCESSFUL IN THEIR ATTEMPT TO FLEECE ANY AMOUNT OF SILVER LONGS FROM THEIR POSITIONS. THE SMALL GAIN AT THE COMEX WAS ACCOMPANIED BY : i) A GOOD ISSUANCE OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS 2) A ZERO LOSS IN SILVER OZ STANDING FOR MAY,3) CONSIDERABLE BANKER SHORT COVERING AND 4) ZERO LONG LIQUIDATION AS WE DID HAVE A NET GAIN OF 1481 CONTRACTS OR 7.405 MILLION OZ ON THE TWO EXCHANGES! YOU CAN BET THE FARM THAT OUR BANKER ARE DESPERATE TO LIQUIDATE THEIR HUGE SHORT POSITIONS IN SILVER

ACCUMULATION FOR EFP’S/SILVER/J.P.MORGAN’S HOUSE OF BRIBES, / STARTING FROM FIRST DAY /FOR MONTH OF MAY:

14,534 CONTRACTS (FOR 19 TRADING DAYS TOTAL 14,534 CONTRACTS) OR 72.67 MILLION OZ: (AVERAGE PER DAY: 764 CONTRACTS OR 3.882 MILLION OZ/DAY)

TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA AS TO THE HUGE SUPPLY THIS MONTH IN SILVER: SO FAR THIS MONTH OF MAY: 72.67 MILLION PAPER OZ HAVE MORPHED OVER TO LONDON. THIS REPRESENTS AROUND 11.41% 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 2020 TO DATE SILVER EFP’S: 1,061.15 MILLION OZ.

JANUARY 2020 EFP TOTALS SO FAR: 181.61 MILLION OZ

FEB 2020 EFP’S TOTAL : …… 259.600 MILLION OZ

MARCH EFP’S ….. 452.280 MILLION OZ //TOTALS//AND A NEW RECORD FOR THE MONTH)

APRIL EFP 95.355 MILLION OZ. (EX. FOR PHYSICALS BECOMING A LOT LESS)

MAY EFP SO FAR: 72,67 MILLION OZ

EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL ISSUANCE FOR THE PAST 30 DAYS IS A LOT LESS. NO DOUBT THAT THE COST TO CARRY THESE THINGS HAS EXPLODED AND AS SUCH CANNOT BE DONE AS FREQUENTLY AS BEFORE.

RESULT: WE HAD A GOOD SIZED INCREASE IN COMEX OI SILVER COMEX CONTRACTS OF 846, WITH OUR GOOD 13 CENT GAIN IN SILVER PRICING AT THE COMEX ///WEDNESDAY… THE CME NOTIFIED US THAT WE HAD A STRONG SIZED EFP ISSUANCE OF 635 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

TODAY WE GAINED A STRONG SIZED OI CONTRACTS ON THE TWO EXCHANGES: 1481 CONTRACTS (WITH OUR 13 CENT GAIN IN PRICE)

THE TALLY//EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS

i.e 635 OPEN INTEREST CONTRACTS HEADED FOR LONDON (EFP’s) TOGETHER WITH A GOOD SIZED INCREASE OF 846 OI COMEX CONTRACTS. AND ALL OF THIS DEMAND HAPPENED DESPITE A SMALL 13 CENT GAIN IN PRICE OF SILVER/AND A CLOSING PRICE OF $17.27 // WEDNESDAY’S TRADING. YET WE STILL HAVE A STRONG 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. 0.7050 BILLION OZ TO BE EXACT or 100.7% of annual global silver production (ex Russia & ex China).

FOR THE NEW MAR DELIVERY MONTH/ THEY FILED AT THE COMEX: 1 NOTICE(S) FOR 5,000 OZ OF SILVER.

IN SILVER,PRIOR TO TODAY, WE SET THE NEW COMEX RECORD OF OPEN INTEREST AT 244,196 CONTRACTS ON AUG 22.2018. AND AGAIN THIS HAS BEEN SET WITH A LOW PRICE OF $14.70//TODAY’S RECORD OF 244,705 IS SET WITH A PRICE OF: 18.91 (FEB 25/2020)

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/ MARCH: 27.120 MILLION OZ/ APRIL AT 3.875 MILLION OZ/ A MAY: 18.845 MILLION OZ ..JUNE 2.660 MILLION OZ//JULY 22.605 MILLION OZ; AUGUST 10.025 MILLION OZ/ SEPT 43.030 MILLION OZ//OCT: 7.665 MILLION OZ// NOV: 2.630 MILLION OZ//DEC: 20.970 MILLION OZ; JAN: 5.075 MILLION OZ.//FEB 1.480 MILLION OZ//MAR: 23.005 MILLION OZ/APRIL 4.660 MILLION OZ//MAY 45.220 MILLION OZ
THE RECORD PRIOR TO TODAY WAS SET IN FEB 25/2018: 244,710 CONTRACTS, WITH A SILVER PRICE OF $18.90//.
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)

GOLD

IN GOLD, THE COMEX OPEN INTEREST FELL BY A CONSIDERABLE SIZED 7189 CONTRACTS TO 512,185 AND FURTHER FORM OUR NEW RECORD (SET JAN 24/2020) AT 799,541 AND PREVIOUS TO THAT: (SET JAN 6/2020) AT 797,110.

THE CONSIDERABLE SIZED LOSS OF COMEX OI OCCURRED DESPITE OUR TINY COMEX GAIN IN PRICE OF $0.10 /// COMEX GOLD TRADING// WEDNESDAY// WE HAD STRONG BANKER SHORT COVERING ,HUGE SPREADER COMEX GOLD LIQUIDATION, A SMALL SIZED INCREASE IN GOLD OZ STANDING AT THE COMEX, ALONG WITH ZERO LONG LIQUIDATION ACCOMPANYING A STRONG EX. FOR PHYSICAL ISSUANCE. THIS ALL HAPPENED WITH OUR TINY GAIN IN PRICE .

WE HAD A VOLUME OF 1 4 -GC CONTRACTS//OPEN INTEREST 11

WE LOST A TINY SIZED 1153 CONTRACTS (3.586 TONNES) ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES.

E.F.P. ISSUANCE

THE CME RELEASED THE DATA FOR EFP ISSUANCE AND IT TOTALED A HUGE SIZED 6036 CONTRACTS:

CONTRACT. MAY: 0, AND JUNE 4615.; AUG 1421 AND ALL OTHER MONTHS ZERO//TOTAL: 6036. The NEW COMEX OI for the gold complex rests at 512,185. 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 TINY SIZED DECREASE IN TOTAL CONTRACTS ON THE TWO EXCHANGES OF 1153 CONTRACTS: 7189 CONTRACTS DECREASED AT THE COMEX (MOSTLY FROM SPREADER LIQUIDATION) AND 6036 EFP OI CONTRACTS WHICH NAVIGATED OVER TO LONDON. THUS TOTAL OI LOSS OF 1153 CONTRACTS OR 3.586 TONNES. WEDNESDAY, WE HAD A TINY GAIN OF $0.10 IN GOLD TRADING……

AND WITH THAT GAIN IN PRICE, WE HAD A TINY SIZED LOSS IN TOTAL/TWO EXCHANGES GOLD TONNAGE OF 3.586 TONNES!!!!!! THE BANKERS/OFFICIAL SECTOR SUPPLIED INFINITE SUPPLIES OF SHORT GOLD COMEX PAPER WITH RECKLESS ABANDON. THE BANKERS WERE UNSUCCESSFUL IN THEIR ATTEMPT TO LOWER GOLD’S PRICE (IT ROSE $0.10).AND IT ALSO SEEMS THAT THEIR ATTEMPT TO FLEECE ANY GOLD LONGS FROM THE GOLD ARENA WAS UNSUCCESSFUL (SEE BELOW).

4 GC VOLUME: 1 // open interest 11

CALCULATIONS ON GAIN/LOSS ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES:

WE HAD A STRONG SIZED ISSUANCE IN EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS (6036) ACCOMPANYING THE SMALL SIZED LOSS IN COMEX OI (7189 OI): TOTAL LOSS IN THE TWO EXCHANGES: 1153 CONTRACTS. WE NO DOUBT HAD 1 )CONSIDERABLE BANKER SHORT COVERING, 2.)A SMALL INCREASE IN OUNCES STANDING AT THE GOLD COMEX FOR THE FRONT MAY MONTH, 3) ZERO LONG LIQUIDATION; 4) CONSIDERABLE COMEX OI LOSS, 5) HUGE GOLD COMEX SPREADER LIQUIDATION… AND …ALL OF THIS WAS COUPLED WITH OUR TINY GAIN IN GOLD PRICE TRADING//WEDNESDAY//$0.10

THE STRONG ISSUANCE OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS IS DUE TO THE LACK OF PREMIUM IN GOLD (UNLIKE SILVER). IT IS NOW PROFITABLE FOR THE BANKERS TO ENGAGE IN THESE VEHICLES DUE TO THE LACK OF PREMIUM IN GOLD.

SPREADING OPERATIONS

OUR SPREADING OPERATION HAS NOW SWITCHED INTO GOLD…..

SPREADING OPERATION FOR OUR NEWCOMERS:

WE HAVE NOW COMMENCED IN SILVER THE ILLEGAL SPREADING OPERATION \ FOR NEWCOMERS, HERE ARE THE DETAILS:

SPREADING LIQUIDATION HAS NOW STOPPED IN SILVER AS THEY NOW BEGIN TO MORPH INTO GOLD AS WE HEAD TOWARDS THE NEW FRONT MONTH WILL BE JUNE.

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE NEW, HERE IS THE MODUS OPERANDI OF THE SPREADERS AND THE CRIMINAL ELEMENT BEHIND IT:

HERE IS A BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF HOW THE CROOKS FLEECE UNSUSPECTING LONGS IN THE SPREADING ENDEAVOUR;

THE SPREADING LIQUIDATION OPERATION IS NOW OVER FOR SILVER..AND WE WILL NOW MORPH INTO AN ACCUMULATION PHASE OF SPREADING CONTRACTS FOR GOLD. THEY WILL ACCUMULATE CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF THE CONTRACTS AND THEN LIQUIDATE ONE WEEK PRIOR TO FIRST DAY NOTICE

MODUS OPERANDI OF THE CORRUPT BANKERS AS TO HOW THEY HANDLE THEIR SPREAD OPEN INTERESTS:

AS I HAVE MENTIONED IN PREVIOUS COMMENTARIES:

“AS YOU WILL SEE, THE CROOKS WILL NOW SWITCH TO GOLD AS THEY INCREASE THE OPEN INTEREST FOR THE SPREADERS. THE TOTAL COMEX SILVER OPEN INTEREST WILL RISE FROM NOW ON UNTIL ONE WEEK PRIOR TO FIRST DAY NOTICE AND THAT IS WHEN THEY START THEIR CRIMINAL LIQUIDATION.

HERE IS HOW THE CROOKS USED SPREADING AS WE ARE NOW INTO THE NON ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH OF MAY HEADING TOWARDS THE ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH OF JUNE FOR GOLD:

YOU WILL ALSO NOTICE THAT THE COMEX OPEN INTEREST STARTS TO RISE IN THIS NON ACTIVE MONTH OF MAY. BUT SO IS THE OPEN INTEREST OF SPREADERS. THE OPEN INTEREST IN GOLD WILL CONTINUE TO RISE UNTIL ONE WEEK BEFORE FIRST DAY NOTICE OF AN UPCOMING ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH (JUNE), AND THAT IS WHEN THE CROOKS SELL THEIR SPREAD POSITIONS BUT NOT AT THE SAME TIME OF THE DAY. THEY WILL USE THE SELL SIDE OF THE EQUATION TO CREATE THE CASCADE (ALONG WITH THEIR COLLUSIVE FRIENDS) AND THEN COVER ON THE BUY SIDE OF THE SPREAD SITUATION AT THE END OF THE DAY. THEY DO THIS TO AVOID POSITION LIMIT DETECTION. THE LIQUIDATION OF THE SPREADING FORMATION CONTINUES FOR EXACTLY ONE WEEK AND ENDS ON FIRST DAY NOTICE.”

HISTORICAL ACCUMULATION OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS IN 2020 INCLUDING TODAY

ACCUMULATION OF EFP’S GOLD AT J.P. MORGAN’S HOUSE OF BRIBES: (EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL) FOR THE MONTH OF MAY : 76,968 CONTRACTS OR 7,696,800 oz OR 239.40 TONNES (19 TRADING DAYS AND THUS AVERAGING: 4050 EFP CONTRACTS PER TRADING DAY

TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA AS TO THE STRONG SIZE OF THESE EFP TRANSFERS : THIS MONTH IN 19 TRADING DAY(S) IN TONNES: 239.40 TONNES

TOTAL ANNUAL GOLD PRODUCTION, 2019, THROUGHOUT THE WORLD EX CHINA EX RUSSIA: 3555 TONNES

THUS EFP TRANSFERS REPRESENTS 239.40/3550 x 100% TONNES =6.74% OF GLOBAL ANNUAL PRODUCTION

ISSUANCE OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL GOLD HAS DISSIPATED THIS MONTH…THE COST TO THE BANKERS TO CARRY THESE CONTRACTS IN LONDON IS BECOMING TOO GREAT FOR THEM.

ACCUMULATION OF GOLD EFP’S YEAR 2020 TO DATE: 2805.75 TONNES

JANUARY 2220 TOTAL EFP ISSUANCE; : 570.19 TONNES

FEB 2020 TOTAL EFP ISSUANCE : 653.78 TONNES

MARCH TOTAL EFP ISSUANCE 1,098.93 TONNES (*AND A NEW ALL TIME RECORD ISSUANCE//22 DAYS)

APRIL TOTAL EFP. ISSUANCE: 243.45 TONNES (EFP ISSUANCE BECOMING A LOT LESS)

MAY TOTAL EFP ISSUANCE: 239.40 TONNES (EFP ISSUANCE STILL LOW// PREMIUM COST TO THE BANKERS IS HUGE..SO ISSUANCE IS LESS)

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.

First, here is an outline of what will be discussed tonight:

1.Today, we had the open interest at the comex, in SILVER, ROSE BY A GOOD SIZED 846 CONTRACTS FROM 158,185 UP TO 159,031 AND CLOSER TO OUR COMEX RECORD //244,710(SET FEB 25/2020). THE LAST RECORDS WERE SET IN AUG.2018 AT 244,196 WITH A SILVER PRICE OF $14.78/(AUGUST 22/2018)..THE PREVIOUS RECORD TO THAT 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 2 3/4 YEARS AGO. THE PRICE OF SILVER ON THAT DAY: $17.89.

ALL OF THE GAIN IN COMEX OI WAS DUE TO 1) CONSIDERABLE BANKER SHORT COVERING , 2) A GOOD ISSUANCE OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS (SEE BELOW), 3) A ZERO DECREASE IN SILVER OZ STANDING AT THE COMEX FOR MAY AND 4) ZERO LONG LIQUIDATION

EFP ISSUANCE 635 CONTRACTS

OUR CUSTOMARY MIGRATION OF COMEX LONGS CONTINUE TO MORPH INTO LONDON FORWARDS AS OUR BANKERS USED THEIR EMERGENCY PROCEDURE TO ISSUE:

FOR FEB. 0; FOR MAR 0: AND MAY: 0 JULY: 635 CONTRACTS AND ALL OTHER MONTHS: ZERO. TOTAL EFP ISSUANCE: 635 CONTRACTS. EFP’S GIVE OUR COMEX LONGS A FIAT BONUS PLUS A DELIVERABLE PRODUCT OVER IN LONDON. IF WE TAKE THE COMEX OI GAIN OF 846 CONTRACTS TO THE 635 OI TRANSFERRED TO LONDON THROUGH EFP’S, WE OBTAIN A STRONG GAIN OF 1486 OPEN INTEREST CONTRACTS FROM OUR TWO EXCHANGES. THUS IN OUNCES, THE GAIN ON THE TWO EXCHANGES 7.405 MILLION OZ!!! OCCURRED WITH THE 13 CENT GAIN IN PRICE///

RESULT: A GOOD SIZED INCREASE IN SILVER OI AT THE COMEX WITH THE 13 CENT GAIN IN PRICING THAT SILVER UNDERTOOK IN PRICING// WEDNESDAY. WE ALSO HAD A STRONG SIZED 635 EFP’S ISSUED TRANSFERRING COMEX LONGS OVER TO LONDON. TOGETHER WITH THE STRONG SIZED AMOUNT OF SILVER OUNCES STANDING FOR THIS MONTH, 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 ) Gold/silver trading overnight Europe, Goldcore

(Mark O’Byrne/zerohedge

and in NY: Bloomberg

3. ASIAN AFFAIRS

i)THURSDAY MORNING/ WEDNESDAY NIGHT:

SHANGHAI CLOSED DOWN 9.42 POINTS OR 0.33% //Hang Sang CLOSED DOWN 168.60 POINTS OR 0.72% /The Nikkei closed UP 497.08 POINTS OR 2.32%//Australia’s all ordinaires CLOSED UP 1,24%

/Chinese yuan (ONSHORE) closed DOWN at 7.1538 /Oil UP TO 32.74 dollars per barrel for WTI and 34.74 for Brent. Stocks in Europe OPENED MIXED// ONSHORE YUAN CLOSED DOWN // LAST AT 7.1538 AGAINST THE DOLLAR. OFFSHORE YUAN CLOSED DOWN ON THE DOLLAR AT 7.1674 TRADE TALKS STALL//YUAN LEVELS GETTING DANGEROUSLY PAST 7:1//TRUMP INITIATES A NEW 25% TARIFFS FRIDAY/MAY 10/MAJOR PROBLEMS AT HUAWEI /CFO ARRESTED//WILL BE EXTRADITED : /ONSHORE YUAN TRADING ABOVE LEVEL OF OFFSHORE YUAN/ONSHORE YUAN TRADING WEAKER AGAINST USA DOLLAR/OFFSHORE YUAN TRADING WEAKER AGAINST THE DOLLAR /TRADE DEAL NOW DEAD..TRUMP RAISED RATES TO 25%

YUAN/ONSHORE YUAN TRADING WEAKER AGAINST USA DOLLAR/OFFSHORE YUAN TRADING WEAKER AGAINST THE DOLLAR /TRADE DEAL NOW DEAD..TRUMP RAISED RATES TO 25%

COMEX DATA//AMOUNTS STANDING//VOLUME OF TRADING/INVENTORY MOVEMENTS

GOLD

LET US BEGIN:

THE TOTAL COMEX GOLD OPEN INTEREST FELL BY A SMALLER THAN EXPECTED 7189 CONTRACTS TO 512,185 MOVING FURTHER FROM OUR RECORD THAT WAS SET IN JANUARY/2020: {799,541 OI(SET JAN 16/2020)} AND PREVIOUS TO THAT: 797,110 (SET JAN 7/2020). AND THIS COMEX OI LOSS WAS SET DESPITE OUR TINY GAIN OF $0.10 IN GOLD PRICING /WEDNESDAY’S COMEX TRADING//). WE ALSO HAD A STRONG EFP ISSUANCE (6036 CONTRACTS),. THUS WE HAD 1) STRONG BANKER SHORT COVERING AT THE COMEX AND 2) ZERO LONG LIQUIDATION AND 3) ANOTHER INCREASE IN GOLD OZ STANDING AT THE COMEX//MAY DELIVERY MONTH , CONTINUAL STRONG SPREADER LIQUIDATION, AND A SMALLER THAN EXPECTED COMEX OI LOSS// … AS WE ENGINEERED A TINY LOSS ON TWO EXCHANGES OF 1153 CONTRACTS DESPITE GOLD’S TINY RISE IN PRICE.

WE AGAIN HAD 1 4 -GC VOLUME//open interest rises to 11

EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL ISSUANCE

WE ARE NOW IN THE ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH OF APRIL.. THE CME REPORTS THAT THE BANKERS ISSUED A STRONG SIZED TRANSFER THROUGH THE EFP ROUTE AS THESE LONGS RECEIVED A DELIVERABLE LONDON FORWARD TOGETHER WITH A FIAT BONUS., THAT IS 6036 EFP CONTRACTS WERE ISSUED:

FEB: 0; MARCH 00 AND APRIL: 0, MAY: 0 JUNE : 4615 AND 1421 FOR AUG AND ZERO FOR ALL OTHER MONTHS:

TOTAL EFP ISSUANCE: 6036 CONTRACTS.

THE OBLIGATION STILL RESTS WITH THE BANKERS ON THESE TRANSFERS. ALSO REMEMBER THAT THERE IS NO DOUBT A HUGE DELAY IN THE ISSUANCE OF EFP’S AND IT PROBABLY TAKES AT LEAST 48 HRS AFTER OUR LONGS GIVE UP THEIR COMEX CONTRACTS FOR THEM TO RECEIVE THEIR EFP’S AS THEY ARE NEGOTIATING THIS CONTRACT WITH THE BANKS FOR A FIAT BONUS PLUS THEIR TRANSFER TO A LONDON BASED FORWARD.

ON A NET BASIS IN OPEN INTEREST WE LOST THE FOLLOWING TODAY ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES: 1153 TOTAL CONTRACTS IN THAT 6036 LONGS WERE TRANSFERRED AS FORWARDS TO LONDON AND WE LOST A CONSIDERABLE SIZED 7189 COMEX CONTRACTS. THE BANKERS PROVIDED ALL THE NECESSARY SHORT PAPER TO WHICH OUR LONGS DUTIFULLY ACCEPTED AS THEY GOBBLED UP A STRONG AMOUNT OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS WITH STRONG BANKER SHORT COVERING, HUGE SPREADER LIQUIDATION ACCOMPANYING A CONSIDERABLE DECREASE IN COMEX OI, A GOOD INCREASE IN GOLD TONNAGE STANDING FOR DELIVERY (SEE CALCULATIONS BELOW)… AND ZERO LONG LIQUIDATION…… ALL OF THE ABOVE OCCURRED WITH A TINY GAIN IN COMEX PRICE..BASICALLY ALL OF THE LOSS IN COMEX OI WAS DUE TO THE SPREADER LIQUIDATION.

THE BANKERS WERE UNSUCCESSFUL IN LOWERING GOLD’S PRICE //// (IT ROSE $.10). AND, THEY WERE UNSUCCESSFUL IN FLEECING ANY LONGS, AS THE TOTAL LOSS ON THE TWO EXCHANGES REGISTERED A SMALL 3.586 TONNES.

NET GAIN ON THE TWO EXCHANGES :: 1153 CONTRACTS OR 115,300 OZ OR 3.560 TONNES.

COMMODITY LAW SUGGESTS THAT COMMODITY FUTURES OPEN INTEREST SHOULD APPROXIMATE 3% OF TOTAL PRODUCTION. IN GOLD THE WORLD PRODUCES AROUND 3500 TONNES PER YEAR BUT ONLY 2200 TONNES ARE AVAILABLE FROM THE WEST (THUS EXCLUDING RUSSIA, CHINA ETC..WHO KEEP 100% OF THEIR PRODUCTION)

THUS IN GOLD WE HAVE THE FOLLOWING: 512,185 TOTAL OI CONTRACTS X 100 OZ PER CONTRACT = 51.22 MILLION OZ/32,150 OZ PER TONNE = 1593 TONNES

THE COMEX OPEN INTEREST REPRESENTS 1593/2200 OR 72.41% OF ANNUAL GLOBAL PRODUCTION OF GOLD.

Trading Volumes on the COMEX TODAY: 445,072 contracts//volume higher than normal//SPREADERS LIQUIDATION

Gold	Ounces
Withdrawals from Dealers* Inventory in oz*	nil oz
Withdrawals from Customer* Inventory in oz*	5000.500 oz Brinks
Deposits to the Dealer* Inventory in oz*	459,605.873 oz Brinks Scotia
Deposits to the Customer* Inventory, in oz*	192,858.580 OZ HSBC JPMORGAN (INCL. 5,000 KILOBARS FROM THE CROOK JPM)
No of oz served (contracts) today	5 notice(s) 500 OZ (0.01552 TONNES)
No of oz to be served (notices)	0 contracts (NIL oz) 2.43 TONNES
Total monthly oz gold served (contracts) so far this month	10277 notices 1,027,700 OZ 31.965 TONNES
Total accumulative withdrawals of gold from the Dealers* inventory this month*	NIL oz
Total accumulative withdrawal of gold from the Customer* inventory this month*	xxx oz

total gold withdrawals; 5000.5 oz

We had 3 kilobar transactions +

We had 1 4 KC bar volume transactions/11 contracts oi

ADJUSTMENTS: 3 //

all customer to the dealer account

i) From Int. Delaware: 24,113.250 oz (750 kilobars)

ii) From JPM: 130,886.721 oz

iii) From Loomis: 9645.00000 oz (300 kilobars)

The front month of May registered a total of 5 oi contracts for a LOSS of 8 contracts. We had 10 notices filed upon yesterday so we GAINED 2 contracts or an additional 200 oz will stand as these guys refused to morph into London based forwards and thus negated a fiat bonus. There is basically no gold to be found over here as well as London.

The next delivery month after May is the huge delivery month of June. Here June saw a LOSS OF ONLY 34,404 contracts DOWN to 61,168 contracts. July had a GAIN of 1159 OI contracts and thus 3129 contracts outstanding. Next comes August another strong delivery month and here the OI ROSE by 22,348 contracts up to 329,302 contracts.

June is not falling in OI fast enough. It looks like we are going to have another dilly amount of gold oz standing for June. We have 1 more reading day before first day notice Friday, May 29.2020. We may have 100 tonnes of gold standing for June. ( 33,000 oi contracts stand for initial delivery in gold)

We had 5 notices filed today for 500 oz

To calculate the INITIAL total number of gold ounces standing for the MAY /2020. contract month, we take the total number of notices filed so far for the month (10,277) x 100 oz , to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of May. 5x CONTRACTS ) minus the number of notices served upon today (5 x 100 oz per contract) equals 1,027,700 OZ OR 31.965 TONNES) the number of ounces standing in this non active month of May

thus the INITIAL standings for gold for the May/2020 contract month:

No of notices served (10,277)x 100 oz + (5 OI) for the front month minus the number of notices served upon today (5) x 100 oz which equals 1,027700 oz standing OR 31.965 TONNES in this non active delivery month. This is a record amount for gold standing for any May delivery month or any non active delivery month.

We gained 2 contracts or an additional 200 oz will seek out metal on this side of the pond

NEW PLEDGED GOLD: BRINKS

3027.500 OZ REMOVED TO THE PLEDGED ACCOUNT JAN 10.2020/Brinks//Manfra .553 tonnes removed may 26

144,088.952 oz NOW PLEDGED JAN 21.2020/HSBC 5.4807 TONNES

322,144.443 oz PLEDGED MARCH 2020 JPMORGAN: 10.020 TONNES

42,548.308.00 PLEDGED APRIL 3/2020: SCOTIA: 1.3234 tonnes

19,290.600 oz Pledged May 8/2020 INT DELAWARE: .600 TONNES

TOTAL PLEDGED GOLD NOW IN EFFECT: 528,072.303 OZ OR 16.425 TONNES

total pledged gold:

c) pledged gold at Scotia: 1.3234 tonnes or 42,548.308 oz which cannot be settled (1.3234 tonnes)

d) pledged gold at Manfra: DELETED TODAY MAY 26.2020

e) pledged gold at int.Del. 19,290.600 oz which cannot be settled: (.600 tonnes)

total weight of pledged: 528,072.303 oz or 16.425 tonnes

thus:

registered gold that can be used to settle upon: 9,221,054.6 (286.81 tonnes)

true registered gold (total registered – pledged tonnes 9221,054.6 (286.81 tonnes)

total registered, pledged and eligible (customer) gold; 26,898,063.453 oz 836,64 tonnes (INCLUDES 4 GC GOLD)

total 4 GC gold: 127.05 tonnes

total gold net of 4 GC: 709.59 tonnes

end

I have compiled data with respect to registered (or dealer) gold taken on first day notice for each of the past 24 months

The data begins on first day notice for the May month taken on the last day of April 2018. and it continues to present day. Thus 24 data entry points.

I then took, how many deliveries were recorded by the CME for each and every month. I also included for reference the price of gold on first day notice.

The first graph is a logarithmic graph and the second graph, linear.

You can see the huge explosion of registered gold at the comex along with deliveries. Gold owners are very clear people. They would know full well that

the gold at the comex is unallocated and that they would not be stupid enough to keep their gold at the comex especially in the registered category once deliveries are asked upon. If physical gold was present it would be have removed from the comex… It shows there is no gold at the comex. They are just trading in sticky paper.

THE DATA AND GRAPHS:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kjTdrLhruo-6Q_joBKNoiJIFwZBbsA5Lp5vEjxJbIhs/edit?usp=sharing

THE GOLD COMEX SEEMS TO BE UNDER SEVERE ASSAULT FOR PHYSICAL

END

MAY 28/2020

And now for the wild silver comex results

Total COMEX silver OI ROSE BY A GOOD SIZED 846 CONTRACTS FROM 158,185 UP TO 159,031(AND CLOSER TO OUR NEW ALL TIME RECORD OI FOR SILVER SET ON FEB 25.2020(244,710) ECLIPSING OUR PREVIOUS RECORD, AUGUST 25/2018 RECORD (244,196). THE PREVIOUS RECORD TO THAT WAS SET ON APRIL 9.2018/ 243,411 CONTRACTS) . THE GOOD OI COMEX GAIN TODAY OCCURRED WITH OUR 13 CENT GAIN IN PRICING//WEDNESDAY. WE GAINED A TOTAL OF 1481 CONTRACTS IN OUR TWO EXCHANGES. THE GAIN IN TOTAL OI (TWO EXCHANGES) OCCURRED WITH 1) A GOOD ISSUANCE OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS 2) A ZERO DECREASE IN SILVER OZ STANDING AT THE COMEX, 3) CONSIDERABLE BANKER SHORT COVERING , 4) ZERO LONG LIQUIDATION,5) GOOD COMEX GAIN IN OI AND ALL OF THIS OCCURRED WITH OUR GOOD 13 CENT LOSS IN PRICE

WE ARE NOW INTO THE ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH OF MAY

THE FRONT DELIVERY OF MAY SAW 1 OPEN INTEREST CONTRACTS STANDING AND THUS WE HAD A LOSS OF 124 CONTRACTS. We had 124 notices filed yesterday so we LOST 0 contracts or an additional NIL oz will stand at the comex as these guys REFUSED TO morph into London based forwards and thus they NEGATED a fiat bonus for their efforts..

AFTER MAY WE HAVE THE NON ACTIVE MONTH OF JUNE. HERE JUNE SAW A LOSS OF 26 CONTRACTS RESTING AT 374.

AFTER JUNE COMES THE VERY BIG DELIVERY MONTH OF JULY AND HERE THE OI LOST 216 CONTRACTS DOWN TO 116,692 CONTRACTS

IT LOOKS LIKE WE WILL HAVE 370 OR SO CONTRACTS STANDING FOR DELIVERY IN JUNE OR 1.85 MILLION OZ//

We, today, had 1 notice(s) FILED for 5,000 OZ for the APRIL, 2020 COMEX contract for silver

MAY 28/2020

MAY SILVER COMEX CONTRACT MONTH

Silver	Ounces
Withdrawals from Dealers* Inventory*	NIL oz
Withdrawals from Customer Inventory	1,245,128.705 oz CNT Delaware HSBC
Deposits to the Dealer* Inventory*	nil oz
Deposits to the Customer Inventory	583,800.700 oz Loomis Delaware
No of oz served today (contracts)	1 CONTRACT(S) (5,000 OZ)
No of oz to be served (notices)	0 contracts NIL oz)
Total monthly oz silver served (contracts)	9044 contracts 45,220,000 oz)
Total accumulative withdrawal of silver from the Dealers* inventory this month*	NIL oz
Total accumulative withdrawal of silver from the Customer* inventory this month*

We had 0 deposit into the dealer:

total dealer deposits: nil oz

i) We had 0 dealer withdrawal

total dealer withdrawals: nil oz

i)we had 2 deposits into the customer account

into JPMorgan: 0

ii)into Loomis; 582,874.200 oz
iii) Into; Delaware; 926.500 oz

*** JPMorgan for most of 2017, 2018 and onward, has adding to its inventory almost every single day.

JPMorgan now has 160.819 million oz of total silver inventory or 51.22% of all official comex silver. (160.819 million/314.220 million

total customer deposits today: 583,800.700 oz

we had 3 withdrawals:

i) Out of CNT: 1,225,523.762 oz

ii) Out of Delaware: 14,731.953 oz

iii) Out of HSBC: 4872.990 oz

total withdrawals; 1,245,128.705 oz

We had 0 adjustments

total dealer silver: 84.776 million

total dealer + customer silver: 310.365 million oz

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The total number of notices filed today for the MAY 2020. contract month is represented by 1 contract(s) FOR 5,000 oz

To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in MAY we take the total number of notices filed for the month so far at 9044 x 5,000 oz = 45,220,000 oz to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of MAY.(1) and the number of notices served upon today 1 x (5000 oz) equals the number of ounces standing.

Thus the INITIAL standings for silver for the MAY/2019 contract month: 9044 (notices served so far) x 5000 oz + OI for front month of MAY (1)- number of notices served upon today (1) x 5000 oz of silver standing for the MAY contract month.equals 45,220,000 oz.

We LOST 0 or an additional NIL oz will seek out metal on the London side of the pond as they ACCEPTED a London based forward contract.. PLUS A FIAT BONUS FOR THEIR EFFORT.

TODAY’S ESTIMATED SILVER VOLUME: 80,830 CONTRACTS //volume very high

FOR YESTERDAY: 56,213 CONTRACTS..,CONFIRMED VOLUME//

YESTERDAY’S CONFIRMED VOLUME OF 56,213 CONTRACTS EQUATES to 281 million OZ 40.15% OF ANNUAL GLOBAL PRODUCTION OF SILVER..

COMMODITY LAW SUGGESTS THAT OPEN INTEREST SHOULD NOT BE MORE THAN 3% OF ANNUAL GLOBAL PRODUCTION. THE CROOKS ARE SUPPLYING MASSIVE PAPER TRYING TO KEEP SILVER IN CHECK.

The record level of silver open interest is 234,787 contracts set on April 21./2017 with the price at that day at $18.42. The previous record was 224,540 contracts with the price at that time of $20.44

end

NPV for Sprott

1. Sprott silver fund (PSLV): NAV RISES TO- 0.80% ((MAY 28/2020)

2. Sprott gold fund (PHYS): premium to NAV FALLS TO -0.20% to NAV: (MAY 28/2020 )

Note: Sprott silver trust back into NEGATIVE territory at +%-/Sprott physical gold trust is back into NEGATIVE/ 0.80%

(courtesy Sprott/GATA

3.SPROTT CEF.A FUND (FORMERLY CENTRAL FUND OF CANADA):

NAV 16.31 TRADING 16.24///NEGATIVE 0.42

END

And now the Gold inventory at the GLD/

MAY 28//WITH GOLD UP $4.00 TODAY/NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY TO THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1119.05 TONNES

MAY 27/WITH GOLD UP $.10 TODAY: A STRONG 2.34 TONNES OF GOLD ADDED TO THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1119.05 TONNES

MAY 26//WITH GOLD DOWN $23.05//NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY://RESTS TONIGHT AT 1116.71 TONNES

MAY 22//WITH GOLD UP $13.05//A BIG CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY:: A PAPER ADDITION OF 3.93 TONNES//INVENTORY RESTS THIS WEEKEND AT: 1116.71 TONNES

MAY 21//WITH GOLD DOWN $26.70//NO CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1112.32 TONNES

MAY 20/WITH GOLD UP $7.20: A HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A PAPER WITHDRAWAL OF 1.46 TONNES FROM THE GLD////INVENTORY RESTS TONIGHT AT 1112.32 TONNES

MAY 19//WITH GOLD UP $10.60//NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD////INVENTORY RESTS AT 1113.78 TONNES

MAY 18/WITH GOLD DOWN $15.40 TODAY: A HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY: A PAPER DEPOSIT OF 9.06 TONNES./INVENTORY RESTS AT 1113.78 TONNES

MAY 15.WITH GOLD UP $16.30 TODAY: A HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A PAPER DEPOSIT OF 12.58 TONNES/ INVENTORY RESTS AT 1104.72 TONNES

MAY 14//WITH GOLD UP $19.25 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD////INVENTORY RESTS AT 1092.14 TONNES

MAY 13//WITH GOLD UP $9.05 TODAY: A HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//A DEPOSIT OF 11.07 TONNES/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1092.14 TONNES

MAY 12//WITH GOLD UP $6.60 TODAY; A SMALL CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/: A WITHDRAWAL OF .58 TONNES FROM THE GLD///INVENTORY RESTS AT 1081.07 TONNES

MAY 11/WITH GOLD DOWN $12.65 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY: //INVENTORY RESTS AT 1081.65 TONES..

MAY 8/WITH GOLD DOWN $7.00 TODAY; A BIG CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY: A PAPER ADDITION OF 5.85 TONNES/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1081.65 TONNES

MAY 7/WITH GOLD UP $29.65 TODAY : A SMALL CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//A PAPER ADDITION OF .41 TONNES/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1075.80 TONNES

MAY 6//WITH GOLD DOWN $17.00 TODAY/ A HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//A PAPER ADDITION OF 3.68 TONNES/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1075.39 TONES

MAY 5/WITH GOLD DOWN $1.65 TODAY: A HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A PAPER ADDITION OF 3.81 TONNES//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1071.71 TONNES

MAY 4//WITH GOLD UP $12.00 TODAY//A HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A MASSIVE PAPER DEPOSIT OF 11.4 TONNES INTO THE GLD////GOLD INVENTORY RESTS AT 1067.90 TONNES

MAY 1/WITH GOLD UP $8.45 NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1056.50 TONNES

APRIL 30/WITH GOLD DOWN $15.95 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1056.50 TONNES

APRIL 29/WITH GOLD DOWN $7.65/A HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A PAPER DEPOSIT OF 8.19 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD////INVENTORY REST AT 1056.50 TONNES//

APRIL 28/WITH GOLD DOWN $4.50//NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1048.31 TONNES

APRIL 27/WITH GOLD DOWN $12.75//A HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A PAPER DEPOSIT OF 5.85 TONNES INTO THE GLD////INVENTORY RESTS TONIGHT AT 1048.31 TONNES

APRIL 24/WITH GOLD DOWN $4.90 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS TONIGHT AT 1042.46 TONNES

APRIL 23/WITH GOLD UP $10.00 TODAY: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD///INVENTORY RESTS TONIGHT AT 1042.46 TONNES

APRIL 22/WITH GOLD UP $40.75 TODAY:; TWO HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//A)A MONSTROUS 3.8 PAPER TONNES WERE ADDED TO THE GLD INVENTORY AND B) ANOTHER HUGE 9.07 TONNES OF PAPER GOLD ADDED LATE IN THE DAY//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1042.46 TONNES

APRIL 21/WITH GOLD DOWN $21.60 TODAY: A HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A MONSTROUS ADDITION OF 7.9 PAPER TONNES TO THE GLD INVENTORY//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1029.59 TONNES

APRIL 20//WITH GOLD UP $10.00 TODAY; NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1021.69 TONNES

APRIL 17/WITH GOLD DOWN $27.80 TODAY: SURPRISINGLY NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD///INVENTORY RESTS AT 1021.69 TONNES TONNES..THE STRING OF 12 STRAIGHT STRONG DEPOSITS ENDS..

APRIL 16/WITH GOLD DOWN $4.50 TODAY: ANOTHER HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY: A STRONG DEPOSIT OF 4.10 TONNES WAS ADDED TO THE GLD INVENTORY//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1021.69 TONNES/12TH STRAIGHT STRONG DEPOSIT

APRIL 15//WITH GOLD DOWN $19.10 TODAY; ANOTHER HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY; A STRONG 7.89 TONNES WAS ADDED TO THE GLD INVENTORY//INVENTORY RESTS AT 1117.59 TONNES.//11TH STRAIGHT STRONG DEPOSIT

APRIL 14/WITH GOLD UP $23.55 TODAY: ANOTHER HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY: A STRONG 15.51 TONNES WAS ADDED TO THE GLD INVENTORY/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1009.70 TONNES//THIS IS THE 10TH STRAIGHT STRONG DEPOSIT//THIS IS A FRAUDULENT VEHICLE..THEY HAVE NO PHYSICAL GOLD IN THE TRUST..

APRIL 13//WITH GOLD UP $27.65 TODAY: ANOTHER HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY: A STRONG 5.36 TONNES WAS ADDED TO THE GLD//INVENTORY RESTS AT 994.19 TONNES

APRIL 9 WITH GOLD UP $37.30 TODAY: ANOTHER HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY: A STRONG 2.92 TONNES WAS ADDED TO THE GLD//GOLD INVENTORY RESTS TONIGHT AT..988.63 TONNES

APRIL 8/WITH GOLD DOWN $.60//ANOTHER HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY/;; A STRONG 1.45 TONNES WAS ADDED TO THE GLD/GOLD INVENTORY RESTS AT 985.71 TONNES

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Inventory rests tonight at

MAY 28/ GLD INVENTORY 1116.71 tonnes*

LAST; 829 TRADING DAYS: +171.99 NET TONNES HAVE BEEN REMOVED FROM THE GLD

LAST 729 TRADING DAYS://+347.14 TONNES HAVE NOW BEEN ADDED INTO THE GLD INVENTORY.

end

Now the SLV Inventory/

MAY 28//WITH SILVER UP 9 CENTS TODAY: A MASSIVE CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 4.660 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 460.477 MILLION OZ//

MAY 27/WITH SILVER UP 13 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 455.817 MILLION OZ//

MAY 26//WITH SILVER DOWN 9 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/// INVENTORY RESTS AT 455.817 MILLION OZ//

MAY 22/WITH SILVER UP 22 CENTS TODAY/ A HUGE PAPER WITHDRAWAL OF 1.864 MILLION OZ//INVENTORY RESTS AT 455.817 MILLION OZ/

LAST 5 DAYS: SILVER UP 60 CENTS: INVENTORY UP A WHOOPING 23.767 MILLION OZ///

MAY 21/WITH SILVER DOWN 50 CENTS TODAY: A HUGE PAPER DEPOSIT OF 7.923 MILLION OZ///INVENTORY RESTS AT 457.681 MILLION OZ//

MAY 20//WITH SILVER UP ANOTHER 11 CENTS TODAY: A HUGE CHANGE IN SLV INVENTORY: A HUGE PAPER DEPOSIT OF 9.601 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV// //INVENTORY RESTS AT 449.758 MILLION OZ

MAY 19/WITH SILVER UP ANOTHER 29 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 440.157 MILLION OZ//

MAY 18/WITH SILVER UP ANOTHER 48 CENTS TODAY: TWO BIG CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV I.E. 2 PAPER DEPOSIT OF ( I) 8.39 MILLION OZ AND THEN ( 2) 8.109 MILLION OZ//INVENTORY RESTS AT 432.048 MILLION OZ// (TOTAL DEPOSITS 16.500 MILLION OZ///)

MAY 15/WITH SILVER UP 81 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: /INVENTORY RESTS AT 423.65 MILLION OZ.

MAY 14//WITH SILVER UP 33 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV.//INVENTORY RESTS AT 423.65 MILLION OZ

MAY 13/WITH SILVER UP 2 CENTS TODAY: A HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A PAPER DEPOSIT OF 2.79 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV..//INVENTORY RESTS AT 423.65 MILLION OZ//

MAY 12/WITH SILVER UP 5 CENTS TODAY: A BIG CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 3.076 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 420.861 MILLION OZ//

MAY 11.WITH SILVER DOWN 5 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 417.785 MILLION OZ//

MAY 8/WITH SILVER UP 11 CENTS TODAY: A HUGE CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A MONSTER DEPOSIT OF 4.661 MILLION OZ OF SILVER INTO THE SLV..///INVENTORY RESTS AT 417.785 MILLION OZ//

MAY 7/WITH SILVER UP 45 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 413.124 MILLION OZ//

MAY 6/WITH SILVER DOWN 6 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 413.124 MILLION OZ//

MAY 5/WITH SILVER UP 17 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 413.124 MILLION OZ///

MAY 4//WITH SILVER DOWN 5 CENTS TODAY:2 HUGE PAPER CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV.i).A LARGE 1.399 MILLION OZ OF PAPER SILVER REMOVED FROM THE SLV//..//INVENTORY RESTS AT 411.427 MILLION OZ and ii) A LARGE 1.647 MILLION OZ OF PAPER SILVER ADDED TO THE SLV// INVENTORY RESTS AT 413.124 MILLION OZ//

MAY 1/WITH SILVER FLAT IN PRICE: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 412.826 MILLION OZ///

APRIL 30/WITH SILVER DOWN 26 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 412.826 MILLION OZ//

APRIL 29/WITH SILVER DOWN ONE CENT TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 412.826 MILLION OZ//

APRIL 28 /WITH SILVER DOWN 2 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 412.826 MILLION OZ..

APRIL 27/WITH SILVER UP ONE CENT TODAY: TWO SMALL CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: a) A WITHDRAWAL OF 373,000 OZ FORM THE SLV// b) A SECOND WITHDRAWAL OF 466,000: ////INVENTORY RESTS AT 412.826 MILLION OZ//

APRIL 24//WITH SILVER UP 3 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 413.665 MILLION OZ

APRIL 23/WITH SILVER UP 0 CENTS TODAY: A HUGE CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 2.891 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV/////INVENTORY RESTS AT 413.665 MILLION OZ//

APRIL 22/WITH SILVER UP 42 CENTS TODAY: A HUGE CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY: A PAPER WITHDRAWAL OF 1.865 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV//INVENTORY RESTS AT 410.774 MILLION OZ//

APRIL 21//WITH SILVER DOWN 60 CENTS TODAY; A HUGE CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A PAPER ADDITION OF 1.398 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV INVENTORY//INVENTORY RESTS AT 412.639 MILLION OZ//

APRIL 20//WITH SILVER UP 16 CENTS TODAY: A BIG CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 2.797 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 414.038 MILLION OZ//

APRIL 17/WITH SILVER DOWN 24 CENTS TODAY; A BIG CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.3999 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 415.437 MILLION OZ//

APRIL 16/WITH SILVER UP 5 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 415.437 MILLION OZ//

APRIL 15//WITH SILVER DOWN 45 CENTS TODAY: TWO HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV TWO HUGE DEPOSITS: A DEPOSIT OF 1.679 MILLION OZ AND ANOTHER 5.222 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV////INVENTORY RESTS AT 415.437 MILLION OZ//

APRIL 14./WITH SILVER UP 51 CENTS TODAY: A HUGE CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV//A MASSIVE PAPER DEPOSIT OF XXX MILLION OZ//INVENTORY RESTS AT 408.536 MILLION OZ//

APRIL 13//WITH SILVER DOWN 29 CENTS TODAY; A HUGE CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A MASSIVE PAPER DEPOSIT OF 6.155 MILLION OZ////INVENTORY RESTS AT 408.536 MILLION OZ//

APRIL 9/WITH SILVER UP 60 CENTS TODAY: A HUGE CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A HUGE DEPOSIT OF 1.84 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV///INVENTORY RESTS AT 402.381 MILLION OZ.

MAY 28.2020:

SLV INVENTORY RESTS TONIGHT AT

460.477 MILLION OZ.

END

LIBOR SCHEDULE AND GOFO RATES// GOLD LEASE RATES

YOUR DATA…..

6 Month MM GOFO 2.48/ and libor 6 month duration 0.55

Indicative gold forward offer rate for a 6 month duration/calculation:

GOLD LENDING RATE: -1.93%

NEGATIVE GOLD LEASING RATES INCREASING//GOLD SCARCITY AND CENTRAL BANKS CALLING IN ALL OF THEIR GOLD LEASES

XXXXXXXX

12 Month MM GOFO
+ 1.74%

LIBOR FOR 12 MONTH DURATION: 0.68

GOFO = LIBOR – GOLD LENDING RATE

GOLD LENDING RATE = -1.06%

NEGATIVE GOLD LEASING RATES INCREASING//GOLD SCARCITY AND CENTRAL BANKS CALLING IN ALL OF THEIR GOLD LEASES

end

PHYSICAL GOLD/SILVER STORIES
i) GOLDCORE BLOG/Mark O’Byrne

ii) Important gold commentaries courtesy of GATA/Chris Powell

This is garbage. The “gold” coming into the comex is not real but paper gold.

(Bloomberg/GATA)

Bloomberg says the Comex is stuck with too much gold

Submitted by cpowell on Thu, 2020-05-28 01:41. Section: Daily Dispatches

New York Gold Traders Are Drowning in a Glut They Helped Create

By Justina Vasquez
Bloomberg News
Wednesday, May 27, 2020

The New York gold market has been flipped on its head in just a couple of months, with a scramble for the metal turning into a glut.

Earlier this year traders who had sold contracts paid a steep premium to close positions after the coronavirus pandemic grounded flights, sparking worries about the ability to get gold to New York. That drove futures to the highest premium to the spot price in four decades, attracting a flood of metal to the U.S. from around the world.

Now contract holders are trying to avoid taking delivery from the massive inventory.

June futures sank to more than $20 an ounce below August this week, from a premium in mid-April. Notices to deliver on June contracts will begin to be filed Thursday. The June contract is also below spot prices, after fetching a $12 premium as recently as mid-May and $60 in March.

The steep discount echoes some of what oil traders saw earlier this year, when crude stockpiles surged after fuel demand plunged. In that extreme case — which no one expects to be repeated in gold — prices plunged below zero as traders who had bought futures but weren’t able to take delivery were forced to pay buyers to unload the contracts.

“It’s a little bit of a game of chicken,” said Tai Wong, head of metals derivatives trading at BMO Capital Markets. “All of a sudden you get into a similar problem that you had in crude, but slightly different: for crude they literally didn’t have a place to put it — whereas in this case speculative longs don’t want the logistical hassle of holding physical metal, which is why cost to roll has blown out.”

Since the end of March, 16.8 million ounces have flowed into Comex. That’s more than the total increase in ETF holdings last year, and almost equivalent to India’s annual jewelery demand. Inventories stand at a record 26 million ounces as of Tuesday, dwarfing the 9.6 million ounces worth of June contracts still open.

To be sure, the imbalance in the New York market is a localized phenomenon: gold remains in high demand around the world among investors concerned about the state of the global economy. …

… For the remainder of the report:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-27/new-york-gold-traders…

end

U.N. willing to take Venezuelan gold from Bank of England for food, medical relief

Submitted by cpowell on Thu, 2020-05-28 02:32. Section: Daily Dispatches

Venezuela Reaches Deal with U.N. to Buy Food, Medicine with Gold Held at Bank of England

By Deisy Buitrago
Reuters
Wednesday, May 27, 2020

CARACAS — Venezuela has reached a deal with the U.N. Development Programme to direct part of its gold in Bank of England accounts toward the purchase of food and medicine during the coronavirus pandemic, its central bank governor said today.

The deal comes after Venezuela’s central bank made a legal claim to try to force the Bank of England to hand over part of the 31 tonnes of gold in accounts belonging to the government of President Nicolas Maduro, whom Britain does not recognize as Venezuela’s legitimate leader due to allegations he rigged his 2018 re-election.

…

Central bank Governor Calixto Ortega told Reuters that under the arrangement, the UNDP would receive the funds directly, a move meant to assuage concerns about potential corruption.

“It’s not my word. It’s not me saying that I am going to buy food, medicine, and medical equipment,” Ortega said in an interview in his downtown Caracas office. “It’s the United Nations who is saying that. They are not going to be involved in anything dark that is not neutral and independent.”

Any program would still require the Bank of England to release the gold. The Bank of England declined to comment. …

… For the remainder of the report:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-centralbank-exclus…

END

The Fed admits that its corporate bond buying will be at least 5 years and a 5 year bailout of the corporate sect

(Pam and Russ Marten/WallStreet on Parade)

Pam and Russ Martens: Fed admits corporate bond buying will be at least a 5-year bailout

Submitted by cpowell on Thu, 2020-05-28 03:25. Section: Daily Dispatches

By Pam and Russ Martens
Wall Street on Parade
Wednesday, May 27, 2020

On May 13 the House Financial Services’ Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions held a virtual roundtable with federal regulators. One of the regulators in attendance was the vice chair for supervision at the Federal Reserve, Randal Quarles.

At the very end of what evolved into a roundtable beset with static and inaudible passages, it was Utah Rep. Ben McAdams’ turn to ask questions. McAdams’ voice was sharp and crisp. He politely said he had a question about the corporate bond buying program that the Fed was launching (for the first time in its 107-year history).

…

The exchange went as follows:

McAdams: “Do you anticipate holding these investments through the life of the purchased bond or do you anticipate selling them at a date TBD?” [To be determined.]

Quarles: “Our intention is to buy and hold.”

That answer from Quarles effectively means that the Fed plans to keep its corporate bond-buying program alive for at least half a decade. Here’s how we know that.

The Fed has two corporate bond buying programs: the Primary Market Corporate Credit Facility and the Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility. The Fed has released detailed descriptions (called term sheets) for both programs. The PMCCF Term Sheet indicates that the bonds it will be buying will “have a maturity of four years or less.” The term sheet for the SMCCF states that the bonds it will buy will “have a remaining maturity of five years or less.”

Since the Fed plans to “buy and hold,” the program will have to be alive for at least five years until the last of its bonds mature. But here’s why the program could last much longer than that.

The combined programs will start out to buy up $750 billion in bonds by September 30 this year. Both programs say the Fed can extend that purchase period. If it’s extended a year, then we have a six-year program; if it’s extended two years, then we have a seven-year program, and so forth. …

… For the remainder of the report:

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2020/05/fed-admits-corporate-bond-buying-…

end

For your interest…

Nazi gold said buried near palace in Poland — will LBMA hypothecate it by Friday?

Submitted by cpowell on Thu, 2020-05-28 03:42. Section: Daily Dispatches

28 Tonnes of Nazi Gold Could Be Hidden Under 16th-Century Polish Palace

By Ed Wight and Stuart Dowell
Daily Mail, London
Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Twenty-eight tonnes of Nazi gold worth more than L1 billion may have been traced to the grounds of a palace in Poland after the location was mentioned in an SS diary.

The stash of gold bars, jewellery, and coins is believed to be sitting 200 feet down at the bottom of a destroyed well shaft on the grounds of the Hochberg Palace, near the city of Wroclaw.

…

Researchers from the Polish-German Silesian Bridge Foundation, who claim to have acquired the diary from a masonic lodge, say the treasure was buried in the final days of the Second World War along with the corpses of several witnesses.

The treasure is said to include deposits from the Reichsbank in what was then the German city of Breslau but is now Wroclaw.

It is also said to include valuables from wealthy locals who handed them over to SS soldiers in the region for safekeeping as the Red Army advanced in 1945.

If the claim is true, then the treasure could be worth as much as L 1.25 billion at today’s prices.

Roman Furmaniak, head of the foundation which traced the location, said he is going public with the findings in an attempt to pressure the government into investigating. …

… For the remainder of the report:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8361037/28-tonnes-Nazi-gold-hid…

iii) Other physical stories:

Bullion banks are now ready to pull back from the Comex and head to London where there is going to be a strict physical market.

from Andrew Maguire/London’s Financial Times/Peter Hobson

Exclusive: Bullion banks prepare CME pullback after virus snarl

Peter Hobson

LONDON (Reuters) – Gold trading banks are preparing to significantly reduce their positions on CME Group’s Comex exchange in New York, nine people familiar with the plans said, shifting more trading to London and raising costs for thousands of investors.

Some bullion banks are no longer willing to hold large positions on Comex, the biggest gold futures market, after the coronavirus snarled the supply of gold bars, sending Comex prices vaulting above London rates in March.

The divergence wiped hundreds of millions of dollars off the value of trading books, according to industry sources, with HSBC reporting a $200 million paper loss in a single day.

Many banks have already reduced their day-to-day trading on Comex since the market disruption but they are worried that prices could diverge again and some now intend to reduce their open positions by between 50%-75%, sources at six lenders said.

Facing the threat of lost business, CME is considering amending contracts to allow delivery of gold in London as well as in New York, five industry and banking sources said, adding that no decision had yet been taken.

This would ease banks’ concerns by removing the need to move gold from London to settle Comex contracts. But it would take months or years to implement and may not apply to the most traded contract, sources said, meaning it would not stop a reduction of positions in the short term.

They and the other sources declined to be named because they are not authorised to speak to the media.

“We continue to work with market participants to evolve our offerings and continue to ensure our products deliver the most liquid, cost effective and transparent risk management tools,” the CME said in a statement, adding that trading so far this year was higher than a year ago.

OPPORTUNITY FOR LONDON

HSBC, JPMorgan, UBS and other lenders use Comex futures to hedge their exposure to the gold market in London. Banks are the exchange’s single biggest user group, accounting for more than a third of all Comex contracts.

At issue are contracts owned by the banks worth as much as $45 billion, equivalent to around 800 tonnes of gold, according to Comex data.

Traditionally, the London-Comex trade was a win-win as it gave banks a cheap and low-risk way to expand their trading books and gave typical Comex investors – such as hedge funds and asset managers – a bustling choice of banks to buy from.

But it relied on the ability of banks to quickly move gold from storage points in London to New York to settle contracts.

A withdrawal by the banks may take months.

Some banks will close contracts by buying them back, if prices on Comex fall below London rates. Some banks also plan to close positions in June when they can use gold they have shipped to New York to deliver against contracts, sources said.

Around 400 tonnes of eligible gold worth $22 billion has been shipped to Comex-registered vaults since late March, according to CME data.

Some trading will move from Comex futures to the London over-the-counter (OTC) market, sources said.

Rival exchanges such as the London Metal Exchange (LME) could also pick up customers because banks still want to use a futures market.

“This is an opportunity for someone to step in,” said a source at one of the biggest gold trading banks.

Both the London Metal Exchange and Intercontinental Exchange already offer futures contracts based on gold stored in London, but these are not widely traded.

LME Chief Executive Matt Chamberlain said there was increased interest from banks in its precious metals contracts. ICE did not respond to a request for comment.

Reuters asked 12 banks about their trading plans – HSBC, JPMorgan, UBS, Bank of Nova Scotia, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Citi, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas, Standard Chartered, ICBC Standard and Bank of America

An HSBC spokesman said Comex remained one of many trading venues it and its clients use. The remainder either did not respond or declined to comment.

STILL THE BIGGEST

The disruption in March affected both markets.

Daily trading on Comex fell to around 25 million ounces last week from an average of 47 million in the year to March 23, when London and Comex prices moved apart, CME data show.

In London, daily trading was roughly 35 million ounces last week from an average of 40 million in the year to March 24, according to figures from the London Bullion Market Association and Nasdaq.

With fewer banks selling gold on Comex, investors are already paying more to maintain their positions. Every few months, investors exchange expiring futures contracts for ones with a later expiration. That would usually cost a couple of dollars an ounce. In recent days it has cost around $10-20.

Such a high price tag offers bigger profits for banks willing to trade, which will encourage some to keep trading on the exchange and close fewer positions, sources said.

Even with lower participation from banks, Comex, as the largest gold futures market, will likely remain dominant for the foreseeable future.

“There’s no other alternative,” said an industry source. “Where’s the trading going to go?”

Reporting by Peter Hobson; Editing by Veronica Brown and Carmel Crimmins

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

end

Again, traders shying away form the crooked Comex

(Sanderson/London’s Financial Times)

March ructions deter bullion banks from gold futures

Submitted by cpowell on Thu, 2020-05-28 14:55. Section: Daily Dispatches

By Henry Sanderson
Financial Times, London
Thursday, May 28, 2020

https://www.ft.com/content/550d909a-2c24-47f6-9233-a0723601dd10

Big bullion banks including HSBC have pulled back from trading gold futures after disruption in the market that flared up in the coronavirus crisis.

Stung by an unprecedented gap between prices for futures and physical gold in March that contributed to a $200m paper loss for HSBC in one day, banks have pulled back, said traders.

The move has helped to drag daily trading volumes for futures contracts on New York’s Comex exchange down to the levels seen at the start of the year, even as gold prices have climbed to seven-year highs at around $1,700 per troy ounce.

Market specialists said banks’ partial withdrawal shows that the fragilities exposed by the darkest points of the coronavirus crisis could reshape how banks trade the precious metal, potentially accelerating a shift by clients into exchange-traded gold.

“People have typically gravitated towards the Comex to hedge their physical stockpiles [of gold], but when you have this global disconnect you’ll become very cautious,” said Adrian Ash, head of research for BullionVault, an online gold platform.

The price of gold is based mainly on physical trading handled by banks in London, where HSBC and JPMorgan dominate. They typically take a short position in gold futures in New York to hedge their exposure to a fall in the spot price.

But in March, the sudden closure of gold refineries in Switzerland and the lack of commercial flights transporting gold around the world pushed the price of gold futures in New York to a record $70 above the price of physical gold in London, far beyond the typical gap of a few dollars.

That divergence left HSBC sitting on a $200 million mark-to-market loss, the bank said in a filing this month, citing the “unprecedented widening” of the spread, and “Covid-19-related challenges in gold refining and transportation”.

The unrealised losses, which were also partly due to a reduction in foreign exchange and equity volatility as well as a tightening in credit spreads, have been largely recouped, according to a person familiar with the bank’s performance.

Comex gold futures trading volumes have since dropped — a fall that market participants attribute in part to lighter activity from banks. Since January, the total number of outstanding gold futures contracts on the Comex exchange has fallen more than 30 per cent.

“While we have seen lower futures volumes traded on Comex in recent weeks because of the exchange-for-physical price dislocation in March, Comex remains one of many trading venues we and our clients use,” said HSBC.

JPMorgan, ICBC Standard Bank, and UBS — the other large bullion traders — declined to comment. Meanwhile, Canada’s Scotiabank is withdrawing from the gold market and said this week it had set aside $168 million to cover the closure of those operations and a separate US government investigation into its activities.

“What banks don’t want to be doing is adding to [futures] positions. Risk managers for years thought it was a safe position, but we’ve seen now that this is no longer a stable spread,” said John Reade, a former Paulson & Co gold trader who now works for the World Gold Council.

The CME Group, which owns the Comex exchange, said it is “the destination for global precious metals risk management”.

“Customers across the global precious metals value chain, including the London gold market, rely on the price discovery and risk transfer that CME Group’s gold products provide,” it said.

Banks are now choosing to hedge their customers’ gold trades through other means such as using swaps in the London market, according to people familiar with the market. The volume of gold trading in London’s over-the-counter market has frequently surpassed that of Comex since March, according to the London Bullion Market Association.

A reduction in trading by banks will leave fewer counterparties for investors in gold futures, according to Mr Reade. That could push them into gold-backed exchange traded funds instead, fragmenting the market. Holdings in US gold-backed exchange traded funds rose to a record $184bn last month, according to the World Gold Council.

end

This is a very important interview of Andrew Maguire with Chris Marcus

Andrew Maguire: “Wholesale Silver Shortage” Reflected In Widening SLV Spread

For years it seemed as if there was an imbalance in the silver market. And while it was hard to know when the market would be repriced, in some ways it seemed inevitable.

Now the signs continue to emerge that the market is under more pressure than ever, with a possible breakpoint within sight. Which well-known London silver trader, whistleblower, and found er of Kinesis Money Andrew Maguire was kind enough to join me on this show and discuss.

Andrew is more well versed in the technicals of the London trading than anyone that’s been on the show, so this is an episode you’re going to want to see!

So to hear the latest gold and silver news, click to watch the interview now!

Chris Marcus
May 27, 2020

Due to the criminal conviction of trader Edmonds, the USA prosecution is seeking to halt the civil lawsuit. I was misinformed: all discoveries in a civil suit are public and because of that, the prosecution gives the defendants the right to plead the 5th if their testimony incriminates them

(courtesy zerohedge/Chris Powell)

US seeks halt in civil lawsuit accusing JP Morgan of manipulating metals market, citing criminal case

The U.S. wants a federal judge to halt a civil lawsuit accusing J. P. Morgan of manipulating precious metals markets. The Justice Department cited an ongoing criminal case as its reason for the request.
A former J. P. Morgan trader pleaded guilty in Connecticut last month to manipulation charges.
In the guilty plea, the trader said he had learned to make bogus trade orders from senior traders at the bank and that he used the strategy hundreds of times with the knowledge and consent of his immediate supervisors.

Dawn Giel | Dan Mangan

Published 3:33 PM ET Tue, 20 Nov 2018 Updated 10:32 AM ET Wed, 21 Nov 2018CNBC.com

Amr Alfiky | Reuters

A sign of JP Morgan Chase Bank is seen in front of their headquarters tower in New York.

The Justice Department is asking a judge to put the brakes on a civil lawsuit against J. P. Morgan Chase, citing an ongoing probe into a “related criminal case” that involves alleged manipulation of precious metals markets.

The department wants a six-month postponement in the proceedings of the civil lawsuit, which was filed in 2015 by hedge fund manager Daniel Shak and two commodity traders. The government also says it could ask for a longer delay in the case, according to a court filing on Monday.

The move comes days after Shak’s lawyer, David Kovel, sought permission to reopen questioning of two former J. P. Morgan traders and the bank’s current global head of base and precious metals trading.

Kovel, in making the request with the Manhattan federal judge in the civil case, cited last month’s guilty plea by one of those former traders, John Edmonds, in federal court in Connecticut.

Edmonds admitted making bogus bids on precious metals contracts while working at the bank from 2009 to 2015.

Neither J. P. Morgan Chase nor Kovel’s clients have opposed the Justice Department’s request.

In arguing for a delay, the Justice Department said Shak’s lawsuit is “related” to Edmonds’ criminal case and that Edmonds has “pleaded guilty and acknowledged his own participation in such conduct, as well as that of other traders.”

“Edmonds awaits sentencing, but the broader investigation is ongoing,” the Justice Department said. The U.S. wants to delay the civil case “to protect the integrity of its ongoing criminal investigation,” it said.

J. P. Morgan did not respond to a request for comment by CNBC. Kovel declined to comment.

Tuesday night, after this story first was published, Judge Paul Engelmayer ordered the federal prosecutors to explain in detail by Monday why postponing proceedings in the civil lawsuit would not harm those involved, and why reopening questioning “would be detrimental to the Government’s ongoing criminal investigation.”

Englemayer also wrote that he regards Edmonds’ guilty plea “as potentially highly consequential” to the civil case.

In his guilty plea, the 36-year-old Edmonds said he had learned to make bogus trade orders from senior traders at the bank and that he used the strategy hundreds of times with the knowledge and consent of his immediate supervisors. He admitted to working with “unnamed co-conspirators” at J. P. Morgan, according to the Justice Department.

Kovel wants to question Edmonds again as well as Michael Nowak, the bank’s global head of base and precious metal trading, and former J. P. Morgan Chase Managing Director Robert Gottlieb. The three had previously answered questions under oath in the civil case.

Kovel said in court filings that Nowak was the immediate supervisor of Edmonds, while Gottlieb was Edmonds’ mentor.

In his prior deposition, Edmonds said that Gottlieb sat only a “couple feet” away from him for about five years, and that he was “somebody [he] looked up to in the business,” who helped guide and train him.

Nowak is described by Edmonds as his direct supervisor, with whom he would sometimes discuss trading strategies. Nowak was also the person responsible for overseeing the performance and risk of Edmonds’ portfolio, according to the deposition.

Edmonds also stated in his prior deposition that he would enter precious metals trades for both Nowak and Gottlieb, among others.

The civil lawsuit claims Shak and his fellow plaintiffs lost tens of millions of dollars as a result of actions by J. P. Morgan’s traders.

A federal judge tells traders that they can combine cases (with the other 6 banks) as they accused JPMorgan of rigging the precious metals market

(courtesy CNBC)

Federal judge tells traders they can combine cases accusing JP Morgan of rigging metals market

Litigation in a separate civil case has been put on hold until at least May at the behest of the Justice Department, which is investigating a “related criminal case” that involves alleged market manipulation by precious metals traders at J. P. Morgan.
Judge John Koeltl of the Southern District of New York appointed the White Plains, N.Y., law firm Lowey Dannenberg as interim lead counsel for the proposed class action.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images

A group of traders from across the U.S. who allege that J. P. Morgan Chase manipulated precious metals markets for years are one step closer to bringing a class action suit against the nation’s largest bank.

Earlier this month, a federal judge said five separate lawsuits making similar allegations against the bank could be combined, potentially including thousands of people who traded in the precious metals market from Jan. 2009 through Dec. 2015.

Litigation in a separate civil case has been put on hold until at least May at the behest of the Justice Department, which is investigating a “related criminal case” that involves alleged market manipulation by precious metals traders at J. P. Morgan.

J. P. Morgan declined to comment on this story.

Judge John Koeltl of the Southern District of New York appointed the White Plains, N.Y., law firm Lowey Dannenberg as interim lead counsel for the proposed class action.

Vincent Briganti, a partner at the firm, filed the first suit seeking class action status in November on behalf of Dominick Cognata, a trader who alleges he suffered losses due to J.P. Morgan’s illegal trading conduct in the silver and gold futures and options markets.

That was after the federal court in Connecticut unsealed a criminal plea agreement by John Edmonds, a former J.P. Morgan metals trader. In his guilty plea, Edmonds, who is 36-years old, admitted that he and other “unnamed co-conspirators” fraudulently manipulated the precious metals markets while they were employed at J. P. Morgan from 2009 to 2015.

Edmonds said he had learned the illegal trading tactics from senior traders, and then used them hundreds of times with the knowledge of and consent of his immediate supervisors.

Briganti’s lawsuit also names John Edmonds and a group of yet-to-be-identified precious metals traders and the bank as defendants.

On Wednesday, the lawyers sent a letter to Judge Koeltl saying they were having difficulty locating Edmonds to serve him legal papers and requested a 30-day extension to do so, which the judge granted on Thursday. Briganti noted that they have been in contact with Edmonds’ attorney in the criminal case. Edmonds’ attorney and Briganti could not be reached for comment.

“We are hopeful that this extension will result in completing service on Mr. Edmonds without formal motion practice and a request for alternative means of service,” Briganti said in the letter.

The next step in the civil case is for the plaintiffs to file an amended class action complaint and set a schedule for defendants to respond.

In addition to the proposed class action, J. P. Morgan also faces a separate civil suit which also accuses the bank of rigging precious metals markets.

end

March 4.2019

Parker City News

JP Morgan faces potential class action lawsuit after guilty pleas by a former metals trader

Traders from across the U.S. are banding together to accuse J. P. Morgan Chase of manipulating precious metals markets for years.

At least six lawsuits, all making similar allegations against the nation‘s largest bank, have been filed in New York federal court in the past month, since federal prosecutors in Connecticut with a former J. P. Morgan Chase metals trader.

The cases could potentially include thousands of people who traded in the precious metals market. The White Plains, N.Y., law firm Lowey Dannenberg is asking the court to combine the cases and name it as the lead.

The law firm‘s commodities group is led by Vincent Briganti, the attorney who filed the first lawsuit on behalf of Dominick Cognata, a New York resident who alleges he suffered losses due to J. P. Morgan‘s trading conduct in the silver and gold futures and options markets.

A combined case, seeking class action status, would include anyone who purchased or sold futures contracts or an option on NYMEX platinum or palladium or COMEX silver or gold between at least Jan. 1, 2009, and Dec. 31, 2015. The lawyers believe that “at least hundreds, if not thousands” of traders would be eligible to join the case.

Named as defendants in all of the lawsuits are John Edmonds, a 36-year old former metals trader at J. P. Morgan, a group of yet-to-be-identified precious metals traders and the bank.

Edmonds, a New York resident, pleaded guilty in October to one count of conspiracy to defraud the market and manipulate prices of precious metals futures contracts and one count of commodities fraud. In the criminal plea, Edmonds admitted that he and other “unnamed co- conspirators” at J. P. Morgan, fraudulently manipulated precious metals markets from 2009 to 2015, the same time frame covered in the class action suits.

Briganti filed the initial class action on Nov. 7, just one day after the Justice Department unsealed Edmonds‘ plea in the U.S. District Court of Connecticut.

Edmonds admitted in his guilty plea that he deployed the illegal trading scheme hundreds of times with the direct knowledge and consent of his immediate supervisors. Plaintiffs say they have suffered economic injury, including monetary losses, as a direct result of actions by Edmonds and the other unnamed J. P. Morgan metals traders in the futures and options contracts.

One of the suits alleges that “the number of unlawful trades that JP Morgan traders executed in precious metals futures markets is at least in the thousands.”

J. P. Morgan declined to comment. Lowey Dannenberg did not respond to a request for comment by CNBC.

The Justice Department‘s criminal investigation is still ongoing and recently caused a separate related civil case to be put on hold for at least six months while the government continues its investigation. That civil lawsuit, which also accuses J. P. Morgan of rigging the precious metals market, was filed in 2015 by hedge fund manager Daniel Shak and two commodity traders.

After reviewing the details of the plea agreement, David Kovel, the attorney for Shak‘s suit, sought to re- interview Edmonds, along with two other current and former senior traders at the bank. However, the government argued that reopening questioning would be detrimental to the ongoing criminal investigation. The federal judge overseeing the proceedings ordered a six-month stay in the civil case.

Kovel declined to comment.

Edmonds was originally scheduled to be sentenced in Hartford, Conn., on Wednesday, Dec. 19, but a court filing on Nov. 27 shows the sentencing has been postponed until June. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney for Connecticut could not elaborate on why the sentencing was postponed since the court filing is under seal.

-END-

Justice Department stalls another class action in gold market rigging, this one against JPM

Submitted by cpowell on Tue, 2019-03-05 14:40. Section: Daily Dispatches

9:47a ET Tuesday, March 5, 2019

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Proceedings in the federal class-action anti-trust lawsuit against JPMorganChase charging the investment bank with manipulating the gold and silver futures markets —

http://www.gata.org/node/18844

— have been suspended for three months at the request of the U.S. Justice Department, just as the department has arranged suspension of proceedings in the class-action anti-trust lawsuit against Deutsche Bank charging similar market manipulation.

…

In both cases the Justice Department has told U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York that proceedings would jeopardize its criminal investigation into market rigging, which has been admitted by a former JPMorganChase trader, John Edmonds, who awaits sentencing.

According to court filings, the White Plains, New York, law firm representing the plaintiffs against JPMorganChase, Lowey Dannenberg, concurred in the government’s request to suspend proceedings. The stay is to continue for three months and may be extended.

The Justice Department’s motion, granted by the court on February 26 —

http://www.gata.org/files/JPMorganChaseClassActionStay.pdf

— said “the government is not seeking an open-ended stay that could indefinitely postpone this matter and thus jeopardize the parties’ interests in a timely resolution.” The motion added, “Any developments in the criminal case during the period the consolidated action is stayed may reduce or completely resolve the need to litigate certain issues in the consolidated action.”

Much of the Justice Department’s motion is redacted to conceal from the public evidence still under investigation. Edmonds has said he and other traders manipulated the gold and silver markets for years with the knowledge of their supervisors at JPMorganChase. In its motion to conceal that evidence, also granted by the court on February 26, the Justice Department said disclosure “could lead to destruction of evidence, flight from prosecution, and otherwise interfere with the government’s ability to conduct its investigation”:

http://www.gata.org/files/JPMorganChaseClassActionStaySeal.pdf

Monetary metals investors may be skeptical of the Justice Department’s stalling the Deutsche Bank and JPMorganChase cases, since the department and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission do not seem ever to have responded conscientiously to complaints of gold and silver market rigging until the class actions commenced.

How much time will the court give the Justice Department to delay getting to the bottom of the issue? The court might hasten matters if enough monetary metals mining companies protested the harm done to them and their shareholders by market rigging, but of course most monetary metals mining companies don’t mind at all.

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org

* * *

Your early THURSDAY morning currency, Asian stock market results, important USA/Asian currency crosses, gold/silver pricing overnight along with the price of oil Major stories overnight/7 AM EST

i) Chinese yuan vs USA dollar/CLOSED / LAST AT: 7.1538/ GETTING VERY DANGEROUSLY PAST 7:1

//OFFSHORE YUAN: 7.1674 /shanghai bourse CLOSED UP 9.42 POINTS OR 0.33%

HANG SANG CLOSED DOWN 168.60 POINTS OR 0.72%

2. Nikkei closed UP 497.08 POINTS OR 2.32%

3. Europe stocks OPENED ALL GREEN/

USA dollar index DOWN TO 98.92/Euro FALLS TO 1.1008

3b Japan 10 year bond yield: FALLS TO. –.00/ !!!!(Japan buying 100% of bond issuance)/Japanese yen vs usa cross now at 107.75/ THIS IS TROUBLESOME AS BANK OF JAPAN IS RUNNING OUT OF BONDS TO BUY./JAPAN 10 YR YIELD IS NOW TARGETED AT .11%/JAPAN LOSING CONTROL OF THEIR BOND MARKET//CARRY TRADERS GETTING KILLED

3c Nikkei now JUST BELOW 17,000

3d USA/Yen rate now well below the important 120 barrier this morning

3e WTI:: 32,74 and Brent: 34.74

3f Gold UP/JAPANESE Yen UP CHINESE YUAN: ON -SHORE DOWN/OFF- SHORE: DOWN

3g Japan is to buy the equivalent of 108 billion uSA dollars worth of bond per month or $1.3 trillion. Japan’s GDP equals 5 trillion usa./“HELICOPTER MONEY” OFF THE TABLE FOR NOW /REVERSE OPERATION TWIST ON THE BONDS: PURCHASE OF LONG BONDS AND SELLING THE SHORT END

Japan to buy 100% of all new Japanese debt and by 2018 they will have 25% of all Japanese debt. Fifty percent of Japanese budget financed with debt.

3h Oil DOWN for WTI and DOWN FOR Brent this morning

3i European bond buying continues to push yields lower on all fronts in the EMU. German 10yr bund RISES TO -.42%/Italian 10 yr bond yield DOWN to 1.48% /SPAIN 10 YR BOND YIELD DOWN TO 0.62%…ITALIAN 10 YR BOND YIELD/GERMAN BUND: 1.90: DANGEROUS FOR THE ITALIAN BANKING SYSTEM

3j Greek 10 year bond yield FALLS TO : 1.52

3k Gold at $1721.60 silver at: 17.35 7 am est) SILVER NEXT RESISTANCE LEVEL AT $18.50

3l USA vs Russian rouble; (Russian rouble UP 23/100 in roubles/dollar) 70.75

3m oil into the 32 dollar handle for WTI and 34 handle for Brent/

3n Higher foreign deposits out of China sees huge risk of outflows and a currency depreciation. This can spell financial disaster for the rest of the world/

JAPAN ON JAN 29.2016 INITIATES NIRP. THIS MORNING THEY SIGNAL THEY MAY END NIRP. TODAY THE USA/YEN TRADES TO 107.75 DESTROYING JAPANESE CITIZENS WITH HIGHER FOOD INFLATION

30 SNB (Swiss National Bank) still intervening again in the markets driving down the SF. It is not working: USA/SF this morning .9700 as the Swiss Franc is still rising against most currencies. Euro vs SF is 1.0677 well above the floor set by the Swiss Finance Minister. Thomas Jordan, chief of the Swiss National Bank continues to purchase euros trying to lower value of the Swiss Franc.

3p BRITAIN VOTES AFFIRMATIVE BREXIT/LOWER PARLIAMENT APPROVES BREXIT COMMENCEMENT/ARTICLE 50 COMMENCES MARCH 29/2017

3r the 10 Year German bund now NEGATIVE territory with the 10 year RISING to –0.42%

The bank withdrawals were causing massive hardship to the Greek bank. the Greek referendum voted overwhelming “NO”. Next step for Greece will be the recapitalization of the banks and that will be difficult.

4. USA 10 year treasury bond at 0.68% early this morning. Thirty year rate at 1.45%

5. Details Ransquawk, Bloomberg, Deutsche bank/Jim Reid.

6. TURKISH LIRA: UP TO 6.8174..

Futures Tread Water In Calm Before US-China Storm, Trump Twitter Crackdown

The S&P’s remarkable stretch of posting gains in the overnight session continued for another day, with the S&P rising as high as 3,053, and last trading 9 points higher at 3,044, tracking global stocks higher, with Europe’s Stoxx 600 rising 1.3% to session highs as investors weighed again increased friction between America and China and the official passage of China’s National Security Law in defiance of Trump, against fresh fiscal stimulus promised by the European Union. Treasuries edged up, while the dollar was modestly lower even as traders “treaded water” ahead of further escalations in the US-China clash.

The S&P – which hit a three-month high on Wednesday, closing above the key psychological level of 3,000 amid growing evidence of a pick up in business activity – continued its levitation on Thursday despite a dip in Nasdaq futures, which turned lower amid fear President Trump’s upcoming social media executive order will target tech heavyweights and open door for penalties. Chipmakers, which are sensitive to China’s growth, were also under pressure, with Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc dropping about 1% each in premarket trade.

In a bright spot, Boeing Co climbed 4.2%, the most among the 25 Dow components trading before the bell, after the planemaker said it had resumed production of its 737 MAX passenger jet at its Washington plant.

President Donald Trump has promised action over China’s new national security legislation for Hong Kong by the end of the week, and on Wednesday Mike Pompeo said the US will no longer consider Hong Kong autonomous from China, setting the stage for further sanctions.

Analysts have warned the souring relations between the world’s two largest economies in recent weeks over trade and the handling of the coronavirus outbreak pose the biggest threat to the stock market’s strong rally off the March lows, although so far markets have largely ignored such a risk. Today investors will also ignore the Labor Department’s latest data which is expected to show that more than another 2 million Americans sought unemployment benefits for the 10th straight week.

The Stoxx Europe 600 rose for a fourth session, a day after the EU boosted its spending pledge to battle the impact of the coronavirus to €2.4 trillion. A gauge of euro-area confidence inched up from a record low, adding to the bullish mood.

Earlier in the session, shares climbed throughout most of Asia, even as Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index flirted with the lowest level since March after the U.S. said it could no longer certify Hong Kong’s political autonomy, a move that could have far-reaching consequences. Asian stocks were led by finance and industrials, after rising in the last session. Markets in the region were mixed, with Japan’s Topix Index and India’s S&P BSE Sensex Index rising, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index and Taiwan’s Taiex Index falling on fears of a China crackdown. The Topix gained 1.8%, with DLE and Enish rising the most. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.3%, with Beijing Jingyuntong Tech and Gree Real Estate posting the biggest advances.

Here is a recap of the latest mostly chronological back and forth between the US and China, courtesy of RanSquawk

US House passed bill calling for sanctions on Chinese officials related to the crackdown on Uighur minorities as expected with the final vote count at 413-1, which sends the bill to US President Trump for signing.
China Embassy in US reiterated Hong Kong affairs are internal, while it added that US Security legislation is very narrow and China will take all necessary counter measures for meddling. Furthermore, it stated that China legislature will vote on security bill today and the law would allow China to establish security bases in Hong Kong to provide stability as per the Basic Law approved between China and Hong Kong.
Beijing is “prepared for the worst case scenario” with the US. Chinese government advisers said China expected tensions with the US to escalate, but Beijing’s retaliation would depend on US action, cited by SCMP. (SCMP) While the Global Times reported that China could strongly retaliate if US takes action on Hong Kong; could target US service industries.
China’s Parliament has voted to approve the Hong Kong National Security Bill, as expected. Subsequently, US to reportedly expel Chinese students with military school ties, according to sources via NYT.
Chinese Embassy said it is strongly dissatisfied and firmly opposes the Canadian court’s decision on the Huawei CFO, while it added that Canada is an accomplice to the US efforts to harm Huawei and Chinese tech, as well as urged for the immediate release of the CFO.

Economic optimism was boosted overnight by St. Louis Fed President James Bullard who said the American economy may already have bottomed even as Coronavirus deaths reached 100,000. Australia’s central bank chief said that country’s downturn may not be as severe as first thought. Investors have responding to the recovery by rotating into value stocks most punished in the coronavirus crash. Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean Cruises are up more than 25% on Wall Street this week, while Europe’s TUI AG tour operator, Cineworld Group and EasyJet Plc airline have surged more than 35%. Traders will be closely watching today’s unemployment numbers in Washington for further clues on the state of the U.S. economy.

In rates, Treasuries traded in a narrow range with belly outperforming ahead of 7-year note auction at 1pm ET, the final event of this week’s cycle. Firm US equity index futures limited gains for Treasuries while bunds outperform after German regional CPI data. TSY yields were lower by ~1bp across belly intermediates while long-end trades slightly cheaper, steepening 7s30s by ~1.5bp ahead of 7Y supply event; bunds outperform by 2bp vs. Treasuries while gilts lag by 1.2bp

In FX, the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index pared an earlier advance as European stocks advanced and U.S. equity futures were mostly higher, with traders weighing the reopening of economies against escalating tensions between Washington and Beijing. The euro touched its strongest level against the dollar since April 1 in the Asian session, only to give up those gains in London trading and hover around the 1.10 handle; yields on bunds and Treasuries edged lower. The pound swung between gains and losses; gilt yields reversed an early climb ahead of a speech by BOE’s Saunders where traders may look for his thoughts on negative interest rates. The Norwegian krone and the Canadian dollar were the worst performers as oil prices edged lower ahead of a weekly report over crude oil inventories. The Aussie recovered after earlier falling against the greenback as the world’s biggest economies continued to spar over a new security law in Hong Kong and China’s handling of the virus pandemic.

In commodities, WTI July and Brent August futures saw a session of modest losses thus far with the contracts meandering just around 32.60/bbl and 35.50/bbl respectively (vs. low of USD 31.14/bbl and USD 34.35/bbl) with some pointing to sentiment-led losses amid the rising tensions between US and China, whilst a surprise build in API Inventories (+8.7mln vs. Exp. -1.9mln) only added to the bearish tone.

U.S. economic data calendar includes second estimate 1Q GDP, durable goods orders, initial jobless claims (8:30am), April pending home sales (10am) and May Kansas City Fed manufacturing (11am); personal income/spending, PCE deflator, MNI Chicago PMI and University of Michigan consumer sentiment revision are ahead Friday

Market Snapshot

S&P 500 futures up 0.2% to 3,041.75
STOXX Europe 600 up 0.9% to 352.97
MXAP up 0.8% to 150.65
MXAPJ down 0.01% to 474.14
Nikkei up 2.3% to 21,916.31
Topix up 1.8% to 1,577.34
Hang Seng Index down 0.7% to 23,132.76
Shanghai Composite up 0.3% to 2,846.22
Sensex up 1.6% to 32,123.07
Australia S&P/ASX 200 up 1.3% to 5,851.10
Kospi down 0.1% to 2,028.54
German 10Y yield fell 1.0 bps to -0.424%
Euro down 0.09% to $1.0996
Italian 10Y yield fell 4.8 bps to 1.331%
Spanish 10Y yield fell 1.0 bps to 0.636%
Brent futures down 0.9% to $34.43/bbl
Gold spot up 0.7% to $1,721.09
U.S. Dollar Index down 0.2% to 98.92

Top Overnight News

Chinese lawmakers approved a proposal for sweeping new national security legislation in Hong Kong, defying a threat by U.S. President Donald Trump to respond strongly to a measure that democracy advocates say will curb essential freedoms in the city
Donald Trump is poised to take action Thursday that could bring a flurry of lawsuits down on Twitter, Facebook Inc. and other technology giants by having the government narrow liability protections that they enjoy for third parties’ posts, according to a draft of an executive order obtained by Bloomberg
Economic sentiment in the euro area rose to 67.5 in May from a record low 64.9 after companies started to reopen across the continent following the easing of pandemic restrictions; missed an forecast rise to 70.6
The global jobs slump caused by the coronavirus pandemic is bottoming out, if data from LinkedIn is a guide. The social networking platform says the percentage of its members who joined a new employer stabilized over the past six weeks, after plunging in March
Measures of high- frequency data and confidence increasingly suggest a bottom has been reached in the worst global recession since the Great Depression
Citigroup Inc. will gradually start bringing traders back to its London offices in the coming weeks as U.K. leaders continue to craft plans to ease social distancing restrictions

Asian equity markets traded mixed as China concerns counterbalanced the momentum from a firm Wall St handover where ongoing reopening efforts and a continued resurgence of cyclicals underpinned the major US indices. ASX 200 (+1.3%) was higher with the top weighted financials sector leading the broad gains in the index although energy lagged following a pullback in oil prices which was exacerbated by bearish inventory data, while Nikkei 225 (+2.3%) benefitted from favourable currency moves and the KOSPI (-0.1%) failed to stay afloat despite the BoK delivering a widely expected 25bps rate cut to bring the 7-Day Repo Rate to 0.50%. Elsewhere, Hang Seng (-0.7%) and Shanghai Comp. (+0.3%) were choppy with mainland China initially supported after another firm liquidity effort by the PBoC which injected CNY 240bln through 7-Day Reverse Repos. However, the gains were short-lived and Hong Kong markets underperformed due to the ongoing US-China tensions with Trump administration said to be considering suspending Hong Kong’s preferential tariff rate for exports to US which means they could face the same tariffs US had imposed on mainland China. Furthermore, Global Times suggested the nuclear option of dumping USD-denominated assets was among the tools for China to exert financial pain on the US and China’s Embassy in US stated that Beijing will take all necessary counter measures for meddling, while the US House passage of the sanctions bill for Uighur human rights abuses and Huawei’s CFO losing a key battle in the extradition case, all added to the ongoing toxic relationship between the world’s top economic powerhouses. Finally, 10yr JGBs were flat amid similar uneventful after-hours trade in T-notes and indecisiveness in stocks, as well as mixed results at today’s 2yr JGB auction.

Top Asian News

Nissan Reports Losses, New Turnaround Plan to Seek Growth
Taiwan Lowers 2020 Growth Forecast as Virus Weighs on Economy
Japan Says Economy Worsening Rapidly Even as Shutdowns Ease

European equities (Eurostoxx 50 +0.9%) have started the session on the front-foot once again as optimism surrounding reopening efforts across the continent continues to out-muscle concerns over mounting US-China tensions. HK-exposed HSBC (-2.1%) and Standard Chartered (-1.3%) are trading lower following reports that the Trump administration is reportedly considering suspending Hong Kong’s preferential US tariff rate for exports to US in response to China’s (now passed) security law. However, this is yet to have any major follow-through to broader sentiment with price action in Europe taking a similar shape to those of recent sessions with travel & leisure names top of the pile once again. Specifically, for the sector, easyJet (+8.5%) are trading higher after announcing that summer demand indications are improving and the Co. is to consult on a proposal to lower its headcount by up to 30%. In sympathy, Deutsche Lufthansa (+4.2%), Ryanair (+2.8%), IAG (+2.3%) are all trading firmer once again. However, it is worth noting that the Stoxx 600 travel & leisure index is still trading lower by around 30% YTD. In-fitting with the theme of optimism surrounding travel names and reports yesterday that Boeing has resumed production at its Renton facility and will gradually ramp up output over the year, supplier Safran are trading higher by 2.8%. Elsewhere, support has been seen for the tech sector with the likes of Dialog Semiconductor (+3.8%), STMicroelectronics (+3.8%) and Infineon (+3.1%) bolstered by US-listed Micron Technology raising its Q3 revenue forecast yesterday. To the downside, Centrica (-3.3%) are a noteworthy laggard with the Times noting that the Co. could be at risk of losing its place in the FTSE 100. The article also noted that Carnival, easyJet, Meggitt, ITV, M&G and Prudential could also face the chop in what could be one of the largest reshuffles since the GFC.

Top European News

Swedish Dirty Money Affair Brings Bankers Closer to Police
Euro- Area Confidence Inches Up From Record Low as Lockdown Eased

In FX, there was little action thus far in the broader Dollar and index as the latter pivots 99.000 having printed an overnight base at 98.773 and a current high at its 100DMA at 99.034. Tensions between US and China will remain a theme with no apparent signs of subsiding for now – with Hong Kong no longer deemed autonomous from China and Beijing reiterating its readiness to retaliate over interference. USD/CNY traded on the softer side of 7.1530-7.1680 band after the PBoC set a firmer CNY fixing than expected, albeit weaker vs. yesterday. CNH meanwhile remains flat around 7.1450 vs. USD after the pair yesterday threatened a fresh record high at 7.1965. In terms of scheduled events State-side, today’s docket sees US Durable Goods and Q1 GDP (2nd) with the former expected to deteriorate further whilst the latter expects no revisions. Fed’s voter Williams is unlikely to add much meat to the bones following yesterday’s remarks.

AUD, NZD, CAD – All choppy within tight ranges vs. the Buck after earlier sensitivity to the escalating spat between US and China. AUD/USD dipped below 0.6600 despite RBA governor Lowe firmly dismissing negative rate – with some pointing to profit-taking amid trade risk. The pair recovered off lows around 0.6590 vs. high 0.6635. Elsewhere, the RBNZ Financial System Policy chief played down financial stability concerns from negative rates. The Kiwi reversed its earlier move lower but remains sub-0.6200 vs. the Dollar, having had failed to sustain gains above its 100 DMA at the round figure. Meanwhile, the Loonie also tracks softer energy prices with USD/CAD gaining ground above its 100 DMA (1.3709) and eyes a retest of 1.38 to the upside ahead of Q1 Canadian Current account data and stale average weekly earnings for March.
GBP, EUR – Mixed trade with Cable choppy whilst EUR/USD treads water at 1.1000 following an uneventful start to the session. The Single currency side-lined German regional prelim CPIs – largely followed the expectations for the nationwide release – alongside a mixed EZ sentiment survey. EUR/USD sees EUR 960mln opex at 1.0995-1.1000 with a further EUR 900mln between 1.1020-25 ahead of a Fib level around the 1.1050 psychological level. Saunders did little to change the overall narrative by said it safer to err on the side of easing too much and then tighten if necessary. Meanwhile, the wider focus remains on any hiccups over negotiations both regarding the EU Recovery Fund among EU27 and post-Brexit trade FTA between UK and the EU.
JPY, CHF – Safe-haven FX trade on the softer side in daily ranges but more so on Dollar influence amid an indecisive risk tone. USD/JPY prods its 50/55 DMAs at 107.84-86 ahead of session highs 107.89 (low 107.67) and with a chunky USD 1.8bln in options expiring at stroke 107.90. USD/CHF oscillates on either side of 0.9700 but within a tight range of 0.9670-9705 relative to yesterday’s trade.
RBA Governor Lowe said they will maintain expansionary settings until progress is being made towards employment and we are confident on inflation and said there will be a further decline in employment for May but jobs data was not as bad as previously thought. Lowe also stated that 25bps Cash Rate is effectively as low as it can go and that rates are to stay this low for some years and that they could purchase more government bonds if more QE is needed but does not currently see a need to do so, while he suggested that negative rates are extraordinary unlikely which come with a cost to the financial system and that he doesn’t think negative rates will work. (Newswires)

In commodities, WTI July and Brent August futures see a session of modest losses thus far with the contracts meandering just around USD 32.60/bbl and USD 35.50/bbl respectively (vs. low of USD 31.14/bbl and USD 34.35/bbl) with some pointing to sentiment-led losses amid the rising tensions between US and China, whilst a surprise build in Private Inventories (+8.7mln vs. Exp. -1.9mln) only added to the bearish tone. Some downside could be emanating from reports that Russian Co’s have been raising concerns regarding maintaining cuts with Energy Minister Novak after softly rejecting an extension of current cuts past June – stating that the market could rebalance sometime between June/July. Elsewhere, spot gold sees inflows and investors stock up on the yellow metal ahead of potential US-China tit-for-tat measures. Prices gain a firmer footing above USD 1700/oz and reside around session highs north of USD 1720/oz.

US Event Calendar

8:30am: Durable Goods Orders, est. -19.05%, prior -14.7%
8:30am: Cap Goods Orders Nondef Ex Air, est. -10.0%, prior -0.1%
8:30am: Cap Goods Ship Nondef Ex Air, est. -12.2%, prior -0.2%
8:30am: GDP Annualized QoQ, est. -4.8%, prior -4.8%
8:30am: Personal Consumption, est. -7.5%, prior -7.6%
8:30am: GDP Price Index, est. 1.3%, prior 1.3%
8:30am: Core PCE QoQ, est. 1.8%, prior 1.8%
8:30am: Durables Ex Transportation, est. -15.0%, prior -0.4%
8:30am: Initial Jobless Claims, est. 2.1m, prior 2.44m; Continuing Claims, est. 25.7m, prior 25.1m
9:45am: Bloomberg Consumer Comfort, prior 34.7
10am: Pending Home Sales MoM, est. -17.0%, prior -20.8%; Pending Home Sales NSA YoY, est. -28.65%, prior -14.5%
11am: Kansas City Fed Manf. Activity, est. -22, prior -30

DB’s Jim Reid concludes the overnight wrap

Every night when I’m home, which is unsurprisingly all the time at the moment, I tend to put the twins to bed and my wife puts Maisie to bed. Out of nowhere last night Maisie asked me to put her to bed for the first time in ages. I wasn’t warned as to how her bedtime routine had changed since I last did it. Unless she was having me on she gets two stories and then is allowed two questions that she wants answers to. Her two questions last night to me were 1) how is conditioner and shampoo made? and 2) how are mirrors made? I had no idea so rather than bluff my way through I showed her a couple of YouTube videos on my phone explaining it. She then said “Daddy, I’d be so much cleverer if you bought me a phone”. She’s 4 and three quarters!! However at least she didn’t ask me to explain why US equities are within a few percentage points of their all-time high again even though large parts of the global economy remain closed. I’m not sure there’s a video for that. Maybe I’d show her a clip of an oil well gushing as a symbol for the remarkable liquidity out there at the moment.

On that note global equities continued their rally yesterday as optimism around vaccines, economies reopening, and the unveiling of a proposal for a €750bn EU recovery fund outweighed another exchange of salvos in the recent US-China sparing match.

The rally indeed survived a US midday dip after an announcement that the US would no longer consider Hong Kong politically separate from China. At that point, the S&P fell to -0.47% on the day. However, by the end of the session the S&P 500 had finished up +1.48% to close over 3000 for the first time since March 5 – reaching an 11-week high. Also helping were remarks by Dr. Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious-disease expert, who said there’s a “good chance” a vaccine may be available by November or December.

Yesterday’s rally was much like the day before, with virus laggards leading the broad index while the recent winners lagged. All 24 industry groups finished higher, but one element of the recent leg higher to pay attention to is the into-value-out-of-growth rotation. Bank stocks led yesterday’s rally, up +6.70% on the day and up +15.09% over the last 2 days, compared to the +0.42% Technology sector’s 2-day return. A remarkable turn.

Europe also rose as the STOXX 600 climbed +0.24%. The DAX was up +1.33% and at a 10-week high, the CAC was up +1.79%, the FTSE was +1.26%, while the FTSEMIB also barely outperformed the broader index at +0.28%.

Europe was generally feeding off the European Commission recovery fund plan. President von der Leyen presented a proposal for a €750bn EU recovery instrument, €500bn of which would be distributed in the form of grants and the other €250bn in loans to member states. The debt would be repaid through higher future contributions to the EU budget and possible new revenue streams, including an Emissions Trading Scheme, a tax on high-emission imports and a tax on digital companies. The plan still requires the support of EU member states, and while Chancellor Merkel and President Macron have offered their support, some of the northern countries have balked at the idea of offering grants rather than loans. This comes on top of an EU Budget of €1100bn over the next seven year that roughly matches the pre-COVID-19 proposal from February. See our European economists views on the new proposals here.

The EC’s proposal came shortly after ECB President Lagarde announced that the euro-area economy is set to see output shrink by between 8-12% this year, in line with the central bank’s most pessimistic forecasts. Lagarde will have a better idea when the numbers are published in early June, but said “it’s likely we will be in between the medium and severe scenarios.” In light of the need for further stimulus, Lagarde was confident that higher public spending would not cause a debt crisis. This is especially true if the spending is used to increase country’s productivity, the “use of debt is not only recommended, it’s the way to go.”

The news of the pending recovery plan and especially the mix of grants and loans proposed were net positive for peripheral spreads yesterday. Greek 10yr bonds tightened the most (-9.4bps) to German 10yr bunds. Italian BTPs were -6.3bps tighter, while Portuguese bonds tightened -7.0bps. Spanish bonds, on the other hand, were mostly unchanged.

German 10yr bond yields were +1.5bps higher to -0.414%. In other sovereign debt, US 10yr treasuries rallied even as equities continued to outperform with yields -1.1bps lower to 0.685%. European credit also benefited from the news yesterday, with high yield cash spreads -25bps tighter. Euro IG tightened -7bps on the day, while US HY and IG cash spreads tightened -5bps and -2bps respectively.

Oil prices had their worst day in some time though as news came out that Moscow wanted to scale back its cuts once the current agreement lapses in July. Even though President Putin and Saudi Arabia later pledged to continue coordinating ahead of the OPEC+ meeting in early June, WTI front-month futures fell -4.40%, the largest one-day fall in a month, while Brent crude futures fell -3.79%, the most since 11 May.

Overnight, Asian markets have traded more mixed with the Nikkei (+1.24%) and ASX (+1.08%) posting gains while the Hang Seng (-1.81%) and Shanghai Comp (-0.35%) are down following the US announcement mentioned at the top. The Kospi has also faded to trade down -0.83% after the Bank of Korea cut rates by 25bps to a record low of 0.5%. The BoK also cut the GDP growth target to -0.2% yoy from a forecast of +2.1% yoy growth in February. One talking point from the press conference was the reference by Governor Lee to “should it be deemed necessary to expand the accommodative stance of monetary policy further, we could actively respond with policy tools other than rates”. Our economists have previously suggested that the BoK could go down the YCC route.

Moving on. The positive risk moves yesterday were weighed down somewhat by another round of tensions tightening between the US and China. Following reports on Tuesday that the US was looking to sanction China over implementing a new national security law, which would curtail the rights and freedoms of Hong Kong citizens, Secretary of State Pompeo said yesterday that the U.S. has certified Hong Kong is no longer autonomous from China politically. The move could have consequences on Hong Kong’s special trading status with the US. The CCP-aligned Global Times posited that a countermeasure to Pompeo’s move would be to expedite the new security law’s progress. After the market closed, the US House voted almost unanimously (413-1) to pass the Senate’s bill authorizing sanctions against Chinese officials for human rights abuses against Muslim minorities. The bill now goes to President Trump’s desk, who has not indicated how he will proceed. On the trade front, there was a Bloomberg report that China is looking to buy Brazilian soybeans – while not bidding for American soy yesterday – in a sign that the country is readying for another round of tensions with the US. With virus cases appearing to remain in-check in most developed economies and economies starting to slowly reopen, a deterioration in this relationship may be risk factor to pay attention to.

Yesterday, there was not much data to mention, though the Fed released its Beige Book, which collects anecdotal information on current conditions. The highlights included that many contacts expressed hope that overall activity would increase when businesses reopened, but that the outlook remained uncertain and they were pessimistic about the pace of recovery. The other development of note was the challenges to get employees back to work, including workers’ health concerns, limited access to childcare, and generous unemployment insurance benefits. Also in the US, the Richmond Fed manufacturing survey came in at -27 (vs. -40 expected), up from -53 last month. In Europe, France released business and manufacturing confidence readings. Business confidence was up to 59 (below the 69 expected) from 53, while manufacturing confidence was up to 70 (below the 85 expected) from 68 (revised down from 82). The absolute readings of both confidence indicators are near the record lows seen in 2009 and 1993.

In terms of data for today, weekly jobless claims are likely to continue improving but still remain over three times as high as the pre-coronavirus record high. Our US economists are forecasting a 2.1m reading for the week through May 23, compared to the 2.438m last week. Individual states continue to have problems with the massive number of initial filers and so there may be heavy revisions. If initial claims do come in less than last week, they will have slowed for their eighth straight week, a strong signal we are likely well beyond the peak.

To the rest of the day ahead now, data out of Europe will include consumer and economic confidence readings for the Euro Area, Italy’s May consumer confidence index levels and Germany’s preliminary May CPI print. In the US, the second estimate of Q1 GDP will be released along with the aforementioned weekly initial jobless claims. There will also be US durable goods orders, capital goods orders, pending home sales and May Kansas City Fed manufacturing activity readings. The Bank of Korea will release their monetary policy decision, in addition to remarks from the Fed’s Williams. Finally, earnings releases include Salesforce, Costco, Dollar General, and Nissan.

3A/ASIAN AFFAIRS

i)THURSDAY MORNING/ WEDNESDAY NIGHT:

SHANGHAI CLOSED DOWN 9.42 POINTS OR 0.33% //Hang Sang CLOSED DOWN 168.60 POINTS OR 0.72% /The Nikkei closed UP 497.08 POINTS OR 2.32%//Australia’s all ordinaires CLOSED UP 1,24%

/Chinese yuan (ONSHORE) closed DOWN at 7.1538 /Oil UP TO 32.74 dollars per barrel for WTI and 34.74 for Brent. Stocks in Europe OPENED MIXED// ONSHORE YUAN CLOSED DOWN // LAST AT 7.1538 AGAINST THE DOLLAR. OFFSHORE YUAN CLOSED DOWN ON THE DOLLAR AT 7.1674 TRADE TALKS STALL//YUAN LEVELS GETTING DANGEROUSLY PAST 7:1//TRUMP INITIATES A NEW 25% TARIFFS FRIDAY/MAY 10/MAJOR PROBLEMS AT HUAWEI /CFO ARRESTED//WILL BE EXTRADITED: /ONSHORE YUAN TRADING ABOVE LEVEL OF OFFSHORE YUAN/ONSHORE YUAN TRADING WEAKER AGAINST USA DOLLAR/OFFSHORE YUAN TRADING WEAKER AGAINST THE DOLLAR /TRADE DEAL NOW DEAD..TRUMP RAISED RATES TO 25%

3 a./NORTH KOREA/ SOUTH KOREA

South Korea

b) REPORT ON JAPAN

3 C CHINA

CHINA/INDIA

This does not look good: Rapid Chinese military expansion on the disputed border with India

(zerohedge)

Satellite Images Confirm Rapid Chinese Military Expansion On Disputed Indian Border

A new report in the Asia-based online tech journal Insider Papercites open source satellite images to confirm the latest widespread reporting on the major Chinese PLA troop build-up underway along disputed Sino-Indian border regions.

The report cites the following via a reputable open-source satellite imagery analyst:

According to a few satellite images published by a local Indian news publication, the Chinese troops have commenced the expansion of its airbase, 200 km from Pangong Lake, in Ladakh. The images, also showing Ngari Gunsa airport in Tibet, originated from open-source intelligence expert @detresfa_, an analyst with ShadowBreak Intl.

“The first image shows how the territory originally looked. However, the second image clearly shows massive construction activity going on in the territory.”

According to the report, this suggests a significant and rapid Chinese military build-up in the past months along the contested border region amid what Indian media has widely reported since this weekend to be PLA forces digging into fortified positions.

Importantly, the strategic base is a mere 200km away from Pangong lake, where recent skirmishes between Chinese and Indian border patrols took place on May 5th-6th.

The Insider Paper report continues, based on satellite analysis: “The expansion has included something that looks more like a secondary tarmac to combat aircraft or taxi-track. Also, the third image shows a line-up of four fighter jets. They are either J-11 or J-16 fighters of the Chinese PLA Air Force.”

The high altitude airport in Tibet, among the highest in the world, is a dual-use military and civil airport which appears to have undergone major expansion during the same period of increased border skirmishes with Indian troops.

The major Indian broadcast station NDTV also republished the satellite photos:

Over the past weekend Indian media began reporting that thousands of PLA troops have now moved into Ladakh’s disputed Galwan river area, and at multiple locations in eastern Ladakh.

Sporadic but fierce clashes have occurred going back to the 1960’s along the shared but pretty much completely unmarked 2,100 mile border, which often involves literal fist-fights among opposing troops and border patrol guards.

The satellite images appear to confirm Chinese troop movements along and inside of the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh:

And The Guardian also said on Wednesday: “Thousands of Chinese People’s Liberation (PLA) troops are reported to have moved into sensitive areas along the eastern Ladokh border, setting up tents and stationing vehicles and heavy machinery in what India considers to be its territory.”

The escalating crisis has grabbed the White House’s attention, with President Trump issuing a surprise tweet early Wednesday which said: “We have informed both India and China that the United States is ready, willing and able to mediate or arbitrate their now raging border dispute.”

China expands airbase near Ladakh, including placing advanced fighter jets on tarmac.

It’s a fast escalating situation that FP recently noted could explode into major conflict between two nuclear armed powers.

end

CHINA/INDIA/USA

Trump offers to mediate between India and China

(zerohedge)

Trump Offers To “Mediate” India & China’s “Raging Border Dispute” Amid Military Build-Up

No doubt a huge surprise for both Beijing and New Delhi, locked in an escalating border dispute which in the past days has witnessed a troop build-up in multiple disputed border regions, given the historic difficulty of competing claims along the world’s longest unmarked border, President Trump on Wednesday morning offered to “mediate or arbitrate” between the two Asian powers.

He tweeted he is “ready, willing and able” to ease the tensions which are fast being militarized in a situation that FP recently noted could explode into major conflict between two nuclear armed powers.

“We have informed both India and China that the United States is ready, willing and able to mediate or arbitrate their now raging border dispute,” Trump said in the early morning tweet.

The surprise offer, more than likely to be rejected considering Washington’s own boiling tensions with Beijing over a host of issues – the latest including Hong Kong – comes on the heels of a top American diplomat for South Asia making provocative remarks siding with India on the contested border issue.

Outgoing State Department official Alice Wells made the provocative statements a week ago at an Atlantic Council event, saying, “There’s a method here to Chinese operations and it is that constant aggression, the constant attempt to shift the norms, to shift what is the status quo.”

Wells added: “That has to be resisted whether it’s in the South China Sea… or whether it’s in India’s own backyard.”

Trump’s offer also comes after a new White House report laying out a broad strategy on China, accused Beijing of “provocative and coercive military and paramilitary activities” in the region, including Sino-Indian border areas.

*Indian army lorry previously near Pangong Lake in Ladakh, via AP.*

Sporadic but fierce clashes have occurred going back to the 1960’s along the shared 2,100 mile border, which often involves literal fist-fights among opposing troops and border patrol guards.

“Thousands of Chinese People’s Liberation (PLA) troops are reported to have moved into sensitive areas along the eastern Ladokh border, setting up tents and stationing vehicles and heavy machinery in what India considers to be its territory,” The Guardian reports Wednesday.

Over the past weekend Indian media began reporting that thousands of PLA troops have now moved into Ladakh’s disputed Galwan river area.

Some Indian media reports have suggested multiple thousands, while a new Business Standard India report goes so far as to claim up to 10,000 Chinese soldiers are now inside India occupying the Galwan Valley while digging into fortified positions.

Regardless, the intensifying border dispute is serious enough to have caught Trump’s attention, meaning a broader conflict or even war could be on the horizon.

END

HONG KONG

Hong Kong may well lose large now – May 27, 2020 at 2:50 PM.pdf

Robert to me:

“These privileges include the areas of trade, investment, and immigration, and has meant that current U.S. tariffs on billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods do not apply to Hong Kong.” This undoubtedly will have commercial impact.

What will HSBC do under new rules, as they have been the Chinese Gateway to London and capital, often lending when no one else would?

All while Taiwan prepares for refugees from Hong Kong, with its’ own uncertain future as China practices war games off the coast. Another pearl to be snatched when time, as who will really come to Taiwan’s defense?

Did you know that Apple quietly has secured an old Samsung factory in Thailand for iphone production ? Supply chains are moving.

Cheers

Robert

end

CHINA/USA

Just the beginning; The White House expels Chinese grad students with ties to the PLA. No doubt wit will morph into all foreign Chinese students.

(zerohedge)

White House Expels Chinese Grad Students With Ties To People’s Liberation Army

As President Trump prepares to sign a bill imposing new sanctions on Chinese officials involved with the country’s sprawling security state, the White House has just unveiled its latest measure to turn up the pressure on Beijing: Chinese grad students with ties to the PLA will be barred from returning.

The news comes as China’s Politburo Standing Committee officially weaves a new “National Security” law effectively barring political dissent into HK’s Basic Law, according to the NYT.

Per the NYT, the Trump administration plans to cancel the visas of thousands of Chinese graduate students and researchers studying at US Universities who have ties to the People’s Liberation Army, according to anonymous administration officials.

This isn’t the first time the White House has considered barring some or all Chinese students in the US. Back in 2018, the FT reported that the Trump administration had considered banning all Chinese students from the United States – an idea that was attributed to Trump advisor Stephen Miller.

And according to the NYT, this measure has been in the works for some time, and was being considered before China moved to crack down on Hong Kong’s autonomy.

Moreover, this might not be the end of Trump’s retaliation: The president has a long list of possible responses to China’s plans to impose a national security law on Hong Kong, according to Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs David Stilwell, who spoke to reporters last night.

END

CHINA/USA/TARIFFS

Senator Toomey now expects Chinese tariffs will be expanded and will also apply to Hong Kong after Beijing approves its hated “National Security Law”

(zerohedge

Senator Says China Tariffs Will Now Apply To Hong Kong As Beijing Approves “National Security” Law

Update (0800ET): During an interview on CNBC Thursday morning, GOP Sen. Pat Toomey said he expects China tariffs will be expanded to also apply to Hong Kong as the US prepares to strip the ‘special administrative region’ of China of its preferred trade status. Wall Street analysts pointed out on Wednesday that the move could disrupt some $38 billion in bilateral trade between the US and HK.

* * *

One day after the US declared that Hong Kong is no longer “autonomous” from Beijing, China’s Politburo Standing Committee on Thursday officially wove a controversial new “National Security” resolution that was approved during last week’s National Party Congress into Hong Kong’s ‘Basic Law’ – the de facto constitution left by the British – in defiance of President Trump, and a broader backlash across the West, which has repeatedly stood up to defend Hong Kong’s freedoms.

According to the NYT, Beijing will probably initiate a far-reaching ‘crackdown’ to impose the new law on Hong Kong once it takes effect in September.

Activist groups could be banned. Courts could impose long jail sentences for national security violations. China’s feared security agencies could operate openly in the city.

As we reported last night, losing its ‘special status’ conferred by the US could strip Hong Kong of its ‘international city’ designation. As one expert said, Beijing no longer cares about “killing the golden goose” – that is, closing what has been for decades a critical portal to the West and the global financial system.

It’s still unclear how many of Hong Kong’s freedoms Beijing intends to strip away: this won’t become clear until later in the year.

Per the NYT, Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam appeared to hint that certain civil liberties might not be an enduring feature of Hong Kong life. “We are a very free society, so for the time being, people have the freedom to say whatever they want to say,” said the chief executive, Carrie Lam, noting, “Rights and freedoms are not absolute.”

Though US equity futures pointed to a higher open again on Thursday, analysts cautioned that the growing tensions could trigger a massive “risk off” move in markets in the situation escalates. Pictet’s Luca Paolini said on Bloomberg Television that markets seem to be ignoring this because they’re assuming it’s just rhetoric.

“For now it’s just words, but if the escalation takes place it’s the worst possible time to have this kind of escalation considering the global economy continues to be incredibly weak,” Paolini said.

end

CHINA/USA/TAIWAN

China rattled after Taiwan pledges help for fleeing Hong Kongers

(zerohedge)

China Rattled After Taiwan Pledges Help For Fleeing Hong Kongers

A furious Beijing denounced Taiwan’s Thursday promise to settle displaced Hong Kong residents who flee the city for political reasons, saying that the ruling Democratic Progressive Party was seeking to “loot a burning house” and sow discord, according to Channel News Asia.

*Protesters holding a banner in support of Hong Kong pro-democracy demonstrators at Taipei main train station in Taiwan on May 23, 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Ben Blanchard)*

The move comes as Hong Kong protesters have taken to the streets in opposition to new security legislation which would allow Chinese intelligence services to operate on Hong Kong soil, increasing Beijing’s grip on the semi-autonomous city and targeting secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference – terms used by China to describe last year’s protests across the city sparked by a now-shelved extradition treaty.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen this week became the first world leader to step up and pledge specific help to Hong Kong residents who wish to leave over the new legislation.

According to Taiwan’s top China-policy maker at the Mainland Affairs Council, Chen Ming-tong, the government will establish a “humanitarian relief” organization that will include employment and settlement assistance in a joint effort with activist groups – adding that counseling services would also be provided for Hong Kongers – some of whom have participated in often-violent pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.

“Many Hong Kongers want to come to Taiwan. Our goal is to give them settlement and care,” said Chen, urging the public not to call people “refugees” as it could be “emotionally harmful” to people from the city.

“Bringing black, violent forces into Taiwan will bring disaster to Taiwan’s people,” warned China’s Taiwan Affairs Office.

Hong Kong’s demonstrators have won widespread sympathy in democratic Taiwan, which China considers as its territory to be taken by force, if necessary. Taiwan has shown no interest in being ruled by autocratic China.

Help for Hong Kong has won rare bipartisan support in politically polarised Taiwan and three opposition parties have introduced bills to make it easier for Hong Kongers to live in Taiwan if they have to leave the city due to political reasons.

Taiwan has no law on refugees that could be applied to protesters seeking asylum, but its laws promise to help Hong Kongers whose safety and liberty are threatened for political reasons. –Channel News Asia

Some Taiwan lawmakers say Tsai’s government isn’t moving fast enough with relief efforts.

“Please come up with details of the humanitarian relief at the soonest. Don’t wait until people shed blood like water,” said opposition lawmaker from the Kuomintang party.

CNA notes that Taiwan has granted residency to 2,383 Hong Kong citizens in the first four months of 2020, an increase of 150% vs. one year ago. Meanwhile, university applications to Taiwan from Hong Kong have spiked 62% in 2020 vs. last year – while Taiwan’s education ministry announced this week that it would raise the quota for students from Hong Kong.

END

CHINA/BRAZIL

CHINA secures Brazilian soy as they are afraid that the USA may not want to sell to them

(zerohedge)

China Secures Brazilian Soy As Trade War Restart Appears Imminent

With a new round of trade war increasingly likely between the US and China, Beijing has been buying Brazilian soybeans in a sign the Asian nation may be looking to secure an alternative source of supplies. According to Bloomberg, the world’s top soybean importer purchased more than 10 cargoes in Brazil this week, despite higher prices. In a further sign that China appears to be distancing from the US, Bloomberg adds that while China bid for American soy on Tuesday, state-run buyers were absent from the market Wednesday, the people said.

“Even with Brazilian soybeans being more expensive this autumn, China is securing this origin via what they see as the political risk in U.S. soybean/grain sales,” Chicago-based consultants AgResource said.

Most of the soybeans Brazil sold to China were for August and September, with some deals stretching into October. This is a disappointment for US farmer, because AgResource said it “had expected that the U.S. would be able to garner Chinese demand from late August into early 2021.”

“The U.S. will still dominate China’s purchases in this time slot, but totals will be cut from prior expectations,” the consultants said.

An escalation in tensions between Beijing and Washington could jeopardize outstanding U.S. soy cargoes to China. About 1.8 million tons of soybeans sales to China for the current marketing year and 1 million tons for the next year are yet to be shipped, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Michael Every…Outline: Free speech//Hong Kong/China

a must read…

Rabobank: Free Speech And Free Markets Go Hand In Hand; We Have Neither

Submitted by Rabobank’s Michael Every

I keep repeating that (some) markets are not properly reflecting reality and that the power of markets is not in their elevated heights (“Dow 36,000!”) but in their honest price discovery. They are supposed to be the little boy pointing out that the Emperor has no clothes. If they don’t do that, they aren’t good for much. Except perhaps acting as a substitute for wage growth, if you want to join me in believing this has been global central-bank policy for the past few decades. (And which may be needed again soon given reports in the Fed’s latest Beige Book that wage and benefit cuts are already being seen; they also make the rich much richer, of course – which I am sure is just a coincidence.)

At a time when the corpulent Emperors of monetary policy are sitting on as many little boys as possible to shut them up, and the financial press are mainly throwing bouquets of flowers at their bare majesty, it seems appropriate that in a general sense we are seeing arguments about news-flow as a corollary to pricing signals. Yes, ideally we don’t want to be recommended bleach to drink as a virus cure. However, as philosophers have pointed out, and market theory is supposed to accept, all voices may contain a slice of the truth. As Voltaire said “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”; nowadays that would more probably be “I defend to the death my right to disapprove of what you say.” After all, Voltaire was a rabid anti-Semite who should probably be de-platformed.

As such, it seems appropriate that we are seeing US President Trump get drawn into a row over Twitter, which slapped a ‘fact-check’ label on one of his latest tweets. There are claims that he will sign an executive order today to strip US social media giants of the legal immunity they claim as ‘platforms’ if they act as censors, which de facto makes them publishers instead. (As well as being gargantuan corporations that like the things that gargantuan corporations do.)

So is this Trump censorship, or is it censorship of censorship? Expect arguments to rage. Yet consider that this month alone we have seen passionately anti-Trump Michael Moore’s new film ‘Planet of the Humans’ dropped from YouTube “for copyright reasons”, and YouTube also admit that a “software glitch” had seen a series of videos critical of China all demonetised. That’s a trend many other YouTubers have complained about, and which has led the incredibly-popular Joe Rogan podcast to move to Spotify to ensure freedom of speech. (And USD100m as a signing fee.)

Also, if we are going to fact check Tweets, how about ones from all politicians or economists? Is it “true” that austerity is a great idea in a recession, as so many voices said post-2008 and some still say again now? The policy has failed utterly by many measures. Is it “true” that free trade always generates prosperity? Country after country is scrambling to bring supply chains home in the Hamiltonian argument I have been making for many years. Is it “true” QE narrows the gaps between rich and poor, as an ECB tweet last year tried to show graphically? I say otherwise: do I get flagged for it? Is it “true” we will see a ‘V-shaped’ recovery in a 2-metre/6-foot economy, as some central bankers are saying? Is it “true” that debt liability sharing within the Eurozone is a good thing? There are two very different answers to that, depending on which side you stand – as we see with the new proposal of a huge new EU budget, including grants(!), and the pushback from the opposed Frugal Friends. In short, free speech, freedom to see all sides of complicated arguments, and free markets ideally all go hand: and if one goes, they can all go.

And perhaps they have. Because markets are again largely ignoring what just happened between the US and China. Yesterday US Secretary of State Pompeo told Congress “Hong Kong does not continue to warrant treatment under United States laws in the same manner as US laws were applied to Hong Kong before July 1997. No reasonable person can assert today that Hong Kong maintains a high degree of autonomy from China, given facts on the ground.” It is now a certainty Congress will vote to trigger the ‘nuclear option’ of removing Hong Kong’s separate legal status, which would open the door to restrictions on trade, visas, and technology, as well being a huge psychological vote of no confidence in Hong Kong’s future. The Hang Seng reaction? To go up, while CNH is flat. This was probably party due to mainland money – or perhaps the locals mistook the US response for that of Angela Merkel, who in bold EU values-based foreign policy fashion basically shrugged.

Indeed local Hong Kong chatter is again that this latest US step, which wasn’t going to happen a few weeks ago, now does not mean anything as China is the trading future and the US is the past – and powerless. Fact-check, please! If the imposition of a Hong Kong national security law is approved by the National People’s Congress today we will almost certainly see US sanctions against Chinese entities in Hong Kong (on top of the risk of other sanctions stemming from a Uighur human rights bill just passed by the House of Representatives). These could make Hong Kong of no de facto use to Beijing as a capital conduit – and hence of little use at all. Welcome to the Eurodollar weapon. Some say this no longer matters because China can just access USD via other banking centres. Let’s put a fact-check marker on that too, because is the US really going to let China circumvent sanctions that easily? What just happened with Iran, for example?

Today we will find out how China is going to react to the US action – and also to the Canadian court decision to proceed with the “outrageously wrong” extradition of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou to the US. On the US the Global Times editorial today notes: “A long-term rivalry between China and the US is inevitable.…[a] core advantage of the US is its financial hegemony, which will make China’s exchanges with the outside world inconvenient. If the US dares to resort to financial means, it will hurt the integrity of the financial system it leads. If a financial war spirals out of control, it is the US that will suffer the most.” Again, we need a (partial) fact-check there given the Fed is and can do whatever it takes and the PBOC isn’t and can’t. (Moreover, the editorial also says China will leap up the technology ladder to overcome US tech dominance: this as a report published yesterday argues China is “unlikely” to achieve its target of 70% self-sufficiency in semiconductor production by 2025. Tech, trade, and capital; tech, trade, and capital.) On Meng, the Global Times says Canada’s upcoming decision on Huawei is now key and “Whether Canada can keep its stance or will surrender to US pressure…will influence whether the already strained relationship will come to a full head.”

From underneath the Emperor’s ample posterior a muffled voice is shouting “Geopolitical risk!”; and while little boys may be stifled by layers of liquidity/flab, they still have sharp teeth that can bite – as can geopolitics. This may not matter for stocks given they can always be bought by central banks if needed – but it does arguably matter for key FX crosses, which along with low, low bond yields are still a fact-check we can rely on…like the honest brokers of social media(?).

end

4/EUROPEAN AFFAIRS

5. RUSSIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS

6.Global Issues

CANADA/CHINA/HUAWEI

CANADA and China relations will sour with this: A Canadian rules rules against Huawei and that clears way for Meng’s extradition to the USA.

(zerohedge)

Canadian Judge Rules Against Huawei CFO, Clearing Way For Extradition

Wednesday has been a wild day for US-China relations.

It has been a few months since we’ve checked in with Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, who has spent the last 16 months free on bail in Vancouver while the Canadian legal system has processed her case, as it moves to determine whether it will grant the US DoJ’s request to extradite Wanzhou in accordance with the US-Canada mutual-extradition agreement.

On Wednesday, with tensions between the US and China flaring and Huawei back in the headlines, a Canadian judge has ruled that the allegations brought against Meng by the DoJ would constitute crimes in Canada. That hurdle was a critical legal threshold: If the judge had ruled otherwise, Meng likely would have been freed, and extradition would likely be off the table.

Just minutes after the decision, Beijing – via the Global Times – has already responded.

Meng was arrested when she landed in Vancouver on Dec. 1, 2018, while President Trump was sitting down to dinner with President Xi in Buenos Aires during a notable episode that re-started trade talks between the world’s two largest economies. Shortly afterward, Trump suggested that she could become a political bargaining chip in the trade talks.

Of course, that was long before the coronavirus. We suspect that whatever happens now, if Meng lands in the US, prosecutors probably won’t be very amenable to a generous deal.

END

As we have explained on countless occasions, the damage caused by free Iron released from Hb can have permanent damage to the lungs. This is why you need to start on Hydroxychloroquine + Azithromycin + zinc immediately on the onset of symptoms.

(zerohedge)

‘Thousands’ Of Dutch COVID-19 Survivors Likely Have Permanent Lung Damage According To Top Pulmonologist

COVID-19 may be far less deadly than originally projected – and asymptomatic cases may be even more common than first suspected, but for those who have caught it and come down with symptoms, the disease can result in lasting symptoms, including shortness of breath, lethargy, recurrent fevers, headaches, itchiness and other mystery problems that aren’t going away.

To that end, a top pulmonologist in the Netherlands says that thousands of Dutch residents who have recovered from COVID-19 may be left with permanent lung damage, resulting in decreased lung capacity and difficulty absorbing oxygen.

*A computer tomography (CT) X-ray scan shows the signature “ground glass” tissue due to COVID-19 infection, which is caused by fluid in the lungs.*
*Weifang Kong and Prachi P. Agarwal*

According to Leon van den Toorn, Chairman of the Dutch Association of Physicians for Pulmonary Disease and Tuberculosis NVALT, people are underestimating the consequences of the coronavirus.

“In severe cases, a kind of scar formation occurs, we call this lung fibrosis. The lungs shrink and the lung tissue becomes stiffer, making it harder to get enough oxygen,” Van den Toorn told Dutch newspaper AD (via the NL Times), adding that “there may be thousands of people in the Netherlands who suffered permanent injury to the lungs from corona.”

Of the 1,200 Covid-19 patients who so far recovered after admission to intensive care, “almost 100 percent went home with residual damage”, he said to AD. And about half of the 6 thousand people who were hospitalized, but did not need intensive care, will have symptoms for years to come.

So far 45,500 people in the Netherlands tested positive for the coronavirus. Many did not get sick enough to need hospital care. In this group, Van den Toorn expects that permanent problems will be less serious, but still possible. –NL Times

Van den Toorn says that patients experiencing lung issues should immediately see a pulmonologist, as “there may be a low oxygen level in the blood, which is harmful to the body.”

“People with a history of corona infection should be monitored closely to see if recovery is complete,” he added.

Drilling down on lung issues, let’s flash back to March, when a New Orleans respiratory therapist dealing with coronavirus patients told ProPublica that coronavirus patients suffering from acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) are extremely difficult to oxygenate.

Authored by Lizzie Presser via ProPublica

“Normally, ARDS is something that happens over time as the lungs get more and more inflamed. But with this virus, it seems like it happens overnight. When you’re healthy, your lung is made up of little balloons. Like a tree is made out of a bunch of little leaves, the lung is made of little air sacs that are called the alveoli. When you breathe in, all of those little air sacs inflate, and they have capillaries in the walls, little blood vessels. The oxygen gets from the air in the lung into the blood so it can be carried around the body.

A screenshot of chest radiographs of a man suspected to have COVID-19. (Obtained by ProPublica via the Radiological Society of North America, cited in the paper “Severe Acute Respiratory Disease in a Huanan Seafood Market Worker: Images of an Early Casualty” by Lijuan Qian, Jie Yu and Heshui Shi.)

“Typically with ARDS, the lungs become inflamed. It’s like inflammation anywhere: If you have a burn on your arm, the skin around it turns red from additional blood flow. The body is sending it additional nutrients to heal. The problem is, when that happens in your lungs, fluid and extra blood starts going to the lungs. Viruses can injure cells in the walls of the alveoli, so the fluid leaks into the alveoli. A telltale sign of ARDS in an X-ray is what’s called ‘ground glass opacity,’ like an old-fashioned ground glass privacy window in a shower. And lungs look that way because fluid is white on an X-ray, so the lung looks like white ground glass, or sometimes pure white, because the lung is filled with so much fluid, displacing where the air would normally be.”

…

“It first struck me how different it was when I saw my first coronavirus patient go bad. I was like, Holy shit, this is not the flu. Watching this relatively young guy, gasping for air, pink frothy secretions coming out of his tube and out of his mouth. The ventilator should have been doing the work of breathing but he was still gasping for air, moving his mouth, moving his body, struggling. We had to restrain him. With all the coronavirus patients, we’ve had to restrain them. They really hyperventilate, really struggle to breathe. When you’re in that mindstate of struggling to breathe and delirious with fever, you don’t know when someone is trying to help you, so you’ll try to rip the breathing tube out because you feel it is choking you, but you are drowning.

end

7. OIL ISSUES

8 EMERGING MARKET ISSUES

CORONAVIRUS UPDATE//BRAZIL USA/GLOBE

Trump Offers Condolences To Families Of America’s 100k COVID-19 Victims; Brazil Passes 400k Cases: Live Updates

Summary:

Trump tweets condolences
Brazil cases top 400k
South Korea reports alarming jump in cases
Blue House mulls reinstating strict social distancing measures
Philippines President to end Manila lockdown
Denmark decision to partially reopen schools deemed a ‘success’
New evidence of ‘Community Spread’ found in certain African countries

* * *

With Johns Hopkins finally confirming that the US death toll had passed the 100k mark…

…President Trump tweeted his condolences to the families of all those who lost loved ones during the pandemic.

With the US temporarily preoccupied by looting in Minneapolis and elsewhere – the focus during the early morning hours was on Asia, as Japanese health officials reported a new cluster: A hospital in Koganei city, located on the outskirts of Tokyo, have confirmed 3 infected patients, with 18 more reporting symptoms, including a fever. South Korea recently uncovered a ‘silent’ cluster after testing tens of thousands of people who had traveled to a popular nightlife district of Seoul one evening after a nightclubber tested positive, raising fears of a new ‘superspreader’ cluster.

With testing ramping up once again, officials are reportedly weighing whether to revive more-strict social distancing rules due to a recent increase in confirmed cases.

In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte approved a recommendation to ease the lockdown in the capital Manila beginning on June 1 as he tries to pull his country’s economy back from the brink of what would likely be a bruising recession.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged her fellow world leaders to provide more money to multinational NGOs like the UN and WHO in the name of accelerating the global recovery from the virus.

Expanding on that point, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres agitated for more comprehensive sovereign debt relief for the poorest nations, insisting that “relief must be extended to all developing, middle-income countries that request forbearance as they lose access to financial markets” amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Later today, PM Johnson will set out the next steps on easing Britain’s lockdown, describing what will be possible from June 1.

As France and Germany abandon the drugs, Indonesia said Thursday it will continue to prescribe two anti-malarial drugs – chloroquine and its derivative, hydroxychloroquine – for coronavirus patients but monitor their use closely.

UK police have said Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s senior adviser Dominic Cummings did breach the coronavirus lockdown but that it was minor and they will take no further action, the Telegraph has reported.

Source: Al Jazeera

Though Africa has been largely spared the brunt of the global outbreak, Al Jazeera warned that cases of community transmission of the coronavirus are growing, particularly in Ethiopia, and that a new strategy for testing is needed to prevent further spread.

“We are beginning to see sustained community transmission within Ethiopia and many other countries across Africa. That means we need to increase our public health measures like distancing, wearing of masks, washing of hands,” Head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention John Nkengasong told journalists.

Brazil recorded more than 1,000 new deaths from the coronavirus over the past day, officials said Wednesday. The 1,086 new casualties bring the total number of deaths to 25,598. With 20,599 new cases, one of the largest single-day increases yet, the number of infected people has reached 411,821.

And finally, a partial reopening of schools in Denmark has not lead to an increase in coronavirus infections among pupils, a doctor of infectious disease epidemiology and prevention at the Danish Serum Institute said Thursday, citing newly released government data.

Denmark was one of the first countries to reopen, as it allowed some younger students – up to the fifth grade – to return to school on April 15 after a month-long break.

“You cannot see any negative effects from the reopening of schools,” the scientist said. In the US, NJ Gov Phil Murphy said earlier this week that he would allow outdoor high school graduation ceremonies to continue.

END

Your early morning currency/gold and silver pricing/Asian and European bourse movements/ and interest rate settings THURSDAY morning 7:00 AM….

Euro/USA 1.1008 DOWN .0009 REACTING TO MERKEL’S FAILED COALITION/ REACTING TO +GERMAN ELECTION WHERE ALT RIGHT PARTY ENTERS THE BUNDESTAG/ huge Deutsche bank problems ///ITALIAN CHAOS//CORONAVIRUS//PANDEMIC /AND NOW ECB TAPERING BOND PURCHASES/JAPAN TAPERING BOND PURCHASES /USA RISING INTEREST RATES /FLOODING/EUROPE BOURSES /GREEN

USA/JAPAN YEN 107.75 DOWN 0.065 (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 1.2254 DOWN 0.0009 (Brexit March 29/ 2019/ARTICLE 50 SIGNED/BREXIT FEES WILL BE CAPPED/

USA/CAN 1.3760 UP .0006 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 THURSDAY morning in Europe, the Euro FELL BY 9 basis points, trading now ABOVE the important 1.08 level FALLING to 1.1008 Last night Shanghai COMPOSITE CLOSED UP 9.42 POINTS OR 0.33%

//Hang Sang CLOSED DOWN 168.60 POINTS OR 0.72%

/AUSTRALIA CLOSED UP 1,24%// EUROPEAN BOURSES ALL GREEN

Trading from Europe and Asia

EUROPEAN BOURSES ALL GREEN

2/ CHINESE BOURSES / :Hang Sang CLOSED DOWN 168.60 POINTS OR 0.72%

/SHANGHAI CLOSED UP 9.42 POINTS OR 0.33%

Australia BOURSE CLOSED UP 1.24%

Nikkei (Japan) CLOSED UP 497.08 POINTS OR 2.32%

INDIA’S SENSEX IN THE GREEN

Gold very early morning trading: 1721.20

silver:$17.32-

Early THURSDAY morning USA 10 year bond yield: 0.68% !!! DOWN 1 IN POINTS from WEDNESDAY’S night in basis points and it is trading WELL BELOW resistance at 2.27-2.32%.

The 30 yr bond yield 1.45 UP 1 IN BASIS POINTS from WEDNESDAY night.

USA dollar index early THURSDAY morning: 98.92 DOWN 15 CENT(S) from WEDNESDAY’s close.

This ends early morning numbers THURSDAY MORNING

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx6

And now your closing THURSDAY NUMBERS \1: 00 PM

Portuguese 10 year bond yield: 0.55% DOWN 8 in basis point(s) yield from YESTERDAY/

JAPANESE BOND YIELD: -.00% DOWN 0 BASIS POINTS from YESTERDAY/JAPAN losing control of its yield curve/56

SPANISH 10 YR BOND YIELD: 0.59%//DOWN 6 in basis point yield from yesterday.

ITALIAN 10 YR BOND YIELD:1,43 DOWN 5 points in basis points yield from yesterday./

the Italian 10 yr bond yield is trading 84 points higher than Spain.

GERMAN 10 YR BOND YIELD: FALLS TO –.42% IN BASIS POINTS ON THE DAY//

THE IMPORTANT SPREAD BETWEEN ITALIAN 10 YR BOND AND GERMAN 10 YEAR BOND IS 1.85% AND NOW ABOVE THE THE 3.00% LEVEL WHICH WILL IMPLODE THE ENTIRE ITALIAN BANKING SYSTEM. AT 4% SPREAD THERE WILL BE A HUGE BANK RUN…

END

IMPORTANT CURRENCY CLOSES FOR THURSDAY

Closing currency crosses for THURSDAY night/USA DOLLAR INDEX/USA 10 YR BOND YIELD/1:00 PM

Euro/USA 1.1054 UP .0037 or 37 basis points

USA/Japan: 107.65 DOWN .157 OR YEN UP 16 basis points/

Great Britain/USA 1.2317 UP .0054 POUND UP 54 BASIS POINTS)

Canadian dollar DOWN 20 basis points to 1.3775

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The USA/Yuan,CNY: AT 7.1462 ON SHORE (DOWN)..GETTING DANGEROUS

THE USA/YUAN OFFSHORE: 7.1581 (YUAN DOWN)..GETTING REALLY DANGEROUS

TURKISH LIRA: 6.8175 EXTREMELY DANGEROUS LEVEL/DEATH WISH.

the 10 yr Japanese bond yield closed at -.00%

Your closing 10 yr US bond yield UP 1 IN basis points from WEDNESDAY at 0.69 % //trading well ABOVE the resistance level of 2.27-2.32%) very problematic USA 30 yr bond yield: 1.46 UP 2 in basis points on the day

Your closing USA dollar index, 98.60 UP 46 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 THURSDAY: 12:00 PM

London: CLOSED UP 73.77 1.20%

German Dax : CLOSED UP 137.60 POINTS OR 1.18%

Paris Cac CLOSED UP 90.52 POINTS 1.93%

Spain IBEX CLOSED UP 58.10 POINTS or 0.81%

Italian MIB: CLOSED UP 429.45 POINTS OR 2.40%

WTI Oil price; 32.61 12:00 PM EST

Brent Oil: 34.60 12:00 EST

USA /RUSSIAN / RUBLE RISES: 70.54 THE CROSS LOWER BY 0.44 RUBLES/DOLLAR (RUBLE HIGHER BY 44 BASIS PTS)

TODAY THE GERMAN YIELD FALLS TO –.42 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 : 33.49//

BRENT : 34.99

USA 10 YR BOND YIELD: … 0.70…up 2 basis points…

USA 30 YR BOND YIELD: 1.46 up 2 basis points..

EURO/USA 1.1072 ( UP 55 BASIS POINTS)

USA/JAPANESE YEN:107.62 DOWN .191 (YEN DOWN 19 BASIS POINTS/..

USA DOLLAR INDEX: 99.50 DOWN 56 cent(s)/

The British pound at 4 pm Britain Pound/USA:1.2319 UP 56 POINTS

the Turkish lira close: 6.8143

the Russian rouble 70.56 UP 0.43 Roubles against the uSA dollar.( UP 43 BASIS POINTS)

Canadian dollar: 1.3774 DOWN 17 BASIS pts

German 10 yr bond yield at 5 pm: ,-0.42%

The Dow closed DOWN 147.63 POINTS OR 0.58%

NASDAQ closed DOWN 43.37 POINTS OR 0.46%

VOLATILITY INDEX: 28.99 CLOSED UP 1.37

LIBOR 3 MONTH DURATION: 0.362%//libor dropping like a stone

LIBOR/OIS: .3020%

TED SPREAD (LIBOR VS 3 MONTH TREASURY: .212%

USA trading today in Graph Form

Dollar Slumps, Small Caps Dump, Oil Pumped

Today’s stock action was dominated by a dramatic shift in Small Caps vs mega-cap tech as the US Cash open sparked a puke in the former and a panic-bid in the latter…but that all snapped when President Trump confirmed a China news conference tomorrow and commented in more detail on his intent to crack down on social media giants…

A serious shift in the recent regime…

Source: Bloomberg

Sell Small Caps Mortimer, Sell!…

On the week, Trannies are still best and Nasdaq the laggard…

Internet stocks v-shaped-recovered from yesterday’s opening drop…

FANG Stocks surged…

Source: Bloomberg

TWTR took a beating in the pre-open but was panic-bid as cash markets roused…

Treasury yields were mixed once again in a narrow range relative to stocks’ chaos (30Y +3bps, 2Y -1bps)

Source: Bloomberg

Steepening the yield curve back near the highest since Oct 2017…

Source: Bloomberg

The Dollar continued its recent demise to two-month lows…

Source: Bloomberg

…tumbling back below a key technical level (100DMA)…

Source: Bloomberg

Which helped lift oil prices (despite a huge crude build)

But the dollar doldrums didn’t help gold…

And silver outperformed again, pushing its ratio to gold lower still…

Source: Bloomberg

Bitcoin rallied further (chatter of Hong Kong capital flight)…

Source: Bloomberg

Hong Kong Dollar forwards are pricing in a serious devaluation in the currency (capital flight)…

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, we note that the chaos under the surface continues in quant-factor-land, with momentum underperforming value by the most since September…

Source: Bloomberg

As the recent surge in momo relative to value catches down to bond market reality…

Source: Bloomberg

Turn The Machines back on!!

And now your more important USA stories which will influence the price of gold/silver

MARKET TRADING//USA

a)Market trading/THIS MORNING/USA

Over 40 Million Jobless In 10 Weeks – “Nobody Ever Imagined It Would Get This Bad So Fast”

In the last week 2.123 million more Americans filed for unemployment benefits for the first time (versus the 2.10mm expected).

Source: Bloomberg

That brings the ten-week total to 40.767 million, dramatically more than at any period in American history

But continuing claims declined last week as it appears some of the reopenings are seeing people come off the dole…

Source: Bloomberg

And as we noted previously, what is most disturbing is that in the last ten weeks, almost twice as many Americans have filed for unemployment than jobs gained during the last decade since the end of the Great Recession… (22.13 million gained in a decade, 40.767 million lost in 10 weeks)

Worse still, the final numbers will likely be worsened due to the bailout itself: as a reminder, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, passed on March 27, could contribute to new records being reached in coming weeks as it increases eligibility for jobless claims to self-employed and gig workers, extends the maximum number of weeks that one can receive benefits, and provides an additional $600 per week until July 31.A recent WSJ article noted that this has created incentives for some businesses to temporarily furlough their employees, knowing that they will be covered financially as the economy is shutdown. Meanwhile, those making below $50k will generally be made whole and possibly be better off on unemployment benefits.

Additionally, families receiving food stamps can typically get a maximum benefit of $768, but through the increase in emergency benefits, the average five-person household can get an additional $240 monthly for buying food.

But, hey, there’s good news… stocks are near record highs and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he anticipates most of the economy will restart by the end of August.

Finally, it is notable, we have lost XXX jobs for every confirmed US death from COVID-19 (100,442).

Was it worth it?

As Michael Snyder writes, if you tried to warn people in late 2019 that about 40 million Americans would lose their jobs by the middle of 2020, nobody would have believed you. Personally, I operate a website called “The Economic Collapse Blog”, and I wouldn’t have believed you either. Even though I have been loudly warning that this sort of an economic crisis was coming, I never imagined that we would lose so many jobs in such a short period of time. As I discussed the other day, more than a quarter of all jobs in the United States have already been wiped out, and the job losses just keep on coming. In fact, Boeing is currently in the process of laying off thousands of highly skilled workers…

Nearly 13,000 Boeing workers, mostly in the US, are set to lose their jobs in the coming weeks, as cuts at the American aerospace giant take effect.

More layoffs are expected, some of which may affect the UK.

The reductions had been expected since Boeing revealed plans last month to slash its global workforce by 10% – or roughly 16,000 jobs.

A lot of those are very high paying jobs with good benefits, and they will not be easy to replace.

Meanwhile, major retailers all over America keep going down one after another. On Wednesday, we learned that Tuesday Morning has decided to file for bankruptcy…

Off-price retailer Tuesday Morning filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Wednesday with plans to close more than a third of its stores.

Tuesday Morning had been struggling when the coronavirus pandemic began and went into a free fall when it was forced to temporarily close its locations due to the crisis.

Just like the Boeing jobs, these are jobs that are never going to come back.

At this point, there is no way that I can write about all of the companies that are laying off workers, but one more example that I found to be quite notable is the fact that even CBS News is letting people go…

“I’m really sorry,” network president Susan Zirinsky said Wednesday on an all-staff Zoom meeting about the cuts. “There is not a person who won’t be missed.”

CBS News was hit hard by a round of corporate cost-cutting that saw “a single-digit percentage” of the network’s news staffers laid off, according to an estimate given by network president Susan Zirinsky during a Wednesday afternoon all-hands conference.

The corporate elite that own CBS News have very deep pockets, and Americans are watching more news than ever right now, and so it is definitely not a good sign for the economy that even CBS News feels forced to lay off workers.

Of course many unemployed workers are not exactly “deeply suffering” yet because of the huge weekly bonuses that they are getting from the federal government right now.

Earlier today, I was directed to a post on a popular Internet forum where a newly unemployed worker was describing how great his life has become now that he is unemployed…

Before COVID I was miserable.

I had a job working $14.75/hr and hated waking up most days. I’ve since been laid off (obviously) but am one of those who is making much more by NOT working.

I used to make $550-600 per week depending on my hours but since COVID began, I’m clearing just over $1000/week. My gf is in the same situation and she’s also clearing just over $1000.

Without any job to go to, he can now spend his days endlessly hanging out with his newly unemployed girlfriend, and he claims that he can’t even imagine ever going back to his old life…

Today we plan to do some hiking since it’s going to be so nice out and I’ll be using my new grill to cook up some steak tonight. The gf is kind of a wine snob so she likes to splurge on really nice reds (which I’ll definitely be having later as well).

I really don’t understand people who say they’re more stressed or are fighting with their gf/wife more than before. It makes absolutely no sense to me. These have been the best 2 months I’ve had in a while. I can’t imagine going back to my old life and way of doing things. NOT HAPPENING!

The only thing that isn’t ideal right now is not being able to travel normally but I only vacationed once or twice a year before due to work/money issues. Now I’m able to save $800-1000/month with COVID stimulus and bonus so we’ll definitely be taking a nice vacation at some point this summer.

The bad news for this young couple and for tens of millions of other unemployed Americans is that President Trump and the Republicans in the U.S. Senate do not plan to extend the unemployment bonuses once they expire in July.

So from that point forward, there will be millions upon millions of Americans that are not able to pay their monthly bills.

In fact, the New York Times is already warning that we will soon be facing “a wave of evictions as government relief payments and legal protections run out for millions of out-of-work Americans”…

The United States, already wrestling with an economic collapse not seen in a generation, is facing a wave of evictions as government relief payments and legal protections run out for millions of out-of-work Americans who have little financial cushion and few choices when looking for new housing.

The hardest hit are tenants who had low incomes and little savings even before the pandemic, and whose housing costs ate up more of their paychecks. They were also more likely to work in industries where job losses have been particularly severe.

Initially, the generous unemployment bonuses that Congress passed were supposed to help tide unemployed workers over until this pandemic went away.

But what if it sticks around for multiple years like the Spanish Flu did?

And the Washington Post is now trying to convince us that there is “a good chance” that COVID-19 “will never go away”…

There’s a good chance the coronavirus will never go away.

Even after a vaccine is discovered and deployed, the coronavirus will likely remain for decades to come, circulating among the world’s population.

Yes, this virus could become a “permanent crisis”, and without a doubt the elite are already trying to use it to fundamentally reshape our society.

And as long as a certain percentage of the population is deeply afraid of this virus, economic activity will continue to be depressed at levels that are way below what we would consider to be “normal”.

As the New York Times has admitted, “an economic collapse” is already here, and it is going to be incredibly painful.

b)MARKET TRADING/USA/AFTERNOON

ii)Market data/USA

The Collapse In US Durables Goods Orders Accelerates In April

After March’s collapse (a record ex-one off outliers), April’s durable goods orders weakness was expected to accelerate and it did, with preliminary data plunging 17.2% MoM (worse than the 16.6% decline in March).

This sent durable goods orders down 19.4% YoY – the worst since the financial crisis…

Source: Bloomberg

Closely watched core capital goods orders, which exclude aircraft and military hardware, dropped 5.8% in April after a 1.1% decrease a month earlier.

Shipments of those goods, a proxy for equipment investment in the government’s gross domestic product report, fell 5.4%…

Source: Bloomberg

While states have begun letting business reopen, manufacturing will likely be slow to recover as fewer people shop and businesses rein in capital spending projects. But, of course, this is all in the rear-view mirror, stocks tell you what happens next, right? V-shaped recovery any second!

end

First quarter GDP revised southbound to -5% for first quarter GDP. Second quarter will be much much lower, possibly -20%

(zerohedge)

Q1 GDP Revised To -5% As Corporate Profits Plunge 14%

With everyone’s attention focusing on what the state of the economy is currently as opposed to last quarter, today’s 2nd revision of Q1 GDP was unlikely to get much attention, and that’s why the fact that according to the 2nd estimate of first quarter growth the US economy contracted at a 5% annualized pace will have no impact on markets.

With Q1 GDP initially reported a sinking -4.8%, this number has now been revised to -5.0%, following an upward revision to consumer spending offset by a sharp drop in private inventories.

The changes between the first and second estimate are as follows:

Personal Consumption revised higher: from -5.26% to -4.69%
Fixed Investment unchanged: from -0.43% to -0.41%
Change in Private inventories sharply lower: from -0.53% to -1.43%
Exports unchanged at -1.02%
Imports also largely unchanged: from 2.32% to 2.34%
Government Consumption was also flat: from 0.13% to 0.15%.

Looking below the surface, we find that personal consumption predictably collapsed 6.8% in 1Q after rising 1.8% prior quarter, but was better than the -7.6% initial forecast. Nonresidential fixed investment, or spending on equipment, structures and intellectual property fell 7.9% in 1Q after falling 2.4% prior quarter.

At the same time, the GDP price index rose 1.4% in 1Q after rising 1.3% prior quarter; core PCE meanwhile declined from 1.8% in the original estimate to 1.6%, missing estimates.

Today’s release also revealed the state of corporate profits in Q1, which according to the BOEA decreased 13.9% at a quarterly rate in the first quarter after increasing 2.6% in the fourth quarter. On a Y/Y basis, corporate profits decreased 8.5% in the first quarter after rising 2.2% prior quarter.

Profits of domestic nonfinancial corporations decreased 14.3% after increasing 4.8%. Profits of domestic financial corporations decreased 16.6% after increasing 0.2%. Profits from the rest of the world decreased 10.8 percent after decreasing 0.3 percent.

While this was the worst print since the financial crisis, the real question is what Q2 GDP will be, where estimate range from -30% to as much as -50% annualized.

end

Pending home sales plummet 35% year /year//buyers are even forfeiting their deposits to back out of buying properties

(zerohedge)

Pending Home Sales Plummet 35% YoY – Biggest Drop Ever As Buyers Forfeit Deposits

Existing home sales collapsed but new home sales rebounded in April, which leaves pending home sales to break the tie and analysts expected a 17.3% MoM drop. However, pending home sales disappointed notably with a 21.8% MoM collapse, sending YoY sales crashing 34.6% – the most ever…

Source: Bloomberg

“The housing market is temporarily grappling with the coronavirus-induced shutdown,” which reduced listings and purchases, Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, said in a statement.

So while all sorts of narratives about lower rates were puked out to defend new home sales outlier data, it seems pending home sales did not get the message…

Source: Bloomberg

Every region crashed…

Northeast fell 14.5%; Feb. rose 2.8%
Midwest fell 22%; Feb. rose 4.2%
South fell 19.5%; Feb. fell 0.2%
West fell 26.8%; Feb. rose 5.1%

That is the lowest level of pending home sales since records began in 2001…

March historically begins the annual peak U.S. selling season as warming weather spurs home searches and families with children prepare for moves during the school summer break. That’s been drastically curtailed in 2020 as the virus triggers the biggest economic contraction in decades, closing workplaces, schools and other activities.

Pending home sales are leading indicators of housing activity, based on signed contracts to buy single-family homes, condos and co-ops, typically occurring one or two months before closings.

As MacroGuru (@macroguru9) noted, “The reason this is significant is it takes 4-8 weeks to close the sale once the contract has been signed. So this huge drop would indicate buyers forfeiting the deposit and walking away as they think the loss on the purchase would be higher than the deposit itself!!!”

end

iii) Important USA Economic Stories

A good move on the part of Trump: he plans to empower the FCC to regulate the American Social Media giants

(zerohedge)

“Big Day For Fairness” – White House Plans To Empower FCC To Regulate American Social Media Giants

Update (0850ET): Fox Business has just confirmed that President Trump plans to sign an executive order to implement everything we’ve discussed below.

Fox reporter Edward Lawrence claims that the order will “examine the legal protections” enjoyed by these companies, suggesting that the administration will also lay out its legal rationale for regulating speech on these platforms in this way.

* * *

Update (0840ET): Just as we expected, President Trump just confirmed that he will be rolling out his administration’s agenda for regulating speech on American social media platforms on Thursday – and will probably make a show of it, to keep the news media focused on his latest culture war, and less about the growing coronavirus death toll.

* * *

The first leaks detailing the Trump Administration’s plan to iron out left-wing bias on American social-media platforms have just arrived.

During a live on-air report, CNBC’s Ylan Mui shared what appeared to be the first details of the White House’s plan, which the president said would be released on Thursday. According to Mui, the White House plans to empower the FCC to write guidelines for American social media companies to help them determine what content should and shouldn’t be removed.

Notably, the plan relies on the executive branch’s nearly untrammeled power over the vast federal bureaucracy: Once again, Trump plans to bypass Congress – which has long been reluctant to make any changes to the 1996 Communications Decency Act to account for the advent of social media – to accomplish what has become a critical piece of his agenda ahead of the November election.

“We cannot allow a handful of online platforms to handpick and censor the speech Americans read online,” an anonymous administration official told Mui. “[Social media giants] possess a dangerous power.”

There will be a review process before the rules can be implemented, and it’s possible they may never be enacted.

And as Mui pointed out, companies face newfound political uncertainty as regulating speech on these platforms becomes a “political football”.

According to CNBC, the draft text of the order mentioned two companies by name: Twitter and Facebook. Shares of both companies tumbled in pre-market trade on the news.

For what it’s worth, a report published last night claimed that the White House didn’t consult the FCC on these new guidelines.

Though we doubt Commissioner Ajit Pai will have any serious objections to the plan.

Finally, it appears the Executive order does not quite go as far as to call for direct reversals of Section 230 protections… though handing it over to the FCC may well be the warning shot across the social media giants’ bows that they need. As Jonathan Turley noted:

The expectation is that the Trump executive order on social media will include a review of Section 230 of the Federal Communications Act for the possible elimination of protections for Twitter and other social media companies. The effort would be hard to succeed without congressional action. As a private actor, Twitter is not the subject of the First Amendment but the President and his administration are. There are also separation of powers concerns with any unilateral or constructive amendment of Section 230.

Trump in my view is right in condemning the action of Twitter. The focus should be on the company’s assault on free speech principles. Anyone who values free speech on the Internet and social media should be appalled by this action regardless of their feelings about Pres. Trump.

end

An excellent paper: Rubino rages: everything is too big to fail

(John Rubino/Greg Hunter)

“Now The Really Crazy Stuff Starts” – Rubino Rages “Suddenly Everything’s Too-Big-To-Fail”

Via Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com,

Everyone needs be looking past the Coronavirus crisis and at what governments are trying to do to counter the economic destruction and massive unemployment. Is the financial cure worse than the disease?

Financial writer John Rubino says look at commercial real estate as an omen of what is to come. Rubino explains, “Sooner or later you’ve got to pay your bills…”

“…and if you don’t have anybody paying your bills to you, then you go bankrupt. Commercial real estate could just be a blood bath, which take us back to all the bailouts.

You can’t let a big sector go bust in this world because suddenly everything is too big to fail. There is not a major sector out there that can be allowed to go bust. Not the airlines, not commercial real estate, certainly not the banks, you name it and it has to be bailed out.

That’s where the really crazy stuff starts. When people figure out we are basically bailing out everybody from home owners to student loan holders, to car loan holders and right down the line, and then we get state and local governments with this gigantic multi-trillion dollar problem . . . and the amount of debt is off the charts to bail all of these guys out, that is when the real fun starts.”

How long will the bailouts go on? Rubino says,

“We are heading into a Presidential election, which means we cannot let anything major fail. If you are the Trump Administration and Congress, you can’t let something big fail because it’s a crisis right before you need to get re-elected. So, you’ve got to bail people out. That’s what California, Illinois and Chicago, New York, Kentucky and all the bankrupt and badly run states have been hoping for all along. They have been hoping there would be a big crisis that would bail them out of their horrendous mismanagement of the past 20 or 30 years.

There was no way that Illinois was not going to go bankrupt in normal times . . . or Chicago… Now, they can go to the federal government and say we need a trillion dollars right now or we are going to lay off all the cops and all the teachers, and they think they have a pretty good chance of getting the bailout because the alternative is poison for the people running for office…

If you are the Trump Administration or Congress, I don’t see how you stop bailing people out before the election.”

What could go wrong? Rubino says, “They have control of the money supply, and they think that’s enough. That’s only half of the ledger…”

“What they don’t have control of is the value of these currencies that they are creating infinite amounts of…

You can’t control what people think the currencies are worth, or what the dollar is worth going forward. Once these currencies start falling in a disorderly way, and not 1% or 2% a year, then it’s game over. They will find out at some point a printing press is good as long as the currency maintains value, but as soon as it starts falling, a printing press does you no good because the more you print, the faster the currency falls. So, that day is coming, and these never ending bailouts might be the catalyst that takes us there, and it’s been a long wait.”

The case for owning precious metals is easy to make, especially silver. According to Rubino, it now takes 100 ounces of silver to equal the value of 1 ounce of gold. That’s a near record of 100 to 1 silver/gold ratio. Rubino contends,

“The silver/gold ratio says silver is clearly a buy based on historical trends and the relationship between gold and silver… You would expect silver going forward to outperform gold, and you would expect gold to go up as well…

This is now a bull market, and they will both go up, but silver will outperform gold. . . . There is just so much more debt in the world, and there is so much more of a need for safe haven assets that you would expect silver to blow right through its previous high levels. This time around, it could be totally spectacular with what happens with silver. There is going to come a time when everyone will want to talk about silver, but that day is not yet.”

END

Next on the list for bankruptcy is Le Pain Quotidien

(Heather Long)

Le Pain Quotidien Is Latest Food Chain To File For Bankruptcy

By Heather Long, published in Restaurant Business

Struggling fast-casual chain Le Pain Quotidien filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Wednesday, proposing a sale to Aurify Brands for $3 million to save some of its operations, according to court documents. The chain, which had been struggling before the pandemic, closed all of its units amid the coronavirus crisis and laid off the majority of its employees.

In its filing, Le Pain Quotidien said that a sale to New York City-based Aurify Brands would allow for the reopening of at least 35 of its restaurants and avoid a liquidation. Aurify Brands is the parent company of concepts including The Little Beet, Melt Shop, Fields Good Chicken and The Little Beet Table.

In the U.S., New York City-based Le Pain Quotidien operated 98 restaurants under a licensing agreement with the Belgian brand. Last week, the parent company launched a reorganization procedure in a Belgian court. But the chain’s troubles started before COVID-19 hit the U.S., with the company mulling a possible bankruptcy during the second half of 2019. “Eroding” same-store sales, expensive leases, underperforming stores, increased competition and more issues became increasingly apparent last year, according to the bankruptcy filing.

The company generated $153 million in sales in 2019 but negative $16.8 million in EBITDA, according to the filing.

Significant corporate turnover added to the troubles, Steven J. Fleming, the chain’s proposed chief restructuring officer, noted in the filing. He added that “a lack of investment” at the store level kept the company from keeping pace with trends or adding amenities such as a digital platform that has become competitive necessities.

To stem its losses, the chain added more grab-and-go items and worked on remodeling existing locations.

Earlier this month, Aurify Brands successfully bid for Le Pain Quotidien’s U.S. franchising rights in the Belgian insolvency case. On Tuesday, the parties signed a purchase agreement for $3 million.

END

Last night Minneapolis was burning as buildings were torched and stores looted over the killing of George Floyd

(zerohedge)

“Minneapolis Is Burning” – Buildings Torched, Stores Looted, Protests Over George Floyd Intensify

For the second night in a row, peaceful protests over the in-custody death of George Floyd quickly turned violent Wednesday night, with multiple building structures set ablaze, widespread looting, and continued rioting.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey requested Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to deploy the Minnesota National Guard following the social unrest. Demonstrators torched multiple building structures, including an apartment complex and surrounding buildings, an AutoZone, and other retail stores. At least a dozen stores were looted and or damaged.

“That’s like five buildings on fire,” one demonstrator said while talking to Unicorn Riot News.

A reporter from the Minneapolis Star Tribune tweeted images of the apartment building engulfed in flames.

Apparently, the apartment building was new construction with no one inside (that has yet to be confirmed).

The fire quickly spread to other structures nearby.

Here are several unbelievable scenes around the apartment complex.

“2020 is really going to go down in the books. This is the typa shit out future kids will read about. This is history in the making,” said one Twitter user while referring to the fires.

Looks like an entire block is on fire.

The fire around the apartment building continues to rage early Thursday morning.

Many stores in this “strip mall looted and every window broken,” tweeted one user.

Unicorn Riot News tweeted scenes from outside an AutoZone on Wednesday evening that was burned to the ground.

Unicorn Riot tweeted early Thursday morning that “smoke, fire alarm blaring, sprinklers going off inside Target.” This is the same Target we noted on Wednesday evening that was looted by dozens, if not hundreds of people.

One Twitter user claims an “aldi may have also burned in the fires.”

Protesters were hungry and looted Wendy’s.

The situation is getting tense on Thursday morning: “More militarized police have reinforced the roof and perimeter of the MPD 3rd Precinct building. But they’re just kind of standing around and law enforcement clearly has given up trying to control Minneapolis right now,” Unicorn Riot said.

Confirmed by Unicorn Riot but not official: “AutoZone and Wendy’s are all but burned down at this point. Some new condos under construction have gone up in flames as well.”

Unicorn Riot claims “shots were just fired” possibly at the police station, which is the area where much of the rioting has been based.

Here’s a live Periscope stream of the destruction, and at 5:51 ET, buildings are still on fire, and rioting continues.

Mayor Frey tweeted a plea for an end to the violence:

“Please, Minneapolis, we cannot let tragedy beget more tragedy,” the mayor’s tweet read. “The area along Lake has become unsafe. We are asking for your help in keeping the peace tonight.”

And to make matters worse, social unrest has spread to Los Angeles on Wednesday night, where “black lives matter protesters” surrounded and attacked police cars on Highway 101 in response to what was happening in Minneapolis.

To remind our readers, President Trump signed an executive order in March, giving the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security the authority to activate up to one million National Guard and reservists to support the nationwide response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Though, as we’ve noted, the troops could be used across American municipalities to maintain social order.

A perfect storm is brewing across America’s inner cities of extreme wealth inequality, record-high unemployment, an economic crash, hatred towards cops, and months of lockdowns. All there needed to be was a trigger to ignite the unrest, that trigger could be the death of George Floyd.

end

USA lawmakers are proposing a total ban on students from China studying STEM areas (Mathematics, Engineering, Science and Technology)

(zerohedge)

US Lawmakers Propose Total Ban On STEM Visas For Chinese Students

As the White House prepares to eject Chinese graduate students with ties to the PLA, three US lawmakers are taking things a step further – proposing a bill which would ban mainland Chinese students from studying STEM subjects in the United States.

*Chinese and other international students wave flags at 2018 Columbia University commencement ceremony.*

Two senators and one House member said on Wednesday that the Secure Campus Act would bar Chinese nationals from obtaining visas for graduate or postgraduate studies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Students from Taiwan and Hong Kong would be exempt, according to SCMP.

“The Chinese Communist Party has long used American universities to conduct espionage on the United States,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK), one of the bill’s sponsors, adding “What’s worse is that their efforts exploit gaps in current law. It’s time for that to end.”

“The Secure Campus Act will protect our national security and maintain the integrity of the American research enterprise.”

The proposed legislation comes as diplomatic relations have fractured between the world’s two largest economies. The fissures started to show during a trade war that has been rumbling on for almost two years and have only widened amid accusations about the handling of the Covid-19 disease outbreak , and the treatment of ethnic minority groups in China.

Hong Kong is the latest flashpoint after Beijing drew up a national security law that Washington says tramples on the city’s mini-constitution. The US threatened retaliation over the move. -SCMP

The bill will also tackle China’s efforts to recruit talent overseas through their Thousand Talents Program, an operation launched in 2008 by the CCP which seeks out international experts in scientific research, innovation and entrepreneurship. It proposes that participants in China’s recruitment of foreigners be made to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), and would prohibit Chinese nationals and those participating in China-sponsored programs from receiving federal grants or working on federally funded R&D in STEM fields.

Any university, research institute or laboratory receiving federal funding would be required to attest that they are not knowingly employing participants in China’s recruitment programs – a list of which the US Secretary of State would publish.

US law enforcement and educational agencies have raised red flags about undisclosed ties between federally funded researchers and foreign governments. A crackdown has included indictments and dismissals.

In January, Charles Lieber, 60, chairman of the chemistry and chemical biology department at Harvard University, was arrested and charged for lying about his involvement in the Thousand Talents Programme. -SCMP

Meanwhile, earlier this month a professor at the University of Arkansas who received millions of dollars in research grants, including $500,000 from NASA, was arrested and charged with one count of wire fraud.

According to the FBI, Ang failed to disclose that he was getting paid by a Chinese university and Chinese companies in violation of university policy. He is accused of making false statements while failing to disclose his extensive ties to China as a member of the “Thousand Talents Scholars” program.

63-year-old Simon Saw-Teong Ang is the director of the school’s High Density Electronics Center, which received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Defense (DOD) and NASA. Since 2013, Ang has been the primary investigator or co-investigator on US government-funded grants totaling over $5 million, according to the Washington Examiner.

In November, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations chaired by Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) released a 109-page bipartisan report which concluded that foreign nations “seek to exploit America’s openness to advance their own national interests,” the most ambitious of which “has been China,” according to the Examiner. According to the report, Chinese academics involved in their so-called ‘Thousand Talents’ program have been exploiting access to US research labs.

Backlash

According to SCMP, members of the US scientific community see the US as unfairly targeting Chinese colleagues, and that the campaigns will discourage talented individuals from pursuing studies at US universities.

“While we must be vigilant to safeguard research, we must also ensure that the US remains a desirable and welcoming destination for researchers from around the world,” wrote members of 60 groups – including the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Federation of American Scientists, in a 2019 letter to science policy officials.

The US lawmakers’ proposal follows China’s March decision to revoke the press credentials for US journalists from three major US newspapers – declaring five US media outlets to be foreign government proxies. In February, the Trump administration labeled five Chinese state media groups as “foreign missions” (via SCMP).

SWAMP STORIES

It sure looks like our good friend Barack Obama was in the middle of “Obamagate”

(John Solomon)

These FBI Docs Put Barack Obama In The Middle Of The ‘Obamagate’ Narrative

Authored by John Solomon via JustTheNews.com,

Agents fretted sharing Flynn intel with departing Obama White House would become fodder for ‘partisan axes to grind.’

Just 17 days before President Trump took office in January 2017, then-FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok texted bureau lawyer Lisa Page, his mistress, to express concern about sharing sensitive Russia probe evidence with the departing Obama White House.

Strzok had just engaged in a conversation with his boss, then-FBI Assistant Director William Priestap, about evidence from the investigation of incoming National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, codenamed Crossfire Razor, or “CR” for short.

The evidence in question were so-called “tech cuts” from intercepted conversations between Flynn and Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, according to the texts and interviews with officials familiar with the conversations.

Strzok related Priestap’s concerns about the potential the evidence would be politically weaponized if outgoing Director of National Intelligence James Clapper shared the intercept cuts with the White House and President Obama, a well-known Flynn critic.

“He, like us, is concerned with over sharing,” Strzok texted Page on Jan. 3, 2017, relating his conversation with Priestap.

“Doesn’t want Clapper giving CR cuts to WH. All political, just shows our hand and potentially makes enemies.”

Page seemed less concerned, knowing that the FBI was set in three days to release its initial assessment of Russian interference in the U.S. election.

“Yeah, but keep in mind we were going to put that in the doc on Friday, with potentially larger distribution than just the DNI,” Page texted back.

Strzok responded, “The question is should we, particularly to the entirety of the lame duck usic [U.S Intelligence Community] with partisan axes to grind.”

That same day Strzok and Page also discussed in text messages a drama involving one of the Presidential Daily Briefings for Obama.

“Did you follow the drama of the PDB last week?” Strzok asked.

“Yup. Don’t know how it ended though,” Page responded.

“They didn’t include any of it, and Bill [Priestap] didn’t want to dissent,” Strzok added.

“Wow, Bill should make sure [Deputy Director] Andy [McCabe] knows about that since he was consulted numerous times about whether to include the reporting,” Page suggested.

You can see the text messages recovered from Strzok’s phone here.

The text messages, which were never released to the public by the FBI but were provided to this reporter in September 2018, have taken on much more significance to both federal and congressional investigators in recent weeks as the Justice Department has requested that Flynn’s conviction be thrown out and his charges of lying to the FBI about Kislyak dismissed.

U.S. Attorney Jeff Jensen of Missouri (special prosecutor for DOJ), the FBI inspection division, three Senate committees and House Republicans are all investigating the handling of Flynn’s case and whether any crimes were committed or political influence exerted.

The investigators are trying to determine whether Obama’s well-known disdain for Flynn, a career military intelligence officer, influenced the decision by the FBI leadership to reject its own agent’s recommendation to shut down a probe of Flynn in January 2017 and instead pursue an interview where agents might catch him in a lie.

They also want to know whether the conversation about the PDB involved Flynn and “reporting” the FBI had gathered by early January 2017 showing the incoming national security adviser was neither a counterintelligence nor a criminal threat.

“The evidence connecting President Obama to the Flynn operation is getting stronger,” one investigator with direct knowledge told me.

“The bureau knew it did not have evidence to justify that Flynn was either a criminal or counterintelligence threat and should have shut the case down. But the perception that Obama and his team would not be happy with that outcome may have driven the FBI to keep the probe open without justification and to pivot to an interview that left some agents worried involved entrapment or a perjury trap.”

The investigator said more interviews will need to be done to determine exactly what role Obama’s perception of Flynn played in the FBI’s decision making.

Recently declassified evidence show a total of 39 outgoing Obama administration officials sought to unmask Flynn’s name in intelligence interviews between Election Day 2016 and Inauguration Day 2017, signaling a keen interest in Flynn’s overseas calls.

Former Whitewater Independent Counsel Robert Ray said Friday that the Flynn matter was at the very least a “political scandal of the highest order” and could involve criminal charges if evidence emerges that officials lied or withheld documents to cover up what happened.

“I imagine there are people who are in the know who may well have knowingly withheld information from the court and from defense counsel in connection with the Michael Flynn prosecution,” Ray told Fox News.

“If it turns out that that can be proved, then there are going to be referrals and potential false statements, and/or perjury prosecutions to hold those, particularly those in positions of authority, accountable,” he added.

Investigators have created the following timeline of key events through documents produced piecemeal by the FBI over two years:

April 2014: Flynn is forced out as the chief of DIA by Obama after clashing with the administration over the Syrian civil war, the rise of ISIS, and other policies. The Obama administration blames his management style for the departure.
July 31, 2016: FBI opens Crossfire Hurricane probe into possible ties between Trump campaign and Russia, focused on Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos. Flynn is not an initial target of that probe.
Aug. 15, 2016: Strzok and Page engage in their infamous text exchange about having an insurance policy just in case Trump should be elected. “I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office — that there’s no way he gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk. It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40,” one text reads.
Aug. 16, 2016: FBI opens a sub-case under the Crossfire Hurricane umbrella codenamed Crossfire Razor focused on whether Flynn was wittingly or unwittingly engaged in inappropriate Russian contact.
Aug. 17, 2016: FBI and DNI provide Trump and Flynn first briefing after winning the nomination, including on Russia. FBI slips in an agent posing as an assistant for the briefing to secretly get a read on Flynn for the new investigation, according to the Justice Department inspector general report on Russia case. “SSA 1 told us that the briefing provided him ‘the opportunity to gain assessment and possibly some level of familiarity with [Flynn]. So, should we get to the point where we need to do a subject interview … would have that to fall back on,’” the IG report said.
Sept, 2, 2016: While preparing a talking points memo for Obama ahead of a conversation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin involving Russian election interference, Page texts Strzok that Obama wants to be read-in on everything the FBI is doing on the Russia collusion case. “POTUS wants to know everything we’re doing,” Page texted.
Sept. 5, 2016: During an international summit in China, Obama meets face-to-face with Putin and tells him to “cut it out” with election meddling.
Nov. 10, 2016: Two days after Trump won the election, the president-elect meets with Obama at the White House and the outgoing president encourages the incoming president not to hire Flynn as an adviser.
Jan. 3, 2017: Strzok and Page engage in the text messages about Obama’s daily briefing and the concerns about giving the Flynn intercept cuts to the White House.
Jan. 4, 2017: Lead agent in Flynn Crossfire Razor probe prepares closing memo recommending the case be shut down for lack of derogatory evidence. Strzok texts agent asking him to stop the closing memo because the “7th floor” leadership of the FBI is now involved.
Jan. 5, 2017: Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates attends Russia briefing with Obama at the White House and is stunned to learn Obama already knows about the Flynn-Kislyak intercept. Then-FBI Director James Comey claims Clapper told the president, but Clapper has denied telling Obama.
Jan. 5–23, 2017: FBI prepares to conduct an interview of Flynn. The discussions lead Priestap, the assistant director, to openly question in his handwritten notes whether the bureau was “playing games” and trying to get Flynn to lie so “we can prosecute him or get him fired.”
Jan. 24, 2017: FBI conducts interview with Flynn.

Investigators are trying to determine whether Obama asked for the Flynn intercept or it was offered to him and by whom. They also want to know how many times Comey and Obama talked about Flynn in December 2016 and January 2017.

“We need to determine what motivated the FBI on Jan. 4, 2017 to overrule its own agent who believed Flynn was innocent and the probe should be closed,” one investigator said.

END

AG Barr asks USA attorney John Bash to review the Obama administration’s unmasking

(zerohedge)

AG Barr Asks Kavanaugh-Connected US Attorney To Probe Obamagate ‘Unmaskings’

US Attorney for West Texas John Bash has been asked by AG Bill Bar to review the Obama administration’s ‘unmasking’ practices from before and after the 2016 presidential election, according Fox News, citing the DOJ.

Republican lawmakers have demanded more information about the extent of the practice after a previously clandestine list of Obama-era officials who sought to reveal what turned out to be the identity of Michael Flynn in intelligence reports was released on Wednesday. –Fox News

Bash, a former clerk to late US Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia who has served as Special Assistant to President Trump, is the husband of Zina Bash – who clerked for Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Samuel Alito (and hilariously triggered the left by flashing the ‘ok’ symbol during Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings – which the progressives were tricked by 4chan into believing was a white power hand gesture).

*John F. Bash, right, is sworn in as U.S. attorney of the Western District of Texas by now-Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. Bash’s wife, Zina Bash, looks on. (via the San Antonio Express)*

Meanwhile, DOJ spokeswoman Kerri Kupec toldFox News‘ “Hannity” on Wednesday that US Attorney John Durham is also looking into the “unmasking,” but that Bash has been assigned to dig deeper.

“Unmasking inherently isn’t wrong, but certainly, the frequency, the motivation and the reasoning behind unmasking can be problematic, and when you’re looking at unmasking as part of a broader investigation– like John Durham’s investigation– looking specifically at who was unmasking whom, can add a lot to our understanding about motivation and big picture events,” said Kupec.

Unmasking is a tool frequently used during the course of intelligence work and occurs after U.S. citizens’ conversations are incidentally picked up in conversations with foreign officials who are being monitored by the intelligence community. The U.S. citizens’ identities are supposed to be protected if their participation is incidental and no wrongdoing is suspected. However, officials can determine the U.S. citizens’ names through a process that is supposed to safeguard their rights. In the typical process, when officials are requesting the unmasking of an American, they do not necessarily know the identity of the person in advance.

Republicans became highly suspicious of the number of unmasking requests made by the Obama administration concerning Flynn, and have questioned whether other Trump associates were singled out. –Fox News

In short, Bash – a trusted operator within the Trump administration – will dig even deeper into the Obama administration’s use of unmasking against its political opponents.

v) King report/Courtesy of Chris Powell of GATA which includes the major swamp stories.

EU Will Propose 750 Billion-Euro Fiscal Stimulus Package ($823B)

500 billion euros from the package will be distributed in the form of grants to member states, and 250 billion euros could be available in loans. To fund the package, the EU would borrow up to 750 billion euros on financial markets…

https://www.bloombergquint.com/politics/eu-commission-proposes-750-billion-euro-fiscal-stimulus-package

@realDonaldTrump: Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives’ voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen. We saw what they attempted to do, and failed, in 2016. We can’t let a more sophisticated version of that happen again. Just like we can’t let large scale Mail-In Ballots take root in our Country. It would be a free for all on cheating, forgery and the theft of Ballots. Whoever cheated the most would win. Likewise, Social Media. Clean up your act, NOW!!!! Twitter has now shown that everything we have been saying about them (and their other compatriots) is correct. Big action to follow!

Twitter exec in charge of effort to fact-check Trump has history of anti-Trump posts, called McConnell a ‘bag of farts’ https://www.foxnews.com/politics/twitter-exec-in-charge-of-effort-to-fact-check-trump-has-history-of-anti-trump-posts-called-mcconnell-a-bag-of-farts

Sen. @marcorubio: The law still protects social media companies like @Twitter because they are considered forums not publishers. But if they have now decided to exercise an editorial role like a publisher then they should no longer be shielded from liability & treated as publishers under the law.

Sen. @HawleyMO: It’s pretty simple: if @Twitter and @Google and the rest are going to editorialize and censor and act like traditional publishers, they should be treated like traditional publishers and stop receiving the special carve out from the federal government in Section 230

Boeing is laying off more than 6,000 employees this week as coronavirus pandemic hurts demand

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/27/boeing-to-begin-laying-off-thousands-of-employees-this-week.html

Moderna Shares Tumble as Insiders Caught Running for the Exits

A little over a week ago, shares of American biotech stock Moderna soared more than 30% following a bullish statement on the company’s vaccine results. A few days later, CNN reported that company insiders, including the company’s chief medical officer and chief financial officer, cashed out some $30 million in options. CEO Stephane Bancel has also cashed out enough Moderna shares to cement his status as a billionaire. The high-flying biotech stock was forced to reckon with the confidence-draining impact of insider sales when StatNews reported on Wednesday that insiders have sold more than $89 million in stock so far this year…

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/moderna-shares-tumble-68-insiders-caught-running-exits

@SecPompeo: Today, I reported to Congress that Hong Kong is no longer autonomous from China, given facts on the ground. The United States stands with the people of Hong Kong.

Nobel Prize winner: Coronavirus lockdowns cost lives instead of saving them

“There is no doubt that you can stop an epidemic with lockdown, but it’s a very blunt and very medieval weapon and the epidemic could have been stopped just as effectively with other sensible measures (such as masks and other forms of social distancing),” he added… “It will have saved a few road accident lives, things like that, but social damage — domestic abuse, divorces, alcoholism — has been extreme. And then you have those who were not treated for other conditions,”…

“We should have seen from China that a virus never grows exponentially. From the very first case you see, exponential growth actually slows down very dramatically,” Levitt said… “The problem with epidemiologists is that they feel their job is to frighten people into lockdown, social distancing,”…

https://nypost.com/2020/05/26/nobel-prize-winner-coronavirus-lockdowns-saved-no-lives/

New FBI document confirms the Trump campaign was investigated without justification

Essentially, it is a document created by Peter Strzok, approved by Peter Strzok, and sent from Peter Strzok to Peter Strzok. On that basis alone, the document is an absurdity, violative of all FBI protocols and, therefore, invalid on its face. An agent cannot approve his or her own case; that would make a mockery of the oversight designed to protect Americans. Yet, for this document, Peter Strzok was pitcher, catcher, batter and umpire…

The Strzok EC quotes verbatim an email authored by Downer. In it, Downer claims Papadopoulos “suggested” to him that the Trump team had received “some kind of suggestion” of assistance from Russia regarding information damaging to Hillary Clinton and President Obama. In other words, a suggestion of a suggestion.

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/499586-new-fbi-document-confirms-the-trump-campaign-was-investigated-without

@jsolomonReports: Trump attorney accuses Mueller team of misleading president’s defense in a ‘monstrous lie and scheme to defraud’ – “Robert Mueller – ‘D.C.’s great man’ – completely and deliberately misled us in order to set up a perjury/false statement trap for POTUS. It was a monstrous lie and scheme to defraud.” https://t.co/EX26Pjhlsu

Tech billionaires are plotting sweeping, secret plans to boost Joe Biden – Inside the experiments, data wars, and partisan news sites that Silicon Valley thinks can help Biden catch up to Trump.

“Because the Biden campaign is the Biden campaign,” said one Democratic operative involved in these efforts, “what we are doing on the independent side matters a hell of a lot more than it would previously.”… four billionaires in particular — LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, philanthropist and Steve Jobs’s widow Laurene Powell Jobs, and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt [427 Obama WH visits] — have the most ambitious plans, according to Recode’s interviews with over 20 donors and operatives. The chess moves of this power set are instrumental to fulfilling Democrats’ — and much of Silicon Valley’s — four-year quest to oust Donald Trump…

https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/5/27/21271157/tech-billionaires-joe-biden-reid-hoffman-laurene-powell-jobs-dustin-moskovitz-eric-schmidt

Biden had another bad broadcast yesterday. Decorum prevents us from noting an unverifiable faux pas.

@SteveGuest: Joe Biden gets the day Delaware declared independence from Pennsylvania wrong, got the day D Day occurred wrong and then asks for teleprompter, “put that back on”

https://twitter.com/SteveGuest/status/1265671207313080322

Joe Biden forgets the size of the stimulus bill he says he ran, corrects himself, then wrongly says it was $84 billion. https://twitter.com/SteveGuest/status/1265665656327897088

@EricTrump: Jerry Nadler [Dem Rep] in 2004: “Paper ballots are EXTREMELY susceptible to fraud…I can show you experience which would make your head spin.”

https://twitter.com/EricTrump/status/1265605224699441153

Yesterday, Cuomo actually blamed nursey homes for obeying his order to accept Covid victims.

https://twitter.com/Rasmussen_Poll/status/1262556180943118337/photo/1

NY Daily News’ @harrysiegel: Cuomo very much putting this onus for covid deaths in nursing homes on nursing homes: “the obligation is on the nursing home to say, I can’t take a covd-positive person”

Cuomo granted immunity to nursing home executives, after big-money campaign donation: report

Received more than $1 million from the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA) — a lobbying group for hospital systems, some of which own nursing homes…

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/cuomo-immunity-nursing-home-campaign-donation

New Mexico Liberal Governor Michelle Grisham Locks Down State — Then Calls Jewelry Store for Special Purchase — And Now She Can’t Get Her Story Straight https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/05/busted-new-mexico-liberal-governor-michelle-grisham-locks-state-calls-jewelry-store-special-purchase-now-lying-video/

“Crisis is the rallying cry of the tyrant”. – James Madison, 4^th Prez & “Father of the US Constitution”

Well that is all for today

I will see you FRIDAY night.

NUMBER OF NOTICES FILED TODAY FOR MAY CONTRACT: 5 NOTICE(S) FOR 500 OZ (0.01552 tonnes)

1 NOTICE(S) FILED TODAY FOR 5,000 OZ/

Let us have a look at the data for today

3. ASIAN AFFAIRS

Trading Volumes on the COMEX TODAY: 445,072 contracts//volume higher than normal//SPREADERS LIQUIDATION

CONFIRMED COMEX VOL. FOR YESTERDAY: 272,155 contracts// volume still very low

ii) Important gold commentaries courtesy of GATA/Chris Powell

Bloomberg says the Comex is stuck with too much gold

U.N. willing to take Venezuelan gold from Bank of England for food, medical relief

Pam and Russ Martens: Fed admits corporate bond buying will be at least a 5-year bailout

Nazi gold said buried near palace in Poland — will LBMA hypothecate it by Friday?

iii) Other physical stories:

Exclusive: Bullion banks prepare CME pullback after virus snarl

OPPORTUNITY FOR LONDON

STILL THE BIGGEST

March ructions deter bullion banks from gold futures

Andrew Maguire: “Wholesale Silver Shortage” Reflected In Widening SLV Spread

US seeks halt in civil lawsuit accusing JP Morgan of manipulating metals market, citing criminal case

Federal judge tells traders they can combine cases accusing JP Morgan of rigging metals market

Justice Department stalls another class action in gold market rigging, this one against JPM

Your early THURSDAY morning currency, Asian stock market results, important USA/Asian currency crosses, gold/silver pricing overnight along with the price of oil Major stories overnight/7 AM EST

Futures Tread Water In Calm Before US-China Storm, Trump Twitter Crackdown

3A/ASIAN AFFAIRS

3 a./NORTH KOREA/ SOUTH KOREA

b) REPORT ON JAPAN

3 C CHINA

Satellite Images Confirm Rapid Chinese Military Expansion On Disputed Indian Border

Trump Offers To “Mediate” India & China’s “Raging Border Dispute” Amid Military Build-Up

Hong Kong may well lose large now – May 27, 2020 at 2:50 PM.pdf

White House Expels Chinese Grad Students With Ties To People’s Liberation Army

Senator Says China Tariffs Will Now Apply To Hong Kong As Beijing Approves “National Security” Law

China Rattled After Taiwan Pledges Help For Fleeing Hong Kongers

China Secures Brazilian Soy As Trade War Restart Appears Imminent

Rabobank: Free Speech And Free Markets Go Hand In Hand; We Have Neither

4/EUROPEAN AFFAIRS

5. RUSSIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS

6.Global Issues

Canadian Judge Rules Against Huawei CFO, Clearing Way For Extradition

‘Thousands’ Of Dutch COVID-19 Survivors Likely Have Permanent Lung Damage According To Top Pulmonologist

7. OIL ISSUES

8 EMERGING MARKET ISSUES

Trump Offers Condolences To Families Of America’s 100k COVID-19 Victims; Brazil Passes 400k Cases: Live Updates

END

Your early morning currency/gold and silver pricing/Asian and European bourse movements/ and interest rate settings THURSDAY morning 7:00 AM….

Your closing bourses for Europe and the Dow along with the USA dollar index closing and interest rates for THURSDAY: 12:00 PM

Closing Price for Oil, 4:00 pm/and 10 year USA interest rate:

USA trading today in Graph Form

Dollar Slumps, Small Caps Dump, Oil Pumped

And now your more important USA stories which will influence the price of gold/silver

Over 40 Million Jobless In 10 Weeks – “Nobody Ever Imagined It Would Get This Bad So Fast”

The Collapse In US Durables Goods Orders Accelerates In April

Q1 GDP Revised To -5% As Corporate Profits Plunge 14%

Pending Home Sales Plummet 35% YoY – Biggest Drop Ever As Buyers Forfeit Deposits

“Big Day For Fairness” – White House Plans To Empower FCC To Regulate American Social Media Giants

“Now The Really Crazy Stuff Starts” – Rubino Rages “Suddenly Everything’s Too-Big-To-Fail”

Le Pain Quotidien Is Latest Food Chain To File For Bankruptcy

“Minneapolis Is Burning” – Buildings Torched, Stores Looted, Protests Over George Floyd Intensify

US Lawmakers Propose Total Ban On STEM Visas For Chinese Students

These FBI Docs Put Barack Obama In The Middle Of The ‘Obamagate’ Narrative

AG Barr Asks Kavanaugh-Connected US Attorney To Probe Obamagate ‘Unmaskings’

Share this:

Related

One comment

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Donate

Archive

Spot Gold

Spot Silver