GOLD CLOSED UP $29.30 TO $4518.25

SILVER CLOSED UP $2.92 TO $68.12

ACCESS MARKET

GOLD $4,525.65 3:30 PM)

SILVER: 68.20 3;30 PM)

BITCOIN MORNING: 69,828 FOR A GAIN OF 1524 DOLLARS.

BITCOIN FINAL; 72,614 FOR A GAIN FOR THE DAY: $4310

PLATINUM CLOSED UP $20.00 TO $1828.00

PALLADIUM CLOSED UP $3.50 TO $1336.00

COMEX EXCHANGE:

EXCHANGE: COMEX
CONTRACT: AUGUST 2026 COMEX 100 GOLD FUTURES
SETTLEMENT: 4,489.400000000 USD
INTENT DATE: 08/19/2026 DELIVERY DATE: 08/21/2026
FIRM ORG FIRM NAME ISSUED STOPPED

099 H DEUTSCHE BANK AG 6
555 C BNP PARIBAS SEC CORP 154
661 C JP MORGAN SECURITIES 25 171
732 C RBC CAP MARKETS 13
905 C ADM 11

TOTAL: 190 190

JPMorgan stopped 171/190

GOLD: NUMBER OF NOTICES FILED FOR AUGUST/2026: 190 CONTRACTs NOTICES FOR 19,000 OZ or 0.59097 TONNES

total notices so far: 18,128 contracts FOR 1,812,800 OZ OR 56.385 TONNES

SILVER NOTICES: 11 NOTICE(S) FILED FOR 0.0550 MILLION OZ /

total number of notices filed so far this month : 1617 CONTRACTS (NOTICES) for 8.085 million oz

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GLD AND SLV

BOTH GLD AND SLV ARE FRAUDULENT VEHICLES//THEY ARE NOW RAIDING GLD AND SLV FOR PHYSICAL

GLD

THE CROOKS ARE STEALING GOLD AND SILVER FROM THE GLD/SLV AND REPLACING THE PHYSICAL WITH PAPER DOLLARS.

WITH GOLD UP $29.30 INVESTORS SWITCHING TO SPROTYSICAL (PHYS) INSTEAD OF THE FRAUDULENT GLD//HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD:/// A MASSIVE DEPOSIT OF 9.41 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD.

INVENTORY RESTS AT 1034.65 TONNES

SLV/

WITH NO SILVER AROUND AND SILVER UP $2.92 AT THE SLV: HUGE CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A WITHDRAWAL OF 2.169 MILLION OZ OUT OF THE SLV/// A//INVENTORY RESTS AT 491.121 MILLION OZ

CLOSING INVENTORY: 491.121 MILLION OZ

SILVER//OUTLINE

SILVER COMEX OI SURPRISINGLY FELL A STRONG SIZED 502 CONTRACTS TO AN OI OF 119,615 STILL A LOT HIGHER FROM ITS NEW RECORD LOW OF 95,999 SET MAY 1/2026. THE RECORD HIGH OI FOR SILVER IS 244,710, SET FEB 25/2020, AND THIS LOSS IN COMEX OI WAS ACCOMPLISHED WITH OUR HUGE GAIN OF $1.72 IN SILVER PRICING AT THE COMEX WITH RESPECT TO WEDNESDAY’S TRADING. ON THE FIRST OF MAY, WE REACHED OUR RECORD LOW OI OF 95,999 SURPASSING EVERY DAY NEW OI LOWS SET DURING THE LAST WEEK OF APRIL 2026.

NOW ON A NET BASIS OUR SPECULATORS HAVE REVERTED BACK TO GOING SHORT. THE FRBNY ON A NET BASIS IS PROVIDING THE NECESSARY PAPER TO OUR LONG BANKERS AND THEN TENDER FOR PHYSICAL AT 4 PM EACH NIGHT. BECAUSE OF THE HUGE SHORTFALL IN PHYSICAL SILVER IN LONDON THERE IS A LOTTERY TO SEE WHO GETS ANY OF THE PHYSICAL SILVER AVAILABLE THAT WHICH THEY ARE OBLIGATED TO DELIVER. THEY WAIT PATIENTLY FOR THEIR PHYSICAL METAL AND IF NOBODY GETS ANY THEY THEN COME BACK THE NEXT DAY AND SO ON. THIS IS IN LONDON, THE HOME OF PHYSICAL SILVER!! THE FACT THAT WE ARE WITNESSING MANY EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL TRANSFERS TO LONDON HIGHLIGHTS THE FACT THAT THE COMEX IS OUT OF SILVER AS WELL.

WE ARE NOW MOVING TO A MUCH LOWER BASE IN SILVER PRICING BREAKING MAJOR SUPPORT LEVEL OF $70.00. SHORTLY WE WILL REVERT BACK TO NUMBERS GREATER THAN 70 DOLLARS PER OZ.

WE HAVE A SMALL LOSS OF 152 TOTAL CONTRACTS ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES AS THE CME NOTIFIED US OF A FAIR SIZED 350 CONTRACT EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL ISSUANCE , WE HAD ZERO LIQUIDATION OF T.A.S. CONTRACTS IN COMEX TRADING WITH RESPECT TO WEDNESDAY TRADING// WE HAD A MEGA HUGE SIZED 1055 CONTRACT T.A.S. ISSUANCE!! / THEY DESPERATELY AGAIN TODAY TRYING TO CONTAIN SILVER’S PRICE GAIN FOR THE PAST SEVERAL WEEKS (WHERE RAIDS ARE CALLED UPON AGAIN AND AGAIN TRYING TO STOP THE RISE IN SILVER’S PRICE TO ABOVE $100.00 AND TO QUELL ADDITIONAL DERIVATIVE LOSSES TO OUR BANKERS’ MASSIVE TOTALS). THEY FAILED ON WEDNESDAY WITH SILVER’S GAIN IN PRICE.

THE PRICE STILL FINISHED BELOW THE MAGIC NUMBER OF $70.00 SILVER SPOT PRICE BUT STILL BELOW THE $100.00 MARK CLOSING AT $65.64 UP $1.72. WE ARE NOW WITNESSING HAVING MANY HUGE T.A.S ISSUANCES // TODAY’S WAS A HUGE SIZED 1055 T.A.S. CONTRACTS !!. THE CROOKS ARE BECOMING MORE DESPERATE TO STOP SILVER BREAKING ABOVE THE 100.00 DOLLAR MARK!! AND NOW THE HUGE SUPPORT LEVEL OF 70 DOLLARS HAS BEEN BROKEN// //.MAMMOTH SIZE T.A.S ISSUANCES ARE BECOMING THE NORM AT THE COMEX NOW!!

THERE IS NO NEXT LINE IN THE SAND ONCE THE 100.00 DOLLAR SILVER IS PIERCED AGAIN. WE HAD A FAIR SIZED 265 CONTRACT EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL ISSUANCE ACCOMPANIED BY OUR MEGA HUGE SIZED 1027 CONTRACT T.A.S ISSUANCE WHICH WILL BE USED FOR RAID PURPOSES//AS THEY PLAY AN INTEGRAL PART IN OUR COMEX TRADING TRYING TO CONTAIN ANY SILVER PRICE RISE

IN ESSENCE WE HAD A SMALL SIZED LOSS OF 152 CONTRACTS ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES WITH OUR GAIN IN PRICE OF $1.72. WE HAD CONSIDERABLE GOVERNMENT (FRBY) COMEX CONTRACTS TRADING ALL WEEK AND A MAJOR PORTION WILL BE REMOVED BY DAYS END. (I RECORD THIS FOR YOU ON A DAILY BASIS). THE STICKY SPECULATOR LONGS STILL REMAIN STOIC

CRAIG HEMKE HAS POINTED OUT THAT THE CROOKS USE THE MID MONTH FOR MANIPULATION AS THEY SELL THEIR BUY SIDE OF THE CALENDAR SPREAD FIRST AND THEN KEEP THE SELL SIDE TO LIQUIDATE AT A LATER DATE.

THUS WE HAVE TWO VEHICLES THE CROOKS USE FOR MANIPULATION AND BOTH ARE SPREADERS: 1)MONTH’S END/SPREADERS COMEX AND 2/ TAS SPREADERS, THROUGHOUT MONTH. TOTAL TAS ISSUED ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT/THURSDAY MORNING: A MEGA HUGE SIZED 1055 CONTRACTS. DESPITE MANY COMPLAINTS THAT THESE CROOKS HAVE VIOLATED POSITION LIMITS DUE TO THE FACT THAT THE TAS ISSUED HAVE A VALUE OF ZERO (AS TO POSITION LIMITS FOR OUR CROOKED FRBNY BANKERS).

THE PROBLEM OF COURSE IS THAT THE CROOKS DO NOT LIQUIDATE THE TAS AS ONE UNIT, BUT SELL THE SHORT SIDE FIRST AND THEN LIQUIDATE THE LONG SIDE TWO MONTHS HENCE. IT IS OBVIOUS MANIPULATION TO THE HIGHEST DEGREE BUT IT NATURALLY FELL ON DEAF EARS WITH OUR REGULATORS (OCC) WHEN THEY RECEIVED OUR COMPLAINTS. IT NOW SEEMS THAT THE OCC HAS NOW ORDERED THE BANKS TO REDUCE ITS NEW LEVEL OF 1.1 TRILLION DOLLARS IN GOLD/SILVER DERIVATIVES.

THUS:

INITIAL STANDING FOR JANUARY: 22.915 MILLION OZ FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 1.185 MILLION OZ QUEUE JUMP//NEW NORMAL STANDING ADVANCES TO 49.445 MILLION OZ// TO WHICH WE ADD OUR FIRST EXCHANGE FOR RISK FOR .100 MILLION OZ//NEW STANDING ADVANCES TO 49.545 MILLION OZ!!

INTIAL STANDING FOR FEBRUARY/SILVER: 13.505 MILLION OZ FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S HUGE 0.005 MILLION OZ QUEUE JUMP / : NEW STANDING FOR SILVER AT THE COMEX ADVANCES TO 25.180 MILLION OZ. BUT WE MUST ADD OUR FIRST EXCHANGE FOR RISK OF 25 CONTRACTS FOR .125 MILLION OZ AND THEN OUR SECOND EXCHANGE FOR RISK OF .0600 MILLION OZ TO OUR THIRD HUGE 2.825 MILLION OZ EXCHANGE FOR RISK!!

INITIAL STANDING FOR MARCH: A SURPRISINGLY LOW 31.076 MILLION OZ/ FOLLOWED BY A TINY QUEUE JUMP OF XX CONTRACTS OR XXX OZ/NEW STANDING ADVANCES TO 46.060 MILLION OZ

INITIAL STANDING FOR APRIL: 7.120 MILLION OZ FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 1 CONTRACT QUEUE JUMP WHERE 5,000 OZ WILL TAKE DELIVERY OVER ON THIS SIDE OF THE POND. NEW STANDING FOR SILVER AT THE COMEX THUS ADVANCES SLIGHTLY TO 16.565 MILLION OZ PLUS WE MUST ADD OUR 4TH EXCHANGE FOR RISK ISSUANCE OF 17 CONTRACTS OR 0.085 MILLION OZ. THESE WILL BE ADDED TO OUR OTHER 3 ISSUANCES //NEW TOTAL EXCHANGE FOR RISK//1.165 MILLION OZ// NEW TOTAL SILVER STANDING 17.730 MILLION OZ//

INITIAL STANDING FOR MAY: 31.495 MILLION OZ FOLLOWED BY ANOTHER 3 CONTRACT EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL JUMP TO LONDON FOR 0.015 MILLION OZ// AND THEN TO BOOT WE HAD OUR FIRST EXCHANGE FOR RISK ISSUANCE FOR 51 CONTRACTS OR 255,000 OZ MAY 21./STANDING BEFORE EXCHANGE FOR RISK: 32.070 MILLION OZ/NEW STANDING THUS REDUCES TO 32.325 MILLION OZ/.//(32.070 MILLION OZ NORMAL STANDING PLUS .255 MILLION OZ EXCHANGE FOR RISK = 32.325 MILLION OZ)

JUNE INITIAL STANDING FOR SILVER:10.935 MILLION OZ TO WHICH WE ADD OUR NEXT QUEUE JUMP OF 10,000 OZ//NEW STANDING ADVANCES TO 12.970 MILLION OZ// TO WHICH WE ADD OUR FIRST EXCHANGE FOR RISK OF 20 CONTRACTS FOR 100,000 OZ//NEW STANDING ADVANCES TO 13.070 MILLION OZ. (IN EXCHANGE FOR RISK THE BUYER ASSUMES THE RISK AND ONLY A CENTRAL BANK WOULD TAKE THAT RISK. THE BUYER IS PROBABLY THE CENTRAL BANK OF INDIA.)

JULY INITIAL STANDING: 37.110 MILLION OZ FOLLOWED BY A 3 CONTRACT QUEUE JUMP OR 0.015MILLION STANDING ADVANCES TO 45.875 MILLION OZ///

AUGUST INITIAL STANDING 6.240 MILLION OZ FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 14 CONTRACT QUEUE JUMP FOR 70,000 OZ//NEW STANDING ADVANCES TO 8.145 MILLION OZ/

SUMMARY OF OUR JULY 2026 COMEX CONTRACT MONTH

WE HAD:

/ STRONG SIZED COMEX LOSS+// A FAIR SIZED EFP ISSUANCE CONTRACTS AT 350 CONTRACTS () A MEGA HUGE NUMBER OF T.A.S. CONTRACT ISSUANCE 1055 CONTRACTS

I AM NOW RECORDING THE DIFFERENTIAL IN OI FROM PRELIMINARY TO FINAL: REMOVED 94 CONTRACTS OF OI SILVER //

HISTORICAL ACCUMULATION OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS AUGUST.. ACCUMULATION

TOTAL CONTRACTS for 14 DAY(S), total 5780 contracts: OR 28.900 MILLION OZ (412 CONTRACTS PER DAY)

TOTAL EFP’S FOR THE MONTH SO FAR: 28.900 MILLION OZ

LAST 48 MONTHS TOTAL EFP CONTRACTS ISSUED IN MILLIONS OF OZ:

MAY 137.83 MILLION

JUNE 149.91 MILLION OZ

JULY 129.445 MILLION OZ

AUGUST: MILLION OZ 140.120

SEPT. 28.230 MILLION OZ//

OCT: 94.595 MILLION OZ

NOV: 131.925 MILLION OZ

DEC: 100.615 MILLION OZ

YEAR 2022

JAN 2022-DEC 2022

JAN 2022// 90.460 MILLION OZ

FEB 2022: 72.39 MILLION OZ//

MARCH 2022: 207.140 MILLION OZ//A NEW RECORD FOR EFP ISSUANCE

APRIL: 114.52 MILLION OZ FINAL//LOW ISSUANCE

MAY: 105.635 MILLION OZ//

JUNE: 94.470 MILLION OZ

JULY : 87.110 MILLION OZ

AUGUST: 65.025 MILLION OZ

SEPT. 74.025 MILLION OZ///FINAL

OCT. 29.017 MILLION OZ FINAL

NOV: 134.290 MILLION OZ//FINAL

DEC, 61.395 MILLION OZ FINAL

TOTALS YR 2022: 1135.767 MILLION OZ (1.1356 BILLION OZ)

JAN 2023/// 53.070 MILLION OZ //FINAL

FEB: 2023: 100.105 MILLION OZ/FINAL//MUCH STRONGER ISSUANCE VS THE LATTER TWO MONTHS.

MARCH 2023: 112.58 MILLION OZ//FINAL//STRONG ISSUANCE

APRIL 111.035 MILLION OZ(SLIGHTLY GREATER THAN THAN LAST MONTH)

MAY 66.120 MILLION OZ/INITIAL (MUCH SMALLER THIS MONTH)

JUNE: 110.395 MILLION OZ//MUCH LARGER THAN LAST MONTH

JULY 85.745 MILLION OZ (SMALLER THAN LAST MONTH)

AUGUST: 171.43 MILLION OZ (THIS MONTH IS GOING TO BE HUGE //2ND HIGHEST ON RECORD

SEPT: 72.705 MILLION OZ (SMALLER THIS MONTH)

OCT: 97.455 MILLION OZ

NOV. 50.050 MILLION OZ

DEC. 66.140 MILLION OZ//

TOTAL 2023: 1,104.10 MILLION OZ/

JAN ’24 : 78.655 MILLION OZ//

FEB /2024 : 66.135 MILLION OZ./FINAL

MARCH: 143.750 MILLION OZ// 4TH HIGHEST ON RECORD.

APRIL: 161.770 MILLION OZ (THIS MONTH WILL BE A WHOPPER OF ISSUANCE OF EFPS//3RD HIGHEST EVER RECORDED FOR A MONTH)

MAY: 135.995 MILLION OZ //WILL BE A STRONG MONTH FOR EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL ISSUANCE

JUNE 110.575 MILLION OZ ( WILL BE ANOTHER STRONG MONTH ISSUANCE)

JULY: 108.870 MILLION OZ (WILL BE A STRONG ISSUANCE MONTH/ A TOUCH OVER 100 MILLION OZ/)

AUGUST; 99.740 MILLION OZ//THIS MONTH WILL BE STRONG FOR ISSUANCE BUT LESS THAN JULY.

SEPT: 112.415 MILLION OZ//WILL BE A HUGE MONTH FOR EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL ISSUANCE

OCT; 97.485 MILLION OZ (WILL BE SMALLER ISSUANCE THIS MONTH )

NOV. 115.970 MILLION OZ ( HUGE THIS MONTH)

DEC: 132.54 MILLION OZ (THIS MONTH WILL BE A HUMDINGER FOR ISSUANCE BUT ISSUANCE SLOWED DRAMATICALLY THESE PAST FIVE DAYS/// WILL NOT EXCEED MARCH 2022 RECORD OF 209 MILLION OZ

YEAR 2024 TOTAL: 1363.84 MILLION OR 1.363 BILLION OZ

JANUARY 2025: 67.230 MILLION OZ///(THIS MONTH’S ISSUANCE OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL WILL BE SMALL)

FEB. 58.260 MILLION OZ//EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL ISSUANCE/FINAL

MARCH: 67.020 MILLION OZ///QUITE SMALL AND BECOMING SMALLER EACH AND EVERY MONTH.

APRIL: 100.895 MILLION OZ///AVERAGE SIZE ISSUANCE

MAY: 28.975 MILLION OZ (ISSUANCE WILL BE QUITE SMALL THIS MONTH)

JUNE: 81.065 MILLION OZ

JULY: 50.925 MILLION OZ (QUITE SMALL)

AUGUST: 59.455 MILLION OZ (QUITE SMALL)

SEPT. 50.510 MILLION OZ.(QUITE SMALL)

OCT; 82.020 MILLION OZ (WILL BE STRONG THIS MONTH)/ OCC WANTS TO REIN IN THESE ISSUANCES!

NOVEMBER: 36.425 MILLION OZ

DEC: 45.765 MILLION OZ

2026:

JANUARY 2026: 134.270 MILLION OZ (WILL BE A VERY STRONG MONTH FOR EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL!)

FEB : 82.130 MILLION OZ

MARCH: 56.075 MILLION OZ

APRIL; 44.44 MILLION OZ//FINAL.. SMALL THIS MONTH.

MAY 59.79 MILLION OZ

JUNE. 64.065 MILLION OZ//FINAL AND FAIR SIZED THIS MONTH.

JULY: 38.335 MILLION OZ

AUGUST: 28.900. MILLION OZ.

RESULT: WE HAD A STRONG SIZED DECREASE IN COMEX OI SILVER COMEX CONTRACTS OF 408 CONTRACTS DESPITE OUR GAIN IN PRICE OF $1.72 IN SILVER PRICING AT THE COMEX// WEDNESDAY,. THE CME NOTIFIED US THAT WE HAD A FAIR SIZED CONTRACT EFP ISSUANCE OF 350 CONTRACTS ISSUED FOR SEPT, AND 0 CONTRACTS ISSUED FOR ALL OTHER MONTHS).

INITIAL STANDING: 6.240 MILLION OZ FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 70,000 OZ QUEUE JUMP//STANDING ADVANCES TO 8.145 MILLION OZ

LAST 17 MONTHS OF SILVER DELIVERIES

WE FINISHED APRIL WITH A STRONG SILVER OZ STANDING OF 16.050 MILLION OZ NORMAL DELIVERY , PLUS OUR 4.00 MILLION EX FOR RISK

FINAL STANDING APRIL: 19.965 MILLION OZ

AND MAY:

NEW STANDING FOR MAY FINISHES AT: 75.615 MILLION OZ. (INCLUDES 5,000 OZ EFP TRANSFER TO LONDON + 12.93 MILLION OZ EXCHANGE FOR RISK ISSUANCE/PRIOR.//NEW TOTAL STANDING 88.540 MILLION OZ

AND JUNE: FINAL 16.995 MILLION OZ

AND JULY: 46.720 MILLION OZ//

AUGUST: 4.70 MILLION OZ INITIAL STANDING PLUS TODAY;S 5,000 OZ QUEUE JUMP //NEW STANDING ADVANCES TO 10.960 MILLION OZ

SEPTEMBER: 68.040 MILLION OZ NORMAL DELIVERY(INCLUDES ALL QUEUE JUMPING AND EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL TRANSFERS) PLUS 3.0 MILLION OZ EX FOR RISK = 71.040 MILLION OZ. (THIS IS THE FIRST AND ONLY ISSUANCE OF EXCHANGE FOR RISK FOR SILVER SINCE MAY.)

OCTOBER: 39.565 MILLION OZ OF NORMAL DELIVERY INCLUDES ALL QUEUE JUMPING

PLUS

2.110 MILLION OZ EXCHANGE FOR RISK//TOTAL OZ STANDING IN OCT ADVAN

NOVEMBER: INITIAL STANDING AT 11.575 MILLION OZ FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 195,000 OZ QUEUE JUMP WHICH FOLLOWS ALL OTHER QUEUE JUMPS OF 9.155 MILLION OZ//STANDING ADVANCES TO 19.670 MILLION OZ/

DECEMBER: INITIAL AMOUNT STANDING FOR DELIVERY: 49.33 MILLION OZ// FOLLOWED BY ANOTHER STRONG 835,000OZ QUEUE JUMP+ DEC. FIRST EXCHANGE FOR RISK 0F .850 MILLION OZ + LAST WEEK.S 495,000 OZ EXCHANGE FOR RISK AND THEN A 3RD ISSUANCE IF 1.00MILLION OZ THEN FINALLY DEC 249ISSUANCE OF 1.35 MILLION OZ EXCHANGE FOR RISK//NEW TOTAL EX FOR RIS IS 3.685 MILLION OZ // STANDING ADVANCES TO 68.415 MILLION OZ//

JANUARY: INITIAL STANDING 22.915 MILLION OZ FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 1.185 MILLION OZ QUEUE JUMP//NORMAL STANDING ADVANCES TO 49.445 MILLION OZ// TO WHICH WE ADD OUR FIRST EXCHANGE FOR RISK OF 0.100 MILLLION OZ//NEW STANDING ADVANCES TO 49.545 MILLION OZ

FEB: 13.399 MILLION OZ IS OUR INITIAL STANDING FOR SILVER! TO WHICH WE ADD OUR NEXT QUEUE JUMP FOR 5,000 OZ AND THEN ADD OUR 3 EXCHANGE FOR RISK FOR 3.010 MILLION OZ STANDING ADVANCES TO 28.190 MILLION OZ!!

MARCH: INITIAL AMOUNT OF SILVER STANDING IS 31.076 MILLION OZ FOLLOWED BY A FINAL 0.210 MILLION OZ QUEUE JUMP //NEW TOTAL STANDING ADVANCES TO 46.060 MILLION OZ

APRIL 2026: INITITAL AMOUNT OF SILVER STANDING 7.120 MILLION OZ FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 5,000 OZ QUUE JUMP //NEW STANDING ADVANCES TO 16.565MILLION OZ PLUS 1.165 MILLION OZ EXCHANGE FOR RISK.NEW TOTALS 17.730 MILLION OZ

MAY: INITIAL AMOUNT OF SILVER WILLING TO STAND; 31.495 MILLION OZ/ TO WHICH WE ADD OUR NEXT EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL JUMP OF 15,000 OZ//NEW STANDING REDUCES TO 32.070 MILLION OZ//(FOLLOWING MANY EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL TRANSFERS TO LONDON DURING THIS MAY DELIVERY MONTH). THERE SEEMS TO BE A SCARCITY OF SILVER OVER AT THE COMEX). THEN WE ADD OUR FIRST EXCHANGE FOR RISK OF 51 CONTRACTS FOR 255,000 OZ//STANDING ADVANCES TO 32.325 MILLION OZ//

JUNE: INITIAL AMOUNT OF SILVER WILLING TO STAND: 10.935 MILLION OZ PLUS OUR NEXT QUEUE JUMP OF 10,000 OZ//NEW STANDING ADVANCES TO 12.960 MILLION OZ TO WHICH WE ADD OUR FIRST EXCHANGE FOR RISK OF 20 CONTRACTS FOR 100,000 OZ//NEW STANDING ADVANCES TO 13.070 MILLION OZ

JULY : INITIAL STANDING: 37.110 MILLION OZ FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 15,000 OZ QUEUE JUMP //STANDING THUS ADVANCES TO 45.875 MILLION OZ//

AUGUST 6.240 MILLION OZ FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 70,000 OZ QUEUE JUMP//STANDING ADVANCES TO 8.145 MILLION OZ/

THE NEW TAS ISSUANCE FOR TODAY (1055) WILL BE PUT INTO “THE BANK” TO BE COLLUSIVELY USED NO DOUBT WITH FUTURE TRADING//.

WE HAD 11 NOTICE(S) FILED TODAY FOR 55,000 OZ

THE SILVER COMEX IS NOW BEING ATTACKED FOR METAL BY BANK OF INDIA

GOLD//OUTLINE

WE ARE NOW MOVING TO A MUCH LOWER BASE IN SILVER PRICING BREAKING MAJOR SUPPORT LEVEL OF $70.00. SHORTLY WE WILL REVERT BACK TO NUMBERS GREATER THAN 70 DOLLARS PER OZ.

CRAIG HEMKE HAS POINTED OUT THAT THE CROOKS USE THE MID MONTH FOR MANIPULATION AS THEY SELL THEIR BUY SIDE OF THE CALENDAR SPREAD FIRST AND THEN KEEP THE SELL SIDE TO LIQUIDATE AT A LATER DATE.

THUS:

INITIAL STANDING FOR MARCH: A SURPRISINGLY LOW 31.076 MILLION OZ/ FOLLOWED BY A TINY QUEUE JUMP OF XX CONTRACTS OR XXX OZ/NEW STANDING ADVANCES TO 46.060 MILLION OZ

JULY INITIAL STANDING: 37.110 MILLION OZ FOLLOWED BY A 3 CONTRACT QUEUE JUMP OR 0.015MILLION STANDING ADVANCES TO 45.875 MILLION OZ///

AUGUST INITIAL STANDING 6.240 MILLION OZ FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 14 CONTRACT QUEUE JUMP FOR 70,000 OZ//NEW STANDING ADVANCES TO 8.145 MILLION OZ/

SUMMARY OF OUR JULY 2026 COMEX CONTRACT MONTH

WE HAD:

/ STRONG SIZED COMEX LOSS+// A FAIR SIZED EFP ISSUANCE CONTRACTS AT 350 CONTRACTS () A MEGA HUGE NUMBER OF T.A.S. CONTRACT ISSUANCE 1055 CONTRACTS

I AM NOW RECORDING THE DIFFERENTIAL IN OI FROM PRELIMINARY TO FINAL: REMOVED 94 CONTRACTS OF OI SILVER //

HISTORICAL ACCUMULATION OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICALS AUGUST.. ACCUMULATION

TOTAL CONTRACTS for 14 DAY(S), total 5780 contracts: OR 28.900 MILLION OZ (412 CONTRACTS PER DAY)

TOTAL EFP’S FOR THE MONTH SO FAR: 28.900 MILLION OZ

LAST 48 MONTHS TOTAL EFP CONTRACTS ISSUED IN MILLIONS OF OZ:

MAY 137.83 MILLION

JUNE 149.91 MILLION OZ

JULY 129.445 MILLION OZ

AUGUST: MILLION OZ 140.120

SEPT. 28.230 MILLION OZ//

OCT: 94.595 MILLION OZ

NOV: 131.925 MILLION OZ

DEC: 100.615 MILLION OZ

YEAR 2022

JAN 2022-DEC 2022

JAN 2022// 90.460 MILLION OZ

FEB 2022: 72.39 MILLION OZ//

MARCH 2022: 207.140 MILLION OZ//A NEW RECORD FOR EFP ISSUANCE

APRIL: 114.52 MILLION OZ FINAL//LOW ISSUANCE

MAY: 105.635 MILLION OZ//

JUNE: 94.470 MILLION OZ

JULY : 87.110 MILLION OZ

AUGUST: 65.025 MILLION OZ

SEPT. 74.025 MILLION OZ///FINAL

OCT. 29.017 MILLION OZ FINAL

NOV: 134.290 MILLION OZ//FINAL

DEC, 61.395 MILLION OZ FINAL

TOTALS YR 2022: 1135.767 MILLION OZ (1.1356 BILLION OZ)

JAN 2023/// 53.070 MILLION OZ //FINAL

FEB: 2023: 100.105 MILLION OZ/FINAL//MUCH STRONGER ISSUANCE VS THE LATTER TWO MONTHS.

MARCH 2023: 112.58 MILLION OZ//FINAL//STRONG ISSUANCE

APRIL 111.035 MILLION OZ(SLIGHTLY GREATER THAN THAN LAST MONTH)

MAY 66.120 MILLION OZ/INITIAL (MUCH SMALLER THIS MONTH)

JUNE: 110.395 MILLION OZ//MUCH LARGER THAN LAST MONTH

JULY 85.745 MILLION OZ (SMALLER THAN LAST MONTH)

AUGUST: 171.43 MILLION OZ (THIS MONTH IS GOING TO BE HUGE //2ND HIGHEST ON RECORD

SEPT: 72.705 MILLION OZ (SMALLER THIS MONTH)

OCT: 97.455 MILLION OZ

NOV. 50.050 MILLION OZ

DEC. 66.140 MILLION OZ//

TOTAL 2023: 1,104.10 MILLION OZ/

JAN ’24 : 78.655 MILLION OZ//

FEB /2024 : 66.135 MILLION OZ./FINAL

MARCH: 143.750 MILLION OZ// 4TH HIGHEST ON RECORD.

APRIL: 161.770 MILLION OZ (THIS MONTH WILL BE A WHOPPER OF ISSUANCE OF EFPS//3RD HIGHEST EVER RECORDED FOR A MONTH)

MAY: 135.995 MILLION OZ //WILL BE A STRONG MONTH FOR EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL ISSUANCE

JUNE 110.575 MILLION OZ ( WILL BE ANOTHER STRONG MONTH ISSUANCE)

JULY: 108.870 MILLION OZ (WILL BE A STRONG ISSUANCE MONTH/ A TOUCH OVER 100 MILLION OZ/)

AUGUST; 99.740 MILLION OZ//THIS MONTH WILL BE STRONG FOR ISSUANCE BUT LESS THAN JULY.

SEPT: 112.415 MILLION OZ//WILL BE A HUGE MONTH FOR EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL ISSUANCE

OCT; 97.485 MILLION OZ (WILL BE SMALLER ISSUANCE THIS MONTH )

NOV. 115.970 MILLION OZ ( HUGE THIS MONTH)

DEC: 132.54 MILLION OZ (THIS MONTH WILL BE A HUMDINGER FOR ISSUANCE BUT ISSUANCE SLOWED DRAMATICALLY THESE PAST FIVE DAYS/// WILL NOT EXCEED MARCH 2022 RECORD OF 209 MILLION OZ

YEAR 2024 TOTAL: 1363.84 MILLION OR 1.363 BILLION OZ

JANUARY 2025: 67.230 MILLION OZ///(THIS MONTH’S ISSUANCE OF EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL WILL BE SMALL)

FEB. 58.260 MILLION OZ//EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL ISSUANCE/FINAL

MARCH: 67.020 MILLION OZ///QUITE SMALL AND BECOMING SMALLER EACH AND EVERY MONTH.

APRIL: 100.895 MILLION OZ///AVERAGE SIZE ISSUANCE

MAY: 28.975 MILLION OZ (ISSUANCE WILL BE QUITE SMALL THIS MONTH)

JUNE: 81.065 MILLION OZ

JULY: 50.925 MILLION OZ (QUITE SMALL)

AUGUST: 59.455 MILLION OZ (QUITE SMALL)

SEPT. 50.510 MILLION OZ.(QUITE SMALL)

OCT; 82.020 MILLION OZ (WILL BE STRONG THIS MONTH)/ OCC WANTS TO REIN IN THESE ISSUANCES!

NOVEMBER: 36.425 MILLION OZ

DEC: 45.765 MILLION OZ

2026:

JANUARY 2026: 134.270 MILLION OZ (WILL BE A VERY STRONG MONTH FOR EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL!)

FEB : 82.130 MILLION OZ

MARCH: 56.075 MILLION OZ

APRIL; 44.44 MILLION OZ//FINAL.. SMALL THIS MONTH.

MAY 59.79 MILLION OZ

JUNE. 64.065 MILLION OZ//FINAL AND FAIR SIZED THIS MONTH.

JULY: 38.335 MILLION OZ

AUGUST: 28.900. MILLION OZ.

INITIAL STANDING: 6.240 MILLION OZ FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 70,000 OZ QUEUE JUMP//STANDING ADVANCES TO 8.145 MILLION OZ

LAST 17 MONTHS OF SILVER DELIVERIES

WE FINISHED APRIL WITH A STRONG SILVER OZ STANDING OF 16.050 MILLION OZ NORMAL DELIVERY , PLUS OUR 4.00 MILLION EX FOR RISK

FINAL STANDING APRIL: 19.965 MILLION OZ

AND MAY:

NEW STANDING FOR MAY FINISHES AT: 75.615 MILLION OZ. (INCLUDES 5,000 OZ EFP TRANSFER TO LONDON + 12.93 MILLION OZ EXCHANGE FOR RISK ISSUANCE/PRIOR.//NEW TOTAL STANDING 88.540 MILLION OZ

AND JUNE: FINAL 16.995 MILLION OZ

AND JULY: 46.720 MILLION OZ//

AUGUST: 4.70 MILLION OZ INITIAL STANDING PLUS TODAY;S 5,000 OZ QUEUE JUMP //NEW STANDING ADVANCES TO 10.960 MILLION OZ

OCTOBER: 39.565 MILLION OZ OF NORMAL DELIVERY INCLUDES ALL QUEUE JUMPING

PLUS

2.110 MILLION OZ EXCHANGE FOR RISK//TOTAL OZ STANDING IN OCT ADVAN

NOVEMBER: INITIAL STANDING AT 11.575 MILLION OZ FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 195,000 OZ QUEUE JUMP WHICH FOLLOWS ALL OTHER QUEUE JUMPS OF 9.155 MILLION OZ//STANDING ADVANCES TO 19.670 MILLION OZ/

MARCH: INITIAL AMOUNT OF SILVER STANDING IS 31.076 MILLION OZ FOLLOWED BY A FINAL 0.210 MILLION OZ QUEUE JUMP //NEW TOTAL STANDING ADVANCES TO 46.060 MILLION OZ

JULY : INITIAL STANDING: 37.110 MILLION OZ FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 15,000 OZ QUEUE JUMP //STANDING THUS ADVANCES TO 45.875 MILLION OZ//

AUGUST 6.240 MILLION OZ FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 70,000 OZ QUEUE JUMP//STANDING ADVANCES TO 8.145 MILLION OZ/

THE NEW TAS ISSUANCE FOR TODAY (1055) WILL BE PUT INTO “THE BANK” TO BE COLLUSIVELY USED NO DOUBT WITH FUTURE TRADING//.

WE HAD 11 NOTICE(S) FILED TODAY FOR 55,000 OZ

THE SILVER COMEX IS NOW BEING ATTACKED FOR METAL BY BANK OF INDIA

GOLD//OUTLINE

AUGUST 20 2026

SHANGHAI CLOSED UP 9.30 PTS OR 0.27%

HANG SENG CLOSED UP 231.93 PTS OR 0.91%

Nikkei CLOSED DOWN 951.58 PTS OR 1.46%

//Australia’s all ordinaries CLOSED DOWN 0.50%

//Chinese yuan (ONSHORE) CLOSED UP TO 6.7240

/ OFFSHORE CLOSED UP AT 6.7246 Oil UP TO 87.23 dollars per barrel for WTI and BRENT UP TO 92.73 Stocks in Europe OPENED ALL MIXED

ONSHORE USA/ YUAN// WITH YUAN TRADING UP (6.7240 OFFSHORE YUAN TRADING UP TO 6.7246 ONSHORE YUAN TRADING ABOVE LEVEL // OFF SHORE AND UP ON THE DOLLAR)// / AND THUS STRONGER/OFF SHORE YUAN TRADING UP AGAINST US DOLLAR/ AND THUS STRONGER

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

GOLD

LET US BEGIN:

THE TOTAL COMEX GOLD OPEN INTEREST ROSE BY A HUGE 14,148 CONTRACTS TO 420,408 STILL WELL ABOVE ITS NEW LOW OF 326,052 OI SET JUNE 3, CLOSE TO THE PREVIOUS ALL TIME LOW OF 345,705 SET (MAY 28) AND CLOSE TO THE PREVIOUS ALL TIME LOW IN OI OF 353,490 SET MAY 27.. PREVIOUS TO THAT THE ALL TIME LOW IN OI WAS 390,000 SET IN THE YEAR 2001 WHEN GOLD WAS TRADING $260.00. THE CME SHOULD BE PROUD OF THEMSELVES AS MANY HAVE ABANDONED THIS CROOKED ARENA!!THUS OUR NEW ALL TIME LOW OF COMEX OI HAS NOW BEEN SET AT 326,052 //JUNE 3 2026 WITH GOLD AT AN EXTREMELY HIGH $4,450.00 WHICH MAKES ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE!!!

WE HAD ZERO T.A.S. LIQUIDATION DURING WEDNESDAY’S COMEX TRADING/. IT SEEMS THAT MANY OF THE SPECULATORS THAT HAVE NOW CONTINUED AGAIN TO BE ON THE SHORT SIDE WITH BANKERS ON THE LONG SIDE AND THESE GUYS WERE AGAIN OBLITERATED YESTERDAY WHEN THE LONGS TENDERED FOR DELIVERY:

CENTRAL BANKS TENDERED THEIR NEW LONG CONTRACTS AT THE END OF THE DAY FOR PHYSICAL GOLD. YOU CAN VISUALIZE THIS WITH THE STRONG AMOUNT OF GOLD STANDING AT THE COMEX FOR THIS JULY CONTRACT MONTH!!

WE HAD A MEGA HUGE SIZED GAIN ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES (20,921 CONTRACTS) OCCURRED WITH OUR GAIN IN PRICE IN GOLD (UP $123.70)

WE THUS HAD A HUGE GAIN IN OI ON BOTH OF OUR EXCHANGES (20,921 CONTRACTS), WITH OUR GAIN IN PRICE, AS WE WERE INFORMED OF A HUGE CONTRACT EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL ISSUANCE EQUATING TO 6825 CONTRACTS.

THEN WE WERE NOTIFIED TODAY OF A 0 CONTRACT FOR RISK ISSUANCE IN GOLD CONTRACTS FOR 0 OZ OR 0.0 TONNES OF GOLD. TOTAL THUS SO FAR THIS MONTH: 1271 CONTRACTS//127,100 OZ OR 3.9533 TONNES (4 OCCASIONS)

MONTH OF MAY RECORD ISSUANCE OF EXCHANGE FOR RISK: THE HIGHEST EVER ISSUANCE!!

MAY 22 RECORDS THE HIGHEST EVER EXCHANGE FOR RISK AT 12.4416 TONNES. WE HAD OUR FIRST ISSUANCE FOR EXCHANGE FOR RISK IN THE MONTH OF MAY ON MAY 7, THEN OUR 2ND ISSUANCE FOR OUR MAY GOLD MONTH ON MAY 12. THE THIRD ON MAY 18 , THEN MAY 21 OUR 4TH ISSUANCE AND THEN FINALLY FRIDAY, OUR 5TH ISSUANCE. THIS GOLD WILL BE ADDED TO OUR NORMAL MAY DELIVERIES TO GIVE US OUR FINAL AMOUNT OF GOLD WILLING TO STAND AT THE COMEX..

HISTORY OF EXCHANGE FOR RISK ISSUANCE THIS YEAR: FEBRUARY THROUGH JULY AND AUGUST

FEBRUARY:

DURING THE MIDDLE OF THE FEBRUARY CONTRACT MONTH, WE HAD TWO IDENTICAL MONSTER 3,000 CONTRACT ISSUED FOR THE SAME 9.33 TONNES OF GOLD, AND THESE WERE THE HIGHEST EVER IN TONNAGE EVER ISSUED BY THE COMEX. ALTOGETHER THE TOTAL ISSUANCE FOR FEB TOTALLED SIX.(31.251 TONNES).

MARCH:

THURSDAY MARCH 17 WE RECEIVED ITS INITIAL 2000 CONTRACT EXCHANGE FOR RISK ISSUANCE FOR 6.22 TONNES. LAST FRIDAY: 0 ISSUANCE OF EXCHANGE FOR RISK. BUT ON MONDAY MARCH 23 WE RECEIVED NOTICE OF OUR SECOND EXCHANGE FOR RISK ISSUANCE FOR 2,200 CONTRACTS (220,000 OZ OR 6.843 TONNES) AND NOW FRIDAY WITH A MONSTER 2996 CONTRACTS FOR 9.3138 TONNES. THESE THREE ISSUANCES WILL NOW BE ADDED TO THE REGULAR AMOUNT OF GOLD STANDING, I.E. 22.3818 TONNES TO OUR NORMAL GOLD STANDING TO GIVE US WHAT WILL STAND FOR PHYSICAL GOLD FOR MARCH!

APRIL;: 2 EXCHANGE FOR RISK SO FAR, I.E. 2239 CONTRACTS FOR 223,900 OZ OR 6.964 TONNES AND THIS TOTAL TONNES WILL BE ADDED TO OUR NORMAL DELIVERY TO GIVE US WHAT WILL STAND IN APRIL

MAY: FIVE ISSUANCES SO FAR FOR 7920 CONTRACTS OR 792,000 OZ OR 24.635 TONNES.

JUNE: 0 IN GOLD. THUS FOR THE ENTIRE MONTH IN GOLD ZERO NOTICES WERE FILED.

JULY: 2 FOR 200 OZ OR 0.00622 TONNES

AUGUST: 1271 CONTRACTS FOR 127,100 OZ OR 3.9533 TONNES (4 OCCASIONS THIS MONTH)

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A LITTLE HISTORY OF EXCHANGE FOR RISK DECEMBER THROUGH TO AUGUST:

IN DECEMBER WE HAVE RECORDED 5 ISSUANCES OF EXCHANGE FOR RISK/4 FOR DEC AND THE LAST ONE ON DEC 31 FOR JANUARY. WE NOW HAVE 3 CHOICES FOR THE RECIPIENT OF THIS ISSUANCE AND IT MUST BE A CENTRAL BANK. YOU WILL RECALL THAT THE BUYER ASSUMES THE RISK OF THAT DELIVERY. (THUS TOTAL EXCHANGE FOR RISK FOR THE MONTH OF DECEMBER IS 6.56 TONNES/4 OCCASIONS.

MONTH OF JANUARY/EXCHANGE FOR RISK

IN JANUARY THEY HAVE 6 TOTAL ISSUANCE : 3.446 TONNES EARLY, THEN JAN 9 ISSUANCE OF 9,331 TONNES AND THEN JAN 16: 0.1996 TONNES JAN 26: 1.499 TONNES, JAN 27: 3.160 AND FINALLY JAN 29: 4.659 TONNES TONNES//TOTAL EXCHANGE FOR RISK JANUARY 22.315 TONNES WHICH WAS ADDED TO OUR NORMAL DELVERIES.

AND FEBRUARY:

FEB EXCHANGE FOR RISK: NOW 6 ISSUANCES: 10,080 CONTRACTS FOR 1,008,000 OZ OR 31.251 TONNES!

HERE ARE THE CHOICES FOR THE RECIPIENT OF THOSE ISSUANCES:

1 THE CENTRAL BANK OF ENGLAND. BUT THEY RECEIVED CLEARANCE THAT THEIR GOLD IS BACK SO IT IS NOT LIKELY THAT THEY WOULD LIKE TO ADD TO THEIR RESERVES.

2. THE CENTRAL BANK OF THE USA: THE FED. LOGICAL CHOICE AS THEY CLAMOUR TRYING TO REDUCE THEIR 131+ TONNES OF SHORTAGE. HOWEVER THEY SEEM NOT TO BE IN A HURRY TO COVER THEIR HUGE SHORTFALL

3. THE CENTRAL BANK OF CHINA AS THEY BATTLE WITS WITH THE USA.

TOTAL EXCHANGE FOR RISK FOR DECEMBER IS 6.56 TONNES AND THIS WAS ADDED TO OUR NORMAL DELIVERY TOTALS..

THE JANUARY ISSUANCE OF 17.656 TONNES WAS ADDED TO OUR DAILY DELIVERY TOTALS!!

FEBRUARY ISSUANCES 6 FOR; 31.251 TONNES !! AND THIS WAS ADDED TO OUR DELIVERY TOTALS FOR THIS MONTH.

MARCH: CME ANNOUNCES ITS FIRST EXCHANGE FOR RISK FOR 2000 CONTRACTS FOR 200,000 OZ OR 6.22 TONNES OF GOLD DURING THE FIRST WEEK OF MARCH, AND THEN MONDAY, MARCH 22, WE RECEIVED ITS SECOND NOTICE ISSUANCE OF 2200 CONTRACTS OR 220000 OZ (6.843 TONNES). THEN FINALLY WE RECEIVED NOTICE OF OUR THIRD EXCHANGE FOR RISK OF 2996 CONTRACTS OR 9.3188 TONNES. TOGETHER ALL 3 ISSUANCES TOTAL 22.3818 TONNES WHICH WILL BE ADDED TO OUR NORMAL DELIVERY SCHEDULE.

APRIL: 2 EXCHANGE FOR RISK SO FAR FOR 223,900 OZ OR 6.964 TONNES. AND THIS TOTAL WILL BE ADDED TO OUR NORMAL DELIVERY TO GIVE US WHAT WILL STAND FOR APRIL!!

MAY: FIVE ISSUANCES SO FAR FOR 7920 CONTRACTS, 792,000 OZ OR 24.635 TONNES OF GOLD. THIS TOTAL WILL BE ADDED TO OUR NORMAL DELIVERIES IN MAY TO GIVE US WHAT WILL STAND IN MAY.

JUNE: ZERO

JULY 2 FOR 200 OZ OR 0.00622 TONNES. I DOUBT VERY MUCH THAT THIS IS A CENTRAL BANK

AUGUST: 1271 CONTRACTS FOR 127,100 OZ OR 3.9533 TONNES//4 OCCASIONS

DETAILS ON OUR NEW AUG COMEX CONTRACT MONTH//

IN TOTAL WE HAD A MEGA HUGE GAIN ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES OF 20,971 CONTRACTS WITH OUR GAIN IN PRICE ($123.70). HOWEVER, OUR FRIENDLY PHYSICAL LONDON BOYS HAD ANOTHER FIELD DAY AGAIN THROUGHOUT THIS WEEK AS THEY WERE READY FOR THE FRBNY.S CONTINUED ORCHESTRATED ATTACKS VERY EARLY IN THE COMEX SESSIONS AS THEY TRIED TO ABSORB EVERYTHING IN SIGHT FROM THEIR DAILY ATTACKS. LONDONERS EXERCISED THEIR BOUGHT CONTRACTS FOR PHYSICAL GOLD VIA THE EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL ROUTE AND THANKED THE FRBNY AND OUR SHORT SPECULATORS FOR THEIR THOUGHTFULNESS.

LONDON ANNOUNCED EARLY IN THE YEAR (AND SCARCITY CONTINUES TO THIS DAY) THAT THEY WERE OUT OF GOLD. WRONGLY IT WAS ATTRIBUTED TO THEIR SHIPPING PHYSICAL GOLD TO COMEX FOR STORAGE DUE TO TRUMP’S INITIATION OF TARIFFS. THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER IS THAT THIS GOLD LEFT LONDON TO OTHER CENTRAL BANKS, AND COMEX BANKS HAVE BEEN PAPERING THEIR LOSSES (DERIVATIVE) WITH KILOBAR ENTRIES. BOTH COMEX AND LBMA ARE WITNESSING MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF GOLD LEAVING THEIR VAULTS.

THE LIQUIDATION OF T.A.S. CONTRACTS THROUGHOUT THE MONTHS OF JUNE/JULY/AUG CONTINUES TO DISTORT OPEN INTEREST NUMBERS GREATLY ALTHOUGH THE T.A.S. ISSUANCES IN GOLD HAVE GENERALLY BEEN ON THE LOW SIDE COMPARED TO SILVER WHICH HAVE BEEN HUGE. TODAY’S NUMBER HOWEVER IS A FAIR SIZED T.A.S ISSUANCE CONTRACTS .THE CME NOTIFIES US THAT THEY HAVE ISSUED 1108 T.A.S CONTRACTS. THESE ARE GENERALLY USED FOR RAID PURPOSES TO STOP GOLD’S RISE AND TO TEMPER HUGE LOSSES IN OTC DERIVATIVE BETS.

IT SURE LOOKS LIKE THE BIS HAS SOMEHOW LOOKED THE OTHER WAY WITH ITS GOLD SWAPS WITH THE FRBNY AS THIS ENTITY FOR THE FED REFUSES THE BIS MARCHING ORDERS TO COVER AND THAT MAY EXPLAIN THE STRONG NUMBER OF T.A.S. ISSUANCES IN DECEMBER , JANUARY AND THROUGHOUT FEBRUARY TO GO ALONG WITH OUR HUGE NUMBER OF EXCHANGE FOR RISK ISSUED DURING THESE MONTHS INCLUDING FEBRUARY’S 6 EXCHANGE FOR RISK WHICH ALSO INCLUDED TWO MONSTER 9.3312 TONNE ISSUANCE (FEB 10 AND FEB 12). TOTAL EXCHANGE FOR RISK/FEB EQUALS 31.251 TONNES!! AND MARCH’S THREE ISSUANCES FOR 22.3818 TONNES! OTHER CENTRAL BANKS ARE PAYING ATTENTION AS THEY TAKE DELIVERY OF HUGE AMOUNTS OF PHYSICAL GOLD. APRIL HAD 2 EXCHANGE FOR RISK ISSUANCES FOR 6.694 TONNES. AND MAY WITH ITS 5TH ISSUANCE FOR 12.4436 TONNES///TOTAL EXCHANGE FOR RISK FOR MAY: 24.635 TONNES ISSUED MAY 6 ,MAY 12, MAY 18 MAY 21 AND NOW MAY 22..

THEN IT SLOWS DOWN!

JUNE: ZERO FOR THE MONTH

JULY: 2 SO FAR FOR 200 IZ IR 0.00622 TONNES

AUGUST: 1271 CONTRACTS FOR 127,100 OZ OR 3.9533 TONNES

WE MUST ALSO REMEMBER THAT THE FRBNY IS SHORT 131+ TONNES OF GOLD, THIS COMMENCED ON JAN 2 2023 AS THEY REFUSE TO COVER DESPITE THE BIS’S PLEA TO DO SO.

HERE IS A SUMMARY OF GOLD STANDING FOR DELIVERY ON OUR LAST 16 MONTHS:

1.APRIL AT 209 TONNES

2. AND THIS CONTINUED INTO MAY WITH FINAL STANDING AT 90.23 TONNES.

3. JUNE WHICH IS A HUGE DELIVERY MONTH , FINAL STANDING WAS RECORDED AT A STRONG 93.085 TONNES. //(TOTAL NET QUEUE JUMPING FOR THE JUNE MONTH: 31.027 TONNES.)

4. IN JULY WE HAD HUGE DELIVERY NOTICES ESPECIALLY FOR A NON ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH WITH INITIAL STANDING AT 17.947 TONNES PLUS MANY QUEUE JUMPS + 3.75 TONNES EX FOR RISK = 41.106 TONNES OF GOLD // FINAL TOTAL TONNES STANDING JULY: 41.106 TONNES

5. FOR THE MONTH OF AUGUST 2025

INITIAL AMOUNT OF GOLD STANDING FOR AUGUST: 60.547 TONNES PLUS THE MONTHS HUGE QUEUE JUMPS OF 47.2312 TONNES +44.696 TONNES EX FOR RISK (7 ISSUANCES) //NEW STANDING 152.208 TONNES WHICH IS MONSTROUS!!!

6. FINAL AMOUNT OF GOLD STANDING FOR SEPT; INITIAL STANDING; 2,602 CONTRACTS OR 260,200 OZ FOR 8.093 TONNES OF GOLD FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 0.4883 TONNES QUEUE JUMP TO GO ALONG WITH TODAY’S 1.244 TONNES OF EXCHANGE FOR RISK ISSUANCE TODAY AND // TOTAL EXCHANGE FOR RISK ISSUANCE SEPT: 22.923 TONNES//NEW TOTALS STANDING ADVANCES TO 48.801 TONNES OF GOLD!!!

7. OCTOBER:

OCTOBER: INITIAL STANDING FOR GOLD: 90.164 TONNES TO WHICH WE ADD OUR LATEST OCT 30 QUEUE JUMP OF 0.00311 TONNES WHICH FOLLOWS OCT 29 QUEUE JUMP OF .4096 WHICH FOLLOWS; OCT 28 QUEUE JUMP OF .5069 TONNES WHICH FOLLOWS OCT 27 OF 0.3048 TONNES WHICH FOLLOWS: OCT 24 OF 0.8615 TONNES, FOLLOWING OCT 23 QUEUE JUMP OF 1.695 TONNES OCT 22 JUMP OF 8.622 TONNES WHICH FOLLOWS OCT 21: 3.8600 TONNES TO OCT 20 QUEUE JUMP OF 7.695 TONNE

SUMMARY FOR OCTOBER STANDING:

NOVEMBER WHERE INITIAL AMOUNT OF GOLD STANDING IS REGISTERED AT 15.651 TONNES OF GOLD FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S QUEUE JUMP OF 2 TONNES AND FOLLOWED BY ALL OTHER NOV QUEUE JUMPS OF 21.3775 TONNES TO WHICH WE ADD OUR TWO EXCHANGE FOR RISK ISSUANCE FOR 4.5596 TONNES.

/STANDING ADVANCES TO 43.9716 TONNES OF GOLD.

DECEMBER: INITIAL AMOUNT OF GOLD STANDING FOR DELIVERY IN THIS ACTIVE MONTH IS 83.813 TONNES FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S 0.05 TONNES QUEUE JUMP. THIS FOLLOWS ALL OTHER QUEUE JUMPING: 37.163 TONNES//NEW STANDING ADVANCES TO 115.390 TONNES TO WHICH WE ADD OUR FOUR EXCHANGE FOR RISK ISSUANCE OF 6.559 TONNES//NEW STANDING THUS INCREASES TO 121.977 TONNES

JANUARY: INITITAL STANDING: 13.785 TONNES TO WHICH WE ADD OUR QUEUE JUMP OF 0.000 TONNES WHICH FOLLOWS ALL OTHER QUEUE JUMPS OF 30.7117TONNES //NEW TOTAL QUEUE JUMPS 30.7117//NORMAL DELIVERY OF GOLD ADVANCES TO 36.8958 TONNES TO WHICH WE ADD OUR SIX EXCHANGE FOR RISK OF 22.315 TONNES//NEW STANDING ADVANCES TO 59.2108 TONNES.

FEBRUARY: . FEBRUARY: INITIAL STANDING: 93.566 TONNES TO WHICH WE ADD OUR NEXT QUEUE JUMP OF 0.0248 TONNES WHICH MUST BE ADDED ALL OTHER QUEUE JUMPS OF 41.2087 TONNES QUEUE JUMP//TOTAL QUEUE JUMP FOR FEB::ADVANCES TO 41.233 TONNES///STANDING ADVANCES TO 126.628 TONNES TO WHICH WE ADD OUR SIX EXCHANGE FOR RISK OF 31.251 TONNES/NEW STANDING FINALIZES AT 157.879 TONNES, ITS HIGHEST STANDING RECORDED IN OVER 4 YEARS.

MARCH: INITIAL STANDING FOR GOLD: 8.099 TONNES TO WHICH WE ADD OUR NEXT QUEUE JUMP OF 0.2320 TONNES AND THEN WE ADD OUR THREE EXCHANGE FOR RISK OF 22.3818 TONNES////NEW STANDING FOR GOLD ADVANCES TO: 67.6648TONNES WHICH IS ABSOLUTELY HUGE FOR A NON ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH!!

APRIL 2026: INITIAL STANDING FOR GOLD: 52.20 TONNES FOLLOWED BY TODAY’S SMALL 500 OZ QUEUE JUMP/ TO WHICH WE ADD OUR TWO EXCHANGE FOR RISK ISSUANCES TOTALLING 223,900 OZ OR 6.964 TONNES//STANDING ADVANCES TO 77.726 TONNES WHICH IS ABSOLUTELY HUGE

MAY: INITIAL AMOUNT OF GOLD WILLING TO STAND: 12.24 TONNES OF GOLD TO WHICH WE ADD OUR NEXT HUGE QUEUE JUMP OF 34,500 OZ (1.073 TONNES) TO WHICH WE ADD OUR FIVE EXCHANGE FOR RISK ISSUANCE FOR 792,000 OZ OR 24.635 TONNES////NEW TOTALS STANDING FOR GOLD ADVANCES TO 51.554 TONNESS

JUNE: INITIAL AMOUNT OF GOLD WILLING TO STAND: 64.496 TONNES TO WHICH WE SUBTRACT AN EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL TRANSFER TO LONDON OF 0.0186 TONNES//NEW STANDING REDUCES TO 127.03 TONNES// TOTAL QUEUE JUMPING FOR THE MONTH FINALIZES AT 62.4217 TONNES OR AVERAGING 3.285 TONNES PER DAY IN JUNE.

JULY: INITIAL AMOUNT OF GOLD WILLING TO STAND: 749,300 OZ OR 23.306 TONNES OF GOLD TO WHICH WE ADD OUR NEXT QUEUE JUMP OF 0.000TONNES//NEW STANDING REMAINS AT 40.818TONNES PLUS 0.00622 TONNES EXHANGE FOR RISK// NEW TOTAL 40.824 TONNES . TOTAL QUEUE JUMPING SO FAR: 17.5802 TONNES OR 0.8790 TONNES ON EACH TRADING DAY LEAVING COMEX FOR EASTERN SHORES.

AUGUST INITIAL; INITIAL AMOUNT OF GOLD WILLING TO STANDS: 48.687 TONNES TO WHICH WE ADD OUR 4TH EXCHANGE FOR RISK OF 220 CONTRACTS FOR 20,000 OZ OR 0.6220 TONNES TO OUR 3RD EXCHANGE FOR RISK AT 1.7045 TONNES TO OUR 2ND EXCHANGE FOR RISK AT 1.552 TONNES TO OUR FIRST: 0.0715 NEW TOTAL EXCHANGE FOR RISK = 3.9533 TONNES AND THEN ADD OUR NEXT EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL TRANSFER TO LONDON OF 561 CONTRACTS OR 56,100 OZ (1.7449 TONNES)//STANDING, IN TOTAL THUS REDUCES HUGELY TO 60.9113 TONNES. (AS GOLD IS SCARCE ON THIS SIDE OF THE POND)

HERE ARE THE AMOUNTS THAT STOOD FOR DELIVERY IN THE 4 YEARS 2021-2024

DEC 2021: 112.217 TONNES

NOV. 8.074 TONNES

OCT. 57.707 TONNES

SEPT: 11.9160 TONNES

AUGUST: 80.489 TONNES

JULY 7.2814 TONNES

JUNE: 72.289 TONNES

MAY 5.77 TONNES

APRIL 95.331 TONNES

MARCH 30.205 TONNES

FEB ’21. 113.424 TONNES

JAN ’21: 6.500 TONNES.

TOTAL YEAR 2021 (JAN- DEC): 601.213 TONNES

YEAR 2022: STANDING FOR GOLD/COMEX

JANUARY 2022 17.79 TONNES

FEB 2022: 59.023 TONNES

MARCH: 36.678 TONNES

APRIL: 85.340 TONNES FINAL.

MAY: 20.11 TONNES FINAL

JUNE: 74.933 TONNES FINAL

JULY 29.987 TONNES FINAL

AUGUST:104.979 TONNES//FINAL

SEPT. 38.1158 TONNES

OCT: 77.390 TONNES/ FINAL

NOV 27.110 TONNES/FINAL

Dec. 64.000 tonnes

(TOTAL YEAR 656.076 TONNES)

2023:STANDING FOR GOLD/COMEX

JAN/2023: 20.559 tonnes

FEB 2023: 47.744 tonnes

MAR: 19.0637 TONNES

APRIL: 75.676 tonnes

MAY: 19.094 TONNES + 1.244 tonnes of exchange for risk = 20.338

JUNE: 64.354 TONNES

JULY: 10.2861 TONNES

AUGUST: 38.855 TONNES(INCLUDING .6842 EXCHANGE FOR RISK)

SEPT: 15.281 TONNES FINAL

OCT. 35.869 TONNES + 1.665 EXCHANGE FOR RISK =37.0355 tonnes

NOV: 18.7122 TONNES + 16.2505 EX. FOR RISK = 34.9627 TONNES

DEC. 47.073 + 4.634 TONNES OF EXCHANGE FOR RISK = 51.707 TONNES

TOTAL 2023 YEAR : 436.546 TONNES

2024/STANDING FOR GOLD/COMEX

JAN ’24. 22.706 TONNES

FEB. ’24: 66.276 TONNES (INCLUDES 1.723 TONNES EX. FOR RISK)

MARCH: 18.8398 TONNES + 1.1695 EX FOR RISK = 20.093 TONNES

APRIL: 2024: 53.673TONNES FINAL

MAY/ 2024 8.5536 TONNES + 3.3716 TONNES EX FOR RISK/= 11.9325

JUNE; 95.578 TONNES. + 1.045 TONNES EXCHANGE FOR RISK =96.623 THIS IS THE HIGHEST RECORDED GOLD STANDING SINCE AUGUST 2022

JULY: 11.692 TONNES

AUGUST 69.602 TONNES//FINAL STANDING

SEPT. 13.164 TONNES.

OCT 39.474 TONNES + + 20.917 TONNES EXCHANGE FOR RISK =60.391 TONNES

NOV . 11.265 TONNES +4.665 TONNES EXCHANGE FOR RISK/TUESDAY + 3.11 TONNES OF EX. FOR RISK/PRIOR = 19.0425 TONNES

DEC: 80.4230 TONNES PLUS DEC MONTH EXCHANGE FOR RISK TOTAL 14.6836 TONNES EQUALS 95.1066 TONNES

total year 2024: 540.30 tonnes

COMEX GOLD TRADING BEGINNING AUGUST. CONTRACT;

THE SPECS/HFT WERE UNSUCCESSFUL IN LOWERING GOLD’S PRICE ( IT ROSE BY $123.70)

WE HAD ZERO T.A.S. SPREADER LIQUIDATION WEDNESDAY // COMEX SESSION// WITH OUR GAIN IN PRICE

OTHER EASTERN CENTRAL BANKS TENDERED FOR PHYSICAL EVERY NIGHT WHICH ALSO EXPLAINS THE HUGE NUMBER OF TONNES OF GOLD THAT STOOD FOR GOLD DURING THESE PAST SEVERAL MONTHS

THE CROOKS COULD NOT STOP OTHER CENTRAL BANK LONGS, SEIZING THE MOMENT, THEY EXERCISED AGAIN FOR PHYSICAL IN A BIG WAY TENDERING FOR PHYSICAL WEDNESDAY EVENING //THURSDAY MORNING AND THUS OUR HUGE NUMBER OF GOLD CONTRACTS STANDING FOR DELIVERY AT THE COMEX. CENTRAL BANKERS WAIT PATIENTLY FOR THE GOLD

ALL OF THIS WAS ACCOMPLISHED WITH OUR GAIN IN PRICE AT COMEX OF $123.70

WE HAD 1313 CONTRACTS REMOVED FROM PRELIMINARY NUMBERS TO FINAL COMEX NUMBERS.

NET GAIN ON THE TWO EXCHANGES: 20,973 CONTRACT OR 2,097,300 OZ 66/23 TONNES)

AUG DELIVERY MONTH

AUGUST 20

Gold	Ounces
Withdrawals from Dealers* Inventory in oz*	nil
Withdrawals from Customer* Inventory in oz*	0 ENTRIES
Deposit to the Dealer* Inventory in oz*	0 ENTRIES
Deposits to the Customer* Inventory, in oz*	DEPOSITS/CUSTOMER//gold one entry i) Into Asahi: 32,015.721 oz total deposit: 32,015.721 oz xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
No of oz served (contracts) today	190 CONTRACTS 19,000 OZ 0.59097 TONNES OF GOLD
No of oz to be served (notices)	184 Contracts 18,400 OZ 0.5723 TONNES
Total monthly oz gold served (contracts) so far this month	18,128 notices 1,812800 OZ 56.385 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*

dealer deposits: 0

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

DEPOSITS/CUSTOMER

ENTRIES: 1

i) Into Asahi: 32,015.721 oz

total deposit: 32,015.721 oz

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

comex withdrawal

0 ENTRIES

adjustments: 0//

COMEX IS DRAINING GOLD

chaos inside the comex

THE FRONT MONTH OF AUG OI STANDS AT 374 CONTRACTS HAVING A HUGE LOSS OF 745 CONTRACTS.

NORMAL STANDING FOR GOLD YESTERDAY: 58.702. TODAY’S STANDING IS 56.958 TONNES TO WHICH WE ADD OUR 3.9533 TONNES EXCHANGE FOR RISK. THE NORMAL STANDING INCLUDES OUR NEXT 561 EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL TRANSFER TO LONDON CONTRACT OR AN ADDITIONAL 56,100 OZ (1.7449 TONNES) AND THESE GUYS WILL STAND FOR DELIVERY OVER IN LONDON.

SEPTEMBER LOST 1339 CONTRACTS DOWN TO AN OI OF 4414

OCT GAINED 1054 CONTRACTS TO AN OI OF 53,910

We had 190 contracts filed for today representing 19,000 oz

Today, 0 notice(s) were issued from J.P.Morgan dealer and 25 notices issued from their client or customer account. The total of all issuance by all participants equate to 190 contract(s) of which 0 notices were stopped (received) by j.P. Morgan dealer and 171 notice(s) was (were) stopped (received) by J.P.Morgan//customer account

To calculate the INITIAL total number of gold ounces standing for AUGUST. /2026. contract month, we take the total number of notices filed so far for the month (18,128) to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of AUG (374 CONTRACTS) minus the number of notices served upon today 190x 100 oz per contract) equals 1,831,200 OZ OR (56.958 Tonnes of gold)then we add our 4 exchange for risk of 1271 contracts for 127,100oz or 3.9533..new standing reduces to 60.9113 tonnes.

THUS: INITIAL total number of gold ounces standing for AUG. /2026. contract month, we take the total number of notices filed so far for the month (18,128) to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of AUG( 374) contracts minus the number of notices served upon today 190 x 100 oz per contract) equals 1,831,200 OZ OR (56.958 Tonnes of gold) plus 3.9533 tonnes exchange for risk..new standing reduces to 60.9113 tonnes

new total of gold standing in AUG becomes 60.9113 TONNES//

TOTAL COMEX GOLD STANDING FOR AUG 60.9113 TONNES TONNES WHICH IS NOW REALLY HUGE FOR THIS ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH OF AUG

confirmed volume WEDNESDAY confirmed 303,423/ GOOD// many have left the arena

COMEX GOLD INVENTORIES/CLASSIFICATION

NEW PLEDGED GOLD:

241,794.285 oz NOW PLEDGED /HSBC 5.94 TONNES

204,937.290 OZ PLEDGED MANFRA 3.08 TONNES

83,657.582 PLEDGED JPMorgan no 1 1.690 tonnes

265,999.054, oz JPM No 2

1,152,376.639 oz pledged Brinks/

Manfra: 33,758.550 oz

Delaware: 193.721 oz

International Delaware:: 11,188.542 oz

total pledged gold: 1,713,346.605 oz 53.29 tonnes pledged gold lowers

total inventories in gold declining rapidly

total pledged gold: 1,713,346.605 tonnes oz 53.29 tonnes

TOTAL OF ALL GOLD ELIGIBLE AND REGISTERED GOLD 26,680,853..420 oz

TOTAL REGISTERED GOLD 14,514,950.107 tonnes (451.47 tonnes)

TOTAL OF ALL ELIGIBLE GOLD 12,105,903.313 oz. Lots of eligible gold leaving the comex

REGISTERED GOLD THAT CAN BE SERVED UPON 12,801,604oz ((REG GOLD- PLEDGED GOLD)=

398.183 Tonnes //

total inventories in gold declining rapidly

SILVER COMEX

AUG DELIVERY MONTH

AUGUST 20

Silver	Ounces
Withdrawals from Dealers* Inventory*	NIL oz
Withdrawals from Customer Inventory	3 entries i) Out of Delaware: 11,012.088 oz ii) Out of LOOMIS: 220,015.681 oz iii) Out of CNT 147,697.345 oz total withdrawal: 378,725.013 oz
Deposits to the Dealer* Inventory*	0
Deposits to the Customer Inventory	ENTRY: 1 i) Into Brinks: 599,121.812 oz total deposit 599,121.812 oz ENTRY: 0
No of oz served today (contracts)	11 CONTRACT(S) ( 0.055 MILLION OZ)
No of oz to be served (notices)	12 Contracts (0.060 MILLION oz)
Total monthly oz silver served (contracts)	1617 contracts 8.085 MILLION 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*

DEPOSITS INTO DEALER ACCOUNTS

ENTRY:0

DEPOSIT ENTRIES/CUSTOMER ACCOUNT

ENTRY: 1

i) Into Brinks: 599,121.812 oz

total deposit 599,121.812 oz

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

withdrawals:

three entries:

i) Out of Delaware: 11,012.088 oz
ii) Out of LOOMIS: 220,015.681 oz
iii) Out of CNT 147,697.345 oz

total withdrawal: 378,725.013 oz

adjustments :2

i) Dealer to customer; CNT 327,739.100 oz

ii) customer to dealer: Manfra 50,455.804 oz

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

TOTAL REGISTERED SILVER: 99.256 MILLION OZ//.TOTAL REG + ELIGIBLE. 337.535 Million oz

registered silver dropping in numbers

CALCULATIONS FOR THE NEW STANDING FOR SILVER FOR AUGUST

FRONT MONTH: SILVER OPEN INTEREST CONTRACTS: 23 FOR A LOSS OF 38 CONTRACTS.

YESTERDAY WE HAD 8.075 MILLION OZ STAND YESTERDAY: TODAY WE HAVE 8.145 MILLION OZ STAND

THUS WE HAVE A GAIN OF 14 CONTRACTS I.E. 70,000 OZ WILL UNDERGO A QUEUE JUMP AND STAND AHEAD OF US SMALL MORTALS AND TAKE DELIVERY ON THIS SIDE OF THE POND.

SEPTEMBER SAW A LOSS OF 3207 CONTRACTS DOWN TO AN OI OF 49,144 CONTRACTS

OCT GAINED 84 CONTRACTS TO AN OI OF 2346

TOTAL NUMBER OF NOTICES FILED FOR TODAY: 11 or 0.055 MILLION oz

CONFIRMED volume WEDNESDAY; 100,956// excellent/

AND NOW AUGUST. DELIVERIES:

To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in AUG. we take the total number of notices filed for the month so far at 1617 X5,000 oz = 8.085 MILLION oz.

Then we take the difference between the front month of August and the number of notices filed for today x 5000 to give us our standing

Thus the standings for silver for the AUG 2026 contract month: (1617 )Notices served so far) x 5000 oz + OI for the front month of AUG ( 23 ) minus number of notices served upon today (11 x 5000 oz) equals silver standing for the AUG .contract month equating to 8.145 MILLION OZ. ( a very strong delivery month)

We must also keep in mind that there is considerable silver standing in London coming from our longs

There are ONLY 99.256 million oz of registered silver

JPMorgan as a percentage of total silver: 137.898/337.256million: 40.94%

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

The previous record was 224,540 contracts with the price at that time of $20.44.

BOTH GLD AND SLV ARE MASSIVE FRAUD/

AUGUST 20//2026/WITH GOLD UP $29.30 /HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD: A MASSIVE DEPOSIT OF 9.41 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD: //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1034.65 TONNES

AUGUST 19//2026/WITH GOLD UP $123.70 /HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD: A MASSIVE WITHDRAWAL OF 5.42 TONNES OF GOLD OUT OF THE GLD: //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1025.24 TONNES

AUGUST 18//2026/WITH GOLD DOWN $51.50 /HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD: A MASSIVE DEPOSIT OF 7.13 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD: //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1030.66 TONNES

AUGUST 17//2026/WITH GOLD UP $36.70 /HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 2.28 TONNES OF GOLD FORM THE GLD: //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1023.53 TONNES

AUGUST 14//2026/WITH GOLD UP $16.55 /NO CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD: : //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1025.80 TONNES

AUGUST 13//2026/WITH GOLD DOWN $43.05 /HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 3,139 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD. : //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1025,80TONNES

AUGUST 12//2026/WITH GOLD UP $24.55 /HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 2.562 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD. : //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1022.672TONNES

AUGUST 11//2026/WITH GOLD UP $20.25 /HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 2.52 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD. : //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1020.06TONNES

AUGUST 10//2026/WITH GOLD UP $22.00 /HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 2.82 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD. : //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1017. 540TONNES

/AUGUST 7//2026/WITH GOLD UP $98.00 /HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 0.57 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD. : //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1014.720TONNES

AUGUST 6//2026/WITH GOLD DOWN $2.45 /HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD: A DEPOSIT OF 4.851 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD. : //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1014.143TONNES

AUGUST 5//2026/WITH GOLD UP $59.75 /HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.146 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD. : //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1005.874TONNES

AUGUST 3//2026/WITH GOLD DOWN $15.80 /HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD: A WIITHDRAWAL OF 2.28 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD. : //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1007.02TONNES

JULY 31//2026/WITH GOLD DOWN $50.40 /NO CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD INTO THE GLD. : //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1009.30TONNES

JULY 30//2026/WITH GOLD UP $63.70 /NO CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD INTO THE GLD. : //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1009.30TONNES

JULY 29//2026/WITH GOLD DOWN $0.10 /NO CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD INTO THE GLD. : //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1009.30TONNES

JULY 28//2026/WITH GOLD UP 21.50 /NO CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD INTO THE GLD. : //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1009.30TONNES

JULY 27.2026/WITH GOLD UP 21.50 /HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD A DEPOSIT OF 1.43TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD. : //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1009.30TONNES

JLY 24/2026/WITH GOLD UP 6.30 /NO CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD A DEPOSIT OF 1.43TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD. : //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1009.30TONNES

JULY 23/2026/WITH GOLD DOWN 98.60 /HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD A DEPOSIT OF 2.00 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD. : //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1007.87TONNES

JULY 22/2026/WITH GOLD UP $73.30 /HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD A DEPOSIT OF 2.28 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD. : //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1005.87 TONNES

JULY 21/2026/WITH GOLD DOWN $1.40 /HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD A DEPOSIT OF 2.572 TONNES OF GOLD OUT OF GLD. : //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1004.45 TONNES

JULY 20/2026/WITH GOLD UP $59.75 /HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD A WITHDRAWAL OF 0.860 TONNES OF GOLD OUT OF GLD. : //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1003.59 TONNES

JULY 17/2026/WITH GOLD UP $26.55 /HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD A WITHDRAWAL OF 2.572 TONNES OF GOLD OUT OF GLD. : //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1001.878 TONNES

JULY 16/2026/WITH GOLD DOWN $110.60 /NO CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD : //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1004.45 TONNES

JULY 15/2026/WITH GOLD DOWN $15.05 /HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD : A DEPOSIT OF 1.94 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD/ //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1004.45 TONNES

JULY 14/2026/WITH GOLD UP $63.45 /NO CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD : / //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1002.510 TONNES

JULY 13/2026/WITH GOLD DOWN $105.20 /HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD : A WITHDRAWAL 0F 3.108 TONNES OF GOLD OUT OF THE GLD/ //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1002.510 TONNES

JULY 10/2026/WITH GOLD DOWN $27.25 /HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD : A DEPOSIT 0F 3.138TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD/ //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1005.618 TONNES

JULY 9/2026/WITH GOLD UP $58.60 /SMALL CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD : A WITHDRAWAL OF 0.28 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD/ //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1002.510 TONNES

JULY 8/2026/WITH GOLD DOWN $73.30 /NO CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1002.79 TONNES

JULY 7/2026/WITH GOLD DOWN $28.05 /HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD:A DEPOSIT OF 1.42 TONNES OUT INTO THE GLD/ ./ //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1002.79 TONNES

JULY 6 /2026/WITH GOLD DOWN $19.55 /HUGE CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD:A WITHDRAWAL OF 3.954 TONNES OUT OF THE GLD/ ./ //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1001.366 TONNES

JULY 3 /2026/WITH GOLD UP $62.95 /NO CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD: ./ //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1005.077 TONNES

JULY 2 /2026/WITH GOLD UP $44,05 /NO CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD: ./ //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1005.077 TONNES

JULY 1 /2026/WITH GOLD UP $42.95 /NO CHANGES IN GOLD AT THE GLD: ./ //:/INVENTORY RESTS AT 1005.077 TONNES

GLD INVENTORY: 1034.65 TONNES, TONIGHTS TOTAL GOLD INVENTORY

SILVER

AUGUST 20 WITH SILVER UP $2.92 : :HUGE CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV A WITHDRAWAL OF 2.169 MILLION OZ OZ OUT OF THE SLV. / :INVENTORY RESTS AT 491.121 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 19 WITH SILVER UP $1.72 : :HUGE CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV A DEPOSIT OF 2.259 MILLION OZ OZ INTO THE SLV. / :INVENTORY RESTS AT 493.290 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 18 WITH SILVER DOWN $2.02 : :SMALL CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV A WITHDRAWAL OF 768,000 OZ OUT OF THE SLV. / :INVENTORY RESTS AT 492.296 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 17 WITH SILVER UP $1.11 : :SMALL CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV A WITHDRAWAL OF 768,000 OZ OUT OF THE SLV. / :INVENTORY RESTS AT 492.296 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 14 WITH SILVER UP $0.19 : :SMALL CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV A DEPOSIT OF 720,000 OZ INTO THE SLV. / :INVENTORY RESTS AT 493.064 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 13 WITH SILVER DOWN $0.92 : :NO CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV / :INVENTORY RESTS AT 492.341 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 12 WITH SILVER UP $0.75 : :HUGE CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV;A DEPOSIT OF 3.434 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV / :INVENTORY RESTS AT 492.341 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 11 WITH SILVER DOWN $0.39 : :HUGE CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV;A DEPOSIT OF 1.085 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV / :INVENTORY RESTS AT 488.907 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 10 WITH SILVER UP $1.83 : :NO CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV; / :INVENTORY RESTS AT 487.822 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 7 WITH SILVER UP $2.00 : :HUGE CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV; A DEPOSIT OF 1.355 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV : / :INVENTORY RESTS AT 487.822 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 6 WITH SILVER DOWN $0.75 : :NO CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV : / :INVENTORY RESTS AT 486.467 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 5 WITH SILVER UP $2.20: :NO CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV :// / :INVENTORY RESTS AT 486.673 MILLION OZ

AUGUST 4 WITH SILVER DOWN $0.07: :HUGE CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV :A DEPOSIT OF 2.893 MILLION OZ FROIM THE SLV// / :INVENTORY RESTS AT 486.673 MILLION OZ

JULY 31 WITH SILVER DOWN $0.90: :NOCHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV : / :INVENTORY RESTS AT 483.780 MILLION OZ

JULY 30 WITH SILVER UP $0.97: :SMALL CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV : A DEPOSIT OF 723,000 OZ INTO THE SLV // :INVENTORY RESTS AT 483.780 MILLION OZ

JULY 29 WITH SILVER UP $0.34: :NO CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV : // :INVENTORY RESTS AT 483.057 MILLION OZ

JULY 28 WITH SILVER UP $0.27: :HUGE CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV A WITHDRAWAL OF 0.633 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV : // :INVENTORY RESTS AT 483.057 MILLION OZ

JULY 27 WITH SILVER UP $0.27: :HUGE CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV A WITHDRAWAL OF 0.722 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV : // :INVENTORY RESTS AT 483.690 MILLION OZ

JULY 24 WITH SILVER UP $1.45: :NO CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV : // :INVENTORY RESTS AT 484.413 MILLION OZ

JULY 23 WITH SILVER DOWN 2.18: :HUGE CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV : A DEPOSIT OF 0.723MILLION OZ OUT OF THE SLV// :INVENTORY RESTS AT 484.413 MILLION OZ

JULY 22 WITH SILVER UP $1.45: :SMALL CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV : A WITHDRAWAL OF 0.217 MILLION OZ OUT OF THE SLV// :INVENTORY RESTS AT 483.690 MILLION OZ

JULY 21 WITH SILVER UP $1.89: :HUGE CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV : A WITHDRAWAL OF 0.217 MILLION OZ OUT OF THE SLV// :INVENTORY RESTS AT 483.961 MILLION OZ

JULY 20 WITH SILVER UP $0.97: :HUGE CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV : A DEPOSIT OF 2.17 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV// :INVENTORY RESTS AT 484.232 MILLION OZ

JULY 17 WITH SILVER UP $0.25: :HUGE CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV : A DEPOSIT OF 1.175 MILLION OZ// :INVENTORY RESTS AT 482.062 MILLION OZ

JULY 16 WITH SILVER DOWN $1.48: :NO CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV// :INVENTORY RESTS AT 480.887 MILLION OZ

JULY 15 WITH SILVER DOWN $1.52: :HUGE CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV/ A DEPOSIT OF 3.30 MILLLION OZ OZ INTO THE SLV// :INVENTORY RESTS AT 480.887 MILLION OZ

JULY 14 WITH SILVER UP $1.18: :HUGE CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV/ A WITHDRAWAL OF 543,000 OZ FROM THE SLV// :INVENTORY RESTS AT 477,587 MILLION OZ

JULY 13 WITH SILVER DOWN $2.07: :NO CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV/ :INVENTORY RESTS AT 478.130 MILLION OZ

JULY 10 WITH SILVER DOWN $0.67: :SMALL CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV A WITHDRAWAL OF 0.904 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV/ :INVENTORY RESTS AT 478.130 MILLION OZ

JULY 9 WITH SILVER UP $2.64: :SMALL CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV A WITHDRAWAL OF 0.497 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV/ :INVENTORY RESTS AT 479.531 MILLION OZ

JULY 8 WITH SILVER DOWN $2.70: :HUGE CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV A DEPOSIT OF 0.497 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV/ :INVENTORY RESTS AT 479.531 MILLION OZ

JULY 7 WITH SILVER DOWN $1.36: :HUGE CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.266 MILLION OZ OUT OF THE SLV/ :INVENTORY RESTS AT 479.034 MILLION OZ

JULY 6 WITH SILVER DOWN $0.51: :HUGE CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV A DEPOSIT OF 940,000 OZ INTO THE SLV/ :INVENTORY RESTS AT 480.300 MILLION OZ

JULY 3 WITH SILVER UP $1.81: :SMALL CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV A DEPOSIT OF 940,000 OZ INTO THE SLV.// :INVENTORY RESTS AT 479.360 MILLION OZ

JULY 2 WITH SILVER UP $0.58: : NO CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV// :INVENTORY RESTS AT 479.360 MILLION OZ

JULY 1 WITH SILVER UP $0.48: : SMALL CHANGES IN INVENTORY AT THE SLV A DEPOSIT OF 0.233 MILLION OZ OUT OF THE SLV/./ // :INVENTORY RESTS AT 479.360 MILLION OZ

CLOSING INVENTORY 491.121 MILLION OZ OF SILVER

GOLD COMMENTARIES:

1.PETER SCHIFF

2. MATHEW PIEPENBERG/EGON VON GREYERZ//ALASDAIR MACLEOD..

ALASDAIR MACLEOD…

QUOTH THE RAVEN:

40 Trillion Reasons To Own Gold

Our national debt has become grotesque, and the rate at which it’s growing is beyond alarming.

Quoth the RavenAug 20∙Paid

READ IN APP

It’s a great morning to crank “No Brakes” by The Offspring. Why? Because the United States government has officially blown through $40 trillion in national debt, another milestone that would almost be impressive if it weren’t so outright grotesque. Our debt machine literally has “no brakes”.

According to Treasury data, total U.S. debt crossed $40 trillion this week, only about five months after it crossed $39 trillion in March, while government spending continues to exceed revenue by more than $2 trillion annually.

Ten years ago, the debt was around $19 trillion, meaning we have managed to more than double the national credit card balance in roughly a decade. Meanwhile, interest expense has become the government’s second largest expense behind Social Security, and interest costs through the first ten months of this fiscal year were already 15% higher than during the same period last year.

Source: Zero Hedge

In other words, the U.S.’s financial statements are starting to represent those of a third world country. And once we start buying our own bonds, the transformation will be complete.

The speed at which the odometer is turning is perhaps even more disturbing than the $40 trillion headline itself, because it took the United States 192 years to accumulate its first $1 trillion of national debt, which it finally crossed in 1981. We crossed $30 trillion in 2022, $38 trillion in October 2025, $39 trillion in March 2026 and now $40 trillion roughly five months later.

At the beginning of July, the Joint Economic Committee calculated that the debt had increased by $3.16 trillion in just the previous twelve months, equivalent to more than $8.6 billion per day and about $100,000 every second. We used to measure trillion dollar increases in generations, then we measured them in years, and now apparently we are going to measure them in months.

I also think that smug idiots who joke about the debt, dismissing it as some meaningless nominal number that simply goes up forever, are missing the most alarming part of the story.

The problem isn’t that $40 trillion sounds scary in isolation, because in a growing economy virtually every nominal number gets larger over time, but rather the extraordinary rate at which the debt itself is now accelerating, with the total having more than doubled from roughly $19.4 trillion just ten years ago.

At this trajectory there are no visible brakes, and the increasingly popular argument that America can simply grow its way out of the problem becomes harder to take seriously when the debt is expanding faster than the economic base expected to support it.

Read: The Real AI Crash Starts This Year
Read: Bond Hell is Beginning On, Or Ahead, Of Schedule

Growth can absolutely make a large debt burden more manageable, but growth cannot solve a fiscal trajectory in which borrowing and interest expense continually compound faster than the economy, which is why the acceleration rather than the headline number is what should scare the hell out of people.

If nothing else, crossing $40 trillion should finally put to bed the idea that the Trump administration’s fiscal policy bears any meaningful resemblance to the cost cutting, budget balancing and fiscal restraint that was talked about before (and right after) the election with DOGE and the likes.

Whatever your opinion of Trump, and readers know I have supported plenty of his policies, the numbers are the numbers, and there is no serious definition of fiscal conservatism under which adding debt at this pace qualifies.

The federal government is still spending dramatically more than it takes in, annual deficits remain enormous, interest expense is compounding into one of Washington’s largest expenditures and there remains no credible political constituency willing to cut spending deeply enough to change the trajectory.

At some point this stops being an argument about whether Republicans or Democrats are more irresponsible and becomes an argument about whether the political system itself is capable of imposing austerity voluntarily before the bond market imposes it involuntarily. It’s why I called monetary (and now fiscal) policy in this country the devil that neither political party can name.

The Devil Neither Political Party Will Name

That brings me back to something I’ve been writing about repeatedly, which is that eventually I believe the bond market is going to force the government and Federal Reserve into some form of yield curve control. The problem isn’t simply that the United States owes $40 trillion, because a sovereign government issuing debt in its own currency can obviously continue borrowing for a very long time.

The problem arrives when the marginal buyer of that debt begins demanding an interest rate that the government, economy and financial system cannot comfortably tolerate, particularly when trillions of dollars of existing debt must continually be refinanced at those higher rates. Once the price demanded by the bond market collides with the price Washington can afford to pay, somebody eventually has to blink, and history tells me it probably isn’t going to be Washington voluntarily deciding to default.

We may have gotten our first meaningful glimpse of that conflict yesterday, when Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that Treasury would double the size of certain buyback operations involving longer dated Treasuries from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation. The operations cover debt in the 10 to 30 year portion of the curve and came after the 30 year Treasury yield reached 5.34%, its highest level since 2007, as investors wrestled with inflation, enormous government financing requirements and the broader deterioration in America’s fiscal position.

The reaction was immediate, with long duration Treasury yields dropping sharply and the 30 year falling back toward 5.18%, while the dollar weakened and gold exploded higher. Gold surged more than 3% on Wednesday as the market immediately interpreted the announcement through the lens of easier financial conditions and potential government support for the bond market.

Some people are already describing Treasury’s move as a kind of stealth yield curve control. I think that description may slightly get ahead of what has actually happened. A $4 billion Treasury buyback is still tiny relative to a Treasury market containing more than $30 trillion of marketable debt, and Treasury itself isn’t technically setting a ceiling on yields or promising unlimited purchases at a particular price.

What matters to me isn’t necessarily the size of yesterday’s intervention, but rather the signal it sends about how uncomfortable policymakers have become with what is happening at the long end of the curve. Treasury has now shown the market that sufficiently violent increases in long term borrowing costs can provoke a policy response, and I am not convinced bond traders are going to interpret that exclusively as a demonstration of strength.

In fact, I think there is another possibility that is far more interesting and potentially much more dangerous…and I think could actually happen.

What if the bond market crashes now? If I’m sitting there running a giant macro book and watching Treasury suddenly double long bond buybacks immediately after yields reach levels Washington apparently finds uncomfortable, I’m not necessarily thinking that the cavalry has arrived and the problem has been solved.

I might instead be thinking that policymakers are scared, that I now know approximately where their pain threshold resides and that the underlying fiscal problem requiring intervention hasn’t changed whatsoever. There is an enormous difference between policymakers demonstrating control over a market and policymakers inadvertently demonstrating that they are losing control over it.

That is why I wouldn’t be surprised if the Treasury market eventually comes back and tests Washington again, particularly because none of the forces that drove yields higher disappeared when Bessent made his announcement.

The Treasury’s intervention may improve liquidity and temporarily suppress yields, but even analysts discussing the move have noted that it does not resolve the underlying fiscal problems producing pressure on the market. If long bonds roll over again after Washington has now shown its hand, I think the next chapter becomes considerably more consequential.

Because that’s when I think we start talking about serious yield curve control, rather than relatively small Treasury liquidity operations that happen to produce a dramatic market reaction. I’m talking about the Federal Reserve effectively deciding that long term Treasury yields cannot be permitted to trade above some politically or economically intolerable level, whether that level is explicitly announced or simply defended through increasingly aggressive purchases.

At that point the central bank isn’t merely influencing the overnight rate or providing temporary liquidity, but effectively standing between the Treasury market and the price that private buyers would otherwise demand for financing the government. Once that happens, the question stops being what yield investors require to own Treasuries and becomes how many dollars policymakers are willing to create to prevent those yields from reaching that level.

My broader macro roadmap hasn’t really changed, because I’ve said for a while that I think the most dangerous sequence for markets would begin with a major deleveraging event, potentially associated with the popping of the AI bubble, that initially sends almost everything lower. Equities get crushed, credit spreads blow out, leveraged positions unwind, volatility explodes and investors begin selling what they can sell rather than what they want to sell because margin calls don’t care about anybody’s long term investment thesis.

In that environment I don’t expect gold to magically levitate while everything around it is liquidated, because gold is one of the most liquid assets on Earth and therefore becomes a source of cash when somebody desperately needs dollars. That means the first stage of my bullish gold thesis could perversely include an absolutely vicious gold selloff.

If a major deleveraging event arrives I could easily imagine gold getting knocked from something like $4,500 back toward $3,500, just as previous liquidation episodes have dragged monetary metals lower alongside equities before the monetary response eventually overwhelmed the initial selling.

That wouldn’t invalidate my thesis in the slightest, because in many ways it would represent the setup I’ve been waiting for. The important question wouldn’t be whether gold fell $500 or $1,000 during the panic, but what policymakers did after stocks, credit and potentially Treasuries themselves began malfunctioning simultaneously. If the answer is what I think it will be, this selloff in gold, should it happen, could wind up being one of the last great opportunities to exchange dollars for something policymakers cannot manufacture.

Once financial markets begin seriously deleveraging, I have very little doubt about what policymakers eventually do because we’ve watched this movie repeatedly, even if every crisis arrives wearing a slightly different costume. Rates get cut, emergency liquidity facilities appear, balance sheets expand, quantitative easing returns and the definition of what constitutes an acceptable central bank intervention gradually becomes broader as the severity of the crisis increases.

The only chart you’ll ever need. It’s probably framed at the Fed somewhere:

Prices “saved” via crushing inflation (soft default) > Prices crashing (hard default)

If the Treasury market itself is part of the instability, rather than simply being the safe haven investors flee toward, then the case for some form of explicit or implicit yield curve control becomes even stronger. At that point policymakers are no longer merely rescuing banks or supporting credit markets, but protecting the government’s own ability to finance itself without detonating the rest of the financial system.

That is the point where I think $7,500 gold becomes entirely plausible, because the monetary regime would have fundamentally changed from allowing the bond market to determine the government’s cost of capital to creating enough currency to prevent the market from doing so.

First comes the liquidation, then comes the policy panic, then comes the monetary response and finally comes the repricing of scarce assets against a currency whose supply is being deliberately expanded to prevent the sovereign bond market from clearing naturally. Gold doesn’t need everybody on Earth to suddenly become a gold bug for that repricing to happen, because the marginal shift in portfolios away from financial claims and toward scarce monetary assets can produce enormous moves when confidence in the denominator begins deteriorating. If the world’s largest bond market ultimately requires increasingly aggressive official support, I have difficulty imagining a more fundamentally bullish long term setup for gold.

That is also why I think there’s an argument to own basically anything scarce that isn’t bolted to the ground, because gold would merely be the cleanest monetary expression of a much larger repricing. Silver, commodities, productive hard assets and other things with genuinely finite supply should eventually benefit from the same realization that the quantity of currency can increase much faster than the quantity of real assets.

Equities would probably eventually inflate again too, perhaps with something like a 12 to 18 month lag after the initial deleveraging, because enough newly created nominal dollars ultimately find their way back into financial assets. The mistake would be interpreting those higher nominal prices as proof that the underlying economic problem had been solved rather than recognizing that part of the increase simply reflects a deterioration in the measuring stick itself.

Again, the only chart you’ll ever need:

Prices “saved” via crushing inflation (soft default) > Prices crashing (hard default)

This brings me back to gold miners, because earlier this year, despite deliberately leaving GDX out of my 26 Stocks To Watch for 2026 after its ridiculous performance the previous year, I wrote that around $75 per share it looked like it might finally be time to start getting long the miners again.

After yesterday’s news, GDX is sitting much closer to $100, meaning the trade has appreciated roughly 30% from that neighborhood in only a couple of months. More important to me than the percentage gain itself is what yesterday’s reaction demonstrated about how sensitive monetary assets have become to even the suggestion that Washington might intervene against rising long term yields.

If a relatively modest increase in Treasury buybacks can produce that kind of response, imagine the repricing that could occur if the Federal Reserve ultimately becomes the buyer standing behind the entire long end of the curve.

Imagine, for example, that yesterday’s intervention doesn’t solve anything and the 30 year Treasury yield eventually blows through 5.5%, then keeps moving as investors demand greater compensation for inflation, fiscal risk and the sheer quantity of debt Washington needs them to absorb. Imagine Treasury expanding buybacks again, only to discover that private sellers are perfectly happy to hand them increasingly large quantities of bonds while demanding still higher yields on new issuance.

Then imagine a genuine financial accident occurring somewhere in the system because mortgages, corporate borrowing, commercial real estate financing and equity valuations ultimately reference the supposedly risk free rate that is suddenly behaving like anything but risk free. Eventually I believe the Federal Reserve would be forced to step into that market and effectively say that enough is enough, because the alternative would be allowing the government’s financing problem to metastasize into a broader financial crisis.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon recently warned that reserve currency status ultimately depends on the United States maintaining its economic and military dominance, telling PBS that if America is no longer the strongest military and strongest economy in 25 years, it will not remain the reserve currency either.

Dimon’s warning is actually interesting to me because it gets at the fundamental reason reserve currencies exist in the first place, which isn’t because some international committee permanently awards a country a trophy. Reserve currency status ultimately rests on confidence in the issuing country’s economy, military, institutions, financial markets and willingness to preserve the purchasing power and reliability of its obligations.

The United States possesses enormous structural advantages in all of those categories, and anyone predicting the imminent disappearance of the dollar should acknowledge that there is currently no obvious replacement capable of replicating the depth, liquidity and institutional infrastructure of the dollar system.

But “there is no obvious replacement today” is very different from saying that foreign governments and investors must indefinitely maintain the same percentage of their reserves in dollars regardless of what Washington does.

That is why, while Dimon used a 25 year hypothetical, I wouldn’t be surprised if meaningful erosion happened three or four times faster than that, particularly if America’s fiscal and monetary choices accelerate the incentive to diversify.

Reserve currency transitions don’t require every central bank on Earth to dump every dollar it owns on the same Tuesday afternoon, because the process can occur gradually as governments, corporations, sovereign wealth funds and investors simply decide that the next incremental dollar of savings should be allocated somewhere else.

Maybe a central bank that once held 65% of its reserves in dollars decides 55% is sufficient, then another decides that additional gold makes more sense than additional Treasuries, while bilateral trade arrangements slowly reduce the necessity of settling every transaction through the dollar system.Here’s China’s disclosed gold holdings (rumor has it they could have multiple of this amount of gold right now). The key is that even the reported number is rising quickly.

None of those decisions individually ends dollar dominance, but collectively they can alter the marginal demand for the enormous quantity of debt the United States needs the world to absorb.

That creates the possibility of an extremely unpleasant feedback loop, because weaker structural demand for Treasuries could require higher yields to attract buyers precisely when America’s exploding debt load makes higher yields increasingly difficult for Washington to tolerate.

Policymakers could then respond by suppressing yields through Federal Reserve purchases or other forms of financial repression, which might stabilize the bond market temporarily while simultaneously giving foreign reserve managers another reason to diversify away from dollar denominated assets. That diversification could increase upward pressure on yields, requiring even more intervention, which could create even greater concern about the long term purchasing power of the dollar. You don’t need hyperinflation or an overnight collapse of the currency for this dynamic to become extraordinarily bullish for gold, because you merely need investors to conclude that the policy response to excessive debt will ultimately involve debasing the unit in which that debt is denominated. You can call it anything you want, a feedback loop, a shit sandwich, whatever. It’s bullish for gold and terrible for the dollar.

That is ultimately what my gold thesis is about, because I’m not buying gold because I think civilization ends, but rather because I think policymakers will do almost anything necessary to make sure civilization doesn’t end.

The politically easiest solution to excessive nominal debt is rarely an explicit default in which the government announces that Treasury holders won’t be paid, because that would immediately destroy the credibility of the entire financial system. The easier solution is some combination of inflation, negative real interest rates, financial repression, central bank balance sheet expansion and nominal economic growth that allows yesterday’s obligations to be repaid with tomorrow’s less valuable dollars. Nobody calls that a default because every bondholder receives the exact number of dollars promised on the piece of paper, but purchasing power ultimately cares very little about semantics.

So you default quietly, paying creditors in dollars that buy less while suppressing the interest rate below what a genuinely unconstrained market might otherwise demand, then allowing wages, commodities, houses and financial assets to rise in nominal terms. Eventually the Dow hits some previously unimaginable number, the S&P reaches another record, government tax receipts rise and nominal GDP looks fantastic, while everyone celebrates the creation of wealth without asking how much of the apparent prosperity simply represents a shrinking denominator.

Venezuela is obviously an extreme example and the United States is nowhere remotely close to that monetary outcome today, but the arithmetic principle is identical regardless of magnitude because nominal asset prices can rise spectacularly while the currency in which they’re quoted loses purchasing power. Remember: a stock market going from 100 to 1,000 means considerably less if the currency goes from 100 to 10 along the way.

That is why $40 trillion matters, although not because there is anything magical about the number itself or because some alarm suddenly goes off at the Treasury when another zero appears on the national balance sheet.

It matters because it took the United States 192 years to accumulate its first trillion dollars of debt and roughly five months to accumulate the latest trillion, while the interest bill is simultaneously becoming one of the largest expenses in the federal budget and long term borrowing costs are reaching levels not seen in nearly two decades.

The trajectory is accelerating at exactly the moment when the price of financing that trajectory is becoming more expensive, which is the combination that eventually forces policymakers to choose between fiscal austerity, market clearing interest rates and monetary intervention. I have seen almost nothing from Washington that convinces me fiscal austerity is going to win that contest.

Maybe Treasury’s latest intervention settles the bond market down and the inevitable gets pushed further into the future, because markets can remain comfortable with mathematically ugly situations for considerably longer than people expect. But if long bonds crack again after Washington has now demonstrated its willingness to respond, I think the next intervention could be considerably larger, and every escalation would move us another step toward the monetary regime I’ve been expecting.

If we ultimately get the sequence I’ve laid out, with an equity and credit deleveraging followed by enormous QE, aggressive Treasury support and genuine yield curve control, I think today’s gold prices could eventually look extraordinarily cheap even if gold first gets annihilated during the liquidation itself. There are now 40 trillion reasons to own gold, and unfortunately Washington appears determined to keep adding more

END

3. CHRIS POWELL AND HIS GATA DISPATCHES

Adam Sharp: Gold smells a rat

Submitted by admin on Wed, 2026-08-19 17:24 Section: Daily Dispatches

By Adam Sharp
Daily Reckoning, Baltimore
Wednesday, August 19, 2026

Boom! It was another great day for gold, silver, and miners.

The GDX gold miner ETF is up a whopping 9% as of midday.

Gold moved up 3.5% and crossed the $4,500 level. Silver also popped 3.5% to $66.43.

So … what the heck happened?

We got another signal that the U.S. government is desperate to get debt yields lower. And this is a great sign for gold bugs.

And before you protest, I know. Bonds, interest rates, and yields are boring. But this is critical stuff for anyone who owns precious metals, hard assets, foreign stocks, or fixed-income. So hang with me for a moment. …

… For the remainder of the report:

Gold Smells a Rat

* * *

4. ANDREW MAGUIRE//KINESIS LIVE FROM THE VAULT/285 AND LAST WEEK 283

285:

5. COMMODITY REPORT: GOLD

YOUR EARLY CURRENCY VALUES/GOLD AND SILVER PRICING/ASIAN AND EUROPEAN BOURSE MOVEMENTS/AND INTEREST RATE SETTINGS THURSDAY MORNING.7:30 AM

SHANGHAI CLOSED UP 9.30 PTS OR 0.27%

HANG SENG CLOSED UP 231.93 PTS OR 0.91%

Nikkei CLOSED DOWN 951.58 PTS OR 1.46%

//Australia’s all ordinaries CLOSED DOWN 0.50%

//Chinese yuan (ONSHORE) CLOSED UP TO 6.7240

/ OFFSHORE CLOSED UP AT 6.7246 Oil UP TO 87.23 dollars per barrel for WTI and BRENT UP TO 92.73 Stocks in Europe OPENED ALL MIXED

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

ONSHORE YUAN: CLOSED UP AT 6.7240

OFFSHORE YUAN: UP TO 6.7246

1.HANG SANG CLOSED UP 231.93 PTS OR 0.91%

2. Nikkei closed UP 951.58 PTS OR 1.46%

WEST TEXAS INTERMEDIATE OIL UP TO 87.23

BRENT; 92.73

3. Europe stocks SO FAR: ALL MIXED

USA dollar INDEX DOWN 9 BASIS PTS TO 98.64// EURO RISES TO 1.1693 UP 18 BASIS PTS

3b Japan 10 YR bond yield:FALLS TO. +2.856 DOWN 3 FULL BASIS PTS/ VERY TROUBLESOME//Japan buying 100% of bond issuance)/Japanese YEN vs USA CROSS NOW AT 158.45… JAPANESE YEN NOW FALLING AS WE HAVE NOW REACHED THE ENDING OF THE YEN CARRY TRADE AGAIN AND THE REPATRIATION OF YEN DENOMINATED BONDS TRADING IN THE USA/EUROPE. JAPAN 30 YR BOND YIELD: 4.025 DOWN 7 FULL BASIS PTS

3c Nikkei now ABOVE 17,000

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

3e Gold UP /JAPANESE Yen DOWN CHINESE ONSHORE YUAN: UP (6.7240) AND OFFSHORE: UP AT 6.7246

3f Japan is to buy INFINITE TRILLION YEN worth of BONDS. Japan’s GDP equals 5 trillion USA. CENTRAL BANK OF JAPAN WILL NO LONGER DO QE.

Japan to buy 100% of all new Japanese debt and NOW they will have OVER 50% of all Japanese debt. GOVERMENT ASKED JAPAN PENSION FUNDS AND INSURANCE FUNDS TO BUY MORE JAPANESE BONDS AND REPATRIATE ALL FOREIGN BONDS.

3g Oil UP for WTI and UP this morning

3h European bond buying continues to push yields LOWER on all fronts in the EU German 10yr bund YIELD UP TO +3.2540/ Italian 10 Yr bond yield UP AT 4.068/ SPAIN 10 YR BOND YIELD DOWN TO 3.694%

3i Greek 10 year bond yield DOWN TO 3.910%

3j Gold at $4492.00/Silver at: 66.63 1 am est) SILVER NEXT RESISTANCE LEVEL AT $100.00

3k USA vs Russian rouble;// Russian rouble UP 1 AND 13/ 100 roubles/83.81

3m oil (WTI) into the 87 dollar handle for WTI and 92 handle for Brent/

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

JAPAN ON JAN 29.2016 CONTINUES NIRP. THIS MORNING RAISES AMOUNT OF BONDS THAT THEY WILL PURCHASE UP TO .5% ON THE 10 YR BOND///YEN TRADES TO 158.45 // 10 YEAR YIELD AFTER FIRST BREAKING .54% LAST YEAR NOW EXCEEDS THAT LEVEL TO 2.856% DOWN 4 BASIS PTS STILL ON CENTRAL BANK (JAPAN) INTERVENTION//YEN CARRY TRADE NOW UNWINDING//YEN BOND TRADING OVERSEAS TO BE REPATRIATED.//JAPAN 30 YR: 4.025 DOWN 7 PTS..: USA/SF this 0.7985 as the Swiss Franc . Euro vs SF: 0.9330

USA 10 YR BOND YIELD: 4.653 DOWN 0 BASIS PTS…DANGEROUSLY CLOSE TO 5.00%

USA 30 YR BOND YIELD: 5.198 UP 1 BASIS PTS/

USA 2 YR BOND YIELD: 4.171 DOWN 1 BASIS PTS

USA DOLLAR VS TURKISH LIRA: 47.96 UP 2 BASIS PTS/LIRA GETTING KILLED//IDIOTS FOR SELLING GOLD AND USA DOLLAR RESERVES.

10 YR UK BOND YIELD: 5.045 UP 1 PTS

30 YR UK BOND YIELD: 5.7863 DOWN 0 BASIS PTS

10 YR CANADA BOND YIELD: 3.694 DOWN 1 BASIS PTS

5 YR CANADA BOND YIELD: 3.305 UP 2 BASIS PTS.

1a New York Opening report

Futures Slide As Treasury Yields Surge, Erasing Bessent Intervention, Driven By Oil Spike

US futures slide and are trading at session lows, as bond yields surge after yesterday’s Treasury announcement, having now erased the entire post buyback-boost move; yields are 4-5bps higher as the curve bear steepens sharply with the 10Y yield now at 4.69%, above where it was before the Treasury’s press release yesterday, driven by a surge in Brent above $94 after Trump vowed to unleash an “Economic D-Day” on Iran’s economy. As of 8:00am ET, S&P futures are down 0.2% and Nasdaq futures slide 0.3%. Pre-mkt, Memory / Semis are leading the Tech tape after a stronger APAC Tech session; Mag7 / Software are lagging. Cyclicals are seeing broad-based strength. Defensives are lagging with HC seeing profit-taking. Momentum continuing to unwind has triggered reversals lower from pre-mkt strength, over the past few sessions. This appears to be quant / systematic rather than discretionary players with Goldman pointing to the biggest systematic one-day loss since 2023. Retail activity remains muted. USD is mixed, erasing much of its earlier weakness as yields surge. Commodities are led by Energy as Brent moves towards $95/bbl, base metals outperform precious, with Ags are mixed. US economic data calendar includes weekly jobless claims, the Philadelphia Fed business outlook and leading index. Fed speakers scheduled for the session include, San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly and St. Louis Fed President Alberto Musalem.

In premarket trading Mag 7 stocks are mostly lower (Alphabet -0.3%, Amazon -0.3%, Apple -0.08%, Meta +0.4%, Microsoft 0.0%, Nvidia +0.2%, Tesla -0.7%)

Cryptocurrency-linked stocks climb as Bitcoin’s rally unleashed the biggest wave of short liquidations in records going back to 2021. The stocks were also boosted as President Donald Trump met with crypto executives from firms including Coinbase, Payward and Blockchain.com.
Advance Auto (AAP) tumbles 15% after the parts provider reported second-quarter sales that fell short of analyst estimates.
Alibaba ADRs (BABA) fall 3% after the Chinese internet giant reported weaker-than-expected revenues for its core domestic e-commerce business
Coty (COTY) falls 14% after the beauty conglomerate refrained from providing full-year guidance, predicting a “transition” period in the current fiscal year.
Ethan Allen (ETD) rises 3% after the home furnishings company declared a special cash dividend of $3 a share.
Nordson (NDSN) rises 5% after the maker of applicators used to dispense adhesives boosted its adjusted earnings per share guidance for the full year.
Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical (RARE) rises 7% after the drugmaker received accelerated FDA approval for its gene therapy to treat a rare genetic metabolic disorder.
Valvoline (VVV) climbs 1% after getting a new bull as Benchmark starts coverage of the operator of quick-oil-change stations with a buy rating, saying the stock is at an attractive entry point for investors.
Walmart (WMT) falls 6% as quarterly sales fell short of expectations, a rare miss that’s likely to stoke concern about the leading big-box retailer decelerating alongside a slow-growing US economy.
Webull (BULL) climbs 11% after the digital investment platform reported second-quarter results that beat expectations.
Wolfspeed (WOLF) falls 8% after the semiconductor-device company’s fourth-quarter results were seen as disappointing.

In other corporate news India’s securities regulator banned a Mauritius-based unit of JPMorgan from its capital markets, the first enforcement action over alleged manipulation of the country’s new closing auction for stock price. Apple’s camera-equipped AirPods remain on track for 2027, despite a leak from the company indicating that the product might arrive sooner. Starlink has reapplied to India’s space regulator for approval of its Gen 2 satellite constellation, which includes direct-to-device connectivity, ET reports.

Under the hood of quiet, low volume trading, there have been some significant thematic rotations. Perceived AI losers have rallied, high beta losers spiked, while high beta momentum have extended their historic collapse and are now just shy of their July lows. In fact, according to Goldman Prime, systematic funds just suffered their worst drop on Wednesday since 2023 as Nasdaq volatility remains very elevated, despite the apparent surface calm.

With so much focus on AI, traders will seek clues from Alibaba results. Headline first quarter revenue was at 268.95B Yuan, roughly matching consensus. The stock had run hard Into the print, considered among the best-placed Chinese AI developers to turn increasingly capable models into revenue, with Qwen’s near-frontier agentic performance at lower prices than leading US models.

Elsewhere, Brent rose for a fifth straight day, topping $94 a barrel after Trump announced a package of measures intended to smother Iran’s economy, dimming prospects for both an imminent breakthrough in the conflict between the US and Tehran and a normalization of crude flows from the Middle East.

Traders are taking stock after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a surprise increase in long-term bond buybacks to stem a rise in yields that had taken them to a near two-decade high. When it comes to Bessent’s plan to increase buybacks of longer-dated debt, Vital Knowledge founder Adam Crisafulli says “the Treasury action is somewhat minor and insignificant compared to the powerful secular forces pushing yield higher,” and JPMorgan sees credibility risk from the actichion. And with many warning the plan may be a short-term fix given concerns about large fiscal deficits and oil-driven inflation, that has already been realized as yields rise above where they were before the intervention yesterday!

“If there’s a structural reason why bond yields are drifting higher, a bit of short-term intervention buys you a little bit of time, but doesn’t necessarily change the longer-term trajectory,” said Graham Secker, equity strategy head at Pictet Wealth Management.

Elevated yields have kept equity prices in check, with the S&P 500 down since Monday after hitting a record high last week. Chipmakers have been under pressure in recent days, paring this month’s rebound after a volatile July.

In politics, a group of Democratic lawmakers are urging Fed Chair Warsh to disclose any conversations he has had with Trump since taking over the central bank in May. The Trump administration is poised to reduce tariffs on automobiles imported from Canada to 15% from 25% as part of a broader deal that would see the US neighbor drop retaliatory trade measures. Meanwhile, Norway is bracing for more tariffs from the US after talks on trade in Washington.

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 was down 0.1% and on track for a seventh day of losses, its longest losing streak of 2026 as energy firms outperformed as Brent crude rose toward $94 a barrel. Here are the biggest movers Thursday:

Novonesis shares climbed as much as 11%, the most since October 2015, after the Danish maker of industrial enzymes beat expectations in the second quarter and upgraded its guidance for the full year
Sartorius rose as much as 6%, the most in six weeks, after the stock was upgraded to buy from neutral at UBS
Sartorius Stedim Biotech climbed as much as 6.7%, the most in more than four months, after the stock was upgraded to buy from neutral at UBS, which cited a “positive setup into 2027”
Michelin shares rose as much as 2.5% and Nokian Renkaat gains as much as 6.4% after JPMorgan upgraded both tire stocks, citing favorable earnings potential
Ferrovial shares rose as much 4%, the most since April, after a consortium led by the infrastructure company was selected to deliver Tennessee’s I-24 Choice Lanes project in Nashville
JD Sports declined as much as 16%, the most since November 2024, after sales fell in the second quarter and the sports apparel retailer lowered its full-year profit before tax forecast to account for underlying sales trends and the promotional market backdrop
Steel stocks SSAB and Norsk Hydro traded lower while ArcelorMittal pushed higher as people familiar with the matter said a potential trade deal between the US and Canada could lower tariffs on certain Canadian exports of steel and aluminum to 25%
Orkla fell as much as 7.6%, the most since May, after the Norwegian consumer goods firm reported its latest earnings
Aryzta shares fell as much as 8.5% to the lowest since 2022 after UBS cuts the Swiss baker to sell, expecting the past year’s flattish volume growth to continue into and beyond 2026
Trainline dropped a further 8.8% on Thursday, extending strong declines after Wednesday’s announcement of a UK competition watchdog investigation into so-called drip pricing, as JPMorgan cuts its price target to a new Street-low
Aegon shares fell as much as 4.5%, the worst drop since March, after the insurer released interim results

Asian stocks climbed, led by gains in South Korea, as a drop in global bond yields after the US signaled increased Treasury buybacks eased concerns over high borrowing costs. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index advanced 1.8%, led by SK Hynix and Samsung following buyback reports. Korea’s benchmark rallied 5.9% while Japan and Hong Kong also rose. The drop in yields has reignited the artificial-intelligence rally after higher cost concerns briefly interrupted the recent tech advance thanks to strong earnings. Fresh reports of new business growth added to the momentum. Samsung Electronics rallied more than 5% after MoneyToday reported the chip giant will announce a shareholder return program soon. Meanwhile Reuters also reported the firm plans to raise some prices, lifting Taiwanese memory chip peers. SK Hynix jumped 4% after the company unveiled plans later on Wednesday to buy back 40 trillion won ($29 billion) of shares and return more profits to investors.

With little on the calendar for the rest of the week and holiday-thinned volumes, traders are looking to Nvidia’s earnings next week for a fresh read on the state of the AI buildout. “People are waiting for either new information or the market signaling something,” Secker said. “When you see the Korean market going up 5% and then down 5% the next day, particularly for the hedge fund community that level of volatility is not encouraging confidence.”

Traders will also be keen to hear remarks from Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh at the annual Jackson Hole symposium next week. His lack of guidance on when or whether the central bank will adjust rates has added to uncertainty over the policy outlook.

In FX, the dollar slide has continued with the credibility concerns triggered by yesterday’s buyback announcement flowing through to today’s trade and sending the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index to its lowest level since mid-May, lifting EUR/USD onto a 1.17 handle. The pound headed for its highest level against the dollar since February, while the euro also gained ground.

In rates, treasuries are fading as higher oil prices push up US government yields by 4 to 5 basis points. In fact, yields have now erased almost all of yesterday’s Treasury intervention. US 10-year yields trade around 4.70%, higher by 6bp on the day with bunds outperforming by 6bp and gilts up 3bp in the sector. A rally spurred by Wednesday’s Treasury buyback proposals has run out of steam just one day later, with the 30-year back to 5.24% erasing its entire 9bps drop from the prior session. Gilts are also on the defensive while Europe is mixed, with German bunds trading a touch firmer. Treasury auctions include a $8bn reopening of a 30-year TIPS sale. The WI 30-year around 2.98% is some 50bps above the February sale stop-out as the price of oil has risen ~40% over the period

In commodities, WTI futures higher by around 2.8%, adding to underperformance of Treasuries versus G10 rivals, rising to highest levels since July 24, as the US seeks to isolate Iran and its economy. Brent crude prices advanced for a fifth day above $94 a barrel, reaching the highest this month. Precious metals are failing to capitalise on the softer dollar with spot gold and silver posting respective losses of 0.7% and 0.6%. Bitcoin has built on yesterday’s rally, up 4%.

US economic data calendar includes weekly jobless claims, the Philadelphia Fed business outlook and leading index. Fed speakers scheduled for the session include, San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly and St. Louis Fed President Alberto Musalem

Market Snapshot

Top Overnight News

The US’s national debt has hit a record $40tn as borrowing rises at a historic pace, fuelling investor concerns about the state of America’s public finances despite Donald Trump’s vow to bring spending under control. FT
Scott Bessent’s shock Treasury intervention reverberated through markets, with analysts warning his plan risks being a short-term “circuit breaker” at best. Underscoring jitters, long end US yields edged higher. Bessent is emerging as the most interventionist Treasury chief in decades. BBG
The US will begin what Donald Trump called “unprecedented” economic warfare against Iran after failing to reach a deal. He gave no details but also threatened to target Iran’s trading partners. Brent rose above $93. BBG
The U.S. military has quietly established a shipping corridor in and out of the Strait of Hormuz to transport millions of barrels of oil each day — a notable success even as the broader war remains at a stalemate. Axios
In the battle for global technological mastery being fought in the labs of AI companies, China is rapidly closing the gap with the US. By several key metrics — usage and cost — it’s even taking the lead. BBG
North Korea has fired a barrage of ballistic missiles, just hours after dismissing US President Donald Trump’s overture to reopen diplomatic contacts between Pyongyang and Washington. FT
The U.S. and Canada are closing in on a trade deal in which Washington could cut some contentious tariff rates on Canadian-built cars and trucks, ‌and key metals, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. RTRS
Four Democratic senators have written to Kevin Warsh urging him to disclose any conversations he has had with Trump since becoming Fed chair, according to people familiar. BBG
Japan’s exports expanded at the fastest pace since 2022 last month, rising 23.2% from a year earlier as a weaker yen and strong demand for chips and cars boosted shipments. BBG
Mutual fund cash balances sit near historical lows. Following a brief increase around the start of the US-Iran war, mutual fund cash balances stood at 1.2% of assets at the end of June. Cash balances reached a low of 1.1% in December 2025. Goldman

A more detailed look at global markets courtesy of Newsquawk

APAC stocks were predominantly higher following a similar positive lead from Wall Street, where most of the major indices gained as yields and the dollar declined after the US Treasury doubled buybacks of long-term bonds. ASX 200 marginally gained with outperformance seen in miners and as participants digested a slew of earnings updates, although the upside is capped as financials lagged, and following disappointing jobs data. Nikkei 225 was underpinned by a rebound in tech, a pullback in yields and stronger-than-expected trade data. KOSPI led the advances in the region amid upside in the tech heavyweights, with SK Hynix shares up double digits following the announcement of a KRW 40tln share buyback, while there were reports that Samsung Electronics is planning to announce a shareholder return plan topping KRW 100tln. Hang Seng and Shanghai Comp conformed to the positive mood but with gains capped amid a deluge of earnings updates and as participants await Alibaba’s earnings report, while the mainland is also contained after the PBoC kept its 7-day reverse repo operations at zero, and it maintained the benchmark Loan Prime Rates at their current levels for the 15th consecutive month.

Top Asian News

Japan’s METI reportedly plans to request around JPY 7.7tln for its FY27 budget, which is a significant boost from its FY26 allocation.

European bourses trade mixed, with underperformance in Germany’s DAX 40 (-0.6%) while the majority of other indices are flat/slightly firmer. European sectors point to a mixed picture. Autos top the sector pile, with Construction and Utilities rounding out the top 3 performers. To the downside is Basic Resources, paring back some of Wednesday’s gains. Telecoms and Travel & Leisure round out the sector laggards.

Top European News

German PPI (Jul MM) 1.1% vs. Exp. 0.7% (Prev. -0.3%).
German PPI (Jul YY) 3.0% vs. Exp. 2.7% (Prev. 1.8%).

Quiet action in FX after broad based USD weakness vs all peers on the surprise Treasury announcement yesterday, an update which led to significant curve flattening with the 30yr yield falling in excess of 10bps. Although the figure announced by the Treasury was modest, it shows Bessent’s commitment to keeping yields in check when above 5% in the long segment; alongside this, FOMC minutes encouraged some dovish action in shorter dated USTs. Yields will remain in focus and we have Fed speakers Daly and Musalem set to speak on business TV later today, likely to be asked on this topic. USD action is mixed against G10 peers, weaker vs. cyclicals, firmer/flat vs havens. DXY is modestly weaker after slipping below May’s support around 98.80, it is essentially no man’s land below with 98.00 the likely next support.
SEK weakness after the Riksbank announcement which, in short, was broadly as expected but failed to convince some market expectations of tightening later in the year (i.e. Danske expecting two hikes, JPMorgan seeing one). While keeping the door open to tightening later in the year, some dovish leads can also be interpreted from the mood of language on the economy, where the reiterated language comes despite a rebound in domestic GDP. EUR/SEK moved higher throughout the morning to a peak just below 11.06, +0.4% on the day.
Action elsewhere is quiet. AUD is towards the bottom of the G10 pile despite the constructive risk environment; underperformance a function of disappointing jobs data in which headline Employment Change contracted and the Unemployment Rate rose. AUD/NZD fell in excess of 40 pips after the data, selling which was halted just under the 1.1950 mark, AUD/USD is flat despite a kneejerk lower after the data.

Fixed Income

Fixed income benchmarks are lower/flat. Yields are firmer across the curve this morning, albeit only mildly so. This comes after the curve flattened in the prior session, following the US Treasury’s decision to double long-end buybacks, attempting to provide greater liquidity support. However, by all intents and purposes, markets have received the news as the Treasury being concerned about recent elevated yields. Some will also point towards the recent US-Japan cooperation on JPY intervention; whilst unlikely to be a main factor for the Treasury’s buy-back announcement, the timing is interesting.
For now, yields are off recent peaks, but still remain towards multi-year highs. Fiscal concerns continue to remain the theme, with the US gross national debt now above the USD 40tln mark. The US30yr (5.22%) holds beyond the 5% mark, whilst the US10yr (4.66%) remains above the key 4.5% mark. ING opines that it is “unlikely” that the 10yr will fall below 4.5%, but believes it is “clear” that any move above 5% “or even the material threat thereof” would receive active resistance by the US Treasury.
The key dates to watch are as follows: September 9th (the new doubled buyback goes into effect) and then November 4th (next QRA, where the current program window ends, and the Treasury will provide more updates on sizes/frequency).
Bunds (+3 tick) and Gilts (-8 ticks) remain flat/lower, in what has been a quite domestic newsflow session for the respective regions. On a macro level, energy benchmarks continue to rise (Brent Oct’26 +2.5%), with the latest bout of geopolitical updates indicating a resurgence of hostilities in the Middle East (see commodities for details).
France sells EUR 12.5bln vs exp. EUR 10.5-12.5bln 2.40% 2029, 2.70% 2031, 3.25% 2032 and 3.00% 2034 OAT.
Japan sells JPY 532.1bln 20-year JGBs; b/c 3.98x (prev. 4.52), average yield 3.698% (prev. 3.626%), tail in price 0.17 (prev. 0.00).

Commodities

WTI and Brent October futures are firmer intraday amid a slew of geopolitical updates, with the headline developments being Trump announcing economic measures and Iran threatening to withdraw from the NPT (details below). Modest downticks were seen after Al Arabiya reported that US President Trump “told his negotiating team that the chances of an agreement with Iran have become slim”, with the downside possibly as traders take these reports with a pinch of salt, as it is highly unusual for local Arab media outlets to break major source reports directly from inside a US admin before domestic US media outlets. Since then, prices have resumed an upward trend, with Brent currently sitting near its session high in a USD 91.47-94.04 range (vs yesterday’s USD 92.81/bbl high) and WTI similarly towards the upper end of a USD 84.23-86.61/bbl band (vs yesterday’s USD 85.84/bbl peak). Dutch TTF futures post modest gains but remain above EUR 64/MWh after trading north of EUR 64.50/MWh in early trade and then finding support just under EUR 63.50/MWh.
Metals are softer across the board despite the softer USD as the complex pulls back from yesterday’s US Treasury-induced gains whilst also feeling the weight of higher oil prices. Spot gold has fallen back under its 200 DMA (4,512/oz) to trade towards the bottom of a USD 4,478-4,524/oz range (vs yesterday’s 4,325-4,524/oz parameter). Spot silver resides towards the bottom of a USD 66.40-67.32/oz range. Elsewhere, 3M LME copper briefly tested USD 14k/t to the downside to trade in a current USD 13,980.68-14,083.00/t range.

Trade/Tariffs

The US is reportedly set to cut the tariffs on imported Canadian autos to 15% from 25%, Bloomberg reported.

Central Banks

The Riksbank maintained its rate at 1.75% as expected and assesses that the probability of a rate increase later this year remains. The Bank stated that the outlook for the economy remains largely unchanged but that if the unexpectedly high inflation during the summer were to be the start of a larger and more lasting upturn in inflation, the Riksbank would adjust its monetary policy in a tighter direction.
In the post-policy press conference, Riksbank’s Thedeen said they are somewhat concerned about the recent inflation outcomes and that the economy is showing signs of strength.

Geopolitics: Middle East

US President Trump posted “No one has given the Islamic Republic of Iran a greater opportunity to make a Deal than me. TRAGICALLY, for them, they have failed to take it. Therefore, today, I am announcing the MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY! This will be Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale. Trump added that “ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences. Oil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses, ship registries, front companies — It all needs to stop NOW. You know who you are. This will be an ECONOMIC D-DAY”.
US President Trump reportedly told his negotiating team that the chances of an agreement with Iran have become slim, according to Al Arabiya, citing sources. The source added that Trump ordered a freeze on negotiations with Iran for several weeks, with the possibility of extending them. Additionally, the report added that the US administration saw reports of an Iranian plan to resume attacks on ships and was briefed on information regarding a potential Houthi escalation in Bab al-Mandab and on an Iranian plan for operations that go beyond targeting ships. Trump informed his team of the possibility of launching massive attacks on Iran if economic pressure fails.
Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi said that insisting on failed policies will only lead to more failures and will lead to hostility from Iranians.
Iranian Supreme Leader adviser Rezaei said the best response to Trump’s escalation of economic warfare is to withdraw from the NPT.
The US administration believes that the Iran-Oman discussions broke down weeks ago, according to Semafor citing an official source.
Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi held talks with Pakistan’s Army Chief on regional developments, with the two sides discussing ongoing diplomatic initiatives, potential political solutions and ways to deepen consultation and cooperation.
Yemeni sources reported that Houthis are preparing to enter a new phase of escalation against Saudi Arabia, according to Tasnim.
Israeli warplanes attacked the Tal al-Dabsha area northwest of Ali al-Taher Hill in southern Lebanon, according to IRIB news.
Turkish Defence Ministry said that they will continue to support Syria’s efforts to develop their own military capability.

Geopolitics: Ukraine

Russia attacked military facilities and a logistics hub in Kyiv and the region, while it also hit a drone component production facility in Kyiv, according to Russian press, quoting the Defence Ministry.
Several explosions were heard in central Kyiv, Ukraine, according to witnesses. This was later confirmed by the Kyiv Mayor, stating the city is under attack from Russian ballistic missiles.
Polish Armed Forces said the Polish military activated aircraft and air defences as Russia carried out strikes on Ukraine.

Geopolitics: Other

Japan said North Korea fired what could be a ballistic missile, which was later announced by South Korea, stating that North Korea’s military fired an unidentified projectile towards the east sea. The missile has landed outside of Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone

US Event Calendar

8:30 am: Aug Philadelphia Fed Business Outlook, est. 24.75, prior 41.4
8:30 am: Aug 15 Initial Jobless Claims, est. 210k, prior 209k
8:30 am: Aug 8 Continuing Claims, est. 1788k, prior 1777k
10:00 am: Jul Leading Index, est. 0.1%, prior -0.2%

Central Bank speakers

8:30 am: Fed’s Daly Appears on Bloomberg TV
11:10 am: Fed’s Musalem on CNBC

DB’s Henry Allen concludes the overnight wrap

Markets finally recovered again yesterday, with a big rally for long-end Treasuries after the US Treasury Department announced an increase in its buyback operations. The unexpected move dominated the market agenda, with 30yr Treasury yields (-9.2bps) posting their biggest decline since June, to close at 5.19%, with a further move lower overnight to 5.18%. But whilst the measures led to a pullback in long-dated yields, concerns about financial repression also meant that gold prices (+4.18%) had their biggest gain since March, whilst the dollar index (-0.83%) fell to a three-month low. So the announcement had big effects across multiple asset classes.

That announcement from the US Treasury said they were going to increase “by at least double”, the size of their buyback operations for longer-dated Treasuries. So that covers 10-20 year maturities, and 20-30 year ones too, taking the maximum size from $2bn per operation to at least $4bn. They said that would kick in from September 9 and be effective for the rest of this refunding quarter, which goes up to November 4. The news took investors by surprise as well, because it was just two weeks earlier that the Treasury had released their tentative buyback schedule for the upcoming quarter as part of their regular refunding announcement.

Admittedly, the increase in buybacks isn’t a particularly big amount relative to the number of outstanding Treasuries. But it offers a signal that officials are willing to support the long end, not least after the 30yr Treasury yield closed at a post-2007 high of 5.31% on Monday. So that led to a significant flattening of the yield curve yesterday, with the 2s30s slope (-8.5bps) also seeing its biggest daily decline in the last couple of months.

Elsewhere, the announcement also led to a sharp weakening in the US dollar, which fell against every other G10 currency yesterday. Deutsche Bank’s George Saravelos published a note yesterday (link here), in which he argued that the buyback represented a soft-form financial repression policy aimed at containing the long-end of the US yield curve, and this was negative for the dollar. His case is that if the market price of US Treasuries isn’t “allowed” to adjust lower, then the foreign exchange price of Treasuries owned by foreign investors has to adjust via a weaker dollar. He also points out the parallels with the Fed’s Operation Twist of the early 2010s, back when the FOMC sold short-term securities to purchase longer-dated Treasuries, in order to lower long-term rates.

Speaking of the FOMC, the minutes of the July meeting were also released yesterday. They said that “many participants assessed that policy tightening would likely be necessary if inflation did not decline”. So that confirmed a hawkish bias, but the wording “many” is typically used for a group that is shy of a majority, so it fell short of an imminent hiking signal. As a result, investors dialled back the likelihood of a September rate hike, with market pricing falling from 35% to 32% over the session. And looking further out, the number of hikes priced by December fell -1.5bps on the day to 22bps, its lowest since Warsh’s first FOMC meeting in June, which was unexpectedly hawkish. Overall, that left 2yr yields -0.8bps lower on the day at 4.16%, having been as high as 4.20% just before the minutes’ release. Still, given the US Treasury buyback announcement, the rally was much bigger at the long-end, with 10yr yields down -5.7bps to 4.65%.

As all that was happening, there were few signs that broader inflationary pressures are disappearing either. Indeed, yesterday saw Brent crude oil (+0.66%) post a 4th consecutive gain to close at $91.62/bbl, and overnight there’s been a further +0.37% increase to $91.96/bbl. That comes as President Trump posted overnight that he was announcing the “MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY!”, which he said would be “Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale.” In addition, he said that “ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences.” Otherwise, there’s still no sign of any talks between the US and Iran, and when Trump was asked whether talks would resume, he said “maybe at some point”. Meanwhile, the ongoing blockage of the Strait of Hormuz meant investors priced in more inflation as well, with the 1yr US inflation swap (+3.6bps) and the 1yr Euro inflation swap (+0.5bps) both moving higher yesterday.

For equities, the last 24 hours have seen a relatively better performance, with the S&P 500 (+0.21%) finally ending a run of 3 consecutive declines. That was primarily driven by the sharp decline in long-end yields, and S&P 500 futures saw a clear move higher following the US Treasury’s announcement. On top of that, there were huge gains for Moderna (+176.97%) and Merck & Co. (+12.60%) after they announced successful trial results for a skin cancer vaccine, which led the S&P 500 healthcare sector (+3.52%) to its best day since April 2025. In fact, US equities would have seen an even stronger performance were it not for a fresh decline in chip stocks, with the Philly semiconductor index (-2.12%) losing ground again.

That positivity has also been clear overnight, with S&P 500 futures up another +0.17%, whilst the major indices in Asia have also moved higher. That includes a sharp bounceback for the KOSPI (+6.25%), alongside gains for the Nikkei (+1.18%), the Hang Seng (+1.14%), the Shanghai Comp (+0.28%) and the CSI 300 (+0.21%). Moreover, we’ve seen fresh gains for bond markets, with Japan’s 10yr yield coming down -4.8bps this morning, whilst Australia’s is down -5.3bps.

Earlier in Europe, markets didn’t do as well as their US counterparts, as they didn’t directly benefit as much from the US Treasury announcement, and were more exposed to the latest gain in energy prices. So equities struggled, and the STOXX 600 (-0.11%) posted a 6th consecutive decline for the first time since 2023. Meanwhile for bonds, there were fresh multi-year highs for several yields. For instance, the German 5yr yield (+1.2bps) hit a post-2008 high of 2.99%, with France’s 5yr yield (+0.5bps) also at a post-2008 high of 3.51%. The 10yr horizon was more mixed however, with the 10yr bund yield (+0.2bps) inching up to a post-2011 high of 3.26%, whilst yields on 10yr OATs (-0.5bps) and BTPs (-1.7bps) came down a bit.

In trade news, the US and Canada are continuing to work towards a deal after the US postponed their tariffs by 3 days. Bloomberg reported that it would see US tariffs on Canadian autos fall from 25% to 15%, with steel and aluminium tariffs falling from 50% to 25%. However, the report also said the details were yet to be finalised.

Finally, there was very little data yesterday, but we did get the UK CPI print for July. That showed headline CPI rising to +2.9% as expected, whilst core CPI remained at +2.6% (vs. +2.5% expected).

Looking at the day ahead, data releases include German PPI for July, the US weekly initial jobless claims, and the Philadelphia Fed’s manufacturing business outlook survey for August. Central bank speakers include the Fed’s Musalem and the ECB’s Sleijpen. And today’s earnings releases include Walmart.

1 b) European opening report

Dust settles following UST moves on Wednesday; Action quiet elsewhere despite firm Oil benchmarks – Newsquawk US Market Open

Thursday, Aug 20, 2026 – 06:50 AM

US President Trump announced sweeping economic measures against Iran and threatened consequences for countries or entities supporting Tehran.
US President Trump reportedly told his negotiating team that the chances of an agreement with Iran have become slim, according to Al Arabiya, citing sources.
US equity futures are muted; focus to be on Walmart earnings.
DXY extends on Wednesday’s losses; NZD outperforms while AUD completely pares the employment report weakness.
USTs give back some of the gains driven by the US Treasury announcement.
Energy benchmarks higher despite contained APAC trade following Trump’s economic update (Brent +2.5%).
Looking ahead, highlights include Canadian PPI (Jul), US Initial Jobless Claims (Aug 15), New Zealand Trade Data (Jul). Comments from Fed’s Daly and US President Trump. Earnings from Walmart.

As of 10:40BST / 05:40EDT

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EUROPEAN TRADE

EQUITIES

European bourses trade mixed, with underperformance in Germany’s DAX 40 (-0.6%) while the majority of other indices are flat/slightly firmer.
European sectors point to a mixed picture. Autos top the sector pile, with Construction and Utilities rounding out the top 3 performers. To the downside is Basic Resources, paring back some of Wednesday’s gains. Telecoms and Travel & Leisure round out the sector laggards.
US equity futures are softer across the board, albeit only modestly. Newsflow has been light for US equities. An update for Moderna, shares are lower by some 15% pre-market after closing with gains of 177%. Looking ahead, Walmart is to report earnings.
Click for the sessions European pre-market equity newsflow
Click for the additional news

FX

Quiet action in FX after broad based USD weakness vs all peers on the surprise Treasury announcement yesterday, an update which led to significant curve flattening with the 30yr yield falling in excess of 10bps. Although the figure announced by the Treasury was modest, it shows Bessent’s commitment to keeping yields in check when above 5% in the long segment; alongside this, FOMC minutes encouraged some dovish action in shorter dated USTs. Yields will remain in focus and we have Fed speakers Daly and Musalem set to speak on business TV later today, likely to be asked on this topic. USD action is mixed against G10 peers, weaker vs. cyclicals, firmer/flat vs havens. DXY is modestly weaker after slipping below May’s support around 98.80, it is essentially no man’s land below with 98.00 the likely next support.
SEK weakness after the Riksbank announcement which, in short, was broadly as expected but failed to convince some market expectations of tightening later in the year (i.e. Danske expecting two hikes, JPMorgan seeing one). While keeping the door open to tightening later in the year, some dovish leads can also be interpreted from the mood of language on the economy, where the reiterated language comes despite a rebound in domestic GDP. EUR/SEK moved higher throughout the morning to a peak just below 11.06, +0.4% on the day.
Action elsewhere is quiet. AUD is towards the bottom of the G10 pile despite the constructive risk environment; underperformance a function of disappointing jobs data in which headline Employment Change contracted and the Unemployment Rate rose. AUD/NZD fell in excess of 40 pips after the data, selling which was halted just under the 1.1950 mark, AUD/USD is flat despite a kneejerk lower after the data.

FIXED INCOME

Fixed income benchmarks are lower/flat. Yields are firmer across the curve this morning, albeit only mildly so. This comes after the curve flattened in the prior session, following the US Treasury’s decision to double long-end buybacks, attempting to provide greater liquidity support. However, by all intents and purposes, markets have received the news as the Treasury being concerned about recent elevated yields. Some will also point towards the recent US-Japan cooperation on JPY intervention; whilst unlikely to be a main factor for the Treasury’s buy-back announcement, the timing is interesting.
For now, yields are off recent peaks, but still remain towards multi-year highs. Fiscal concerns continue to remain the theme, with the US gross national debt now above the USD 40tln mark. The US30yr (5.22%) holds beyond the 5% mark, whilst the US10yr (4.66%) remains above the key 4.5% mark. ING opines that it is “unlikely” that the 10yr will fall below 4.5%, but believes it is “clear” that any move above 5% “or even the material threat thereof” would receive active resistance by the US Treasury.
The key dates to watch are as follows: September 9th (the new doubled buyback goes into effect) and then November 4th (next QRA, where the current program window ends, and the Treasury will provide more updates on sizes/frequency).
Bunds (+3 tick) and Gilts (-8 ticks) remain flat/lower, in what has been a quite domestic newsflow session for the respective regions. On a macro level, energy benchmarks continue to rise (Brent Oct’26 +2.5%), with the latest bout of geopolitical updates indicating a resurgence of hostilities in the Middle East (see commodities for details).
France sells EUR 12.5bln vs exp. EUR 10.5-12.5bln 2.40% 2029, 2.70% 2031, 3.25% 2032 and 3.00% 2034 OAT.
Japan sells JPY 532.1bln 20-year JGBs; b/c 3.98x (prev. 4.52), average yield 3.698% (prev. 3.626%), tail in price 0.17 (prev. 0.00).

COMMODITIES

WTI and Brent October futures are firmer intraday amid a slew of geopolitical updates, with the headline developments being Trump announcing economic measures and Iran threatening to withdraw from the NPT (details below). Modest downticks were seen after Al Arabiya reported that US President Trump “told his negotiating team that the chances of an agreement with Iran have become slim”, with the downside possibly as traders take these reports with a pinch of salt, as it is highly unusual for local Arab media outlets to break major source reports directly from inside a US admin before domestic US media outlets. Since then, prices have resumed an upward trend, with Brent currently sitting near its session high in a USD 91.47-94.04 range (vs yesterday’s USD 92.81/bbl high) and WTI similarly towards the upper end of a USD 84.23-86.61/bbl band (vs yesterday’s USD 85.84/bbl peak). Dutch TTF futures post modest gains but remain above EUR 64/MWh after trading north of EUR 64.50/MWh in early trade and then finding support just under EUR 63.50/MWh.
Metals are softer across the board despite the softer USD as the complex pulls back from yesterday’s US Treasury-induced gains whilst also feeling the weight of higher oil prices. Spot gold has fallen back under its 200 DMA (4,512/oz) to trade towards the bottom of a USD 4,478-4,524/oz range (vs yesterday’s 4,325-4,524/oz parameter). Spot silver resides towards the bottom of a USD 66.40-67.32/oz range. Elsewhere, 3M LME copper briefly tested USD 14k/t to the downside to trade in a current USD 13,980.68-14,083.00/t range.

TRADE/TARIFFS

The US is reportedly set to cut the tariffs on imported Canadian autos to 15% from 25%, Bloomberg reported.

NOTABLE EUROPEAN DATA RECAP

German PPI (Jul MM) 1.1% vs. Exp. 0.7% (Prev. -0.3%).
German PPI (Jul YY) 3.0% vs. Exp. 2.7% (Prev. 1.8%).

CENTRAL BANKS

The Riksbank maintained its rate at 1.75% as expected and assesses that the probability of a rate increase later this year remains. The Bank stated that the outlook for the economy remains largely unchanged but that if the unexpectedly high inflation during the summer were to be the start of a larger and more lasting upturn in inflation, the Riksbank would adjust its monetary policy in a tighter direction.
In the post-policy press conference, Riksbank’s Thedeen said they are somewhat concerned about the recent inflation outcomes and that the economy is showing signs of strength.

NOTABLE US HEADLINES

The US national debt has surpassed USD 40tln, according to CBS citing Treasury Department data.

GEOPOLITICS

MIDDLE EAST

US President Trump posted “No one has given the Islamic Republic of Iran a greater opportunity to make a Deal than me. TRAGICALLY, for them, they have failed to take it. Therefore, today, I am announcing the MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY! This will be Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale. Trump added that “ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences. Oil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses, ship registries, front companies — It all needs to stop NOW. You know who you are. This will be an ECONOMIC D-DAY”.
US President Trump reportedly told his negotiating team that the chances of an agreement with Iran have become slim, according to Al Arabiya, citing sources. The source added that Trump ordered a freeze on negotiations with Iran for several weeks, with the possibility of extending them. Additionally, the report added that the US administration saw reports of an Iranian plan to resume attacks on ships and was briefed on information regarding a potential Houthi escalation in Bab al-Mandab and on an Iranian plan for operations that go beyond targeting ships. Trump informed his team of the possibility of launching massive attacks on Iran if economic pressure fails.
Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi said that insisting on failed policies will only lead to more failures and will lead to hostility from Iranians.
Iranian Supreme Leader adviser Rezaei said the best response to Trump’s escalation of economic warfare is to withdraw from the NPT.
The US administration believes that the Iran-Oman discussions broke down weeks ago, according to Semafor citing an official source.
Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi held talks with Pakistan’s Army Chief on regional developments, with the two sides discussing ongoing diplomatic initiatives, potential political solutions and ways to deepen consultation and cooperation.
Yemeni sources reported that Houthis are preparing to enter a new phase of escalation against Saudi Arabia, according to Tasnim.
Israeli warplanes attacked the Tal al-Dabsha area northwest of Ali al-Taher Hill in southern Lebanon, according to IRIB news.
Turkish Defence Ministry said that they will continue to support Syria’s efforts to develop their own military capability.

RUSSIA-UKRAINE

Russia attacked military facilities and a logistics hub in Kyiv and the region, while it also hit a drone component production facility in Kyiv, according to Russian press, quoting the Defence Ministry.
Several explosions were heard in central Kyiv, Ukraine, according to witnesses. This was later confirmed by the Kyiv Mayor, stating the city is under attack from Russian ballistic missiles.
Polish Armed Forces said the Polish military activated aircraft and air defences as Russia carried out strikes on Ukraine.

OTHER

Japan said North Korea fired what could be a ballistic missile, which was later announced by South Korea, stating that North Korea’s military fired an unidentified projectile towards the east sea. The missile has landed outside of Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone

CRYPTO

Bitcoin returns above the USD 70k mark for the first time since June, after Wednesday’s drive lower in US yields and reports of a meeting between US President Trump and industry leaders.

APAC TRADE

APAC stocks were predominantly higher following a similar positive lead from Wall Street, where most of the major indices gained as yields and the dollar declined after the US Treasury doubled buybacks of long-term bonds.
ASX 200 marginally gained with outperformance seen in miners and as participants digested a slew of earnings updates, although the upside is capped as financials lagged, and following disappointing jobs data.
Nikkei 225 was underpinned by a rebound in tech, a pullback in yields and stronger-than-expected trade data.
KOSPI led the advances in the region amid upside in the tech heavyweights, with SK Hynix shares up double digits following the announcement of a KRW 40tln share buyback, while there were reports that Samsung Electronics is planning to announce a shareholder return plan topping KRW 100tln.
Hang Seng and Shanghai Comp conformed to the positive mood but with gains capped amid a deluge of earnings updates and as participants await Alibaba’s earnings report, while the mainland is also contained after the PBoC kept its 7-day reverse repo operations at zero, and it maintained the benchmark Loan Prime Rates at their current levels for the 15th consecutive month.

NOTABLE ASIA-PAC HEADLINES

Japan’s METI reportedly plans to request around JPY 7.7tln for its FY27 budget, which is a significant boost from its FY26 allocation.

NOTABLE APAC DATA RECAP

Chinese Loan Prime Rate 1Y 3.0% vs. Exp. 3.0% (Prev. 3.0%).
Chinese Loan Prime Rate 5Y (Aug) 3.5% vs. Exp. 3.5% (Prev. 3.5%).
Australian Unemployment Rate (Jul) 4.5% vs. Exp. 4.4% (Prev. 4.4%).
Australian Employment Change (Jul) -15.8K vs. Exp. 15K (Prev. 76.3K).
Japanese Trade Balance (Jul) -634.5B vs. Exp. -680B (Prev. -409.9B).
Japanese Exports (Jul YY) 23.2% vs. Exp. 19.9% (Prev. 19.3%).
Japanese Imports (Jul YY) 27.8% vs. Exp. 26.5% (Prev. 25.4%).
Taiwan Export Orders (Jul) +61.9% Y/Y (exp. 54.6% Y/Y).

1c) Asian opening report

Europe set for a lacklustre open despite strong APAC lead; SEK flat ahead of Riksbank – Newsquawk EU Market Open

Thursday, Aug 20, 2026 – 02:36 AM

US President Trump announced sweeping economic measures against Iran and threatened consequences for countries or entities supporting Tehran.
US President Trump said Iran negotiations may be at some point, while he reiterated Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and said oil prices will be a lot lower when this is over.
10yr UST futures marginally extended on the prior day’s gains after long-end yields fell in response to the US Treasury announcement yesterday.
FOMC Minutes from the July meeting stated that most participants assessed that higher rates would likely be necessary if inflation did not fall; little reaction seen on the release.
APAC stocks were predominantly higher following a similar positive lead from Wall Street; European equity futures indicate a subdued cash market open.
Looking ahead, highlights include German PPI (Jul), Canadian PPI (Jul), US Initial Jobless Claims (Aug 15), New Zealand Trade Data (Jul), Riksbank Policy Announcement (Aug). Comments from Riksbank’s Thedeen. Supply from France, Earnings from Walmart & Alibaba.

As of 06:20BST/01:20EDT

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LOOKING AHEAD

Highlights include German PPI (Jul), Canadian PPI (Jul), US Initial Jobless Claims (Aug 15), New Zealand Trade Data (Jul), Riksbank Policy Announcement (Aug). Comments from Riksbank’s Thedeen. Supply from France, Earnings from Walmart & Alibaba.
Click for the Newsquawk Week Ahead.

FOMC MINUTES

FOMC Minutes from the July meeting stated that most participants assessed higher rates would likely be necessary if inflation did not fall and most supported keeping interest rates unchanged at the meeting, but several favoured an increase. Various participants said tighter financial conditions over the intermeeting period reflected strong economic growth and expectations for the Fed to adopt a more restrictive stance before long, while a few of the participants who favoured raising rates at the meeting judged doing so would likely help forestall the need for further hikes. Chairman Warsh said six scheduled meetings per year, held roughly every two months, would allow more information to accumulate between meetings, although no decisions were made on the number of meetings and Warsh indicated no change to the 2026 schedule. Furthermore, almost all FOMC members agreed it was appropriate to retain policy statement affirming FOMC ‘will deliver price stability’, and several participants said price increases over last year were broad based, spanning various categories of goods and services, while Fed staff economic outlook showed the inflation outlook was similar to the one prepared for the June meeting but the economic outlook was ‘a touch weaker’.

IRAN CONFLICT

US President Trump posted “No one has given the Islamic Republic of Iran a greater opportunity to make a Deal than me. TRAGICALLY, for them, they have failed to take it. Therefore, today, I am announcing the MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY! This will be Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale. Trump added that “ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences. Oil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses, ship registries, front companies — It all needs to stop NOW. You know who you are. This will be an ECONOMIC D-DAY”.
US President Trump said Iran negotiations may be at some point, while he reiterated Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and said oil prices will be a lot lower when this is over.
US President Trump said Treasury Secretary Bessent may unveil Iran sanctions this week and that Bessent won’t play games, while he added that the US has very tough sanctions options and is monitoring developments. Trump reiterated that the Strait of Hormuz is currently open with many vessels transiting.
US military has quietly established a shipping corridor in and out of the Strait of Hormuz to transport millions of barrels of oil each day, according to Axios citing two US officials. Officials said about 10mln barrels of oil a day are being transported out of the strait and injected into the global energy market, while the operation was made possible by a recent two-week CENTCOM campaign that degraded Iran’s radar and maritime surveillance systems.
Strait of Hormuz shipping traffic remains unchanged amid the US-Iran stalemate, according to Kpler data.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Araghchi held talks with Pakistan’s Army Chief on regional developments, with the two sides discussing ongoing diplomatic initiatives, potential political solutions and ways to deepen consultation and cooperation, according to journalist Mallick. Furthermore, Pakistan continues to be the main mediator between the US and Iran, as per Iran’s Foreign Ministry.
UK added seven new designations under its Iran sanctions regime.
Israeli warplanes attacked the Tal al-Dabsha area northwest of Ali al-Taher Hill in southern Lebanon.

US TRADE

EQUITIES

US stocks were somewhat mixed, with most major indices marginally higher, although the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 underperformed, while sectors saw an upward bias with Healthcare outperforming and buoyed by Moderna surging in excess of 165% after a cancer breakthrough drug trial with Merck. Nonetheless, the main story on Wednesday was the US Treasury announcing it is increasing, by at least double, the size of liquidity support buyback operations for longer-dated nominal coupon securities, from the current USD 2bln to at least USD 4bln. Following this update, US Treasury yields fell, particularly in the long end, while the Dollar saw notable pressure. Given this, all G10 FX peers gained vs. the Greenback, with the Swissy outperforming. WTI and Brent eked out slight strength as a US/Iran deal seems no closer, although geopolitical newsflow was light on Wednesday. There was no US data or Fed speak, and the latest FOMC Minutes were largely as expected with few shocks (review below). Precious metals surged on the aforementioned news, while crypto saw a rally through the US session.
SPX +0.22% at 7,708, NDX -0.22% at 29,426, DJI +0.22% at 53,468, RUT +0.50% at 3,033.
Click here for a detailed summary.

TARIFFS/TRADE

US President Trump said he thinks they have a deal with Canada that is good for everyone.
USTR Greer said the US has eliminated some of the irritants it had with Canada over the last year.
US is reportedly set to halve tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminium in a trade deal.
US is poised to lower the tariff rate on Canadian autos to 15% from 25%.
Canadian PM Carney said Canada is moving towards a trade deal with the US and significant progress was made in talks, while Canada’s LeBlanc said the deal will keep the supply management agricultural system intact.
China’s MOFCOM announced anti-dumping duties on enterprises regarding imported polyoxymethylene from the US, EU, Taiwan and Japan, effective August 21st.

NOTABLE HEADLINES

US President Trump said he would really like to see rates come down.
US President Trump said Americans should not be concerned about volatility regarding the bond market.
US Democrats reportedly press Fed Chair Warsh to disclose calls with US President Trump, with four senators said to have asked the Fed chair for a written account after the White House and President Trump gave differing descriptions of recent conversations, according to WSJ.

APAC TRADE

EQUITIES

APAC stocks were predominantly higher following a similar positive lead from Wall Street, where most of the major indices gained as yields and the dollar declined after the US Treasury doubled buybacks of long-term bonds.
ASX 200 marginally gained with outperformance seen in miners and as participants digested a slew of earnings updates, although the upside is capped as financials lagged, and following disappointing jobs data.
Nikkei 225 was underpinned by a rebound in tech, a pullback in yields and stronger-than-expected trade data.
KOSPI led the advances in the region amid upside in the tech heavyweights, with SK Hynix shares up double digits following the announcement of a KRW 40tln share buyback, while there were reports that Samsung Electronics is planning to announce a shareholder return plan topping KRW 100tln.
Hang Seng and Shanghai Comp conformed to the positive mood but with gains capped amid a deluge of earnings updates and as participants await Alibaba’s earnings report, while the mainland is also contained after the PBoC kept its 7-day reverse repo operations at zero, and it maintained the benchmark Loan Prime Rates at their current levels for the 15th consecutive month.
US equity futures kept afloat in range-bound trade following the uneventful FOMC Minutes.
European equity futures indicate a subdued cash market open with Euro Stoxx 50 futures down 0.2% after the cash market closed with losses of 0.4% on Wednesday.

FX

DXY got some slight reprieve after weakening yesterday alongside a drop in long-end yields in response to the US Treasury announcing plans to increase the size of liquidity support buyback operations for longer-dated nominal coupon securities by at least double. The announcement marks a signal from the US Treasury of a willingness to step in and ease fears over rising long-end yields; however, given the increase only pertains for the remainder of this refunding quarter, further USD weakness may be limited. Separately, the FOMC Minutes sparked little reaction as they highlighted what Fedspeak has pointed towards in recent weeks, in which most participants assessed higher rates would likely be necessary if inflation did not fall, while Chair Warsh made the case that six scheduled meetings per year instead of eight would allow more information to accumulate between meetings, although no final decision was made.
EUR/USD lingered around the prior day’s best levels after gaining a firm footing above the 1.1600 level.
GBP/USD took a breather after benefitting from the dollar’s recent demise, while the latest inflation data for the UK was somewhat mixed as the headline printed in line with forecasts and with Core CPI firmer-than-expected.
USD/JPY rebounded from a weekly trough after support held at the 158.00 level and as Japanese yields retreated.
Antipodeans diverged with outperformance in NZD on cross-related flows as AUD was pressured following disappointing jobs data in which headline Employment Change contracted and the Unemployment Rate rose.
PBoC set USD/CNY mid-point at 6.7808 vs exp. 6.7196 (prev. 6.7854).

FIXED INCOME

10yr UST futures marginally extended on the prior day’s gains after long-end yields fell in response to the US Treasury announcing plans to increase the size of liquidity support buyback operations for longer-dated nominal coupon securities by at least double. However, gains were capped, with little reaction seen to the FOMC minutes and following a soft US 20yr auction.
Bund futures slightly edged higher following recent choppy trade and with German PPI data scheduled today.
10yr JGB futures extended their rebound as yields continued to ease back from multi-decade highs, despite better-than-expected trade data from Japan and a weaker 20yr JGB auction.

COMMODITIES

Crude futures were kept afloat in rangebound trade amid the ongoing geopolitical uncertainty and with US President Trump announcing that he would conduct “the MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY! This will be Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale” against Iran, while US officials also claimed that the military has quietly established a shipping corridor in and out of the Strait of Hormuz to transport millions of barrels of oil each day.
Spot gold pulled back overnight and returned to beneath the USD 4,500/oz level, but held on to most of the prior day’s spoils after surging yesterday alongside a weaker dollar and softer yields.
Copper futures lacked demand following the recent sideways performance despite the advances in risk assets.

CRYPTO

Bitcoin was choppy overnight and ultimately paused following the prior day’s crypto surge in which Bitcoin rallied 7%, and Ethereum rocketed by nearly 15%.

NOTABLE ASIA-PAC HEADLINES

Chinese Loan Prime Rate 1Y 3.0% vs. Exp. 3.0% (Prev. 3.0%)
Chinese Loan Prime Rate 5Y (Aug) 3.5% vs. Exp. 3.5% (Prev. 3.5%)
US President Trump said on Chinese President Xi’s visit that they will probably talk about AI.

DATA RECAP

Japanese Trade Balance (Jul) -634.5B vs. Exp. -680.0B (Prev. -409.9B)
Japanese Exports (Jul YY) 23.2% vs. Exp. 19.9% (Prev. 19.3%)
Japanese Imports (Jul YY) 27.8% vs. Exp. 26.5% (Prev. 25.4%)
Australian Employment Change (Jul) -15.8K vs. Exp. 15K (Prev. 76.3K)
Australian Full Time Employment Change (Jul) 16.3K (Prev. 29.3K)
Australian Unemployment Rate (Jul) 4.5% vs. Exp. 4.4% (Prev. 4.4%)
Australian Participation Rate (Jul) 66.9% vs. Exp. 66.9% (Prev. 67.0%)

GEOPOLITICS

MIDDLE EAST

Syrian Foreign Minister said they tried to reach a security agreement with Israel, but it reneged on its commitments, while they are still interested in reaching an agreement with Israel to de-escalate the situation and negotiations can be resumed if Israel shows genuine political will.
Explosions were reportedly heard in the western Daraa countryside in Syria.

RUSSIA-UKRAINE

Several explosions were heard in central Kyiv, Ukraine, while the Mayor announced that the city was under attack from Russian ballistic missiles.

EU/UK

NOTABLE HEADLINES

UK finally shows signs of productivity boost, while analysts say early signs of tech-driven improvements in productivity growth could herald a sustained strengthening in the UK’s economic outlook, according to FT.
end

end

2.NORTH AND SOUTH KOREA/

SOUTH KOREA

this is good for gold as it frees South Korea to accumulate massive amts of gold with its huge dollar holdings!

(zerohedge)

S.Korea Reaffirms Push For Military Independence After Trump Announced Scaled-Back Drills

Wednesday, Aug 19, 2026 – 09:45 PM

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has reaffirmed his push for South Korea to regain independent control of its military from the US after President Trump announced the scaling back of joint US-South Korean military drills taking place this week.

The US has had wartime operational control of South Korea’s military since the Korean War, which technically never ended. Combat was halted by a 1953 armistice, but the two sides never signed a formal peace treaty.

South Korea took peacetime operational control, or OPCON, of its military in 1994, but the US still holds wartime OPCON. Lee previously committed to regaining wartime OPCON by the end of his term in 2030, which he reaffirmed at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

“A strong alliance makes the foundation of security stronger, and strengthening our own capabilities increases our value and necessity as an ally,” Lee said, according to The Guardian.

Also on Tuesday, Wi Sung Lac, Lee’s national security advisor, said that South Korea remained in close coordination with the US regarding joint military exercises.

“Based on the strong South Korea-US alliance, our government has been continuing coordination with the US side on combined exercises and drills between South Korea and the US,” Wi said, according to the YONHAP News Agency.

Trump announced on Sunday that he ordered US War Secretary Pete Hegseth to “substantially reduce” Ulchi Freedom Shield, major joint US-South Korean war games that began on Monday, though it’s unclear if they are being reduced in any significant way.

The US president said he took the step based on his “very good relationship” with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un, whom he met with three times during his first term.

Lee’s office responded by saying it hoped that relationship would lead to “meaningful dialogue” and “discussions aimed at advancing peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.”

Pyongyang has meanwhile downplayed the Trump overture and has not acknowledged any new contacts…

https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=2089414758826971448&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Fskorea-reaffirms-push-military-independence-after-trump-announced-scaled-back-drills&sessionId=67d93a8ed75fada84fe250498a4f7ff61241af04&siteScreenName=zerohedge&theme=light&widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&width=550px

While Trump has framed his action as some sort of punishment over South Korea’s lack of support for the Iran war, it aligns with the agenda President Lee has been attempting to pursue. Just one day before Trump’s announcement, Lee proposed direct talks with North Korea.

end

JAPAN

3. CHINA

4. EUROPEAN AND SCANDINAVIAN COMMENTARIES PLUS NATO

EUROPE

Europe Scrambles For Innovation And Defense As US Decouples From “Global Order”

Thursday, Aug 20, 2026 – 02:45 AM

For decades the European elites have pretended as if US integration into the progressive agenda is an afterthought on the way to a liberal Utopia. The EU has long criticized Americans as backwards in their principles and politics, while at the same time being desperately dependent on American consumers, American innovation and American military might. They simply never considered the possibility that the US might walk away from the old post-war arrangements.

Well, now it’s happening and the European establishment doesn’t know what to do.

ECB chief and former head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, took to the podium at the World Economic Forum’s International Business Council in Geneva, Switzerland this week to discuss the growing uncertainty in Europe.

“Europe’s post-war growth model rested on three mutually reinforcing pillars. Today, all three are weakening as the international environment changes….”

“The third pillar was a stable, rules-based global order, underpinned by a US security umbrella. That environment allowed European supply chains to deepen, and enabled firms to organise investment around efficiency rather than resilience. Today, that global order is under pressure. Geopolitical tensions are bringing critical dependencies and chokepoints into sharper focus, while Europe faces growing security threats on its doorstep…”

The WEF and its members have been suspiciously quiet in the past two years about their globalization projects. The media coverage for the council meeting in Geneva has been thin. It would seem, though, that the agenda so openly and enthusiastically promoted by the WEF during the Covid pandemic is not going as planned.

This event may be one of the clearest indications of the state of globalism since the failure of the pandemic coup and the return of the Trump Administration in 2025. Largarde called for “better integration” across Europe for defense and more innovation, otherwise the region might miss out on the next digital revolution of AI.

“In some respects, Europe is well placed to make the most of new technologies. We have a world-class research and knowledge base. The EU accounts for around 6% of the world’s population but as many as 15% of its researchers. It also produces almost one-fifth of the world’s most-cited scientific publications.

The challenge lies in turning that knowledge into commercial success and ensuring that new technologies diffuse across the economy. Too often, the barriers that prevent firms from scaling also hold back that diffusion…”

In other words, European governments are realizing that extensive bureaucratic barriers and overt taxation is crushing new businesses and preventing natural growth. Better late than never…unless it’s too late.

Europe’s economy is on a fast track to disaster. An estimated 30-40 million migrants (legal and illegal) have entered the region in the past 10 years alone. Most of these migrants come from third-world countries with no wealth, no skills and are largely dependent on European welfare systems in order to survive.

Mass immigration has not led to the “explosion” in economic activity promised by multiculturalists. In fact, the countries with the most migrants face increasing joblessness, housing shortages, inflation and a strangulation of taxpayer subsidies. Meanwhile, as the US undergoes mass deportations of migrants, the economy is improving, including growth in GDP, manufacturing jobs and housing relief.

National rental vacancy rates in the US climbed to around 7.2–7.3% by late 2025/early-mid 2026 (highest levels since 2017). European vacancies are frozen at around 1%-3%. The situation is dire.

The very globalists that created this mess are now complaining that, without US integration, they are about to sink into economic crisis. This has inspired multiple European governments to dump funding into tech startups in a last-ditched effort to catch up to the US and China. They are seeking to close their $1 trillion investment gap, but they plan to use taxpayer money to do it. As Lagarde notes:

“Innovative European firms can often finance their early growth, but a gap tends to open as they scale. According to the European Investment Bank, EU and San Francisco-based scale-ups raise broadly similar amounts during their first five years of operations. But by the tenth year, EU scale-ups have raised roughly 50% less…”

“Fragmented capital markets can also incentivise young, innovative firms to vote with their feet. Some 12% of EU scale-ups have relocated outside the EU, most notably to the United State…”

It’s unlikely that the EU plan for socialized funding and “capital market integration” will accomplish much without far more freedom and less taxes for entrepreneurs. The elites pretend they want to revitalize economic growth but every new policy tends to cripple free markets with greater centralization.

It is interesting, however, that these socialist and socialist-adjacent economies are struggling to function and survive the moment more free markets systems like the US walk away. It’s almost as if socialist systems are parasitic and require host organisms to feed off of, otherwise they begin to die.

FRANCE

KOLBE

Sovereign Debt Crisis: The French Left Wants To Simply Burn The Debt

Submitted by Thomas Kolbe

For economic illiterates, socialists and social-state engineers, the world consists of one fundamental problem: Where does the credit come from that is supposed to turn the visions of central planners into a new reality? Once that question has been answered and the shaky financing is in place, the work can begin.

Ideally, socialists operate in a zero-interest-rate world in which even the most nonsensical projects, from the nuclear phase-out to the construction of wind turbines in forests, debt-financed arms deliveries to the Donbas, or even billion-dollar subsidies for the NGO industry, can be financed.

It is magical: The costs of this artificial credit, this nonsensical government demand, which ultimately has to be paid for through inflation and higher taxes, are concealed behind massive state propaganda and a delayed fiscal response. Cause and effect of government demand are thus separated from one another. Citizens find it difficult to understand why their economy is no longer growing while the state apparatus, meanwhile, is assuming Kafkaesque features.

In an interview with Les Nouveaux Médias, French socialist Jean-Luc Mélenchon revealed his political secret for overcoming the debt crisis. His recipe is socialist, simple and one-dimensional. The French government should simply continue piling up debt, without any controls whatsoever. The European Central Bank could then serve as a kind of bond landfill and purchase surplus securities from the market once saturation has been reached.

This is followed by the unsubtle and predictable trick: The bonds thus neutralized could simply be burned on the balance sheet. They would virtually disappear from the memory of politicians, the public and the bond market. The debt ratio falls as well – the perfect digital money printer, a socialist paradise of unlimited possibilities.

Why has nobody thought of this before? Because the fact is: Which politician has any interest in public controversy and in recognizing that our world does not have unlimited resources, that a genuine problem of distribution exists? The credit pump could solve all problems in this simple world. Nobody would have to give anything up; prosperity would simply be printed into existence. That is how simple it is.

But haven’t we already reached this state long ago? In essence, the European Central Bank has been pursuing precisely such an infantile policy of illusion since the great sovereign debt crisis of a decade and a half ago. And now, once again, the new Transmission Protection Instrument (TPI) stands ready as a vehicle that, if necessary, is supposed to allow bond purchases without a pre-defined quantitative ceiling. Should the bond market give the thumbs-down to the mountain of debt accumulated by Europe’s club of debtors, the deficits will be closed with the credit pump.

Central-bank policy always creates the impression of extreme complexity and absolute control over market events. Bond markets are quantitatively deep, particularly at the so-called long end, the longer maturities of government bonds. It is by no means the case that a central bank could control this market even remotely. Its power unfolds at the short end, which is consequently where market manipulation is concentrated.

Mélenchon then presents his second brilliant idea: common bonds issued by the European Commission and likewise stabilized by the European Central Bank within a specific interest-rate corridor. Germany’s creditworthiness, still the anchor of the EU’s entire debt system, could also have a beneficial effect on interest rates in France, which is over-indebted at around 120 percent.

Mélenchon reveals staggering economic incompetence in an interview. Here is another sample:

Ultimately, according to his conception, this amounts to a triangular transaction: France participates in the Eurosystem through the Banque de France and is therefore indirectly involved in the European Central Bank. If the ECB purchases French government bonds, Mélenchon argues, this amounts to a kind of purchase of its own debt. France would ultimately owe itself credit and could therefore cancel these liabilities itself, provided the bonds were first parked at the ECB.

Only socialists or statists can devise such economic nonsense: borrowing without limits, then simply wiping the mountain of debt out of existence and leaving the people to deal with the inflation created in the process. This is a catastrophic breach of trust and the end of any civilized policy of government.

And consider what kind of policies are being implemented with the state credit pump: from financing the conflict in Ukraine and climate policy to the never-ending mass migration into the welfare state, which, like the pension system, must also be kept liquid with ever-increasing amounts of borrowed money.

Credit as a great political illusion. Credit that relieves the growing pressure for reform from narrow political shoulders in order to stabilize a system that has long since exceeded its economic limits.

Mélenchon is looking at new borrowing of 5.7 percent this year and knows exactly what is happening: The political stalemate in Paris prevents any form of fiscal consolidation.

The political camps are marching hand in hand toward sovereign bankruptcy. And German politics, too, apparently knows what is coming: Eurobonds, a consolidation of debt under the umbrella of the European Commission.

The first major test run: Next Generation EU, the €750 billion common-bond project that Brussels placed on the market during the COVID lockdowns – with German liability and ECB liquidity support, primarily to finance the gigantic deficits of Italy and Spain.

Common debt, known as Eurobonds, will be the inevitable next step in European integration. There can be little doubt about that. The construction of a European military sector alone will consume enormous amounts of resources, just as we have seen with the green command economy. This process is forcing German policymakers to waste seven percent of GDP on subsidies. The state is crowding out the private sector, while its bureaucracy consumes an ever-larger share of the slowly shrinking economic pie year after year: As a result, unemployment rises while private-sector investment is crowded out. The state has no other way to cope than through massive tax increases.

We are watching a financial crash in slow motion. Its final chapter will bring us the usual bailout policies, capital controls and financial repression. Thankfully, Mélenchon has given us some insight into the political mind games – and they are deeply alarming.

END

British Liberals Cheer Migrant Camps In Villages… As Long As It’s Not Their Villages

Thursday, Aug 20, 2026 – 02:00 AM

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

The same voices who demand “fairness” and insist every community must share the burden of mass illegal migration suddenly discover local democracy the moment the coaches might stop near their postcode.

A Mail on Sunday poll has laid bare the gap between principle and practice. Just 15 percent of people are happy with the idea of more illegal migrants arriving in their own area. Fifty-seven percent actively oppose it.

Yet many of those who back Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s call for affluent and rural places to “play their part” draw a firm line at their own front door.

Burnham has been explicit. He told GB News that Britain “cannot have a situation where it’s only the poorest communities in the country that receive all of the dispersal of refugees and asylum seekers.” All parts of the country, he said, must work and play their part. The policy is framed as equity. The reality on the ground looks very different.

Watch: UK PM Wants EVERY Area In Britain To House Migrants

Telling Channel crossers they’ll be housed in leafy villages is the ultimate pull factor

The survey of 10,549 adults, conducted by Find Out Now and weighted to be representative by age and gender, also reveals the classic liberal tension: 51 percent agree asylum seekers should be housed evenly across the country, yet that abstract support collapses the moment the coaches head toward their own postcode.

What unites almost everyone is the demand to stop the problem at source. Eighty-two percent believe the Government should do more to prevent illegal small-boat entries. Only 5 percent disagree.

The areas most hostile to further arrivals are Lincolnshire (57 percent opposed), followed by Worcestershire, Shropshire and County Durham. The most accepting is Wiltshire, with just 21 percent opposed, trailed by East Sussex, Merseyside and Nottinghamshire.

The Mail on Sunday poll confirms what many already suspected. Support for the abstract principle of dispersal collapses the moment the principle lands next door.

Liberals and progressives who spent years lecturing poorer communities about compassion and shared responsibility now discover the virtues of local opposition when the coaches point toward their own leafy postcodes. The villages, meanwhile, are left to live with the consequences.

Three former military sites have been earmarked for conversion into large-scale accommodation for single adult male asylum seekers. Two of them sit less than a mile from primary schools, in direct tension with the Home Office’s own July guidance.

RAF Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire, the base where Prince William once trained, is lined up for up to 1,200 men. The village itself numbers around 600 people. The arithmetic produces a six-to-one ratio of migrant men to local women. The site sits right beside a primary school, a nursery and a children’s play area.

English Villages In Fear Over 1,200 MALE Migrants Moved Next To SCHOOLS

Government pushes military bases on the doorstep of primary schools and play areas

North Yorkshire councillor Malcolm Taylor put the local mood plainly: “It’s quite an attractive site, it’s not one of your austere former military sites and it’s right in the heart of the village. So as a consequence, it’s right adjacent to the school, the play park. That’s what has really ramped up the concerns of the community.”

At RAF Barnham near Thetford in Suffolk, plans for as many as 1,250 asylum seekers have already prompted some parents to talk about withdrawing their children from Barnham School.

English Village Will Have Six MIGRANT MEN To Every Woman

What do you think will happen?

John Bauer, chairman of the parish council, warned that the proximity could threaten the school’s long-term future.

The third site, near the Oxfordshire village of Piddington, does not neighbour a school but sits beside a children’s play area and backs onto village gardens. The village has roughly 350-400 residents. The proposed intake is 1,250 single men.

You WILL NOT BELIEVE What Is Happening In This TINY English Village

Microcosm for the whole UK

This is not an isolated experiment. It is the latest chapter in a pattern that has already played out across quiet corners of England and Wales.

The same week Burnham was insisting every area must take its share, residents of the tiny Welsh seaside village of Gronant discovered that their former village hall – converted into 15 new-build homes they expected to serve local families – had been quietly allocated to asylum seekers.

Thirteen of the fifteen units went to Home Office contractor Clearsprings. Blacked-out minibuses arrived without warning. Kerrie Cox watched one pull up while she washed her car. “Nobody was told about the arrivals,” she said. Julie Tuson called it an “absolute betrayal.” Ted Huthwaite said he was “absolutely gobsmacked… it is devastating for the community.”

What They Did To This Tiny Welsh Village Is Pure BETRAYAL…

Blacked-out vehicles drop scores of migrants into old village hall

Borders minister Anna Turley has sought to reassure people by insisting the men will not be “in the village.” “Everything they need will be on that site,” she told LBC. In practice the sites are not locked facilities. Residents are free to come and go.

Infrastructure in these rural locations is already thin – limited bus services, strained water, sewage and electricity capacity. Policing is stretched. The cultural distance is vast.

High-trust, low-density English and Welsh villages with quiet streets, children’s parks and a long-standing sense of safety are being asked to absorb large numbers of single adult men from very different backgrounds, many of whom do not speak English.

It repeatedly seems like an intentional choice calculated to produce the maximum friction and cultural upheaval. Officials could not possibly find settings more alien to the life experience of many of these arrivals. Quaint villages with medieval churches, village halls and play parks are the last places that resemble the environments many left behind.

The effect is predictable: local women and girls who once walked freely after dark now face a sudden demographic inversion. Parents weigh whether their children can still use the park. Communities that never asked for this feel ignored and overruled by Whitehall processes that bypass local planning authorities under the banner of “national interest.”

The Home Office maintains it is seeking to house people fairly across the country, closing hotels and moving arrivals into alternative accommodation including former military sites. Asylum costs, it says, are down by £1 billion since the general election. The numbers receiving support are falling.

Yet the boats keep coming, the contractors keep being paid, and the map of acceptable destinations keeps expanding deeper into the countryside. Closing hotels while upgrading the destination does nothing to reduce the pull factor. It simply relocates the pressure onto the places least equipped to absorb it.

Reform’s Zia Yusuf has been blunt about the Linton-on-Ouse proposal: “Andy Burnham is about to dump 1200 unvetted adult male illegal migrants on a tiny village, resulting in locals putting up with a ratio of SIX MEN TO EVERY WOMAN… Burnham is directly endangering British women and girls.”

This is the logical endpoint of a policy that refuses to stop the boats while insisting every corner of the country must absorb the results.

The high-trust rural communities that once defined the character of England and Wales are being asked to surrender the very qualities that made them desirable in the first place – peace, safety, and a sense that the place still belonged to the people who lived there. One village at a time.

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

END

How Can This Be Real?

Thursday, Aug 20, 2026 – 08:45 AM

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

The Home Office in the United Kingdom is now handing asylum seekers a nine-page booklet and posters spelling out that rape is illegal, sex with children is a crime, women are equal to men, and you cannot mutilate girls’ genitals.

Yes, really. This is how bad it’s gotten.

Britain’s borders have become so porous that the state feels obliged to tutor new arrivals in the most basic rules of civilised society.

Officials openly acknowledge that “laws and customs here may be different from your home country.” The document, published this week, is the clearest admission yet that large numbers of those arriving do not share the fundamental values that keep women and children safe.

GB News presenter Martin Daubney reacted with visible shock: “It’s very rare a story comes in that completely takes my breath away, but this is it.”

The guide, titled Understanding Behaviours and Expectations in the UK: A Guide for Asylum Seekers, is available on the government website and is being distributed to new arrivals.

A section on sex and consent states: “In the UK, the law is clear and strict: both people must agree to sex or sexual contact of any kind.”

It continues: “Never try to have sex with someone who is asleep, drunk, or unable to consent clearly.”

Rape is described as a serious crime that can lead to prison, loss of support and accommodation, and damage to an asylum claim.

The booklet also states “The legal age of consent in the UK is 16. This means that anyone under the age of 16 is considered a child and cannot legally agree to have sex. Sex with someone under the age of 16 is a serious crime in the UK. There are no exceptions to this rule. Even if they say yes, it is still illegal.”

Gender equality is explained in similarly elementary terms. Women “do not need permission from a husband, father, brother or any other man” to work, study, travel or make decisions. Domestic abuse is illegal. Public behaviour rules ban whistling, kissing noises, sexual comments “even if you think it is a compliment,” following people or blocking their path.

Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf called the publication a disgrace, saying the government had produced “a handy guide for illegal migrants on how not to be a rapist, not to be a paedophile, how not to beat women and how to leave babies alone.”

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said the priority should be deportation rather than “trying to train these mainly young, male illegal immigrants [to] behave in a civilised way towards women.”

Patrick Christys noted the obvious contradiction: the Home Office knows the risk is high enough to require explicit warnings about rape, child sex and genital mutilation, yet continues to place large numbers of these arrivals in communities across the country.

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Meanwhile, the welfare bill for foreign nationals keeps climbing. Almost 1.3 million migrants were claiming Universal Credit in May 2026, up around 20,000 on the previous year.

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Centre for Migration Control analysis shows the number of refugees on Universal Credit jumped 44 per cent in twelve months, from 90,709 to 130,618.

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ONS data suggests a further 623,000 are claiming other benefit combinations, bringing the total close to two million migrants on benefits.

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Rob Bates of the Centre for Migration Control pointed to the Channel crisis and the drive to clear the asylum backlog as key drivers of the refugee rise.

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Out-of-work foreign claimants have also increased sharply. Taxpayers are funding this at a time when the overall Universal Credit caseload has hit a record 8.4 million.

Separately, the Home Office is accelerating plans to reopen and expand Haslar Immigration Detention Centre on the Gosport seafront in Hampshire.

The site, closed a decade ago, is set to become one of Europe’s largest, with capacity for 600 foreign criminals and illegal migrants.

Ministers have designated the project of “national importance” under the Crown Development process, taking decisions out of local hands.

END

SPAIN IS HOPELESS!

SPAIN/CEUTTA

Ceuta Cops Claim Invaders Are Dragging Girls Into Mountains For Gang-Rapes

Thursday, Aug 20, 2026 – 05:00 AM

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

Spanish National Police officers and the majority union Jupol are sounding the alarm over a horrific pattern in the North African enclave of Ceuta: illegal Moroccan migrants, including unaccompanied minors and undocumented adults, are kidnapping girls and dragging them into the surrounding mountains to subject them to gang rape.

According to agents on the ground and local residents, the attackers operate with near-impunity around the Temporary Stay Centre for Immigrants (CETI) and the irregular settlements that have taken root on the hillsides.

Victims are overwhelmingly girls and adolescents – some local, but most are Moroccan or Sub-Saharan. The assaults are reportedly happening in the rugged terrain that is hard to police.

Jupol spokeswoman Laura García stated that far more of these attacks occur than ever reach official records. Survivors are too terrified to report. The number of formal complaints already exceeds the number of arrests. “Hoy hay violadores y pederastas sueltos por Ceuta,” García said – today there are rapists and pedophiles loose in Ceuta.

One recent case illustrates the chaos. Last Thursday a minor was subjected to a multiple assault by several Moroccan men on Avenida de Lisboa, one of the city’s main arteries.

Neighbours raised the alarm and only one attacker was caught; the rest fled and remain unidentified. The same day a young Sub-Saharan woman walked into the Superior Police Headquarters to report a similar group attack by Moroccan-origin perpetrators.

Officers say these incidents are not isolated. They are repeating daily.

Around thirty Moroccan girls, some as young as ten, have been observed sheltering under police vehicles out of pure fear of the men occupying the nearby slopes.

García has repeatedly described how groups of women and girls stay glued to police vans near the CETI because the moment they separate they risk sexual assault.

Meanwhile Equality Minister Ana Redondo, speaking from a “purple point” far away in Valladolid, insisted the minors “do not wander around but are in safe spaces and receive care.”

The gap between official messaging and the reality reported by police, doctors and residents could not be wider.

This latest police testimony lands on top of an already catastrophic picture that has been unfolding since the late-July mass crossing.

An estimated 70,000-plus migrants poured into a city of roughly 84,000. Reception centres collapsed. Thousands of young men remained after many others were pushed back.

Beaches turned into open-air camps of shacks, garbage, food waste, urine and human faeces. Children’s parks were left smeared in shit.

Hospitals reported surges in scabies, tuberculosis and impetigo. A doctor warned of a health catastrophe.

HELLISH: Ceuta Mothers WEEP In Streets; RAPES Force Women To FLEE; Kids’ Parks Smeared In SHIT

The city has been completely decimated

Civil Guard sources have confirmed at least 15 sexual assaults since the invasion.

Women Flee Ceuta After 15 RAPES Recorded Since Migrant Invasion

10-year-old sexually assaulted by 3 Moroccans

Women have been packing up and leaving. Mothers have broken down on live television describing the daily terror for their teenage daughters.

One said her 16-year-old can no longer go anywhere without a parent because “the migrants devour her.” Sisters Yoli and María José removed their daughters from the city, declaring they feel humiliated and abandoned while Pedro Sánchez holidayed elsewhere.

Residents have now set up their own women’s protection camp because the state has failed to keep them safe.

Into this nightmare has stepped the self-styled “Barbie Gaza,” Ana Alcalde, a Free Palestine activist and NGO-adjacent influencer who lives in Ceuta.

She is married to a local police officer, and has six children. She has been filming herself walking past groups of migrants, dressed provocatively, claiming the streets are completely safe and dismissing fearful locals as xenophobic.

The footage, however, shows her moving quickly, avoiding eye contact, while insisting everything is fine.

She has been filmed arriving in a high-end Audi to hand out sandwiches to the illegal arrivals.

A local Ceuta woman confronted her on camera and did not hold back. “It is very easy to come here and hand out sandwiches in an Audi with a police husband,” the resident said. “I don’t care about Palestine, I care about my family.”

The pattern is by now familiar across Europe: mass illegal entries, government denial, media minimisation, activist performance, and ordinary women and girls left to fend for themselves. In Ceuta the mountains themselves have become hunting grounds.

Police unions are stating what the political class refuses to say out loud. Rapists and pedophiles are walking free. Girls are being taken. And the people who live there are paying the price for an open-border agenda that prioritises the comfort of invaders and the virtue-signalling of outsiders over the safety of Spanish families.

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

END

5.RUSSIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS

IRAN/ISRAEL WEDNESDAY NIGHT

“Economic D-Day”: Trump Announces “Most Crushing Economic Operation Ever” Against Iran

Wednesday, Aug 19, 2026 – 09:04 PM

Summary:

Trump’s Economic War against Iran Begins
Trump says “severe economic consequences” for any country that does businesses with Tehran
Trump says “ECONOMIC D-DAY” begins against Iran
UAE Cuts Ties As Iran Warns Gulf States Against Helping Washington; Kpler Says US Navy Gaining Ground In Hormuz

”ECONOMIC D-DAY”

President Trump is out with a Truth Social post describing today as “ECONOMIC D-DAY” against Iran, declaring that his total economic war against Tehran will be the “MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY.”

Trump said that with Tehran’s military and military-industrial base reduced to “now rubble” and its “currency worthless,” he will unleash severe economic consequences against “ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran.”

Here’s the full Truth Social post:

Last week, Derek Holt, head of Capital Markets Economics at Scotiabank in Toronto, offered clients a preview of what the campaign to economically isolate Iran could look like (view here), including the potential targeting of China. Notably, much of Iran’s crude exports flow to Chinese buyers.

UAE Cuts Ties As Iran Warns Gulf States Against Helping Washington; Kpler Says US Navy Gaining Ground In Hormuz

Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf is visiting Baghdad while at the same time US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has spoken UAE National Security Adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan to discuss the Hormuz situation and security. Except of course the two sides aren’t talking with each other.

President Trump has made clear that no talks are on, and that none are scheduled, as he’s been floating a ‘new’ strategy to ‘strangle’ the Iranian economy over the long term. CNN reported Tuesday that White House officials have recently communicated that they are shifting their strategy — going from “hammer Iran ASAP” to “strangle them” over time.

As for Ghalibaf, he blasted War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday, mocking this new disengagement strategy, given the US has already failed to bring Tehran to its knees.

“Americans think squeezing Iran harder will win concessions that were never part of the agreement,” Ghalibaf wrote in a post on X. “Bessent and Hegseth are way out of their league,” Ghalibaf added while referring to them as the “clown crew.” He stated:

Stop waiting for the clown crew to pull a rabbit out of their hat and clean up the mess you made.

After declaring a new ‘offensive’ military posture in response to the crisis, Iran is showing no signs of backing off the confrontation with the US in the region. On Wednesday its armed forces warned Gulf countries against hosting or assisting American forces, saying it would be tantamount to joining the war on the US side.

“We wish to warn that any assistance or facilitation provided to the aggressor U.S. military amounts to participation in the U.S. military operation,” armed forces chief of staff Ali Abdollahi said.

“It seems unlikely that such a large number of military aircraft, particularly refueling aircraft could be present at regional bases without knowledge of host countries,” the official continued as cited in Mehr news agency.

It’s not known how many refueling tankers or else large warplanes are still positioned in the Gulf, but certainly the bulk of regional refueling aircraft operated by the US Air Force are currently concentrated at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion international airport – and has been subject of a lot of media attention.

And in another significant escalation that effectively torpedoes any remaining illusions of hoped-for cross-Gulf detente, the United Arab Emirates has announced Wednesday a complete and immediate severance of all economic ties with Tehran. The move comes on the heels of what UAE officials claim was a barrage of Iranian ballistic missiles targeted directly at Emirati territory.

Tehran had quickly denied it had fired missiles on its territory, but UAE authorities later clarified that the military observed two missiles inbound from Iran, which caused no damage or casualties – which triggered an urgent missile alert for the population on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, below are some of the latest major developments and reports related to the Iran conflict:

Iran has weighed attacking US military targets in Europe should Donald Trump escalate the war, according to people close to the regime, as Tehran considers its options to increase the stakes of the conflict. FT

Even as Iran projects resilience in the war with the United States, its leaders are worried that a threat of more economic punishment by Donald Trump could increase hardships, reignite unrest and further erode the Islamic Republic’s legitimacy. RTRS

Iranian attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz are piling up without an American military response, raising the risks of crossing the strategic waterway and frustrating some Arab allies who worry the U.S. doesn’t have a strategy to wind down the conflict. WSJ

However, shipping analytics firm Kpler has suggested that the US Navy is gaining ground in the Strait of Hormuz, and that Iran is ceding some control, amid a war of words between President Trump and Iranian leadership over who has actual ‘control’.

previewing new sanctions still to be announced…

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“At the moment, however, the evidence is clear: The United States, patrolling the strait with its navy, is gaining ground – and Iran is losing much of its control of the critical waterway,” writes CNN. “More than 80% of liquids transits through the Strait of Hormuz over the past two weeks have taken the Omani route – a UN-authorized shipping channel that Iran vehemently opposes – or have been ‘dark’ transits that likely took the Omani route, according to Kpler, which tracks ships using transponders and satellite data.”

But there’s as yet no rush for international shipping to return to the waterway, given the risk of attack and all of the serious unknowns which could result in total losses as well as threaten the safety of crew.

END

IRAN/ISRAEL/USA/THURSDAY

Iran FM Blasts Trump’s Economic D-Day Threat ‘Diversion’ Which Will Fail, As New Carrier Arrives In Mideast Waters

Thursday, Aug 20, 2026 – 09:20 AM

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) has on Thursday confirmed the USS George Washington is now deployed in the Middle East, following the lengthy, over-extended deployment of personnel onboard the USS Lincoln, which has sparked crisis and media frenzy over poor conditions, lack of supplies, and worsening morale.

“The George Washington Carrier Strike Group is operating in Middle East during a scheduled deployment after arriving in the CENTCOM theater yesterday,” the command said in a statement posted on X.

The USS Washington will now be the military’s frontline carrier leading the mission in regional waters, which has featured an ongoing blockade of Iranian ports.

President Trump had the evening prior issued a Truth Social post describing a new “ECONOMIC D-DAY” against Iran, declaring that his total economic war against Tehran will be the “MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY.”

Trump said that with Tehran’s military and military-industrial base reduced to “now rubble” and its “currency worthless,” he will unleash severe economic consequences against “ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran.”

On Thursday Iranian leaders responded to the D-Day threat, with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stating on X that Trump’s announcement is designed to distract from Washington’s “unprecedented debt & surging interest costs”. He said the new economic measures will “bring further defeat” to the US. He added that “US economic terrorism threatens [the] global economy and sovereignty worldwide.

Another top Iranian official elsewhere asserted the US seeks exit from the region:

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf visited Iraq on Wednesday and said that the US was seeking to exit the region, comments that come following a report from The Washington Post that said the Pentagon is considering pulling back from the Persian Gulf after many of its bases in the area were heavily damaged by Iranian strikes.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi also weighed in with another message, saying Washington is headed towards its next defeat. “They claim Iran is on the verge of defeat, hanging by a thread, yet they are begging all their allies to help them,” he posted on X.

Meanwhile Qatar is still seeking mediation and de-escalation, with Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani having said Thursday that traffic in the Strait of Hormuz must go back to what it was before. He urged that no party go back to “blackmailing” the other.

“The consequences of this war were grave, not only on the Gulf region but elsewhere in the world,” Sheikh Mohammed told reporters at a press briefing following high-level discussions in El Alamein, Egypt.

“We need the situation to go back to what it used to be before” he said. “We condemn any threats in this regard in any obstacles.”

On the question of global shipping flows through the strait, much remains to be seen following a controversial Axios report issued Wednesday which said the Pentagon has successfully established a stealth corridor in and out of the strait. Here are the key untested claims, which await verification:

Under the operation, which has been underway for the last several weeks, 15–20 tankers have entered and exited the strait each night through a southern channel along the coast of Oman.
About 10 million barrels of oil a day — roughly half the pre-war volume — are being transported out of the strait and injected into the global energy market, the officials said.

If this is the case, then it’s likely to lead to further rounds of war, given Iran is unlikely to sit back and allow the corridor to run smoothly…

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Of course, many analysts have pointed out that Axios has not been reliable on oil and Iran related reports, which tend to come out at sensitive moments timeline-wise, perhaps for maximum impact on markets.

Regional watcher and Atlantic Council author Danny Citrinowicz writes, “There is a fundamental paradox at the heart of the current U.S. approach to Iran: Washington wants to avoid another major military campaign, yet the very strategy it is pursuing to achieve that goal may make renewed military escalation increasingly difficult to avoid.”

“The administration appears to believe that it can dramatically intensify economic pressure, including through aggressive enforcement of secondary sanctions, while keeping the confrontation largely within the economic domain,” he continues. “But that assumption misunderstands both Iran’s position and the incentives facing its current leadership.” Indeed Washington has seemed to miscalculate and underestimate Tehran at every turn of this nearly 6-month long conflict.

END

THURSDAY AFTERNOON;

Bessent: Aim Is To ‘Collapse’ Iran Regime Through Economic Warfare, But US Unlikely To Restart Major Combat

by Tyler Durden

Thursday, Aug 20, 2026 – 11:39 AM

Summary

US shifts toward economic warfare, away from military strikes: Bessent says maximum sanctions likely mean no major new military campaign for now.
Regime change rhetoric persists: Bessent says Washington intends to “collapse” Iran’s regime.
USS George Washington arrives: A new US carrier is now operating in the Middle East, relieving the over-extended USS Lincoln.
Iran rejects US threats as a Trump “diversion”: Tehran calls the campaign “economic terrorism” and says Washington is seeking an exit.
Axios claim of ‘stealth corridor’ where oil is moving steadily through Hormuz results in skepticism & some pushback.

https://embed.polymarket.com/market?market=strait-of-hormuz-traffic-returns-to-normal-by-september-30-20260702154339440&height=300Strait of Hormuz traffic returns to normal by September 30?Yes 6% · No 95%View full market & trade on Polymarket

* * *

Bessent: Going to ‘Collapse this Regime’

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in a CNBC appearance seemed to give additional confirmation that further Pentagon operations targeting Iran are unlikely to happen down the line. He also furthered Trump’s ‘Economic D-Day’ plan and threat.

“If we are doing the maximum economic pressure, then that means that likely there will not be a large-scale kinetic restart,” Bessent said in a “Squawk on the Street” interview.

He previewed a press conference which the administration plans to give Monday to “talk about exactly what we’re going to do.” Apparently the White House is keen on resurrecting Bush-Cheney era talking points in the effort to push global countries to comply with a full economic siege and strangulation of the Islamic Republic. According to CNBC:

In a preview of the plan, he said that the U.S. will be telling all of its allies, “You are either with us or against us.”

“If you insist on doing business with [Iran], either transferring money, buying their oil or doing seaborne ship transfers, then the U.S. Treasury and the U.S. government … will put its full might and force toward enforcing against you,” Bessent said.

“This is going to be the greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world,” he said.

He also said in the interview at one point that “we are going to collapse this regime.” Of course, none of this is necessarily new in terms of talking points’…

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USS Washington Carrier now in Region

The USS Washington will now be the military’s frontline carrier leading the mission in regional waters, which has featured an ongoing blockade of Iranian ports.

Iran Responds to Trump’s ‘Economic D-Day’

US Desperately Seeks Exit, Says Iranian Official

Another top Iranian official elsewhere asserted the US seeks exit from the region:

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf visited Iraq on Wednesday and said that the US was seeking to exit the region, comments that come following a report from The Washington Post that said the Pentagon is considering pulling back from the Persian Gulf after many of its bases in the area were heavily damaged by Iranian strikes.

“We need the situation to go back to what it used to be before” he said. “We condemn any threats in this regard in any obstacles.”

Axios Report on ‘Stealth’ Hormuz Corridor

Under the operation, which has been underway for the last several weeks, 15–20 tankers have entered and exited the strait each night through a southern channel along the coast of Oman.
About 10 million barrels of oil a day — roughly half the pre-war volume — are being transported out of the strait and injected into the global energy market, the officials said.

If this is the case, then it’s likely to lead to further rounds of war, given Iran is unlikely to sit back and allow the corridor to run smoothly…

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‘Stealth’ Corridor Story True?

ISRAEL TBN

end

TURKEY/ISRAEL/SYRIA

Israel struck Syria to avoid a direct clash with Turkey, experts say

Ankara rejected allegations made by Jerusalem that the deployment of Turkish forces violated the “status quo” and posed a threat to Israel’s security.

Netanyahu and Erdogan(photo credit: REUTERS)ByDANIELLE GREYMAN-KENNARDAUGUST 19, 2026 15:28Updated: AUGUST 20, 2026 11:32

Israel’s strikes on the Abu al-Duhur military airfield in the Idlib province in northwestern Syria on Tuesday were necessary to avoid a direct clash with Turkish forces on its borders, two experts on the region told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.

Dr. Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak, an expert on Turkey at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University, told the Post that Jerusalem was “not interested” in clashing with Turkey, and was therefore “doing everything possible to keep Turkey away from its borders.”

Ankara rejected allegations made by Jerusalem that the deployment of Turkish forces violated the “status quo” and posed a threat to Israel’s security. Turkey’s Presidency said Netanyahu’s remarks stemmed from his intention to pursue “expansionist and destabilizing policies” ahead of elections, adding that lasting regional peace could only be achieved if Jerusalem abandoned its “aggressive and coercive policies.”

“The untenable allegations put forward by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office are intended to legitimize Israel’s unlawful airstrikes targeting Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” it said on X/Twitter.

“Turkey will resolutely continue to cooperate with the Syrian Government on a legitimate basis for the establishment of ‌peace, stability, ⁠and prosperity in Syria, and will never allow the destabilization of Syria.”

Israel Air Force fighter jets participate in a Remembrance Day flyover, April 2026. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON’S UNIT)

Yanarocak said that “the geographical contiguity between Turkey and Syria” makes it harder for Israel to avoid a direct clash with Turkey.

“So long as Turkish forces remain in their current positions in the north and do not seek to gradually penetrate southward…Israel can feel secure,” he said.

Turkish influence extends beyond military presence in Syria

Jonathan Hessen, a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, said Turkish influence was far more deeply embedded in Syria and that the threat from Syria, even if it is a “country in creation,” was not limited to Ankara’s presence alone. Israel has faced numerous attacks from Islamist forces in Syria under the Assad regime, while many members of the new Syrian Transitional Government have yet to sever their ties with groups that have also expressed hostility toward the Jewish state.

“If we focus on the emergence of the new government in Damascus, which was essentially installed with Turkish backing in December [2024], we also need to take into account the developments that have taken place from a geostrategic perspective, including efforts by Turkish forces, or Turkey specifically, to establish a military presence beyond the security belt it had established over the course of the past several years to defend itself against potential threats emanating from Syria during the Assad regime,” he said.

Claiming that Damascus’s Defense Ministry is controlled “in many respects” by Turkey, Hessen noted that it was strange for such a newly established regime to be “armed to the teeth” and to have built up its military so rapidly, particularly given the economic challenges in Syria that might have demanded another government’s attention at the expense of the military.

END

RUSSIA VS UKRAINE UPDATES

END

RUSSIA VS UKRAINE

ANOTHER HIT!! THIS TIME RUSSIA ON UKRAINE

Mass Casualties In Large Russian Assault On Ukraine’s Capital, Air Defenses Dwindle

Thursday, Aug 20, 2026 – 12:00 PM

Ukraine started the week with near record-setting drone attacks on Moscow, with over 600 UAVs sent against the Russian capital Monday night into Tuesday.

The expected major Russian retaliation has come overnight, with a huge missile and drone barrage on the Ukrainian capital. Many dozens were sent, killing over 16 people and injuring more than 40, local authorities report.

The casualty rate was high despite that Ukraine says it managed to intercept nearly 90% of inbound projectiles, which it did not give a total figure for.

Local media reports indicate the capital city’s Solomianskyi district district was the worst hit:

In the Sviatoshynskyi district, a Russian attack damaged buildings on non-residential property. In addition, a fire broke out in the warehouse facilities there.

In the Solomianskyi district, debris damaged the upper floors of a 9-story residential building, after which a fire broke out there. Rescue workers have already extinguished it. Windows were also shattered in four nearby residential buildings.

At another location, debris caused a fire on the upper floors of a 4-story building.

In addition, a school and a children’s hospital were damaged in the Solomianskyi district. Windows were shattered at the hospital, and cars caught fire on its grounds. The fire has been extinguished. Garages were also damaged.

President Zelensky used the devastation to once again call on the West to urgently provide more Patriot systems, amid dwindling anti-air supplies.

“The interceptors for Patriot systems have not yet been replaced, and they are needed every day,” Zelensky wrote in a Telegram post on Thursday. “Each additional missile saves the lives of our people.”

The Russian defense ministry said in familiar messaging that it was targeting military-industrial sites connected to the Ukrainian armed forces.

https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=2090370756400312333&lang=en&maxWidth=560px&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Fmass-casualties-large-russian-assault-ukraines-capital-air-defenses-dwindle&sessionId=1342db4cd54aa2f31e5069b95cdf07a0b8d76989&siteScreenName=zerohedge&theme=light&widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&width=550px

In the meantime, an example of Ukraine’s own latest aerial assaults deep into Russian territory is seen in the following: “One regional publication notes that among the latest include: “in Russia, authorities in the republic of Tatarstan said several people were injured and homes were damaged in a Ukrainian drone attack.”

END

6/.GLOBAL ISSUES, COVID ISSUES, VACCINE INJURIES/HEALTH ISSUES

GLOBAL ISSUES

‘Hot Mess’: Salmonella Outbreak Linked To Jalapeños Spreads To More States

Thursday, Aug 20, 2026 – 03:40 PM

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

The salmonella outbreak connected to jalapeño peppers from Mexico has spread to additional states, U.S. authorities said on Aug. 19.

Thirty-two states have now reported cases in the outbreak, up from 27 states earlier in the month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in an update.

The states are: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Colorado and Minnesota have each recorded more than 100 cases, while more than two dozen have been logged in Georgia and Illinois. The other states have reported one to 14 cases.

The outbreak has reached 431 cases, with 86 of those new cases and 57 hospitalizations. No deaths have been reported.

The outbreak has been linked to jalapeños from a farm in Sinaloa and distributed to the United States earlier in the year. Stores that sold the peppers and products containing them include Kroger, Target, Trader Joe’s, and Whole Foods Market.

Taylor Fresh Foods, Whole Foods, NatureBest, and Hardie’s Fresh Foods have recalled both the peppers and products containing them.

The products include Spicy Jarlsberg Dip, sold at Kroger, and Taco Dip, sold at Target. The full list of products can be found on the Food and Drug Administration website.

The public is advised not to consume the recalled products. They can either be thrown out or returned to the place of purchase for a refund. Restaurants and other companies should not sell or serve the peppers, authorities said.

Salmonella, caused by consuming contaminated food, typically causes symptoms such as diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours after consuming the food. If a person experiences symptoms such as a fever higher than 102 degrees Fahrenheit combined with diarrhea, they should call their health care provider, according to the CDC.

A digitally colorized scanning electron microscopic image of a grouping of Gram-negative bacilli, or rod-shaped, Salmonella sp. bacteria. Janice Haney Carr/CDC

Illnesses in the outbreak started as early as June 19 and as late as Aug. 2.

Of the 224 patients interviewed by investigators, 91 percent reported eating at a Mexican-style restaurant before getting sick, including Chipotle Mexican Grill and QDOBA.

Amid the outbreak and a spike in cases of cyclosporiasis, a disease caused by food contaminated with feces, the acting Food and Drug Administration commissioner said recently that people should have confidence in the country’s food supply.

“We have the safest food supply in the world,” Kyle Diamantas said.

“FDA investigates dozens of foodborne illness outbreaks each year,” he added later. “There is definitely a heightened narrative right now. People are more aware.”

MARK CRISPIN MILLER

DR PAUL ALEXANDER

National debt reaches grim $40 trillion milestone. Here’s why that matters; even bullshit decrepit CNN duplicitous news get some things right from time to time, count out FOX; “The federal debt hit a

record $40 trillion on Tuesday, according to the Treasury Department. It’s an inauspicious milestone that will have consequences for Americans, businesses and the government’…POTUS Trump promised

Dr. Paul AlexanderAug 20

READ IN APP

to bring the debt down and to end reckless spending, yet in his second administration spending and debt is out of control…stunning debt. can never be repaid! The DC black suburban van people do not care about this, even gas the public pays for…Trump’s promise for fiscal order was pie in the sky, it is the complete opposite. many self enriching we see…

In simple, let us make it simple, FDA has now approved the Moderna flu vaccine, so the question is simple, how could RFK Jr. (Bobby Kennedy Jr.) as HHS Secretary approve this? Robert Kennedy Jr. heads

‘China completes work on man-made island that is ‘ideally placed’ for Taiwan invasion’

TMSC….a company that maybe rules the world!

END

RABOBANK/MICHAEL EVERY/OR OR PICTON/GIFFIN OR RABOBANK EXECUTIVE/COMMENTARY ON WORLDLY AFFAIRS

7. OIL AND NATURAL GAS/ENERGY COMMENTARIES

KORYBKO..

The West African Pipeline Is Inherently Geopolitical

Thursday, Aug 20, 2026 – 03:30 AM

Authored by Andrew Korybko,

The West never does anything without some benefit to itself in mind.

The Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) formally endorsed the offshore Nigerian-Moroccan Pipeline in late July. Construction on this $25 billion megaproject is expected to begin in 2028 and stretch over 4,000 kilometers along the West African coast for supplying the EU with 30 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas a year. Nigeria’s enhanced importance for the EU will place this official BRICS partner more firmly under Western influence and the same goes for the ECOWAS bloc that it leads.

While the 30 bcm is only around one-fifth of what Russia used to supply to the EU during the heyday of their energy trade, it nevertheless helps fuel the bloc’s economy, and it’ll also presumably be cheaper than the LNG that it began to import at scale from the US since sanctioning Russia back in 2022. Closer EU-Nigerian ties will complement the increasingly close US-Nigerian ones under Trump 2.0, which could ultimately lead to them empowering Nigeria to become their regional enforcer by proxy.

Although it has yet to go through with the putative anti-terrorist invasion of Mali that its Defense Minister intimated in early May, which would likely be pursued for regime change purposes if it ever comes to pass, Nigeria can still play this role in the future with Western backing. If the Sahelian Alliance of which Mali is a part survives the present Syrian-like Hybrid War onslaught, then a Western-backed Nigerian war with the bloc can’t be ruled out, one in which other ECOWAS states might also participate.

BBC cited energy expert and former Nigerian government advisor Charles Majomi as assessing that “[the Nigerian-Moroccan Pipeline] signals a change from current models where gas is typically extracted from African nations, refined and processed abroad then shipped back to African nations at three or four times the price”. It would of course be a positive development for the other ECOWAS states to receive gas at a much cheaper price, but the West never does anything without some benefit to itself in mind.

In this case, bolstering their economies is intended to lead to them purchasing more military wares from the West, with the overall effect strengthening their armed forces with the goal of turning ECOWAS into a more powerful Nigerian-led military bloc. While Guinea and Togo might decline to participate in any campaign against the Sahelian Alliance due to their pragmatic ties with them and growing ones with Russia, the rest are expected to take part in this if it happens. They’re also already pro-Western too.

Putting it all together, the Nigerian-Moroccan Pipeline does indeed advance all of the involved countries’ economic interests, but it’s also inherently geopolitical too since the long-term objective is to solidify Western influence among the ECOWAS states that also happen to be strategically coastal ones too. The “Global West” concept is therefore expanding from its North Atlantic core to encompass not only the US’ Asia-Pacific allies, the Gulf, Israel, and Latin America, but also West Africa now too.

Candidly speaking, there isn’t anything that the Sino-Russo Entente can do to stop the Nigerian-Moroccan Pipeline, and any attempt to do so anyhow would be presented as trying to impede the West African states’ development to the detriment of those two’s soft power.

What they can do, however, is ramp up support for the Sahelian Alliance and do their best to woo Nigeria back towards their side in the New Cold War. That’s much easier said than done but isn’t impossible so they might soon give it a shot.

end

EU NatGas Hits 2023 Energy Crisis Levels As Trump’s “Economic D-Day” Clouds Hormuz Reopening

Thursday, Aug 20, 2026 – 11:20 AM

European natural gas prices surged to levels last seen during the energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, when severe supply disruptions sent global markets into turmoil.

The catalyst was an overnight Truth Social post from President Trump declaring “ECONOMIC D-DAY” against Iran. The announcement raises the probability of prolonged disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical maritime transit corridor for Gulf energy exports.

For Europe, continued disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz would constrain access to Gulf LNG, intensify competition for seaborne cargoes, and deepen the continent’s reliance on US supplies. With European storage inventories already well below seasonal norms and the winter replenishment window narrowing, traders are slapping a premium on natural gas prices on Thursday.

Dutch front-month futures, Europe’s gas benchmark, rose as much as 2.5% today and soared above 65 euros per megawatt-hour, a level last seen in 1Q23.

Trump stated in an overnight Truth Social post that, with Tehran’s military and military-industrial base reduced to “now rubble” and its “currency worthless,” he will unleash severe economic consequences against “ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran.”

Earlier this week, Simon Penn, a London-based UBS macro strategist, focused on Germany’s NatGas storage, which is only 50% full, compared with 57% a year ago and well below the 2009-25 average of 77%.

Europe, more broadly, is well below the 2009-25 average of 74%, with storage currently at around 61%.

It’s not just low NatGas storage levels that Europeans have to worry about at this time of year, but also a diesel shortage. Combining these two problems, Samantha Dart, co-head of global commodities research at Goldman Sachs, recently warned that this energy crunch is “what keeps her up at night.”

Must-Reads:

Morgan Stanley analyst Martijn Rats wrote earlier that “the window to normalize before winter is rapidly closing.” Translation: Lower NatGas stockpiles will put a bid under prices and fuel inflation across the EU.

At this point, Europeans had better hope that a strong El Niño would produce relatively mild weather. Otherwise, the continent could face a cold and extremely expensive winter.

END

and the incentives facing its current leadership.” Indeed Washington has seemed to miscalculate and underestimate Tehran at every turn of this nearly 6-month long conflict.

END

Has Iranian Crude Become Irrelevant To Global Oil Supply?

Thursday, Aug 20, 2026 – 02:00 PM

Submitted by Tsvetana Paraskova Of OilPrice.com

The reinstated U.S. blockade on Iranian oil exports is effectively preventing Tehran from exporting oil, making Iran’s oil volumes irrelevant for global oil market balances, Bob McNally, president of Rapidan Energy Group, told CNBC on Thursday.

The U.S. brought back the blockade in the Gulf of Oman aimed at preventing Iran from exporting its oil after the ‘deal to make a deal’ collapsed in July and hostilities in the Middle East returned.

The blockade, which the U.S. had lifted for about three weeks while negotiations were being held in June and early July, is now back and effectively blockading Iran’s oil exports.

“Kharg Island is not exporting anymore,” McNally told CNBC, referring to Iran’s key oil export terminal that handles more than 90% of all shipments.

“Iran has stopped being a factor for the oil market in terms of its exports because of the blockade,” McNally said.

https://player.cnbc.com/p/gZWlPC/cnbc_global?playertype=synd&byGuid=7000422328

Iran may have been removed from the real barrels count, but the crude oil futures market is underpricing geopolitical risk, the energy expert told CNBC.

“The refined products are telling the story” of how crude futures may be underpricing the tightness in the global oil market, according to McNally.

In addition, “the market has become a little less optimistic about near-term and sustainable reopening of Hormuz,” he said, adding that the longer the disruption goes on, “the risk is that crude will follow products higher.”

Brent Crude prices topped $91 per barrel this week amid heightened security concerns for shipping in the Middle East and fading hopes that the U.S. and Iran could return to negotiations.

The refined product market, however, is already flashing severe tightness, with the diesel crack spread hitting record highs in both the United States and Europe this week.

The diesel crack spread in the United States hit triple digits this week, for the first time ever. The premium over crude prices jumped to as high as $102 per barrel on Monday, before easing slightly to about $100 a barrel on Tuesday.

8. EMERGING MARKETS//AUSTRALIA NEW ZEALAND ISSUES

ARGENTINMA/GERMANY

KOLBE

Argentina’s Monetary Policy Reveals Germany’s Loss of Control

Thursday, Aug 20, 2026 – 06:30 AM

Submitted by Thomas Kolbe

Javier Milei is a politician who was trained along the lines of the Austrian School of Economics. For him, the maxim coined by Ludwig von Mises applies: inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.

In other words: artificial expansion of the money supply leads to price increases – in different ways. Newly created, unbacked credit, as it is inherent in the fiat money system, can initially manifest itself in asset prices depending on the structure of an economy, for example in a rising gold price. Once this credit becomes effective on the demand side, it can lead to broad-based increases in the prices of goods – and that is when consumers feel it in their wallets. At this point, monetary policy in the fiat system becomes unpleasant for consumers.

We experienced this phenomenon in extenso during the Covid lockdowns. At the time, governments delighted their citizens with so-called “Stimmy Checks”, free money, delivered to their doors. We experienced, in a sense, a reminiscence of the policies of the Weimar era under Chancellor Wilhelm Cuno. During the French occupation, he called on the citizens of the Ruhr region to go on general strike and attempted to keep them economically afloat with cash transfers. The outcome is well known: the Weimar Republic went under amid waves of hyperinflation, loss of confidence and systemic failure.

It should be the task of specialist media and the academic economics community to educate the public about the fundamental relationship between expansionary monetary policy and the destruction of purchasing power.

This would expose the state’s camouflage surrounding the supposed benefits of debt-financed central planning. Many people might lose their faith in the debt-based welfare sedative. Democracy could only benefit from this.

Back to the present. Since Milei took office in December 2023, remarkable developments have taken place in monetary policy and the credit mechanism. The strict fiscal policy that produced a primary surplus appears to have curbed the development of the money supply, just as the massive reduction in the public-sector workforce has done. The standard measure of the money supply, M2, which, very broadly speaking, comprises cash, bank deposits and highly liquid securities, fell from 94.7 trillion pesos when Milei took office to 84.5 trillion pesos in the second quarter of the current year. The broader measure of the money supply, M3, rose only slightly, from 163.2 to 164.2 trillion pesos.

In Argentina, a small but remarkable monetary revolution has taken place. The country had been highly inflationary for decades and drove its citizens almost by necessity into the US dollar as protection against an overbearing state apparatus. Citizens fled into the best of all bad worlds – the world’s reserve currency of fiat credit – and are now in a transitional phase. The consequence of the monetary turnaround: inflation stood at 211.4 percent in 2023, but fell to 117.8 percent in Milei’s first year in office and then to 28 percent last year. It is still fluctuating around this level.

This is a clear mandate for the president to continue his consolidation policy. Milei knows that politics also has a symbolic dimension. And so he is already presenting a political curiosity: a proposed law that would make politicians personally liable for government deficits and, in serious cases, suspend their salaries.

Milei’s fight against monetary debasement is the foundation of his economic policy. From the perspective of a libertarian economist, this makes sense: inflation throws the entire calculation mechanism of a market economy into disarray. The misallocation of scarce resources and the loss of confidence in customers’ ability to pay destroy any hope of economic prosperity. Milei is therefore attempting, through his stability policy, above all to protect the purchasing power of his citizens. You know the man: the one whom German Chancellor Friedrich Merz believes is trampling on his own people is trying to put the protective shield of a functioning market economy over his people.

A policy that in Germany is now known only by hearsay. Memories of stories told by grandparents about the era of Ludwig Erhard still linger. “Prosperity for all” was his promise, built on the social market economy, stable money and a minimal state that left economic affairs to the professionals, skilled workers and entrepreneurs.

Javier Milei has cut the state budget by 27 to 30 percent during his time in office. While price increases have subsequently moved into a disinflationary channel, that is, a trend of falling inflation rates, inflation in Germany continues to rise. Officially, Germany’s inflation rate is around 2.8 percent. Yet everyone knows that the state manipulates the definition of the consumer basket used to calculate the price level, to put it cautiously. Money is being debased considerably faster than the official statistics suggest.

Inflation is a hidden tax, a transfer from the creditor to the largest debtor, the state apparatus.

Anyone who buys government bonds to finance this mountain of debt should be clear about one thing: the coupon on the ten-year German government bond, at around 3.2 percent, is completely eaten up by inflation. In the end, the state repays its creditors with debased money.

Serious fiscal policy in Germany would first have to abandon projects that are no longer compatible with the country’s economic strength. For one thing, it would have to take into account the fact that the German welfare state should end its efforts to recruit from abroad. Remigration is unavoidable in view of the explosion in costs if rapid relief is to be achieved. The same applies to Germany’s involvement in the war in Ukraine, which will once again consume billions in transfers this year. Combined with development aid that is more than questionable and is to a large extent woven into the NGO extraction scheme, German taxpayers should be relieved of more than €20 billion annually in these two areas alone.

Considering that new borrowing to finance all these political escapades amounts to at least 5.5 percent of GDP this year, this is nothing other than a scandal. From the perspective of the German taxpayer, the only hope is that the bond market will put an end to these megalomaniacal excesses in the not-too-distant future – through massive sell-offs of German and European bonds, in order to show the chancellor and his debt minister the red card.

* * *

U.S./GOLD AND SILVER PRICING/ASIAN CLOSING MARKETS AND EUROPEAN BOURSE OPENING AND CLOSING/ INTEREST RATE SETTINGS THURSDAY MORNING 6;30AM//OPENING AND CLOSING

OPENING LEVELS OF CURRENCIES// AND CLOSING ASIAN STOCK MARKET AND OPENING EUROPEAN STOCKS:6 AM EST

EURO VS USA DOLLAR: 1.1693 UP 0.0018

USA/ YEN 158.45 UP 0.190 NOW TARGETS INTEREST RATE AT 1.75% AS IT WILL BUY UNLIMITED BONDS TO GETS TO THAT LEVEL…//YEN STILL FALLS//END OF YEN CARRY TRADE BEGINS AGAIN DEC 2024/Bank of Japan raises rates by .25% TO 1.75 ..TAKAICHI NEW PM AS YIELDS RISE//JAPAN DEEPLY IN TROUBLE WITH RISING RATES AND A FALLING YEN!! BANK OF JAPAN WILL NO LONGER DO QE. URGES PENSION AND INSUANCE FUNDS TO BUY JAPANESE BONDS

GBP/USA 1.3627 UP 0.0028 OR 28 BASIS PTS

USA/CAN DOLLAR: 1.3779 DOWN 0.0031 //CDN DOLLAR UP 31 BASIS PTS//

Last night Shanghai COMPOSITE CLOSED UP 9.30 PTS OR 0.240%

Hang Seng CLOSED UP 231.93 PTS OR 0.91%

AUSTRALIA CLOSED DOWN 0.50%

// EUROPEAN BOURSE: ALL MIXED

Trading from Europe and ASIA

I) EUROPEAN BOURSES: ALL MIXED

2/ CHINESE BOURSES / :Hang SENG CLOSED UP 231.93 PTS OR 0.91%

/SHANGHAI CLOSED UP 9.30 PTS OR 0.240%

AUSTRALIA BOURSE CLOSED DOWN .50%

(Nikkei (Japan) CLOSED UP 951.58 PTS OR 1.46%

INDIA’S SENSEX IN THE RED

Gold very early morning trading: $4392.00

silver:$66.63

USA DOLLAR VS TRY (TURKISH LIRA): 47.96 UP 2 BASIS PTS AND NOW WE SEE THEIR STUPIDITY OF SELLING SOME OF THEIR GOLD AND ALL OF THEIR USA DOLLAR RESERVES. THE COUNTRY IS IN BIG FINANCIAL TROUBLE

USA DOLLAR VS RUSSIAN ROUBLE: 83.81 ROUBLE// UP 1 ROUBLE AND 13 BASIS PTS.

UK 10 YR BOND YIELD: 5.0485 UP 1 BASIS PTS

UK 30 YR BOND YIELD: 5.7863 DOWN 1 BASIS PTS

CDN 10 YR BOND YIELD: 3.694 DOWN 1 BASIS PTS

CDN 5 YR BOND YIELD; 3.305 UP 2 BASIS PTS

USA dollar index early THURSDAY MORNING: 98.64 DOWN 9 BASIS POINTS FROM WEDNESDAY’s CLOSE

THURSDAY MORNING NUMBERS ENDS

And now your closing THURSDAY NUMBERS 10.00 AM

Portuguese 10 year bond yield: 3.604% DOWN 1 in basis point(s) yield

JAPANESE BOND 10 yr YIELD: +2.847% DOWN 5 FULL POINTS BASIS POINTS /JAPAN losing control of its yield curve/

JAPAN 30 YR: 4.012 DOWN 8 BASIS PTS//

SPANISH 10 YR BOND YIELD: 3.696 DOWN 1 in basis points yield

ITALY 10 YR BOND: 4.074 DOWN 0 points in basis points yield ./

GERMAN 10 YR BOND YIELD: 3.2540 DOWN 1 BASIS PTS

IMPORTANT CURRENCY CLOSES : MID DAY THURSDAY

Closing currency crosses for day /USA DOLLAR INDEX/USA 10 YR BOND YIELD/10:00 AM

Euro/USA 1.1678 UP 0.0004 OR 4 basis points

USA/Japan: 158.79 DOWN 0.030 OR YEN IS UP 3 BASIS PTS// HIGHLY INFLATIONARY TO JAPAN

Great Britain 10 YR RATE 5.0590 UP 1 BASIS POINTS //

GREAT BRITAIN 30 YR BOND; 5.8019 UP 2 BASIS POINTS.

Canadian dollar UP 30 BASIS pts to 1.3781

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The USA/Yuan CNY 6.7232 ON SHORE ..UP

THE USA/YUAN OFFSHORE// CNH UP TO 6.7255

TURKISH LIRA: 47.96 UP 2 EXTREMELY DANGEROUS LEVEL/DEATH WATCH/HYPERINFLATION TO BEGIN.//

Your closing 10 yr US bond yield UP 4 in basis points from WEDNESDAY at 4.697% //trading well ABOVE the resistance level of 2.27-2.32%)

USA 30 yr bond yield 5.236 UP 4 basis points /10:00 AM

USA 2 YR BOND YIELD: 4.113 UP 1 BASIS PTS.

GOLD AT 10;00 AM 4482.00

SILVER AT 10;00: 67.28

Your 11:00 AM bourses for Europe and the Dow along with the USA dollar index closing and interest rates THURSDAY

DAY CLOSING TIME 10:00 AM///

London: CLOSED UP 4.81 PTS OR 0.04%

GERMAN DAX: CLOSED DOWN 108.29 PTS OR 0.42%

FRANCE: DOWN 48.82 OR 0.57 PTS

Spain IBEX CLOSED DOWN 36.50 PTS OR 0.18%

Italian MIB: CLOSED UP 47.62 PTS OR 0.09%

WTI Oil price 88.15 10.00 EST/

Brent Oil: 93.55 10:00 EST

USA /RUSSIAN ROUBLE /// AT: 83 ROUBLE UP 0 AND 41/ 100

CDN 10 YEAR RATE: 3.738 UP 4 BASIS PTS.

CDN 5 YEAR RATE: 3.340 UP 4 BASIS PTS

CLOSING NUMBERS: 4 PM//

Euro vs USA 1.1677 UP 0.0003 OR 3 BASIS POINTS//

British Pound: 1.3629 UP 0.0029 OR 29 basis pts/

BRITISH 10 YR GILT BOND YIELD: 5.0680 UP 0 FULL BASIS PTS//

BRITISH 30 YR BOND YIELD: 5.8056 UP 0 IN BASIS PTS.

JAPAN 10 YR YIELD: 2.863 DOWN 3 FULL BASIS PTS (DANGEROUS TO THEIR ECONOMY

JAPANESE 30 YR BOND: 4.027 DOWN 7 PTS AND STILL VERY DANGEROUS TO THEIR ECONOMY

USA dollar vs Japanese Yen: 159.12 UP 0.861 OR YEN UP 86 BASIS PTS//GETTING FURTHER AWAY FROM 160.00/ EXTREMELY DANGEROUS

USA dollar vs Canadian dollar: 1.3790 DOWN 0.0020 PTS// CDN DOLLAR UP 20 BASIS PTS

West Texas intermediate oil: 88.15

Brent OIL: 93.57

USA 10 yr bond yield UP 4 BASIS pts to 4.692

USA 30 yr bond yield: UP 4 PTS to 5.229%

USA 2 YR BOND 4.173 UP 1 PTS

CDN 10 YR RATE 3.7450 UP 6 BASIS PTS

CDN 5 YEAR RATE: 3.253 DOWN 3 BASIS PTS

USA dollar index: 98.81 UP 7 BASIS POINTS

USA DOLLAR VS TURKISH LIRA: 47.95 UP 4 BASIS PTS GETTING QUITE CLOSE TO BLOWING UP/IDIOTS SOLD GOLD

USA DOLLAR VS RUSSIA//// ROUBLE: 83.76 UP 1 AND 19/100 roubles //

GOLD $4,525.65 3:30 PM)

SILVER: 68.20 3;30 PM)

DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE: DOWN 697.72 POINTS OR 1.31%

NASDAQ 100 DOWN 263.92 PTS OR 1.00%

VOLATILITY INDEX 16.06 UP 1.17 PTS OR 7.86%

GLD: $ 415.27UP 1.43 PTS OR 0.35%

SLV/ 61.68 PTS UP 1.67 OR 2.27%

TORONTO STOCK INDEX// TSX INDEX: CLOSED DOWN 109.21 PTS OR 0.30%

end

TRADING today ZEROHEDGE 4 PM: HEADLINE NEWS/TRADING

Stocks Tumble, Yields & Oil Jump, Gold & Bitcoin Surge After Bessent Intervention Fails

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s attempt to prop up the long end of the US Treasury market failed to hold on Thursday, August 20, 2026, because the move was seen as too small and symbolic to fix the underlying problems of massive debt, deficits, poor liquidity, geopolitics, and inflation fears.

ft.com

What happened

On Wednesday, Bessent/Treasury announced it would “at least double” its liquidity buyback operations for securities maturing in 10–30 years, raising them from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation (starting Sept. 9 through early November). This came after the 30-year yield hit ~5.34%, its highest since around 2007, following weak auctions and broader selling.

247wallst.com

Yields dropped sharply that day (30-year down ~9–10 bp toward ~5.18–5.19%). On Thursday the gains largely reversed: the 30-year yield rose as much as ~7 bp (to ~5.26–5.27% intraday) before settling a bit lower, erasing most of the prior day’s relief. Stocks also weakened.

ft.com

Why it failed to stick

Scale is tiny relative to the market and debt load: The US has ~$40 trillion in national debt (hit that milestone around the announcement) and a multi-trillion-dollar Treasury market. Doubling a $2B operation is widely described as a “sticking plaster,” “rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic,” or “tossing a paper towel into a tsunami.” It does little to absorb supply or change the math. rawstory.com
Does not address root causes: Investors are focused on the large fiscal deficit (~6% of GDP near full employment), ongoing heavy Treasury issuance, and lack of credible fiscal consolidation. Analysts (e.g., JPMorgan) said without real spending restraint or deficit reduction, the action lacks credibility and only treats symptoms. moneycontrol.com
Liquidity issues at the long end and competition from corporate debt (including AI-related issuance) continued to pressure prices.
Geopolitical/inflation overlay: President Trump’s threats of major economic pressure on Iran (“Economic D-Day”) pushed oil higher (Brent near $94), stoking inflation concerns that undercut the bond rally. 247wallst.com
Market skepticism of pure signaling: Bessent called the move partly signaling (arguing yields do not reflect fundamentals and long-end liquidity is poor) and said the buybacks “could be more” than $4B, while flagging upcoming fiscal-consolidation plans. Many viewed the initial step as temporary jawboning ahead of midterms rather than a structural fix. History of similar interventions (e.g., Japan, UK) shows limited lasting impact when fundamentals remain unfavorable. apnews.com

Bessent himself downplayed the Thursday move as “noise” within a 24-hour window and reiterated that the administration sees a good chance of lowering the deficit, with more details expected soon. Markets, however, treated the buyback expansion as insufficient on its own.

‘

WRAP UP

USA DATA RELEASES/

Initial Jobless Claims Refuse To Blink Amid Increasingly Fragile Labor Market Signals

Thursday, Aug 20, 2026 – 08:37 AM

Unchanged from near 1969 lows for the last five years…

That’s quite a statement amid the sound and fury of markets and macro over the same period, but sure enough, the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the first time ticked up to 206k last week – the same level as they were back in 2001…

Michigan was the standout state with the largest decline in initial jobless claims by far while Kentucky saw the biggest increase (albeit only modest)

Continuing jobless claims remain below the 1.8 million Maginot Line…

Yet this resilience contrasts with clear deterioration elsewhere in the labor market and broader economy: nonfarm payroll growth has slowed sharply (July’s -23,000 print and downward revisions left the recent three-month average near just +20,000), the household survey has shown softer employment and a declining labor-force participation rate even as the unemployment rate edged down to 4.1%, job openings and hiring rates have cooled into a classic “low-hire, low-fire” equilibrium, and GDP growth itself decelerated to a 1.5% annualized pace in Q2 from 2.1% in Q1.

The divergence suggests firms are reluctant to shed workers but equally reluctant to expand headcount amid softening demand, leaving the labor market stable for now yet increasingly fragile if the broader slowdown intensifies.

END

this certainly tells the story on the shape of the economy!

(ZEROHEDGE)

Walmart Crashes Most Since 2022 After Huge Comp Store Sales Miss

Thursday, Aug 20, 2026 – 10:03 AM

Walmart is tumbling after posting disappointing guidance while quarterly sales fell short of expectations, a rare miss for the world’s largest bricks and mortar retailer, that is stoking concerns about the leading big-box retailer decelerating alongside a slow-growing US economy.

Comp store sales at US stores open at least a year, excluding fuel, rose 2.6% in the second quarter, far below the lowest analyst estimate compiled by Bloomberg.

That growth rate, which reflected “125 bps headwind from pharmacy deflation and brand-to-generic transfers related to maximum fair price regulation”, was the slowest in more than six years. Another interesting observation: WMT is seeing less of a hit from the lack of fatties, saying that “FY27 comps reflect ~50 bps tailwind from GLP-1, vs. ~100 bps in FY25 & FY26, as script growth was more than offset by price-mix headwinds.”

Here are some other highlights from the fiscal second quarter:

Adjusted EPS 81c, beating estimates 74c, excludes the impact, net of tax, from a net loss of $0.12 on equity and other investments, and net benefit of $0.11 from a certain tax matter
Revenue $187.94 billion, +5.9% y/y, beating estimates of $186.87 billion
Walmart-only US stores comparable sales ex-gas +2.6%, missing estimates of +3.67%
Sam’s Club US comparable sales ex-gas +4.4%, beating estimates of +4.04%
Operating cash flow $19.7 billion
Global eCommerce sales grew 23%
Membership fee revenue grew 17% globally
Gross profit rate up 96 bps, led by Walmart U.S., primarily impacted by tariff refund impacts
Free cash flow decreased $1.4 billion due an increase of $2.8 billion in capital expenditures to support our omnichannel growth strategy, partially offset by the increase in operating cash flow
Share repurchases during the quarter totaled $3.0 billion representing 25.7 million shares, at an average price of $117.61 per share

The company’s guidance was also messy for both Q3 and full year, both missing consensus estimates.

Third quarter forecast:

Sees adjusted EPS 62c to 64c, missing estimates of 68c
Sees net sales in constant currency +3% to +3.75%
Sees operating income in constant currency up 2%-4%

2027 full-year forecast

Sees adjusted EPS $2.80 to $2.87, saw $2.75 to $2.85, missing estimates of $2.90
Sees net sales in constant currency +4% to +5%
Sees adj. operating income in constant currency up 6%-8%

According to Bloomberg, the results signal it’s getting more challenging for the world’s largest retailer to maintain a faster growth rate as expectations from investors have risen. The earnings report also may spark anxiety about uneven economic signals and deteriorating consumer sentiment.

Federal drug price negotiations affected Walmart’s health and wellness (H&W) business more than expected, CFO John David Rainey said in an interview. While “transitory,” the issue is expected to persist into the next year, he said.

WalMart was quick to point out that wxcluding health and wellness, the company’s US comparable sales rose 3.4%, and noted that FY27 YTD total comp reflected a “net ~200 bps swing on average vs. the trailing two year pace due to Health and Wellness impacts noted above”…

… but the market didn’t seem to care much and punished the company the most in almost 5 years.

Additionally, Walmart gained market share, including in grocery as it continued to lower prices of goods. As consumers face more pressure, Walmart has been “very intentional” with where it’s investing in price, Rainey said, pointing to beef as an example. Still, the retail environment remains competitive.

Shoppers have maintained spending at consistent levels in recent months despite ongoing concerns about inflation and geopolitical tensions. While many consumers are increasingly selective about their expenditures, they’re still on the lookout for good deals or unique products. At the same time, lower-income households have pulled back amid elevated gasoline prices. Consumer sentiment also dropped for the first time in three months in August, while the labor market is showing signs of weakness.

Consumer spending has been consistent as households remain resilient, according to Rainey.

“We certainly see that choices are made,” he said. “That’s indicative of some of the trade-offs that consumers are needing to make, and they’re looking for value and convenience.” Back-to-college season was “exceedingly strong,” and the return to school season is in its early days as some schools start later this year.

Additionally, recent foodborne illnesses have weighed on demand for some items like packaged lettuce and strawberries, though the company expects that to improve in the coming months, Rainey said.

Walmart, a longtime favorite of bargain-searching shoppers, has expanded its online offerings in recent years and succeeded in attracting wealthier shoppers prioritizing convenience. The company’s non-retail businesses, which span from advertising to its third-place marketplace, also have boosted profit growth. In the years after a pandemic-fueled boom in business, the retailer has invested across operations to spruce up its stores, assortment of products and digital services.

Under Chief Executive Officer John Furner, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer has sought to maintain its focus on value while making online deliveries faster and using artificial intelligence more effectively across operations.

Walmart shares had retreated in recent months, partly on concerns that the company’s US growth could decelerate. Comparable sales growth has now slowed for two straight quarters, and the retailer cautioned earlier this year that high fuel costs could squeeze earnings. Rivals including Target Corp. have seen sales pick up as its turnaround efforts gain traction. Kroger Co. and Costco Wholesale Corp. meanwhile are lowering food prices to grab more share.

Following the latest earnings, shares of Walmart, which until recently were idiotically trading at a 40x forward PE, crashed as much as 9% after the huge comp store sales miss, its biggest drop since July 2022 The stock had risen 2.6% this year through Wednesday’s close.

Walmart’s full Q2 presentation is below (pdf link)

https://www.scribd.com/embeds/1076527689/content?start_page=2&view_mode=scroll&access_key=key-ovPcjcHuGWn8w6dmtY6Z

Earnings Presentation (FY27 Q2) by Zerohedge

USA ECONOMIC REPORTS

“Doom Loop” Engaged: US Debt Hits $40 Trillion As Treasury Enters The Endgame

Wednesday, Aug 19, 2026 – 08:50 PM

It took the US 200 years to reach its first $1 trillion in debt. It took 95 days to add its last.

After several weeks of build up, today the Treasury announced that total public debt surpassed $40 trillion for the first time, after jumping by over $60 billion in one day, and has now surged by $1 trillion in just over three months, and by a third of the total in less than five years, as US lawmakers continue to ignore calls to contend with historically wide fiscal deficits.

The largely expected news came just hours after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent unexpectedly announced the Treasury’s latest attempt to rein-in long-term borrowing costs from multi-year highs, the most important component of the growth in debt. The Treasury stunned the market when it said, just two weeks after the latest Refunding Announcement where it should have made this change, that it was ramping up the support for longer-dated securities by “increasing, by at least double, the size of liquidity support buyback operations for longer-dated nominal coupon securities (the 10-year to 20-year sector and the 20-year to 30-year sector).”

The announcement that sent yields plunging, if only for the time being.

Remarkably, it was less than 5 years ago that US debt hit $30 trillion back in January 2022, illustrating the rapid growth in federal borrowing needs. And there’s no end in sight.

As Bloomberg notes, “Republicans have long opposed revenue-raising tax increases,” while Democrats are best known for spending like drunken sailors to maximize socialist central planning, and both parties are loathe to sign on to politically toxic cuts to healthcare and retirement benefits for seniors. Many observers anticipate Congress and the administration of the day will only act if forced by a financial-market disruption.

That won’t stop them from talking about it all the time, though, as both parties at least pretend to understand that the US is on a catastrophic collision course should debt growth continue at this pace, and if the AI bet – which is now an all-in for virtually everyone – fails to dramatically boost productivity. Bessent, for one, said a key reason he got involved in politics was to help tackle deficits running at a pace unprecedented for times outside of major wars, pandemics or depressed job markets. So far he has failed catastrophically, and worse, he is doing precisely the kind of activist issuance “Twisting” for which he bashed his predecessor, Janet Yellen.

Economists, the Congressional Budget Office and Wall Street all see little or no progress in coming years for the deficit-to-gross domestic product ratio.

“Optically, I’m sure crossing thresholds like $40 trillion will focus attention on the issue in the near term,” said Matthew Luzzetti, chief US economist at Deutsche Bank AG. “But it does not represent a magical threshold for debt dynamics, and projections have anticipated this outcome for some time.”

More important, Luzzetti said, is the climb in US Treasury yields, which is steadily increasing the cost of servicing the record debt load. Last Thursday, the department’s latest 30-year bond auction resulted in the costliest such sale in a quarter century. A 10-year auction a day earlier drew the highest financing cost at that tenor since 2007, and only today’s announcement which sent yields tumbling prevent today’s 20Y Treasury auction from pricing at the highest yield on record.

As buyers demand higher yields, that in turn drives up the Treasury’s borrowing needs. With two months left to go in the fiscal year, the government’s tally for interest costs so far for 2026 is $1.37 trillion – a 20% increase on the same period a year before. That in turn adds to the debt, potentially fueling further investor calls for higher rates, in a pattern known as a “doom loop.”

For a visual of said doom loop, consider that the Treasury paid out about $85 billion to bondholders in its semi-annual coupon payment on Monday, the largest on record. For comparison, the Treasury paid out $75 billion of interest at the mid-month settlement period in August 2025 and about $80 billion on Feb. 17.

Interest costs are now the third-largest part of the budget, surpassing healthcare and just behind Social Security. However, at $1.6 trillion, Social Security will be topped by gross interest no later than 2026.

It gets worse: thanks to the AI bubble – and specifically the AI debt bubble which we correctly spotted one year ago and which the market is only now starting to freak out about – the record debt issuance to fund capex is now starting to crowd out of demand for US paper. This means that very soon, the US government will have to decide: keeping the electorate happy, or funding data centers so they can buy the latest massively overpriced memory chips needed to run the latest chatbot. Incidentally, those soaring memory costs are now adding about 0.5% to core PCE, a number which the admin will soon realize is very politically unpopular, and will lead to a historic crackdown on hyperinflationary memory and semiconductor prices.

“The federal budget is the enemy within,” Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum and a former director of the CBO, wrote in a note Monday. “It is the greatest threat to the foundations of economic progress, U.S. international economic standing, and national security. The only reason for optimism should be material actions to rein in the sea of red ink. There are no such material actions.”

He is right, of course: the only time there can be material actions, is when the bond vigilantes crash the market, yet actions such as those by Bessent today assure that said day was just punted several weeks or months into the future, again and again.

But wait, because there is even more: all of the above assumes no recession, no crises, no emergencies for the foreseeable future. Well, consider that US debt exploded higher during the most recent economic downturns tied to the global financial crisis and the Covid pandemic. During those periods, revenue slid as tax-paying workers lost jobs, and assistance payments jumped. One can only imagine where US debt will be after the next recession/pandemic/hot war.

Going back to Bessent, the current Treasury secretary came into office in 2025 touting a budget deficit target of around 3% of GDP by the end of President Donald Trump’s second term, which concludes in January 2029. It’s not clear how that will possibly happen: as of July the ratio is 6% and rising… and will keep rising the longer the AI bubble drains demand for US long-dated paper.

Meanwhile, according to recent reports, Trump is seeking to galvanize support ahead of the November midterm elections, and is looking at new tax-cut promises in addition to increases in defense spending, both of which will supercharge the deficit and lead to even more debt. Meanwhile, the Elon Musk-led 2025 Department of Government Efficiency effort, which sought to slash discretionary spending including on contracts and government buildings, failed to cut outlays as much as DOGE’s own estimates projected.

And then there is the next round of political theater: the current pace of debt accumulation…

https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=2090175945390911775&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fmarkets%2Fdoom-loop-engaged-us-debt-hits-40-trillion-america-enters-endgame&sessionId=bf49b23fe7245cc293b21115d02f16c01b3a5a25&siteScreenName=zerohedge&theme=light&widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&width=550px

… means that the government has about 4 or 5 months before it again hits the debt ceiling of $41.1 trillion. Hitting that marker is expected to trigger another in the series of partisan showdowns in Washington over the years to head off a potentially devastating US payments default.

“The government has not taken meaningful actions to address the large general government fiscal deficits,” Fitch said. “Spending pressures will mount over the next decade due to an aging population.” The country will be “vulnerable to future economic shocks” as debt levels increase, the rating company said.

For Fitch, talk is cheap: instead of downgrading the US credit rating, one week ago Fitch reaffirmed the US at AA+, assuring that absolutely no remedial step will be taken, and that the next debt crisis will be cataclysmic.

“Hitting this big round number will hopefully send a wake up call throughout Washington,” said Michael Peterson, who chairs the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a research group, in regard to the $40 trillion. “It will hurt everyday affordability across the country if we don’t get our debt under control,” he said.

He is wrong: everyone knows that the US is on a historic collision course with destiny. The only wake up call was for gold and bitcoin algos, both of which finally woke up from a bizarre slumber, sending both real and digital gold soaring.

END

The Dollar Is Becoming America’s Release Valve

The dollar is increasingly viewed as a “pressure-release valve” (or relief valve) for U.S. fiscal and debt pressures. In recent market commentary, this means policymakers and investors treat a weaker dollar as a way to ease the burden of large and growing U.S. deficits, high public debt, and elevated long-term yields—rather than addressing structural issues head-on through spending restraint, higher taxes, or stronger growth. A depreciating dollar can:

Reduce the real burden of dollar-denominated debt for the U.S. government and some domestic borrowers.
Make U.S. exports more competitive and imports more expensive (potentially shrinking the trade deficit).
Lower the real return foreign holders earn on Treasuries, which can help contain U.S. borrowing costs in the short run.

Analysts have described the dollar explicitly in these terms. One recent piece noted that the currency “is being treated as a pressure-release mechanism for US debt,” with markets pricing in intentional or tolerated depreciation. Another market participant put it more bluntly in the context of Treasury efforts to manage yields: “Something has to be the relief valve.”

thedailyeconomy.org

Why this framing has gained traction

Large fiscal deficits and rising debt service costs create upward pressure on long-term interest rates. Actively trying to suppress those yields (via buybacks, verbal intervention, or other tools) can shift the adjustment onto the currency.
Policy signals—tariffs, talk of coordinated dollar devaluation (“Mar-a-Lago Accord”-style ideas), questions about the desirability of reserve-currency status, and fiscal expansion—have led investors to embed a political-risk premium in the dollar. In some periods it has behaved less like a classic safe-haven and more like a risk-sensitive asset.
The alternative path (credible long-term fiscal consolidation) is politically harder, so currency weakness becomes the path of least resistance.

Trade-offs and risksA weaker dollar is not free. It raises import prices (contributing to inflation), erodes the purchasing power of American consumers and companies that rely on foreign goods, and can undermine confidence in the dollar’s reserve-currency role over time. Foreign official and private holders of Treasuries may demand higher yields or diversify away if they expect ongoing deliberate depreciation. That feedback loop can eventually raise U.S. borrowing costs rather than lower them.Historically, reserve currencies that are used as domestic release valves (via inflation or devaluation) tend to lose share gradually. The dollar still benefits from deep markets, network effects, and the lack of a ready full substitute, but the “release valve” dynamic is one reason some observers see its dominance as more contested than in prior decades.In short, the phrase captures a market perception that currency depreciation is being allowed (or engineered) to absorb pressures that fiscal policy is not resolving. Whether this remains a temporary adjustment or becomes a more permanent feature depends on the trajectory of U.S. deficits, debt, and policy credibility.

end

Treasury’s Clumsy Buyback Just A “Band-Aid On A Bullet Hole” But McElligott Says Losing The Long-End Is Now A Non-Starter

Nomura’s Charlie McElligott described the U.S. Treasury’s recent move to at least double long-end liquidity-support buybacks (from a $2 billion max per operation to at least $4 billion, for the 10–20y and 20–30y sectors, effective Sept. 9 through Nov. 4) as a “Band-Aid on a Bullet Hole.” He stressed that the actual size of the buybacks is largely irrelevant/de minimis relative to the overall Treasury market, but the real significance is the signal from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that “losing the long-end” is now a non-starter.

@GoldSeabridge

McElligott framed it as a signaling exercise showing that monetary and fiscal authorities are shifting toward a more interventionist stance. In his view, this points to conditions potentially worsening further in the Treasury market before authorities move toward something closer to yield-curve control. He has previously highlighted structural pressures, including crowding-out effects and a large “coiled spring” of potential market chaos tied to supply dynamics.

zerohedge.com

Context of the Treasury action

The announcement came after the 30-year yield hit multi-year (roughly 19-year) highs amid large deficits, heavy issuance, and concerns over long-end demand.
Treasury described the step-up as providing greater liquidity support in sectors that routinely see strong offers of off-the-run paper. It does not change the overall stock of debt; it effectively swaps older longer-dated securities for shorter-maturity issuance (often bills or intermediate coupons).
Markets initially rallied (yields fell sharply), but the relief was viewed by many analysts as temporary/technical because the underlying drivers—large deficits, elevated term premiums, and ongoing supply—remain in place. Some compared the optics to a soft form of “Operation Twist.” thehill.com

McElligott and others note that while the direct mechanical impact of the extra buybacks is small relative to the multi-trillion-dollar market, the willingness to intervene (and the implicit message that uncontrolled rises in long yields will not be tolerated) is the more important takeaway for positioning and risk. This sits against a backdrop of public debt crossing the $40 trillion mark and persistent fiscal pressures.

END

surging airline tickets in the USA

(zerohedge)

US Airports Remain Busy Despite Surging Prices

by Tyler Durden

Wednesday, Aug 19, 2026 – 11:00 PM

Following the historic slump in air travel during the Covid-19 pandemic, passenger volume at U.S. airports has gradually recovered, roughly matching pre-pandemic levels in 2023 and exceeding it in 2024 and 2025.

In fact, 2025 was the busiest year ever at U.S. airports with an average of 2.48 million travelers passing through TSA checkpoints each day.

Despite the latest surge in ticket prices – airline fares have risen 12.6% since January and more than 25 percent since July 2025, Statista’s Felix Richter reports 2026 is on track to match or even exceed last year’s passenger volume.

Infographic: U.S. Airports Remain Busy Despite Surging Prices | Statista

You will find more infographics at Statista

As of August 11, TSA agents screened an average of 2.49 million passengers per day this year, trailing last year’s number over the same period by less than 8,000 passengers per day.

While airline fares have been impacted heavily by this year’s inflation surge caused in large part by the Iran war and its effect on global oil prices, they haven’t risen as much as overall price levels in the longer run.

Since February 2020, the last month before the pandemic hit, the all-items Consumer Price Index in the United States has increased more than 28 percent.

The sub-index for airline fares has only risen 16 percent.

END

Blood In The Streets: Systematic Funds Suffer Worst Day Since 2023 On Another Momentum Meltdown

Systematic (quant) funds endured a sharp hit on or around Tuesday, August 19, 2026, described as their worst day since 2023 amid another momentum factor meltdown—even as broader indexes like the S&P 500 showed limited movement.

zerohedge.com

The ZeroHedge piece (paywalled beyond the lead) highlights cracking correlations and pressure on systematic strategies that rely on them. It references Goldman Sachs trading-desk commentary on semis and software getting “Caught Up In The Momentum Maelstrom.” Momentum had rebounded after the late-July deleveraging, but Tuesday’s high-beta momentum plunge illustrated how sensitive the factor remains to even modest S&P (and S&P ex-AI) moves, with factor volatility staying extreme relative to index volatility.

zerohedge.com

Context from recent monthsThis follows a much larger July 2026 momentum crash:

Crowded AI/semiconductor/high-beta winners saw extreme drawdowns (Goldman high-beta momentum basket and related TMT momentum factors posted some of the fastest/deepest declines on record, in some cases 20–40% from peaks over short periods).
Systematic long-short managers and quant strategies recorded their weakest multi-day or weekly stretches since late 2023 in several episodes (e.g., ~3%+ weekly losses in early July stretches per Goldman prime brokerage and S&P data).
Drivers included crowded positioning, leverage/forced selling (including high-profile AI fund liquidations), factor rotation into value/low-vol, and elevated factor volatility—while headline indexes often held up better due to breadth elsewhere. hedgeweek.com

August’s episode appears as a continuation or echo of that volatility rather than a full replay of July’s scale. Systematic funds that trade momentum, correlations, or related factors remain exposed when these relationships break sharply. Recent Goldman notes have also flagged unusually low stock correlations (e.g., three-month implied average S&P correlation near historic lows) and ongoing AI vs. non-AI dislocation, which can amplify pain for quant models.

cryptobriefing.com

In short, the “blood in the streets” framing reflects quant/systematic pain from another violent momentum reversal under a relatively calm index surface—a recurring theme in 2026’s factor-driven market. Full details and any specific performance numbers for the latest day remain behind ZeroHedge’s premium wall.

END

The Great Reversal: Decades-Long Bond Bull Lacy Hunt On His Bearish Pivot, Tonight

Thursday, Aug 20, 2026 – 12:40 PM

For nearly four decades, Dr. Lacy Hunt has been one of Wall Street’s most steadfast bond bulls.

As chief economist of Hoisington Investment Management, Hunt built his reputation around a simple but powerful thesis: globalization, excessive debt and slowing growth would keep inflation and interest rates suppressed. He maintained that view through the aftermath of the financial crisis, a decade of ultra-easy monetary policy, and even the COVID explosion in money supply and inflation.

Now, the bond legend is making a major pivot.

Hoisington has slashed the duration of its bond portfolio and moved the proceeds into short-dated Treasury bills. With that, the wealth management firm also declared: the disinflationary regime that dominated the global economy from roughly 1990 through 2020 may be coming to an end.

Tonight at 7PM ET, Hunt will join ZeroHedge to explain why.

Hunt’s pivot preceded yesterday’s bond market scare followed by the Bessent Buyback we covered yesterday… evidently the bull turned bearish just in time.

At the heart of Hunt’s new thesis are three structural changes: globalization is reversing (tariffs, onshoring), the global labor glut is disappearing (birthrate, aging boomers), and capital is becoming scarce (government deficits).

https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=2090069042497290581&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fmarkets%2Fgreat-reversal-decades-long-bond-bull-lacy-hunt-his-bearish-pivot-tonight&sessionId=be81b26304af0a525b6ff7acd8f65d91034cfda8&siteScreenName=zerohedge&theme=light&widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&width=550px

On the other hand, long-term inflation expectations remain relatively subdued. Foreign capital continues flowing into Treasuries. Global trade recently hit record levels relative to world GDP. And Hunt’s thesis gives relatively little weight to the possibility that AI eventually produces a productivity boom powerful enough to become a major disinflationary force.

That is where tonight’s discussion begins.

Hunt will be joined by Adam Taggart of Thoughtful Money and Brent Johnson, who popularized the “Dollar Milkshake Theory.”

Taggart and Johnson will probe Hunt’s new framework and pressure-test the assumptions behind one of the most consequential macro pivots in recent memory.

We’ll ask the man himself. Watch tonight at 7PM ET here on the ZeroHedge homepage, X feed, and YouTube channel.

KING NEWS

The King Report August 20, 2026 Issue 7809

Independent View of the News

Team Trump intervenes again! This time hours before a $16B US Treasury 20-year bond auction! Capitalism dies even more; Socialism/crony capitalism gains, again!
Treasury Announces Increased Sizes of Nominal Long-End Liquidity Support Buybacks Beginning September 9 – The U.S. Department of the Treasury is increasing, by at least double, the size of liquidity support buyback operations for longer-dated nominal coupon securities (the 10-year to 20-year sector and the 20-year to 30-year sector).  The current maximum size of $2 billion per operation will be at least $4 billion per operation.
    This change is effective September 9, 2026 and will be in effect for the remainder of this refunding quarter (through November 4, 2026). Treasury will provide more information about future buyback sizes at the next Quarterly Refunding, scheduled for November 4, 2026…
https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0607

@RealEJAntoni: It’s official: National debt hits $40.047 trillion  https://x.com/RealEJAntoni/status/2090167186878767191

Bessent is effectively doing the Operation Twist that was begat by Team JFK: QE/monetize long bonds and issue T-Bills. (Twist the curve) Doubling the Treasury’s bond QE to $4B is meaningless (with trillions of US debt) except to provoke a short-term rally via panic short covering by algos and weaklings.

Is Bessent pumping up US bonds so the market can absorb Japanese selling to support the yen?  Reports say Japan dumped $26.4B of US bonds in June.

Foreign holdings of U.S. Treasuries declined by $72.1 billion in June to $9.299 trillion, the third drop in four months from February’s record high. Japan led the decline with a $26.4 billion reduction to $1.12 trillion, driven largely by yen defense interventions, while China’s holdings fell $25.9 billion to $633.4 billion, the lowest level since September…  https://finance.biggo.com/news/90fa6487-4140-4ab0-b62e-080133748df9

Team Trump is creating an interventionist’s muddle that will take years to rectify!

Trump and his minions have created artificial markets and prices in stocks, bonds, forex, and oil via verbal, direct and indirect intervention. What does this say about Team Trump’s policies?

Bonds and notes soared; yields sank on Trump’s latest intervention. USUs opened at 108 21/32, -4/32, fell to a low of 108 17/32; and then soared to 110 5/32, +1 16/32, on Trump’s intervention.

Dec Gold rocketed from a low of 435.80 to 4557.60, +$137.00. Dec Silver soared hit $66.71, +$1.953.

Sept WTI Oil hit 86.32, +$1.41; Sept Gasoline hit $3.33, +0.0313¢; Sept Diesel hit 4.5237, +7.36¢. Grains soared with the S&P/GS Grain Index +1.87% at 11:23 ET. Wheat was +2.31%. At 11:25 ET, the only commodities in the red were Feeder Cattle, -0.38%, and Coffee, -2.27%.

When Team Trump rigs interest rates, capital will flow to precious metals and commodities – and provoke more inflation. “You can look it up!” See the Seventies!

Team Trump’s latest intervention manufactured the Weird Wednesday Squeeze on expiry August call options. Hallelujah, hallelujah! Stock speculators and Street bulls rejoiced!

Near 11:15 ET: DJIA +0.60%, DJTA +1.31%, Nasdaq +0.43%, Nas 100 +0.13%, S&P 500 +0.58%;
S&P Health Care +3.20%, Consumer Discret +1.84%, Consumer Staples +1.07%, Materials +2.34% PHLX Indices: Housing +3.63%, SOX -1.57%, AU/Silver Index +8.47%, DJ Commodity +1.28%

Semiconductor stocks declined for a 2nd straight session on financing for concerns and possibly on this:

OpenAI’s unraveling has begun
Their planned IPO is facing headwinds, trust has evaporated, and their burn rate is only getting worse
     Take the reaction to OpenAIs Sam Altman’s latest announcement, on Tuesday August 18 (i.e., “earlier today” for those of us on the West Coast), that OpenAI would be pausing, ostensibly for safety reasoning: (Altman) @sama: “We have paused some frontier RL training to ensure that we can meet the appropriate alignment, security and monitoring standards for the new level of capabilities in front of us. Model progress is now extremely rapid, and we always said we would take action if we felt that model capabilities were outstripping the pace of safety and alignment.
    We care very deeply about AI safety. We believe the entire field will have to coordinate on shared safety standards, but will act unilaterally in the meantime.”
    We expect confidence in safety to increasingly set the pace of AI progress. We are optimistic about the alignment work we are doing, and we remain committed to making frontier capabilities widely available.
    As far as I can tell, hardly anyone believed him…
   WSJ’s @berber_jin1:”openai has been tossing out a lot of vague ARR numbers, so we decided to take a deeper look. the company grew revenue by just 18% to $6.7 billion from q1 to q2, while its losses sank further into the red not a great sign ahead of an IPO.   story is now updated with additional details. openai’s losses grew by $3 billion from q1 to q2, to $12.3 billion not a great look given that it added only $1 billion in revenue in the meantime, to $6.7 billion…”
    If OpenAI goes down the damage could spread…
https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/breaking-openais-unraveling-has-begun

Google AI Overview: Average AI token prices have dropped significantly, falling more than 50% over a two-month span from roughly $2.10 down to about $1.00 per million tokens. This drop is driven by aggressive price cuts from major U.S. labs like OpenAI—which slashed prices on models like GPT-5.6 Luna by 80%—and increased competition from efficient open-weight and international models.

SOX Index components: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5ESOX/components/

US 20-Yr Bond Auction results: High Yield: 5.204%, WI 5.199%, biggest tail since Feb; Bid-Cover Ratio: 2.53 (prior 2.64); Direct Accepted: 24.6% (prior 16.2%); Indirect Accepted: 62.9% (prior 69.1%)

The S&P 500 Index hit a daily high of 7743.93 at 11:01 ET. It did an ABC decline to 714.66 at 13:09 ET. A rally for the release of FOMC Minutes appeared. The S&P 500 Index hit 7724.50 two minutes after the official 14:00 ET release. There were no bullish bonbons in the minutes; so, the index fell.

Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee July 28–29, 2026
Total inflation was expected to decline over the second half of the year, as retail gasoline prices were forecast to move lower and as core inflation was projected to slow modestly… (Wrong, gas has soared!)
  Participants judged that their inflation outlooks were highly uncertain and that inflation risks were
skewed to the upside…  https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/files/fomcminutes20260729.pdf

Latest Federal Reserve minutes show more support for rate hikes as inflation fears mount https://trib.al/ky0wvSp

After a drop to 7709.54 at 14:10 ET, the index bounced modestly and traded in a coil until it moved higher on Trump verbal intervention regarding AI.

@FoxBusiness: President Trump declares the U.S. is “way ahead” of China in the artificial intelligence race. Trump also highlights America’s technological dominance across multiple industries. “We’re ensuring that America remains the undisputed leader, not only in Bitcoin and crypto, but also technologies like prediction markets, artificial intelligence and much more.” “Artificial intelligence, we’re way ahead of number 2. Number 2 is China.” 3:26 PM · Aug 19, 2026
https://x.com/FoxBusiness/status/2090158513867649206

Trump said he will meet with AI companies next week. In June, Trump said he would explore having the United States of America, a Constitutional Republic, take stakes in AI firms. How Soviet like!

U.S. Officials Discuss Taking Financial Stakes in AI Industry – WSJ
The talks have been with artificial-intelligence leaders such as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who pitched the idea June 4, 2026 (If above OpenAI story is correct, it needs government support)

@RealLindellTV: @POTUS declares the Biden-era “war on crypto” OVER. “Under the Crooked Joe Biden Administration, the spirit of innovation that built America was under serious attack like never before, and nowhere was that more true than crypto and other new financial technologies.”…
https://x.com/RealLindellTV/status/2090160223109759476

Crypto has been in the toilet; and Bitcoin was near key support. You got Trump to intervene?

How do you all like the US command economy and financial system?

A recent CBS/YouGov poll showed that 58% of Democrats view socialism positively and only 32% view Capitalism favorable. Now poll Wall St and Team Trump!
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/6033535-cbs-yougov-socialism-poll-results/

The S&P 500 Index dropped from 7721.24 at 15:38 ET to 7701.79 at 15:56 ET partly on Trump stating: “The United States is not negotiating with Iran at the present time “They are wasting time and negotiating with them is a waste of time.”
The late manipulation and Trump pushed the S&P 500 Index to 7709.25 at 16:00 ET and a 7707.98 close.

CSPN: President Trump pushes for the lowering of interest rates: “They should allow interest rates to go down. When you announce good numbers, you shouldn’t drive them up.” 3:57 PM ET Aug 19
https://x.com/cspan/status/2090166393710723293

@MauiBoyMacro: “Funding more of its deficit using shorter-term bills, in a form of fiscal QE, foments liquidity risks as the Treasury issues less longer-term debt. Typically, a higher proportion of bills outstanding leads to a steeper curve and this inflames bond volatility.”  – Bloomberg
https://x.com/MauiBoyMacro/status/2090161827611398174

The financial crises of the late seventies in S&Ls and other financial firms were due to ‘lending long while borrowing short.’ When short rates inevitably jumped, financial firms went from slow bankruptcy to sudden bankruptcy. “You can look it up!”

The KC Fed’s Jackson Hole Symposium is August 27–29, 2026. Last year, Powell unleashed ‘The Debasement Trade,’ gold soared. What will Warsh do next week?

The Return of the Debasement Trade
A dovish signal at last year’s Jackson Hole meeting set the debasement trade in motion
https://robinjbrooks.substack.com/p/the-return-of-the-debasement-trade

Positive aspects of previous session
USUs soared on more Team Trump intervention, hit 110 7/32, +1 18/32 at 16:11 ET
Trump issued AI verbal intervention (To little avail)
S&P 500 +0.21%, DJIA +0.22%, Nasdaq +0.16%; Tesla +4.23%, Apple +2.19%
SP Health Care +3.52%, Cons Disc +2.1%, Materials +1.67%, Real Estate +0.74%, Com Serv +0.52%
The ¥/$ went from 159.644 to 158.048 on Bessent’s latest QE Very Lite scheme
Sept Gasoline and Diesel closed a tad negative. Was there intervention?

Negative aspects of previous session
Trump is conducting historic interventions in the markets. This always ends very badly!
SOX Index – 2.12%, Nas 100 -0.22%, DJTA -0.16%
Despite Team Trump’s latest market manipulation/intervention, stocks rallied only moderately.
Numerous posts on social media wondered who Bessent alerted before his bond intervention notice
On too many occasions, people are profiting on inside info on Team DJT’s interventions.
Doubling the Treasury’s bond QE to $4B is meaningless except to provoke a short-term rally.
Precious metals soared; most commodities rallied smartly.
Despite Bessent’s scheme, the US 20-year Auction had biggest tail since February!
Trump’s AI verbal intervention fell flat
S&P Industrials -0.89%, Info Tech -0.73%, Financials -0.62%
The S&P 500 Index closed only 7 handles from its 7000.07 low – even woth Bessent’s scheme!
Dec Gold +$158.20 at 16:25 ET; Dec Silver +2.628; Sept WTI +$0.76

Ambiguous aspects of previous session
Are you okay with all the Team Trump interventions? Are you a capitalist or something else?
If Bessent’s ploy to reduce bond yields fail, will he again double the QE? (Gold thinks so!)

First Hour/Last Hour NYSE Action [S&P 500 Index]: 1st Hour: Up; Last Hour: Down

Pivot Point for S&P 500 Index [above/below indicates daily trend to day traders]: 7717.33
Previous session (S&P 500 Index) High/Low: 7743.93 (11:01 ET); 7700.07 (9:51 ET)

KMPG Chief Economist @DianeSwonk: The market has liquidity problems, which the Treasury can help with on the long end. However, the fundamental problems that we face have not changed:
1) Federal debt issuance held by the public eclipsed WWII levels earlier this year. Deficits and debt continue to rise.
2) Inflation is still a worry and the conflict is still with us. Diesel prices get into just about everything…
3) AI-related debt is competing with Treasury debt.
4) If we issue shorter term debt to lower long term yields, it will need to be financed sooner, and likely at higher rates.
5) Sovereign debt issuance has soared, which is already exceeding demand a jet rise in rates…
6) Gulf states with large wealth funds need to turn even more inward due to Middle East conflict. That means less demand for debt and more defense outlays, another issue global in scope and inflationary. Dovetails with the AI boom…
    FOMC July minutes reveal a more hawkish Fed & closer decision on a hold than the vote revealed.
Participants were actively discussion whether rates should be higher NOT a cut. The three dissents were a large number, but it is clear from the minutes that those dissents were not alone…

It only takes minutes to identify who is trading on inside info.  You find the firms that made the trades and ask them for the accounts. By law, the firm MUST know the account’s particulars. Yet, the identity of the people that have incessantly profited on inside info is hidden. This is a big clue as to who it is!

Trump unveils another construction project and signs piece of new helipad during impromptu tour
The replacement of the White House driveway as well as progress made on his new helipad.
    During the tour, an animated Trump highlighted his personal investment in the projects with painstaking attention to details theoretically far below his pay grade: the placement of stanchions, the radial cut of granite, the elimination of potholes. The tour concluded with him signing a giant slab of granite that he said would be “flipped” and laid into the helipad…
https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/19/politics/trump-construction-white-house-helipad

@charliebilello: US National Debt in 2016: $19 trillion; US National Debt Today: $40 trillion

Trump to Bob Woodard, 3/31/2016: “We’ve got to get rid of the $19 trillion in debt… I think I could to it quickly… over a period of eight years…” https://x.com/charliebilello/status/2090176990238200086/photo/1

@charliebilello: August 19, 2025: “President Trump and I are laser-focused on paying down the debt.” – Scott Bessent

Trump (2017-2021): Total debt increased by ~$8.4 trillion, from $19.9T to $28.4T
Biden (2021-2025): Total debt increased by ~$8.2 trillion, from $28.4T to $36.6T
https://www.us-debt-clock.com/blog/trump-vs-biden-national-debt-comparison

@realDonaldTrump Wed night: No one has given the Islamic Republic of Iran a greater opportunity to make a Deal than me. TRAGICALLY, for them, they have failed to take it. Therefore, today, I am announcing the MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY! This will be Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale. Their navy is gone, their air force is destroyed, their military factories are now rubble, their currency is worthless, and their country is hanging by a thread. Today, I am also announcing that ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences. Oil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses, ship registries, front companies — It all needs to stop NOW. You know who you are. This will be an ECONOMIC D-DAY, and we need all of our Allies to stand with the United States of America to isolate, and defeat, the Iran threat. These maniacs are on the ropes, and these HISTORIC MEASURES will cripple them and their ability to project terror worldwide…

@MacroEdgeRes Wed night: President Trump announces “the most crushing economic operation ever taken against a country” on Iran. Will it be TACOd?

@TheChartReport: The U.S. Dollar Index has slipped below its 200-day moving average following a failed breakout above the 100 level. (A falling $ is inflationary, which checkmates Bessent & Trump)
https://x.com/TheChartReport/status/2090219784554025148

If not for the threat of Fed rate hikes, the $ would be cascading and gold would be on the moon!
Today – Why didn’t equities rally more robustly after Bessent’s $4B long bond QE scheme? Does Mr. Market believe Bessent’s ploy is a sign of panic? After all, an additional $2B purchase is insignificant.
As noted above, despite Bessent’s QE Very Lite ploy, the S&P 500 Index closed only 7 handles from its low and 36 handles from its high. This is NOT good technical action!

We keep complaining that Team Trump is doing historic intervention in the market, even with stocks near all-time highs and an AI Bubble.

It is always risky to HOLD bubble stocks; trading is different. And now, it is still too risky to short stuff due to the unprecedented and incessant Team Trump interventions, rigs, and inside info leaks. One must wait for the riggers to lose control. This is the lesson of the 2008 Financial Crisis for short sellers.

The usual suspects are anxious for expiry squeeze on calls because it has been MIA so far. Ergo, traders bought aggressively early on Wed night: ESUs hits +17.50 and NQUs +177.0 at 19:00 ET.

Selling appeared. ESUs are +6.50, NQUs are +78.75, USUs 4/32; WTI Oil +$0.03; Gasoline -4.68¢, ¥/$ 158.328 at 20:08 ET. Traders can’t believe economic war is bullish, can they?

Expected Econ Data: Initial Jobless Claims 210k, Continuing Claims 1.79m; Expected EPS: Walmart .74

S&P 500 50-eay MA: 7528; 100-day MA: 7353; 200-day MA: 7086 (S&P 500 Close 7707.98)
DJIA 50-day MA: 52,484; 100-day MA: 50,826; 200-day MA: 49,499 (DJIA Close 53,463.23)
(Green is positive slope; Red is negative slope)

Trump Sparks Round of Mockery with Comments on Grass: ‘If You’re Grass You’re Very Happy’
“You know, grass has a life like humans have a life,” Trump said. “This has all been redone, it’s all been topsoiled… Lot of good ingredients. If you’re grass, you’re very happy. This grass will look so beautiful.”
     He then gave a shoutout to Scotts, which he said donated the grass free of charge… Trump also copped to the fact Scotts donated to his 2024 campaign…
https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/trump-sparks-round-mockery-comments-214642820.html

House Democrat accused of sexual assault after admitting to ‘consensual’ encounter
Lawyers for the woman suggested Rep Jimmy Gomez lied in his public statement
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/house-democrat-accused-sexual-assault-after-admitting-consensual-encounter

Fox’s @BillMelugin_: I’m told by federal source that the suspect arrested in Fairfax County, VA for the stabbing murder of a mother near a jogging trail in Great Falls, VA is a Salvadoran illegal alien who was caught and released at the border by the Biden admin in El Paso, TX in April 2024. Fairfax County Police announced the arrest of 19-year-old Alexis Antonio Cedillos-Campos this morning in connection to the stabbing killing of Carmen Lizet Puch on Monday and released a photo of his arrest…

@libsoftiktok: Liberal women are now wearing T-shirts in SUPPORT of Lindsay Clancy, who strangled her three children to death. WTF is wrong with these people???  https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/2090142504888729611

Google AI: Lindsay Clancy is a Duxbury, Massachusetts, mother currently on trial for the January 2023 strangulation deaths of her three young children. The defense maintains she suffered from severe postpartum psychosis, while prosecutors allege premeditated murder.

Illinois tollway imposes 57% hikes on cars and 30% for trucks, with more to come (IL socialism!)
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/08/19/illinois-tollway-rate-hikes-cars-trucks/

SWAMP STORIES FOR YOU TONIGHT

The $1.5 Million Rich Kid Socialist: NYC-DSA Co-Chair Gustavo Gordillo Lives The Revolution From Daddy’s Townhouse

Wednesday, Aug 19, 2026 – 04:40 PM

Gustavo Gordillo wants you to believe the system is broken. He wants landlords punished, private property redistributed “from landowners to the landless,” and double-digit returns on investment declared unconstitutional. He wants New York City to stop being a “playground for the rich.” He wants grocery stores that can’t compete with government-run ones to simply close. And he wants you to see him as a blue-collar union electrician fighting for the working class. What he does not want you to notice is the $1.5 million Bed-Stuy row house his multimillionaire parents bought and renovated for him – the very kind of asset his politics treat as moral failure.

The New York Post reported this week that the 38-year-old co-chair of the New York City Democratic Socialists of America lives in a nearly 2,000-square-foot, two-story converted single-family home on a tree-lined block in historically Black Bedford-Stuyvesant. The property was purchased in 2019 by Chucuito LLC – controlled by his parents – for $935,000. Extensive renovations followed: new facade, landscaping, interior overhaul, roof decks. The fair-market value now sits around $1.5 million.

His father confirmed it on the record: “My son and my other son both live there. The LLC purchased the home, and then we did the renovations.”

This is not a modest starter apartment. It is a luxury single-family residence carved out of what had been multi-family housing stock – the exact reduction in units that DSA rhetoric claims to abhor when ordinary developers do it. Bed-Stuy has undergone intense gentrification. Gordillo’s presence there, financed by parental capital, is textbook displacement by another name. The same organization that decries “greedy landlords” and “gentrifiers” has a co-chair living the outcome those forces produce.

The hypocrisy compounds. Gordillo has spent years presenting himself as a working-class union electrician. His X handle and bio still lean into the brand. He joined IBEW Local 3 in 2019. Yet there is no public record he completed the multi-year journeyman process. He told The New York Times earlier this year he is no longer an electrician. Before the union phase, he was a Yale graduate with an MFA in sculpture and video who worked in the art world – the same rarefied scene he later said was funded by “the very same people that we were fighting in DSA.” The electrician persona appears to have been a political costume.

Immigrants from Peru, the family is a capitalist success story. Starting with low-wage work – Wendy’s and house cleaning. His father founded Draftpros Inc., an engineering and consulting firm specializing in telecommunications infrastructure. The company operates multiple offices across Florida, plus Houston, Chicago, and Lima, Peru. The parents own two Florida properties valued at roughly $3 million each, including a sprawling Boca Raton home listed for $3.1 million. They previously paid $2,600 a month, through the same LLC, for Gordillo’s Lower East Side apartment from 2016 to 2019.

On Fox News in July, Gordillo called his parents “an exception.” Most of his generation, he claimed, cannot afford families because the city has become a playground for the rich. The same interview produced his most revealing line: “We don’t think that anybody should have the constitutional right to double-digit returns on their investment… No one has a right. That’s not in the Constitution.” Landlords, he said, were “crying” about rent freezes.

https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=2078461829638967712&lang=en&maxWidth=560px&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2F15-million-rich-kid-socialist-nyc-dsa-co-chair-gustavo-gordillo-lives-revolution-daddys&sessionId=5ca8e4b90069c07a96236bb34595b7ce0a934b67&siteScreenName=zerohedge&theme=light&widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&width=550px

Yet the property his parents purchased for him has appreciated by roughly half a million dollars in seven years. The returns he declares illegitimate are the returns that house him.

The house itself has appeared on Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s controversial “shame the rich” list of second homes potentially subject to the pied-à-terre tax – a list generated by an administration closely aligned with the DSA. The optics write themselves: a socialist leader’s family property flagged under a policy designed to punish wealth concentration, while he continues to live there rent-free in all but name.

Gordillo’s politics are not subtle. DSA rhetoric frames private landlords as extractive, profit as suspect, and land ownership as a system to be dismantled. He has argued that if city-run grocery stores drive private ones out of business, “maybe they shouldn’t have been in that business in the first place.” The consistency ends at his front door. The capital that bought and upgraded his home, the business success that produced it, and the intergenerational transfer that sustains him are precisely the mechanisms his ideology seeks to constrain or seize for others.

This is not an isolated personal story. It is a recurring pattern among certain progressive activists: elite credentials, family money, radical aesthetics, and zero willingness to apply the rules to themselves. Gordillo is not a tenant scraping by under a rent freeze. He is the beneficiary of successful immigrant capitalism, living in a renovated single-family home in a gentrifying neighborhood while demanding the rest of the city accept lower returns, fewer private options, and redistributed ownership.

The revolution, it turns out, comes with a $1.5 million roof and parental financing. Some animals remain more equal than others.

END

FBI Seizes Eric Swalwell’s Electronic Devices At San Francisco Airport Amid Sexual Misconduct Investigation

Thursday, Aug 20, 2026 – 10:25 AM

The FBI executed a search warrant against former congressman Eric Swalwell on Saturday after he landed at San Francisco Airport – seizing his electronic devices, including his cell phone, as part of a federal investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct, the Daily Mail reports.

According to the report:

The agents, armed with additional court-approved search warrants, then entered his house in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, seizing additional undisclosed potential evidence, well-placed sources tell the Daily Mail.

Sources say Swalwell started his day Saturday in Washington, where he still maintains a residence with his wife and three children.

He headed to the airport later in the day and flew to his home state of California. The feds were waiting for him when he stepped off the plane.

According to sources, Swalwell was cooperative.

The following day, neither he nor his wife Brittany Watts were home when the feds rolled up to their property in Northeast DC.

The DOJ launched a criminal investigation into multiple sexual assault and misconduct allegations lodged against the California democrat. Meanwhile, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office is investigating an alleged 2024 sexual assault in a New York City hotel room involving a former staffer, while the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and District Attorney’s Office have opened inquiries into a separate 2018 claim. Prosecutors have been assigned to review evidence in the LA case.

Swalwell stepped down from congress in April amid bipartisan pressure and a House Ethics Committee probe into the claims, after the San Francisco Chronicle and CNN reported claims from a former staffer and three other women. The former aide accused Swalwell of sexually assaulting her on two occasions: once in 2019 while she was employed by him, and again in April 2024 after a gala event in New York, where she said she was too intoxicated to consent and attempted to refuse. Three additional women described unwanted explicit messages, unsolicited nude photos, and harassment, some occurring during his gubernatorial campaign.

Then a fifth woman, Lonna Drewes – a Beverly Hills-based former model and fashion software entrepreneur – held a news conference to detail her accusations. Drewes alleged that in July 2018, after meeting Swalwell socially and believing they were developing a friendship, he invited her to his West Hollywood hotel room under the pretense of picking up papers. She claimed he drugged her drink, raped her, and choked her until she lost consciousness. Drewes said she had only one glass of wine that evening and provided authorities with journal entries, texts, and photos as evidence. She has since reported the incident to law enforcement and stands with the other accusers.

Swalwell has denied all allegations.

The incident comes on the heels of new evidence that Swalwell admitted to having sex with a suspected Chinese spy, who the FBI assessed was likely operating on behalf of China’s Ministry of State Security.

Memos describe Christine Fang, known as Fang Fang (FBI codename ‘Rusty Thumbs’) cultivating Swalwell through sexual encounters, intern referrals into his congressional offices, and campaign contributions routed through American conduits to conceal her status as a prohibited foreign national. Investigators cleared Swalwell of criminal wrongdoing in 2017. Fang was never charged.

During FBI interviews in 2015 and 2016, Swalwell acknowledged meeting Fang during his initial 2012 congressional campaign and admitted to multiple sexual encounters with her. He confirmed that Fang referred several interns to his campaign and congressional offices, explaining that he treated her referrals as coming from the Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs (APAPA) organization.

GREG HUNTER…

GOLD: NUMBER OF NOTICES FILED FOR AUGUST/2026: 190 CONTRACTs NOTICES FOR 19,000 OZ or 0.59097 TONNES

total notices so far: 18,128 contracts FOR 1,812,800 OZ OR 56.385 TONNES

SILVER NOTICES: 11 NOTICE(S) FILED FOR 0.0550 MILLION OZ /

total number of notices filed so far this month : 1617 CONTRACTS (NOTICES) for 8.085 million oz

GLD

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The $1.5 Million Rich Kid Socialist: NYC-DSA Co-Chair Gustavo Gordillo Lives The Revolution From Daddy’s Townhouse

FBI Seizes Eric Swalwell’s Electronic Devices At San Francisco Airport Amid Sexual Misconduct Investigation

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