Gold gets taken to the woodshed

• Currencies and metals get sold in the overnight markets.
• What will the POTUS have to tell us tomorrow?

Good Day... And a Tub Thumpin' Thursday to one and all! And welcome to May... it's May Day today for whatever that's worth! Well, my beloved Cardinals won both games of their doubleheader yesterday VS the Reds. YAHOO! But.. Our Blues couldn't find an answer in their loss to the Jets last night, thus falling to 2-3 in their best of 7 series of the Stanley Cup Playoffs... UGH! One team's season is really just getting started, while the other team's season could be coming to a early exit... The Blues come home to play Game 6... Let's Go Blues! Sugarloaf greets me this morning with their deep cut song: Green Eyed Lady.

Katy Bar The Door! This is totally ridiculous... Gold got sold yesterday to the tune of $28... But that's just the beginning of this fiasco with Gold... When I retired last night, I checked the metals and Gold was down $91! 

So, I checked the internet and found this on the Economic Times website: "The drop in gold price comes at a time when market risk sentiment is improving. One of the biggest drivers of this shift is the easing of trade tensions between the US and several major trading partners. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at easing tariffs on foreign auto parts, granting carmakers a two-year window to raise domestic sourcing. This move, coupled with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent noting “very good” offers from trade partners, has sparked optimism about the future."

So, as the Good Witch Glynda told the munchkins, "Come out, Come out, it's safe now" I don't see it, the reason to be optimistic, but the markets do, and the markets are never wrong... That's what an old trader told me to always remember, back in my days at WZW brokerage... That job was after my time at RG Dickenson in Des Moines Ia., which was after my time at Stifel Nicolaus in St. Louis, which was after I hung up my guitar and gave up trying to be a rock star... I'm trying to calm myself down right now, as you can see... Anything to take my mind off the markets being optimistic.

Silver has fared no better, giving up 91-cents yesterday and was down 55-cents late last night.

The dollar saw some buying yesterday, for what I have no idea... Oh, the dollar bugs hung their hats on the Consumer Spending data that showed a .7% increase in March... I guess the folks that decide whether it was a good print or not, forgot to look at Consumer Income, which was .5%, and once again, we as a country spent more than we made... The BBDXY gained 1 index point yesterday to close at 1,223... So, as Glynda said... Come out, Come out, it's safe now... A week ago, everybody was wearing sandwich boards with "The End Is Near" printed on them, and this week it's all seashells and balloons.

The price of Oil dropped another buck yesterday, and ended the day trading with a $58 handle... And with the economic data REALLY pringing not so good, the 10-year Treasury's yield dropped to 4.18%, donw from the start of the day's yield of 4.21%.

In the overnight markets last night... Well, Gold did fight back at one point in the night, but that rally ran out of steam.

Before I checked the metals prices last night, I had found an article on MarketWatch.com that had a headline to their story of: "How the twilight of ‘king dollar’ could be the dawn of a new world currency" Well, you know that caught my eye, and so I just had to look at the rest of the article, right? But, unfortunately I needed a subscription to MarketWatch to read the article...So, I can only imagine what it had to say, something along the lines of: The U.S. Empire is in its senior years... And with the fall of the Empire, as all Empires end up doing throughout history, there will be the need of a new reserve currency, and the question here and now is what currency will that be? That's my 2-cents thrown into the pot on what I thought was in the article.

I hear that tomorrow is the day that the POTUS will make another announcement, this time being about opening up vast regions in the U.S. that contain minerals, commodities, Oil, for mineral companies to come in and excavate and find these minerals, commodities, and Oil... James Rickards puts the value of these things at $150 Trillion... That figure dwarfs the national Debt, and the unfunded Debt, easily, with over $100 Trillion left... Now, this all remains to be seen, but it appears to be a plan, and I love it when a plan comes together! 

Now THAT would be cause for optimism! But like I said this all remains to be seen, and you know what they say bout a plan... It all looks good on paper, until you get punched in the mouth! I'm sure there will be snags, and bats that live in caves that throw a spanner in the works... I'm just saying... Don't go counting your eggs before they are hatched! 

The euro got slapped in the face yesterday and last night... And the rest of the currencies all lined up for their slap in the face... This is a complete reversal of sentiment folks... And I can't help but think that this will all come back to bite the markets and its participants in the rear.

In the overnight markets last night... The dollar got bought with a little more pace than what existed yesterday, with the BBDXY gaining 3 index points to start our day today... And with that going on, you can assume that the currencies are backing off their recent gains, and you would be correct! Gold tried to fight back last night, with it recovering from down $92 to down $58, but that rally ran out of steam and the selling continued to eat away at Gold's price. Gold starts today down $77, and Silver is down 67-cents to start our day today... There's no two ways about it, this is the short paper traders doing, and if you know one of these dastardly people, I say we kill him, no, I say we hang 'em then we kill him, no, I say we hang him, then we shoot him and then we kill him.... (Pee Wee Herman .

I used to work with a young lady, Ann Hopkins, who would get a belly laugh whenever I did my Pee Wee Herman imitation on the trade desk at EverBsnk... See? I was a fun guy to work for!  After radiation on my jaw in 2011, my voice isn't the same any longer... So, no Steve Mizeranek, Pee Wee Herman voices from me... I can still do my imitation of the lollipop guild from the Wizard of Oz1 Oh, c'mon Chuck what does any of this have to about the markets, economies and dolts? 

Besides the selling of Gold and Silver this morning... I don't have much more for you, except a great piece in the FWIW section to stay turned for that!

The U.S. Data Cupboard had a ton of prints yesterday that I've already talked about, except for the PCE the Fed Heads pet inflation calc.  The PCE for March came in at 2.6% on an annual basis, that's still above the 2% target rate the Fed Heads drew into the sand a long time ago... Remember last month's print that was 2.8%, well that got revised upward to 3.%... And add my name to the article below author's thought about revisions. 

The Data Cupboard today will have the usual Tub Thumpin' Thursday print of Weekly Initial Jobless Claims, which have stubbornly remained around 225,000 each week... We'll also see the color of the ISM for April today, and I fully expect that this print will stay below the line in the sand 50... Remember 50 is the line that says that any number above it equals expansion in Manufacturing, and any number below it equals contraction... So, if the POTUS gets his way, the data will finally get off the canvas, and gain... But I thin we'll have to be patient for that to happen... Until then the economy suffers from a contracting manufacturing sector... Tomorrow we'll see the Jobs Jamboree for March, and right now they are expected to have created only 133,000 jobs in March... But like I said previously, I don't think the BLS will stand for a weak jobs report print.

To recap... What the hell is going on with Gold? (Microsoft doesn't like the harshness of that statement, but I didn't change it! The dollar has been getting bought overnight, and the BBDXY is up 3 index points to start our day today... Gold is down $77 and the short paper traders are having a field day... I say we hang him! Hey, they've created some excellent buying opportunities in the metals... I'm just saying... Wil the POTUS unlock vast areas of land for exploration and mining of minerals? I guess we'll see tomorrow, along with the jobs report... 

Here's your snippet: "The inflation measure released today for March – the PCE price index favored by the Fed as yardstick for its inflation target – has a salient feature that it had many times before: Sharp up-revisions of the prior month’s data, this time for February, triggered by hot up-revisions in core services inflation.

The February month-to-month data were revised sharply higher today, driven by core services which dominates the overall index.

Overall PCE: to +0.44% (5.5% annualized), from originally +0.33% (+4.0% annualized).

Core PCE: to 0.50% (+6.1% annualized), from originally +0.37% (+4.5% annualized).

Core services: to +0.52% (+6.5% annualized), from originally +0.35% (+4.3% annualized).

The February year-over-year readings were also revised higher, which caused the core PCE price index for February to hit +3.0%, highest in a year:

Overall PCE: to +2.7%, originally +2.5%.

Core PCE: to +3.0%, originally +2.8%.

Core services: to +3.8%, originally +3.6%.

In March, the price changes were from the up-revised February levels.

On a year-over-year basis in March:"

Chuck again, there's more to the article if you're interested in seeing more... I always talk about the revisions that are made under the cover of darkness, and how they should be looked at by the markets more closely... I mean, take for example last month's PCE print of 2.8%, but then gets revised to 3.0%, the highest its been in a year, now isn't that something investors should know and could be the very reason the Fed Heads haven't budged on lowering rates further... I shake my head in disgust here folks.

Market Prices 5/1/2025... American Style: A$ . 6398, kiwi .5933, C$.7248, euro 1.1334, sterling 1.3340, Swiss $1.2100, European Style: rand 18.6234, krone 10.4107, SEK 9.7013, forint 356.44, zloty 3.7749, koruna 21.9716, RUB 81.81, yen 14438, sing 1.3083, HKD 7.7588, INR 84.47, China 7.2759, peso 19.61, BRL 5.6788, BBDXY 1,226, Dollar Index 99,71, Oil $56.84, 10-yeqr 4.14%, Silver $3195, Platinum $961.00, Palladium $944.00, Copper $4.66, and Gold... $3,211.07.

That's it for today and this week... Our Blues took one on the chin last night... UGH... It's been like the Monsson season here in my little river town... Rain, Rain go away, Chuck wants to go outside and read! When Alex was a little boy, (he's 28 now) he used to say: "rain, rain go away, little Alex wants to go outside and play"... He was quite the entertaining child... C'mon Cardinals make today's finale in Cincy a series win! Cardinals come home to play the vaunted Mets 3 games, i wonder what the rain is going to do with the games, but you can't fight Mother Nature! Bob Dylan takes us to the finish line today with his great song: Knockin' On Heaven's Door... I sometimes think that's what I'm doing! I hope you have a Tub Thumpin' Thursday today, and please continue to Be Good To Yourself!