Saying goodbye to that company you loved

• The Dollar roars back after Friday's selloff.
• What to do, where to go now?

Good Day... And a Tom Terrific Tuesday to you! Well, a .500 trip to Florida for my beloved Cardinals, after losing the last two games in Tampa... They came home last night to play the only team below them in the standings, The Pirates... And they actually won! On a Burly bomb in the 10th! .... Someone has to have a serious talk with the Cardinals MGR. as he has proven that he doesn't do right by the bullpen pitchers... One pitcher may be good one night, and from then on he's going to be in every game until his arm falls off! And that's all I have to say about that! I was up all night Sunday night with stomach problems, so I had to cancel my Dr. Appt yesterday, and when back to sleep instead! Emerson, Lake and Palmer greet me this morning with their song: Still, You Turn Me On.

I know, I know a long intro today, sometimes I can't help myself from saying what's on my mind...  

Well, the dollar recovered yesterday from last Friday's selloff, down to 1,201 and the rally saw the BBDXY end the day yesterday at 1,207... It was higher than that at one point in the day, but calmer heads must have prevailed... Stocks didn't have a good day yesterday, but I'm not here to talk about that... Gold was down about $10 at one point yesterday, but rallied back and ended the day down $3, with a closing price of $3,365... Silver spent the day yesterday fighting off the SPT's and ended the day down 5-cents and an ending price of $38.50.

The 10-year Treasury saw its gains from Friday start to fade on Monday, and end the day with a 4.27% yield. And the price of Oil bumped higher to a $64 handle... 

In the overnight markets last night... Well the dollar saw some selling as the Jitters about the Fed/ Cabal/ Cartel have returned. It seems that the POTUS wants to fire a different Fed Head (Cook) this time... Hell, why doesn't he just erase the Central Bank altogether? Now that would be something I could be happy about regarding the Fed/ Cabal/ Cartel! 

The BBDXY has lost 2 index points going into today's trading and sits at 1,205 to start the day. Gold is up $8 to start the day, and there's some silliness going on with Silver as it is down 4-cents to start the day. Nothing that can't be turned around easily this morning for Silver.

The price of slipped back below $64 and starts today with a $63 handle... The jitters that the POTUS has caused in the markets carried over the bonds, and the 10-year Treasury's yield has bumped higher to a 4.28% yield. 

It seems to me that everyone is confused as to what to do... Everything that got sold on Friday, was bought again on Monday, and everything that was bought on Friday, got sold yesterday... That's why I mentioned that stocks didn't have a good day yesterday, because they also fell into this buy one day, sell the next, or sell one day, and buy the next that all the other asset classes fell into ... 

So, I guess that everyone took the angle I took about how the markets believed Fed/ Cabal/ Cartel Chairman, Jerome Powell, said one thing, when he never said that, but the markets sure thought they heard him intoning that... And over the weekend they had a chance to actually read his words, and said, "oh, no!, what on earth have I done?" 

And that's exactly what the Fed Heads want the markets to think, because also as I said on Sunday, I believe the next rate cut will come in Sept. So, if the Fed Heads have the markets thinking they won't, and then, do, then the Fed Heads win. 

And caught up in all of this is the currencies... The dollar is bouncing like Tigger, with more bounce to the ounce, and currency traders don't know which way to go... There is one currency that doesn't pay attention to what the dollar is doing, and trades on their own fundamentals... Can you guess who?  C'mon this should be easy for anyone that reads me daily.. It's China.

Recently the Chinese leaders have been pointing fingers at the U.S. and admonishing them for the size of their Debt... I think that's just window dress and excuse for when they back away from the Treasury Auctions... I'm just saying.

And to put the finishing touches on the Jackson Hole Shindig, there was something that Powell said in his speech that everyone else didn't hear or pay attention to because they were all tied up by his comments on rates... But I think this will be important in the following days, as he said that "The Fed Reserve will adopt a new policy framework of flexible inflation targeting and eliminate 'makeup' strategy for inflation."

Did you get what he was saying? From now on the no one on Earth will know what the Fed Heads are using as an inflation target, and that they are ditching the 2% target now used... Now, isn't that special? (in my best Church Lady voice) Now, the FOMC will not have to be subjected to ridicule when the cut rates next month and inflation isn't anywhere close to 2%!  

I'm surprised that the stock jockeys didn't catch on to this comment by Powell... For all this does is place a GREAT BIG UNKNOWN in the markets, which historically traders aren't fond of... So, we'll see where this takes everything, but for now, it's all about the next rate cut, and the stock jockeys have blinders on.

The U.S. Data Cupboard today has the July Durable Goods Orders. You may recall, and if you don't, no biggie, because I'm going to tell you now... The June Durable Goods Orders were a negative -9.4%... And my thought on the July # will is that it too will be negative... This is such a sketchy economy with some parts doing well, and the rest not doing well.

To recap... The dollar roared back after Friday's selloff, and ended the day at 1,207... A 6 index point gain on the day... Gold fought to hold to its gains, but the SPT's kept Gold negative on the day, down $3, while Silver was also fighting the SPT's and ended the day down a nickel... Chuck found some words in Powell's speech last Friday, that the markets seem to have bypassed.

Here's your snippet: "Corporate bankruptcies hit a 14-year high in 2024, and the pace continued through the first seven months of 2025.

This should throw cold water on those who imagine the U.S. economy is booming, and it underscores the Catch-22 facing the Federal Reserve as it wrestles with interest rate policy to battle sticky price inflation.

In July, corporate bankruptcies hit the highest monthly total (71) since July 2020 when governments shut down the economy for the pandemic, according to data compiled by S&P Global.

That number was up from 66 bankruptcy filings in June.

Through the first seven months of 2025, 446 companies filed for bankruptcy. That was the most for any 7-month period since 2010, in the midst of the Great Recession.

S&P Global data includes companies with public debt and assets or liabilities of at least $2 million or private companies with assets or liabilities of at least $10 million at the time of filing.

Three companies entered the bankruptcy process in July with more than $1 billion in assets and liabilities at the time of their filings: LifeScan Global Corp., Genesis Healthcare Inc., and Del Monte Foods Inc. subsidiary Del Monte Foods Corp. II Inc."

Chuck again... The numbers will continue to grow in my humble country boy opinion.

Market Prices 8/26/2025: American Style: A$ .6486, kiwi .5854, C$ .72221, euro 1.640, sterling 1.3473, Swiss $1.2420, European Style: rand 17.6483, krone 10.1497, SEK 9.5840, forint 341.08, zloty 3.6602, koruna 21.0898, RUB 80.97, yen 147.60, sing 1.2856, HKD 7.8001, INR 87.68, China 7.1575, peso 18.65, BRL 5.4053, BBDXY 1,205, Dollar Index 98.43, Oil $63.71, 10-year 4.28%, Silver $38.46, Platinum $1,354.00, Palladium $1,109.00, Copper $4.52, and Gold... $3.373.

That's it for today... I apologize for what sounded like to me after reading it again, as a bunch of poor, poor, me in the Sunday wrap up... I'm not like that, in fact I don't even tell my wife when I've been up all night with stomach problems... She has enough to worry about! I have tried to continue my life as normal throughout the Cancer journey, and sometimes I even amaze myself that I got through something without incident! Anyway... Things are what they are, and there's no changing them... Right? Jackson Browne takes us to the finish line today with his song: These Days... "These days I sit on cornerstones, and count the quarter tones... Yeah, that song... I hope you have a Tom Terrific Tuesday today, and Please Be Good To Yourself!