My inbox has been filled with theories (read: concerns) about the targeting of short silver positions by the REDDIT BRIGADE of financial vigilantes. Is this a possibility? In my opinion, YES, as silver has been a very volatile market since the trade dislocations perpetuated by the COVID pandemic. The metals are not like equities because hedgers — miners with real supply — act to keep a lid on prices as they lock in future costs.
Posts Tagged ‘platinum’
Notes From Underground: Last Week’s Two Biggest Losers
June 27, 2013Another day, another week, another month and another quarter. It is hard to believe that we have now reached the halfway mark for 2013 and it has been anything but boring. The next quarter should be just as volatile as the German elections take center stage and political uprisings are beginning to change the international landscape. The unemployment data from the U.S. will bring even more volatility than usual as the FED has now raised the importance of JOBS as the mainstay financial focus … again. As Europe debates a unified banking system, one gets the feeling that EU banking problems are simmering just below the surface and the issue of BAIL-INS is making large depositors extremely nervous. The GOLD has been thrown overboard as the instrument of being a store of value, but as the $1200 level succumbed to selling pressure, the SILVER and PLATINUM performed admirably.
Notes From Underground: Not Quite Groundhog Day, But It’s Time for the Unemployment Report to See Its Shadow
January 31, 2013Will it be another mediocre report or will the economy show signs of life after the “fiscal cliff” issue was pushed down the halls of Congress? The robustness of the equity markets would certainly make one presume the jobs data “ought” to be better, but my readers are well aware that its ultra low interest rates that put the continued bid to global stocks. In fact, low wage growth and low interest rates have been a dynamic duo for corporate profits as high unemployment continues to keep downward pressure on wages and, of course, corporations are borrowing massive amounts of money through bond offerings and bypassing the need for bank financing. The recent GDP release showed that wages and bonuses had a large increase in the fourth quarter but that was due to businesses bringing dividends and bonuses forward to 2012 so as to beat the tax increases in the new year.
Notes From Underground: Erskine Bowles For U.S. Treasury Secretary = A Big Stock Market Rally
November 15, 2012The election is over. It’s time for leadership and decisive action. Yes, there are winners and losers and promises to be kept. Six billion dollars was spent on elections in total and the money given to support candidates is not charity but an effort to purchase some modicum of influence. No problem with that for that has been the game since the birth of the republic and long before that in other political entities. If the “fiscal cliff” and its potential impact is as serious as some opine then leadership is needed to set the course of real action. President Obama, if you believe that the fiscal crisis is the most urgent problem, you will choose Erskine Bowles as your Secretary of Treasury because he has the ability to reach across party lines and get to rational levels of compromise. Mr. Bowles has the respect of party leaders and, most importantly, his plainspokenness is needed to get the American people to understand the rudiments of the looming financial debacle.
Notes From Underground: Unemployment Gains Manufacturing a Recovery
February 5, 2012The Obama administration had much to cheer as the NONFARM PAYROLL number exceeded almost all the pundits and FED‘s projections. Just before the release, CNBC analysts were in herd formation all gathered around the “BULL” of safety and predicted around a 100,000 job gain. Job gains came in at roughly 250,000 even as state and local governments continued to shed employees. Earlier, the Canadian data was tepid, but again, the Ontario manufacturing sector added jobs and is mirroring the increase in manufacturing seen in the U.S. Whether the predictors of the release are right or wrong makes no difference to traders or investors for the most important pundit is the market’s reaction.
Notes From Underground: OBAMA GIVES THE FINGER TO MAIN STREET AND OWS
December 27, 2011The news during the last five days has been sparse as the regular year-end news items filter through the talking heads giving prediction after prediction about what will occur next year. Everything from the break-up of the EU to the closing of the Straits of Hormuz winds its way through the markets. The only significant story is the parking of LARGE AMOUNTS OF EUROS AT THE ECB as the distressed banks of Europe seem to want to place excess reserves with the Draghi Bank rather than buy the sovereign debt of Italy, Spain and the others.