- Fed Balance Sheet (WALCL): -14.7B (-0.19% w/w); deflationary.
- Total Bank Credit (TOTBKCR): +21.1B (+0.12% w/w); bounce off the lows.
- 30 Year Mortgage Rate (MORTGAGE30US): 7.22%, -7 bp w/w; down from peak 7.79%.
- Strategic Petroleum Reserve (WCSSTUS1): +313 w/w. First (slight) refill in 8 weeks.
- Median New Home Sale Price (MSPNHSUS): -13k m/m. 12-month low.
- Gross Domestic Product (GDP): +2.10% q/q. Not adjusted for inflation.
- Personal Income (PI): +0.25% m/m, PCE Services (PCES) +0.42% m/m.
Rates have fallen for the last six weeks, but home prices peaked last October, and they made yet another a new low this month. At least the contraction in bank lending reversed – for this week anyway. Once again, services inflation (PCE Services) remains “stubbornly” high. From what I can tell, that’s mostly due to services (like auto repair) that demand healthy, active, in-person workers – similar to the force-vaxxed military, which “for some baffling reason” is having problems finding people also. Definitely not because of the vax though. Safe & Effective, it is.
The plunge in long treasury rates continues (DGS10 fell -26 bp this week alone), which is helping to rescue our banksters from their utterly foolish acquisition of long-dated treasurys back in 2020. It’s so fortunate for these banks that long rates continue to move lower.
Right.
Gold made a big move this week, rising 66.70 (+3.31%) to 2080.40, with about half of that move happening on Friday. And then after the “fake close” at COMEX (the COMEX GC contract “settles” at 12:30 Central), gold continued to rise, with my trading app showing Friday’s last traded price for GC (at 5 pm Eastern) to be at a new all time high of 2091.70. Note: the chart below uses Friday’s COMEX fake close “settle” price of 2080.40. What did the MSM say?
Gold hits record high on bets for March start to Fed rate cuts (Source – Pfizer/Reuters); “Spot gold climbed 1.6% to $2,069.10 per ounce by 3:30 p.m. ET (2030 GMT). Prices were 3.4% higher so far this week, and earlier rose to $2,075.09 per ounce to beat the previous all-time high of $2,072.49 scaled in 2020.”
So even MSM is saying gold made a new all time high, although they allege gold’s rally is all about a presumed upcoming Fed pivot.
by cmartenson