Precious Metals

Exactly as I warned 3 wks ago, Nordic countries are facing pressure. Here's strong evidence of a krone break, havoc to ensue in global banks, how to monetize when skittish brokers pull access & leverage. 

So far it has been largely a repeat of the previous overnight session, where absent significant macro drivers, the attention again remains focused both on China, which reported some truly ugly inflation (with 0.8% Y/Y CPI the lowest since Lehman, just call it deflation net of the "goalseeking") data (which as usually is "good for stocks" pushing the SHCOMP 1.5% higher as it means even more easing), and on Greece, which has not made any major headlines in the past 24 hours as patience on both sides is growing thin ahead of the final "bluff" showdown between Greece and the Eurozone is imminent. The question as usual is who will have just a fraction more leverage in the final assessment - Greece has made its ask known, and it comes in the form of 10 billion euros in short-term "bridge" financing consisting of €8 billion increase in Bills issuance and €1.9 billion in ECB profits, as it tries to stave off a funding crunch, a proposal which will be presented on the Wednesday meeting of euro area finance ministers in Brussels. The question remains what Europe's countrbid, if any, will be. For the answer: stay tuned in 24 hours.

Many previous commentaries have detailed the mounting crises faced by the One Bank in its own paper-bullion markets. Invariably, these “crises” are 100% self-created. This is easily illustrated by reviewing a few of its current (increasingly serious) problems.

1) No one has seen the 10,000+ tons of gold which the U.S. government claims to have been storing (on behalf of itself, and other nations) for roughly 60 years.

2) The reason why no one has seen this gold is that most of it does not exist, and of the small fraction that remains, any audit would reveal that every bar had been pledged to numerous (dozens of?) owners.

In case algos still haven't gotten the message to jump all aboard into the S&P, here comes the CME with a gntle nudge in the form of 90 pages of margin hikes including Brent, RBOB and, just in case there is still anyone who wishes to trade paper precious metals against the BIS, silver. In fact, at first glance it appears the only future  whose margin was not hiked was stocks: apparently stocks are never volatile enough for a margin hike.

Deflation goes hand in hand with releasing the individual from the debt enslavement that was created with the monetary policies of the past 100 years. Nigh unlimited printing of money has become the orthodox strategy to avoid deflation. Deflation was made the scapegoat for all sorts of economic ills in a century of pro-inflation propaganda. For deflation to happen government interference in money and the economy needs to stop. The endorsement of deflation goes hand in hand with safeguarding liberty. “Paper money has become the technical foundation for the totalitarian menace of our days.”

It becomes easier and easier to translate the propaganda of the One Bank (delivered by its messengers in the Corporate media) because the patterns of behavior of this crime syndicate continue to become more blatant/obvious.

The One Bank does not want to see any ‘defections’ amongst the member-states of the EU (i.e. any splintering of this totalitarian entity). The obvious reason for this is that the EU has morphed into a monetary straitjacket, as a single banking entity (the ECB) controls the printing presses of all EU states. To grasp the significance of this; we need merely refer back to the words of Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744 – 1812), the original patriarch of the Rothschild clan, and architect of the One Bank.

Following the torrid surge in crude in the past 4 days, overnight oil price have taken a step back - if only until the "newer normal" 2:30pm ramp into the Nymex close -  with both Brent and WTI down nearly 3%, with yesterday's latest API inventory data showing another massive crude build when it was released after the close, which in turn is pressuing futures modestly if decidedly, and not even the surprise PBOC RRR-cut (which many had seen as likely if only in advance of the liquidity sapping Chinese New Year) which hit the tape an hour ago managed to push ES into the green, at least for now. Curiously, not even the now standard low volume levitation in the USDJPY in recent trading has had any impact on US futures, which appear to have found a new correlation regime for the time being, one which tracks what oil does more than any other asset class.

New Gold Fix To Be Run By Western and Chinese Banks - Still Not Transparent -- Replacement for the near-century-old London gold fix will start in March -- London gold fix to Shanghai gold fix - still not transparent --Stealth run on the London bullion market continuing?

In this exclusive interview, Rob Kirby share his views on precious metals, the manipulation of various markets, the inevitable collapse of the U.S. dollar, currency wars, derivatives and more…

Rob Kirby spent the majority of his career working in financial markets where he honed his skills and knowledge on precious metals, foreign exchange markets, interest rate derivatives, and government and bond markets. He’s also become one of the most sought after writers and speakers in his discipline and writes for many respected online publications including Le Metropole Cafe, Financial Sense, Silver Doctors, and Safe Haven. His website, kirbyanalytics.com, has become a valuable resource of knowledge to those seeking the truth about financial markets.

Much was said about the outperformance of the Nikkei relative to other asset classes in various months in 2014. Outperformance in Yen terms that is: for 2014 the Nikkei was actually down in USD terms. However, somehow we doubt if as much will be said about January's best performing asset - again, in local currency terms - which was the Russian stock market. Actually, come to think of it, we doubt anything will be said in the mainstream media about January's two best performing assets in USD terms either: silver and gold.

In 1923 Hitler said, “Believe me, our misery will increase. The scoundrel will get by. But the decent, solid businessman who doesn’t speculate will be utterly crushed; first the little fellow on the bottom, but in the end the big fellow on top too. But the scoundrel and the swindler will remain, top and bottom. The reason: because the state itself has become the biggest swindler and crook. A robbers’ state!” Hitler wasn’t talking about hard money, he was talking about excessive money printing by a robber state. Krugman himself echoes these words, "It’s basically about revenue: when governments can’t either raise taxes or borrow to pay for their spending, they sometimes turn to the printing press." Out of control government that can’t borrow or tax enough to pay its bills? Zimbabwe, Iran, Venezuela... what country is next?

In January, gold surged 8 per cent in dollar terms, 11 per cent in pound terms and a very large 16 per cent in euro terms. January’s 8.4% gain for gold in dollar terms was the best month in terms of price gains in three years.

While the US daytime trading session has lately become a desperate attempt to expand multiples on the declining earnings of the S&P500, thanks to recurring BOJ intervention in the USDJPY, to keep the S&P above the 100 SMA at all costs including generous central banker verbal intervention then it is during the US overnight session when global deflationary reality reasserts itself with a vengeance, and sure enough at last check, the 10 Year has rallied with 10Y yield hitting 1.71% before this morning’s 4Q GDP release, as well as following the latest deflation number of -0.6% out of Europe (worse than the -0.5% expected) which was the biggest price decline on the continent since 2009.  "Treasuries remained well bid overnight due to month-end index adjustments. Some talk of a  reallocation from equities to bonds trade going through in both Asia and continuing in Europe," ED&F Man head of rates and credit trading Tom di Galoma wrote in a note to explain the latest Great Unrotation, if only until the Virtu HFT algos get the full blessing of the Fed to ramp the USDJPY, and thus the stock market.