A Cynical Fed Is A Dangerous Fed

A stroll through recent and not so recent inflationary history. On ‘Fed minutes Wednesday’ the media amplified the noise, the machines are doing what the machines do and running with it, and it’s all eyes on the great and powerful Fed (of Oz).

The Fed created the cyclical inflation (in NFTRH we detailed and managed the process successfully in real-time) and thus the Fed created the cycle. In 2021 the Fed was exposed to the public as the agent of inflation it actually is, and when the inflation threatened to get out of hand they went into damage control mode. Now the Fed is trying to cool the inflation, which means cooling the cycle itself. You can’t have your inflated cake and eat it too. Not when the racket is exposed to the public.

Okay now, that second to last line triggered a memory and sent me to YouTube. Now I have distracted myself with a good laugh.

Moe: “Now look what you did; you deflated it!”

Larry: “Hey, we better blow it up again!”

Moe: “Give it the gas. Larry: “Gas on”. Moe: “Gas on”…. “Gas off!”. Larry: “Gas off”. Moe: “That oughtta be enough…”

Man blows out the candles and BOOM!!!! Classic, and so appropriate. Continue reading "A Cynical Fed Is A Dangerous Fed"

Copper/Gold Ratio At Epic Decision Point

Copper/Gold ratio teases cyclical inflation bulls and bears alike, but… it’s going to break one way or the other soon enough.

If you value gold’s standing in relation to industrial metals as a key market/financial/economic indicator as I do, then you view the ongoing consolidation in the copper price to the gold price as a key indicator (among several NFTRH tools) going forward.

I cannot make the macro do what I want it to do, but I sure can be super interested in an indicator that has made several false moves to the positive and negative sides in 2021 as we head into a year of changes to come (one way or another) in 2022. Cu/Au is making less and less volatile spikes and drops as it is currently pinched between the converging daily SMA 50 and 200.

They call him Doctor Copper because in the post-2000 world of Inflation onDemand © 🙂 (as originally concocted by the Maestro himself, Alan Greenspan and expanded ever so maniacally by Ben Bernanke on through the current Fed regime), the cyclical economic doctor metal is a key foil to the counter-cyclical monetary historian metal. Continue reading "Copper/Gold Ratio At Epic Decision Point"

Gold, Silver, Gold/Silver Ratio & HUI

Precious metals are still locked down. With an understanding that there is always much more in play than nominal charts (the macro & sector fundamentals for example, which bounced of late but never did definitively flip positive), let’s review said nominal charts of gold, silver, and HUI along with an update of the Gold/Silver ratio for good measure.

Meanwhile, we will continue to update the full spectrum of considerations for a positive view of the precious metals complex, including gold’s standing vs. cyclical, risk-on markets/assets, the state of speculative vs. quality credit spreads, the inflationary backdrop (despite promotions to the contrary, cyclical inflation is not beneficial to the gold mining industry), the seasonal averages and the charts of the metals and miners over various time frames in NFTRH.

Gold

The daily chart shows the gold price (futures) below the moving averages but above short-term support after failing – amid much personally observed cheerleading to the contrary – to cross the bull gateway at 1920.

As a side note, the broken blue downtrend channel on this daily chart is actually the Handle to a large and bullish big picture Cup that only has one thing going against it that I can see; too much exposure by too many TAs, which of course means it may not be expressed until many of those TAs recant their stories (we have noted all along that the Handle can drop all the way to the 1500s without damaging the 2022 bullish Cup story. Indeed, if it were to happen (not predicting folks, but being prepared) it would be healthy. There is nothing healthier than a good running of the bugs before a major bull move. Continue reading "Gold, Silver, Gold/Silver Ratio & HUI"

Yield Curve Is Not Currently An Inflationist's Friend

The yield curve is flattening. I don’t cheer-lead a given view, but if I were to do that I’d be cheering for a yield curve flattener to put a correction to inflationist dogmatists quoting von Mises to the herds and otherwise sloganeering about inflation and a “commodity super cycle” (that term is pure promo).

Well, the curve is flattening.

Which means one of three things. Continue reading "Yield Curve Is Not Currently An Inflationist's Friend"

A Brief Sector Review

While I hold a special place (in my thoughts and in NFTRH) for the gold stock sector due to its counter-cyclical nature, it’s a big market out there, and a strategic view of the macro helps with successful positioning. Following is a snapshot of some sectors/markets with general thoughts on each. I will provide one chart or graphic for each but not mark them up or get into too much technical or fundamental detail. There’s a weekend report for all of that stuff. For now, a brief review.

Gold/Silver Mining & Royalty

Gold miners have been fundamentally impaired by the inflationary macro as costs (energy, materials, humans) have outpaced product (gold) for well over a year. As with other markets/sectors, sentiment became overdone to the downside in September, and from there (one of our key downside support targets at 230), we projected a bounce, and with some stops and starts, the rally logically began.

I have now seen an Inverted H&S (bullish) show up among gold stock ‘analysts’ (code for ‘obsessives’ if all they manage are gold stocks amid a field of many sectors that are actually working). We projected a pre-FOMC pullback to the SMA 50, which would be the healthiest thing to do during FOMC week, and that is what Huey has done. The H&S potential lives although the trends are down. Continue reading "A Brief Sector Review"