Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. In this column, JWR also covers hedges, derivatives, and various obscura. This column emphasizes JWR’s “tangibles heavy” investing strategy and contrarian perspective. Today, some troubling news from legendary investor Warren Buffett.
Precious Metals:
Early in the week, all of the precious metals went into a slump, along with base metals, and as better publicized, the stock markets. I’m assuming the drop in the precious metals was in anticipation of lower industrial demand. That same day, Bitcoin was down 9.8%. Obviously, there was a lot of cash needed muy pronto, for covering stock long options. Dips like these are a good opportunity to increase your physical silver holdings. – JWR
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Frank Holmes, at Gold-Eagle.com: Gold SWOT: China’s Gold Demand Has Cracked in the Face of Record-High Prices for the Precious Metal.
Economy & Finance:
Buffett Calls The Top: Berkshire Quietly Dumps Half Its Apple Shares Amid Unprecedented Selling Spree. JWR’s Comments: I’ve concluded that Warren Buffett foresees Donald Trump getting a second term in office. BUT, he also foresees the elites crashing the economy and the stock markets in early 2025, to be able to point the finger of blame at Trump, calling him: “Another Herbert Hoover.”TM I should mention that I’ve never seen Warren Buffett shift quite so heavily to cash. (A lot of that cash is now just parked in T-bills.) So he must be expecting an enormous market crash.
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Crisis on Wall Street: Inside the Turbulent August 2024 Market Crash.
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Selling from US volatility-linked funds may be drying up after $150 billion dump.
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Linked over at the Whatfinger.com news aggregation site: Xi Jinping Turns China Into ‘Fortress Economy’ to Withstand External Shocks: Report.
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From the leftists at Yahoo Finance: What a Kamala Harris Election Would Mean for the Economy Across the US. JWR’s Comments: In truth, we can expect a wrecked economy that will be mired in stagflation, a new round of regulation, globalist trade policies, and a confiscatory level of federal taxation. Face it, folks: Kammie is a Commie. To be more precise, she could best be described as a strident Maoist communist. Her Senate voting record was even more extremely leftist than that of Bernie Sanders.
Commodities:
Bloomberg: Commodities Face Contagion as Global Market Meltdown Deepens.
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Gold, copper and oil prices fall as market contagion spreads—’It’s just widespread panic’.
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Over at OilPrice News: Is the Oil Price Collapse Finally Over?
Derivatives:
Ellen Brown: How Unelected Regulators Unleashed the Derivatives Monster – and How It Might Be Tamed.
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Those troublesome CDSes, again: Hedge fund’s trades with lenders point to return of crisis-era structures.
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The Financial Times reports: Apollo profits take a hit from derivatives to guard rate risk.
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Reported in late June: FDIC Sounds Alarm: Big Four Banks’ $168 Trillion Derivatives Bombshell.
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S&P Global: US banks will trade liquidity pressures for higher credit costs.
Forex & Cryptos:
What Is a Carry Trade, and How Did a Small Rate Hike in Japan Just Trigger a Global Sell-Off?
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Dollar down as US rate cut bets rise, yen surges.
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Aftershocks of carry trade at heart of market rout could still have reverberations.
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Morgan Stanley is now allowing 15,000 wealth advisors to sell Bitcoin ETFs.
Tangibles Investing:
Martin W. Armstrong: New York Commercial Real Estate Plunges 97.5% at Great Depression Levels.
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The Biden regime’s 2023 ban on incandescent (filament) light bulbs has led to some unintended consequences. Though there are some exceptions, this much-hated ban made typical 40-watt to 100-watt Edison-base bulbs unobtanium. Many people find both fluorescent and LED room lighting annoying. A few people claim that they cause headaches or make them feel ill. Solutions? 40-watt Candelabra base (small base) bulbs are still manufactured and sold. Meanwhile, Candelabra Base Adapters are widely available. But to get the equivalent of a 75-watt bulb’s output using 40-watt bulbs, you’ll have to double the number of lamp sockets. Good news: There are Y-socket adapters available. Just make sure that you get the heavy-duty variety. If you have other suggested workarounds or ahem, alternate sources of supply for incandescent bulbs, then send me an e-mail, and I will post it in the next Snippets column. – JWR
Provisos:
SurvivalBlog and its Editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for our detailed disclaimers.
News Tips:
Please send your economics and investing news tips to JWR. (Either via e-mail or via our Contact form.) These are often especially relevant because they come from folks who closely watch specific markets. If you spot any news that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers, then please send it in. News items from local news outlets that are missed by the news wire services are especially appreciated. Thanks!