The No1 workers' union at the Escondida copper mine confirmed the signing of a labor deal with operating company BHP - averting a strike - and called it the best labor negotiations ever for the Chilean mining industry, according to an announcement on Friday August 13.Approval of the deal was almost unanimous after BHP improved its offer during government-led mediation."This negotiation will, no do...Read More

Another day, another decline in juniorminers – and another increase in profits from short positions in them.Shouldn’t we expect a rebound though?Well, no. The rebound already happened inlate July and early August, and what we see now is the trend being resumed.Consequently, even if it wasn’t for all the long-term analogies to the2012-2013 declines in gold and goldstocks (HUI Inde...Read More

Overnight, on Sunday and early Monday, Precious Metals and Oil started a fairly big collapse which quickly bottomed and recovered – at least in the Precious Metals markets.  Crude Oil is still moving lower in early trading on Monday, August 9, 2021.  Can we learn anything from the pre-COVID market trends and extrapolate any real-world analysis from this?Precious Metals “Mini...Read More

The precious metals futures markets launched shortly after Richard Nixon closed the gold window and removed the last vestige of gold backing from the Federal Reserve Note. Officials introduced paper gold and silver contracts specifically to increase price volatility and discourage physical ownership of metals.After nearly 50 years, it is safe to say their strategy was a success.It is often excruci...Read More

Again, today’s report will be way shorter than usual, andfocus only on select charts so as to drive position details of all the fivepublications. Let‘s move right into the charts (all courtesy of www.stockcharts.com). S&P 500 and Nasdaq Outlook The tightly tracking each other indices – S&P 500 andNasdaq – are likely to part ways to a degree soon. As Treasury yields...Read More

The US economy added over 900,000 jobs in July, the most in 11 months and well above the market expectations. Part of the reason is the rapid pace of the COVID-19 vaccinations allowing the country to continue to re-open and promote businesses to hire more workers. This action has driven down the US Unemployment Rate to 5.40%, the lowest level since March 2020.In response to the bullish employment...Read More

The Junior Gold Miners ETF (GDXJ), fell to lows near $43.06 recently, which matched the low from the end of March 2021, near $43.24.Although these lows are not exactly the same, the span of time between these unique lows and the very close nature of them makes them a Double Bottom setup.It is very likely that this support level will prompt a new upside price rally in Junior Miners targeting $50 to...Read More

The Fed acknowledged the economy’s progress, but it’s still not “substantial progress.” In short, Powell merely slowed the hand of the tapering clock.Last week (July 28, 2021), the FOMC published its newest statement on monetary policy. The publication was barely altered. The Fed noted that the US economy has continued to strengthen, although the sectors most heavily hit by...Read More

Sometimes fantasy becomes reality. At other times, a dose of reality will temper fantasies of outsized and unjustified proportion.Some silver investors and analysts could use a dose of reality. Below is a chart of silver prices dating back to 1915… Silver Prices – 100 Year Historical ChartSILVER PRICE HISTORY In November 1919 the price of silver was $1.13 oz.  From that po...Read More

While Olympic athletes in Tokyo are going for the gold, investors are going for anything that might provide positive real returns.In a yield-starved environment where bonds and cash are returning less than inflation, there are no guarantees. But there are certainly opportunities outside of fixed income instruments.Investors who try to sprint their way to success risk hurting themselves in the proc...Read More

Powell’s recent dovish remarks starteda sugar high among investors. However, it seems like the hangover has alreadybegun.TheGold Miners While gold, silver and mining stocksjumped for joy following Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s dovish remarks on Jul. 28,their sugar high ended on Jul. 30. And while I warned that FOMC press conferences often elicit short-term bursts of optimism, it was lik...Read More

To fully understand markets, understand gold. It is the key to financial wisdom. By learning of its role as a financial asset, one will discover universal truths about the value of money, and hence, the underlying value of all assets. It does not do much good, for example, to make a small fortune in the stock market, only to see it dwindle (or disappear overnight) in an inflationary storm or an im...Read More

Gold has been trading sideways recently, but this won’t last forever – the yellow metal is likely to move downward before continuing its rise.So, so you think you can tell heaven from hell, a bull market from a bear market? It’s not so easy, as gold seems to be at a crossroads. On the one hand, accelerating inflation should take gold higher, especially that the real interest rate...Read More

The gold miners’ stockswere whacked hard earlier this summer on a Fed-rate-hikes scare.  That serious anomaly really damaged sentiment,spawning exceptionally-weak seasonal performance in this contrariansector.  But the bruised gold stocks andthe metal they mine have trudged through, making it back to the start of theirtraditional strong season.  That beginswith robust autumn r...Read More

Kyrgyzstan said Wednesday that it had launched the process of kicking out its largest foreign investor, Canada's Centerra Gold, overRead full newsRead More

BISHKEK (Reuters) -Kyrgyzstan has established enough evidence to press on with removing Canada's Centerra Gold from the Kumtor gold mine, the state security service and prosecutors said on Wednesday.The security service is investigating possible corruption in the deal that gave Centerra control over the country's biggest gold mine and subsequent amendments to the pact.A spokesperson for...Read More

Aaron talks about how while US general stock market indexes keep rising other things, like the oil price, are starting to stall out. And the paper price smash of $100 last Sunday night in gold failed and gold has already rallied back to the previous levels. Follow Aaron Basile: Twitter: https://twitter.com/aaronbasileYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/aaronbasile/videosWebsite: https://aaronbas...Read More

The latest infrastructure bill just passed by the US Senate is a monster grab bag bill that has a lot less to do with whatever it is that they claim they're doing and a whole lot to do with their grab bag goodies. Our guest this week on Retirement Lifestyle Advocates radio is Karl Denninger. He and your host, Dennis Tubbergen, discuss this monster trillion-dollar-plus bill, some things even the Se...Read More

Rob Kirby, proprietary analyst and founder of KirbyAnalytics.com, returns to Liberty and Finance to walk us through the likely but unthinkable outcomes, whether or not the Fed "Buys It All," by fulfilling their promise to unleash "unlimited resources" and "permanently backstop" Wall Street markets and banks.0:00 Intro2:00 Emergency measures now "permanent" (repo, QE, YCC, junk bond & asset purchas...Read More

Wolf Richter is the founder of Wolf Street Corp and the publisher of WolfStreet.com. Wolf has over twenty years of C-level operations experience, including turnarounds and a VC-funded startup. He has a BA, MA, and MBA (UT at Austin). In his prior life, he worked in Texas and Oklahoma, including a decade as General Manager and COO of a large Ford dealership and its subsidiaries. Read More