from ITM TRADING, INC.
Shocking Events Unfolding in China’s Gold Market!
from King World News
On the heels of an absolutely wild week of trading, shocking events are unfolding in China’s gold market.
Foreigners flee the US$, Buy Gold
April 18 (King World News) – Alasdair Macleod: Anti-dollar sentiment is underestimated, and loss of credibility has only just started. A perfect storm is driving gold higher and the dollar down, compounded by systemic issues.
In this market report for precious metals, we examine the factors driving gold higher. Its remarkable performance is doubtless confusing the wider public, leaving investors in western financial markets invested in non-performing assets while missing out on gold.
Dollar Crashes On Powell Removal Speculation, Gold Soars to All-Time High and Bitcoin Suddenly Spikes
from Zero Hedge
What was a miserable shortened week for the USD has gone from bad to worse in early Asia trading, when the Dollar index suddenly collapsed to a fresh 3 year low
While there is no specific catalyst for the suddenly collapse in the illiquid early Asian session, which sees many countries on extended Easter holiday, Bloomberg quotes traders that hedge funds are selling the dollar against virtually any currencies after National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said Friday that President Donald Trump is still exploring ways to remove Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, according to traders.
“The president and his team will continue to study that,” National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said Friday when asked by a reporter if removing Powell was an option.
Trump Wants Lower Egg Prices. He’s Also Putting Tariffs On Imported Eggs.
The White House’s trade policy is totally scrambled.
by Eric Boehm
Reason.com
The Trump administration can’t seem to decide whether it wants the price of eggs to fall or rise.
That might tell you something about the White House’s confused, economically illiterate approach to trade policy more generally.
At a Cabinet meeting in late February, President Donald Trump demanded action to reduce egg prices. “We have to get the prices down,” he said. “The prices of eggs and various other things.”
Egg prices had spiked to an average of $5.90 per dozen in February, largely due to a bird flu epidemic that led to the death of over 30 million chickens (many of them killed by farmers in an attempt to slow the spread of the disease) during the winter months. In response, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced plans to import more eggs, largely from South Korea and Turkey. (Yes, those would be Turkey eggs, but not turkey eggs.)
Is Basel III Setting Up a New Gold-Backed Monetary System?
by Richard Mills
GoldSeek
Gold is up 25% year to date, and what a year it’s been so far.
[…] Donald Trump has boldly imposed a new era of US economic policy dominated by tariffs, trade wars, and threats to the sovereignty of nations it has long considered allies (Canada, Denmark, Panama), as the second-term president aims to rewrite the rules of international trade mostly by disregarding them as he pursues an America-first agenda.
Global stock markets hate the uncertainty of Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs, with many economists seeing the tariffs bringing a fresh wave of inflation to already-struggling consumers worldwide, but especially in the States where import duties have been threatened on at least 80 countries, with a minimum 10% tariff currently in place.
The Fake Analysts Scaring Everyone About the Dollar
by Martin Armstrong
Armstrong Economics
QUESTION: We all know who copies your work and pretends it is his. He is out now scaring the world that the dollar is going to crash, for the Chinese are selling dollars. You are the only person with a real database. What is your view on the dollar?
[…] ANSWER: I know who you are talking about. I get emails about him all the time. He likes the notoriety but lacks the staff or the database to provide his self-proclaimed forecasts. I will provide the specifics on the private blog. However, April has been our target for many months. The often people out there constantly calling for the demise of the dollar are MORONS. They never look outside of the United States. They may be claiming that China is dumping dollars, but they began liquidating US debt in the tens of billions in 2013, and accelerated that because of Biden’s Neocons post-2022. They pretend this is something new, all because of Trump. They make it sound like they are on top of this, but where have they been since 2013?
Federal Reserve Chair Sees Growing Risk of Stagflation as Trump Pushes Rate Cuts
by Austin Denean
The National News Desk
WASHINGTON (TNND) — Tensions between the White House and the Federal Reserve are increasing after Fed chair Jerome Powell warned the central bank could have less flexibility to maneuver with interest rates due to aggressive tariff policy from the president and resulting trade wars.
Economists have been sounding alarms that the aggressive tariffs put into place by Trump — an across-the-board 10% tax on imports, Chinese goods with a tariff of 145%, Mexican and Canadian products at 25%, along with imported vehicles and auto parts, steel and aluminum facing a 25% tariff — is putting the economy at risk by raising the odds that prices will have to increase as businesses adjust to higher costs and could slow growth as consumers’ budgets are stretched with inflation still over the Fed’s 2% target.
Fed Chair Warns of High Inflation and Slow Economic Growth. What is Stagflation?
by Rachel Barber
USA Today
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s comments Wednesday appeared to heighten financial experts’ fears that tariffs on goods imported to the U.S. could bring about an economic condition known as “stagflation.”
Powell didn’t use the exact word, but said President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs were “highly likely” to fuel inflation and could slow growth – two things that when combined have historically marked periods of stagflation.
“Unemployment is likely to go up as the economy slows, in all likelihood, and inflation is likely to go up as tariffs find their way and some part of those tariffs come to be paid by the public,” Powell said in a speech at the Economic Club of Chicago. “So that’s the strong likelihood.”
U.S. Tariffs Will Weaken Global Economy and Trigger Inflation but Not a Global Recession, IMF Says
Surging U.S. tariffs will weaken the global economy and push up inflation this year, according to projections to be released next week by the International Monetary Fund
by Christopher Rugaber
ABC News
Surging U.S. tariffs will weaken the global economy and push up inflation this year, according to projections to be released next week by the International Monetary Fund.
The IMF’s Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, said Thursday that the Trump administration’s sharp increases in duties have caused global uncertainty to spike. The import taxes will slow global growth, but not cause a worldwide recession, she added. The details of the IMF’s outlook will be issued Tuesday.
The world economy’s resilience is being tested “by the reboot of the global trading system” that threatens to cause turbulence in financial markets, Georgieva said.
Markets Drop as Powell Warns of Stagflation
by Tobias Burns
The Hill
Markets took a dive Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell painted a stagflationary picture of risks facing the economy, warning of both lower growth and higher prices as a result of the Trump administration’s tariff policies.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 700 points or 1.7 percent after starting the day off with some gains. The S&P 500 was down 2.3 percent, and the technology heavy Nasdaq Composite lost more than 3 percent of its value.
Tech was hit particularly hard again, with the SPDR NYSE technology exchange-traded fund posting a 3.1 percent loss on the day.
Speaking at an event in Chicago, Powell said the economy would be “moving away” from its goals of stable prices and maximum employment, saying there might not be “any progress” on them for the remainder of the year.
U.S. ‘Strong Dollar’ Policy Rings Increasingly Hollow
by Jamie McGeever
Reuters.com
ORLANDO, Florida, April 15 (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday repeated the mantra we’ve heard from his nine predecessors: “We have a strong dollar policy.” While the words are familiar, the conviction behind them may have softened.
It was former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin who, 30 years ago in early 1995, declared that “a strong dollar is in our national interest,” articulating what has become one of the fundamental tenets of the modern global financial system.
The ‘strong dollar’ policy has always been about more than just the exchange rate, although a more expensive currency can help keep inflation and interest rates low. This policy has represented the world’s trust in the U.S., and, consequently, the greenback’s role as the lynchpin of the global economy.