The CFTC Commitment of Traders (COTs) report is released once a week and shows a breakdown of open interest by trader category. The CFTC breaks down open interest by:
- Managed Money (e.g. Hedge Funds)
- Producers (e.g. gold mining companies)
- Swaps (e.g. banks)
- Non-Reportable
- Other
The Labor Department released its August jobs report on Friday. To say the numbers were disappointing would be an understatement.
According to the report, there was an increase of only 235k jobs, well below the estimated 720k. That’s a miss of nearly 500k jobs.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell spent most of his Jackson Hole speech continuing to try to convince everybody that inflation is transitory. As Friday Gold Wrap podcast host Mike Maharrey points out in this episode, whether it is or isn’t transitory, inflation is a real thing that has a real impact on real people. In this show, he also breaks the news on the August jobs numbers and discusses taper talk.
The month-on-month trade deficit fell in July but remains far larger than it was a year ago. And the Trailing Twelve Month figure hit a new record.
This analysis focuses on gold and silver physical delivery on the Comex. See the article What is the Comex for more detail.
Delivery for both gold and silver was underwhelming.
Central banks continued to add gold to their reserves in July, according to the latest data from the World Gold Council.
Led by Brazil’s 8.5-ton purchase, central banks globally bought a net 30.1 tons of gold.
While most American investors have faith that the Federal Reserve can and will successfully tighten monetary policy to fight inflation — or have simply bought into the “transitory” inflation narrative — Germans are loading up on gold as a hedge against growing inflationary pressures.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine recently signed a bill into law exempting gold and silver bullion and coins from sales tax. This will not only relieve some of the tax burdens on investors in the state; it will also take a step toward treating gold and silver as money instead of as commodities.
The Fed balance sheet stands at $8.33 trillion, up $111 billion from the prior month-end.
The chart below shows how the Fed Balance sheet has grown by instrument over the last 18 months. The major surge from COVID can be clearly seen as $2.5T was added within 2 months. The monthly changes since then reflect QE on autopilot.
Jerome Powell will speak today at the Jackson Hole economic summit. Everybody is on pins and needles in anticipation of the Fed chairman’s speech. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey discusses the Fed’s messaging and then moves past the talk to discuss the “here and now” reality. He also spends some time talking more fundamentally about gold as part of an investment strategy.
