18 September 2025 – 08:41 Central Euro Time

Moving on from the Fed’s “non-event” -25bp Funds rate reduction, we’ve at present both the Bond and Spoo above today’s Neutral Zones, whilst all six of the other BEGOS Markets are below same; session volatility is firmly moderate. Specific to the positioning of the five primary BEGOS components vis-à-vis their Market Values in real-time: the Bond is 1^15 points “high” above its smooth valuation line, the Euro basically in sync with its valuation line, Gold +208 points “high”, Oil -1.17 points “low, and the Spoo +165 points “high”. Yesterday the S&P 500 posted a second consecutive down day for just the second time across the past 18 trading sessions, the “live” futs-adj’d P/E now 47.5x. And the Econ Baro concludes its week today with metrics that include September’s Philly Fed index and August’s Leading (i.e. “lagging”) Indicators.

17 September 2025 – 08:37 Central Euro Time

The Swiss Franc and all three elements of the Metals Triumvirate are presently below today’s Neutral Zones; the rest of the BEGOS Markets are within same, and volatility is mostly light. Looking at Market Rhythms for pure swing consistency, on a 10-test basis the Top Three are all for the Spoo as follows: 4hr Parabolics, 30mn Moneyflow, and 15mn Parabolics; for the 24-test basis we’ve again the Spoo’s 30mn Moneyflow, the non-BEGOS Yen’s 30mn MACD, and Silver’s 4hr MACD. Gold yesterday registered another All-Time High at 3740, but as noted, the metals are coming off so far today. The S&P 500 remains “textbook overbought”. The Econ Baro awaits August’s Housing Starts/Permits. Then at 18:00 GMT we’ve the Policy Statement from the FOMC incorporating a -25bp reduction in the Funds rate.

16 September 2025 – 08:43 Central Euro Time

The EuroCurrencies and the Spoo are presently above their respective Neutral Zones for today, whilst below same is Copper; volatility is light-to-moderate. To be sure, the Spoo’s “Baby Blues” (see Market Trends) are now in a fifth trading day of ascent after having declined (as herein written) the six prior sessions which (save for 02 September) essentially found price on the rise: ’tis unusual, that, which is why our deMeadville analytics ought always be judged in context with one’s own financial assessments of trend, etc.; indeed the 21-day linreg trend of the Spoo has been positive from 29 April-to-date. The S&P 500 itself now sports a “live” (futs-adj’d) P/E of 47.3x, the Index as well characterized as “extremely textbook overbought”. Oil’s cac volume is rolling from October into that for both November and December. And ’tis a busy day for the Econ Baro with September’s NAHB Housing Index, August’s Retail Sales, Ex/Im Prices, and IndProd/CapUtil, plus July’s Business Inventories.

15 September 2025 – 08:42 Central Euro Time

The Bond begins the week at present below its Neutral Zone for today; Oil is above same, and BEGOS Markets’ volatility is light. The Gold Update details the yellow metal having achieved a run in less than one year of ten +100-point milestones, the most recent of course being 3700 this past Tuesday; too is stressed the massive overvaluation of the S&P 500 and the notion of it perhaps nearing a crash as Gold gets the cash. That stated, the S&P 500’s MoneyFlow (per our page) is very supportive of the Index’s ascent, even as the “live” (futs-adj’d) P/E in real-time is 46.7x. Cac volume for the Spoo is rolling from September into December. ‘Tis a busy week for the Econ Baro with 14 incoming metrics scheduled, beginning today with September’s NY State Empire Index. Wednesday is the week’s centerpiece of the FOMC vote to reduce the Funds rate by -25bp, an event which already has been “priced-in” to the S&P time and again.

The Gold Update: No. 826 – (13 September 2025) – “Gold Gets the Cash (Ahead of S&P Crash?)”

The Gold Update by Mark Mead Baillie — 826th Edition — Monte-Carlo — 13 September 2025 (published each Saturday) — www.deMeadville.com

Gold Gets the Cash (Ahead of S&P Crash?)

Yes, Gold this past Tuesday by its “continuous contract” (for which the “front month” is December) touched 3700 — trading even further to a fresh All-Time High at 3715.

No, Gold wasn’t long-lived above 3700; however for 38 glorious Golden minutes ’twas a beautiful thAng.  Price then proceeded through the balance of the week to settle per the above Gold Scoreboard at 3681, now just -183 points beneath the Dollar debasement value of 3864.  And as detailed in last week’s missive, upon next eclipsing such key measure — regardless of when that may be — we’ll again judiciously reiterate (after 14 years) that Gold has “gotten ahead of itself”.  Do mind the above right-hand panel.  And whilst it has not yet happened, ’tis nonetheless fabulous to see Gold having almost caught all the way up to where it ought be brought, (so hopefully you’ve long ago bought).

More striking however is that across the past 242 trading days from last 26 September-to-date, Gold has achieved TEN +100-level milestones from 2700 to now 3700, (which for those of you scoring at home is a +37% increase in less than one year).  By comparison, remember when it took 2,251 consecutive trading days (basically nine years) for Gold to just get from 1900 on 22 August 2011 those +100 points higher to 2000 on 21 July 2020?  2,251 trading days just to gain +100 pointsBut this most recent milestone run has averaged +100 points every 24 trading days!  Here’s the table:

“Although, mmb, the percentage increase from one to the next is always decreasing…”

Squire remains one of the few modern-day market mavens who does math.  And to be sure, from Gold 1900 to 2000 was a +5.3% increase, whereas this most recent 3600 to 3700 was just a +2.8% increase.

But let’s view it from the futures contract perspective, whereby with a $20k commodity account you can trade one Gold contract, and thus control 100 ounces of Gold; (as opposed to $20k covering only five physical ounces; which for you WestPalmBeachers down there is — by the futures — called “leverage”).

So:  Gold back then from 1900 to 2000 was a +100-point gain x $100/point = $10k profit, (your $20k account thus becoming $30k, or +50%) … but again, that took those noted nine years.  Now, in just less than one year, Gold has gone from 2700 to 3700, a +1,000-point gain x $100/point = $100k profit, (your $20k account instead becoming $120k, or +500%).

Therefore to Squire’s point, yes each successive +100-point milestone is a smaller percentage gain … but they’ve been coming far more rapidly, indeed perhaps too rapidly.  Here we update from the website our Market Value measure for Gold, price (3681) now showing as +260 points “high” above its smooth valuation line (3421) defined by the movement of our primary BEGOS Markets (Bond / Euro / Gold / Oil / S&P 500).  And as we always say, price inevitably reverts to valuation:

As for Gold by its weekly bars and parabolic trends from one year ago-to-date, the following blue-dotted Long stint is now eight weeks in duration with present price (3681) an admirable +423 points above the ensuing week’s “flip to Short” level (3258).  Gold’s EWTR (“expected weekly trading range”) has narrowed a tad to 120 points, albeit that’s still some three weeks of cushion — barring a hard price fall — even with price (as just above noted) being fairly high above its BEGOS Markets valuation:

‘Course, having endlessly lost all sense of reasonable valuation is the S&P 500.

Well, the Fed’s cutting rates beginning this Wednesday, mmb…”

Oh good grief, dear Squire.  How many times over how many weeks have the FinMedia reported time-and-again that the purported Federal Reserve’s Funds rate reduction has been “priced-in”?  ‘Tis been but 15 trading days since FedChair Powell in Wyoming suggested the possibility of a monetary policy shift, it thus  being FinMedia-deemed that a rate cut is “priced-in” for the S&P.  After which ’twas later “priced-in”, and then again “priced-in”.

Query:  how many times must the same event be “priced-in”?  We’re just asking, given the S&P 500 is recording all-time highs seemingly day-after-day, indeed for seven of the days since The Chairman’s address.

Yes, the StateSide job market has stalled as herein sliced and diced a week ago.  And despite August’s just-reported Consumer Price Index having doubled from its July pace of +0.2% to now +0.4% (remember we said the July spike in the Producer Price Index could well feed into August’s CPI), apparently such increasing inflation is ignorable and is also “priced-in”.  So by logic (a concept no longer useful in this Investing Age of Stoopid), are unsupportive earnings (the price/earnings ratio of the S&P now a staggeringly high 46.7x), plus perhaps stagflation, and now a re-stumbling StateSide economy also all “priced-in”?  Moreover:  at what point for equities chasers shall FOMO (“Fear Of Missing Out”) morph into FONBO (“Fear Of Not Being Out”)?  What might the traditionally market-leading (until COVID) Economic Barometer urgently now trying to tell us?

Too, (not that we need be reminded), ’tis September, the historical results for which make it far and away the S&P’s worst losing month so far this century, (as we’ve previously cited, -32.3% when aggregating the prior 24 Septembers).  However:  that compiled, outright “crashes” have been instead typically owned by October, notably the hollowing-out of equities in the Garzarelli Cavatelli of ’87, the awkward Asian Contagion of ’97, and frighteningly so the FinCrisis of ’08.  Thus by this missive’s parenthetical portion of its title, next time ’round — whether ’tis the “Look Ma! No Earnings!” crash or the “Look Ma! No Money!” crash — we remain very sensitive to its eventual arrival (be it this month, next month, next year), such that ahead of said crash Gold’s been getting the cash.

Clearly appears ’tis the case as we next view the two-panel graphic of Gold’s daily bars from three months ago-to-date on the left, with those for Silver on the right.  Regular readers well know the baby blue dots  that depict the day-to-day consistency of the regression trend, and as you can see, the “Baby Blues” are our directional friend.  As for Silver’s rightmost high? 43 if you please!

And as continues that case of late, highs keep present prices in the 10-day Market Profiles as … well … high.  Below (at left) is that for Gold and (at right) for Silver.  With respect to the latter, 43 is great to see:  but were Silver priced to Gold by their ratio’s average century-to-date (69.3x vs. 86.2x today), rather than 43, Silver would now be 53!  Whee-Heee!

Thus into Fed week we go, the Open Market Committee expected to release their Policy Statement incorporating a rate cut (we see -25bp) come Wednesday at 18:00 GMT; the pop in August retail inflation is too much to warrant a “jumbo” rate cut of -50bp.  So does that in turn send the S&P 500 on a selling spree?  J.P. Morgan opines there may so be. For the S&P now being “priced to perfection”, ’tis all indeed “priced-in”, you see?

Pssst:  “Got Gold?”

Cheers!

…m…

12 September 2025 – 08:43 Central Euro Time

Record highs were recorded yesterday for both the Spoo (6600) and the S&P 500 itself (6593), even as retail inflation via headline CPI doubled its pace from from July’s +0.2% to now +0.4% for August; the month’s core pace was maintained at +0.3%, still ahead of the Fed’s desired 2% annualized target. Although September is notoriously known for being the year’s poorest S&P month, through its eight trading days-to-date ’tis +2.0%. This morning presently finds all three elements of the Metals Triumvirate above today’s respective Neutral Zones, whilst below same is Oil; session volatility for the BEGOS Markets is mostly moderate. Amongst the five primary BEGOS components, our best correlation currently is negative between the Euro and Oil. Currencies’ cac volume is rolling today from September into that for December. The Econ Baro finishes its somewhat negative week with September’s UofM Sentiment Survey. And tomorrow’s 826th consecutive Saturday edition of The Gold Update shall of course feature price having tapped the 3700 level.

11 September 2025 – 08:45 Central Euro Time

The Bond is at present the only BEGOS Market outside (below) its Neutral Zone for today; session volatility is again light. Yesterday’s +0.3% gain in the S&P 500 was (by moneyflow regressed into S&P points) solely due to one stock, ORCL, which gained 36%; otherwise, the S&P’s breadth was negative (201 up, 301 down, 1 unch). Came too a deflationary PPI read for August (-0.1%) albeit as volatile as is that series, a better read ought be by today’s CPI report. Market Values’ excesses of note include (in real-time) the Bond as +2 points “high” above its smooth valuation line, Gold as +259 points “high” and the Spoo as +104 points “high”; obviously by our “textbook technicals”, the S&P is “overbought”. In addition to retail inflation for the Econ Baro, included late in the session is August’s Treasury Budget.

10 September 2025 – 08:45 Central Euro Time

Gold, after achieving yet another All-Time High yesterday (3715) is at present (3681) above its Neutral Zone for today, as is Oil; the balance of the BEGOS Markets are within same, and volatility is light with key inflation data pending these next two days. The S&P 500, whilst not exceeding its all-time intraday high (6533 last Friday), settled yesterday at an all-time closing high of 6513. For the Spoo, its “Baby Blues” (see Market Trends) having in real-time stopped their descent; however that doesn’t preclude significant market downside it being September and the S&P “priced to perfection” incorporating a Fed rate cut. Still as noted, the final two pieces in the Fed’s inflation puzzle come today via August’s PPI which spiked in July, and tomorrow for the CPI which may well be upwardly affected by the July PPI as it leads the CPI by a month. Mind the Econ Baro.

09 September 2025 – 08:51 Central Euro Time

Oil is at present the only BEGOS Market outside (above) its Neutral Zone for today; session volatility is light. Gold’s run of All-Time Highs is furthering itself, trading thus far up to 3699; Silver is lagging in price, albeit is still north of 40 having reached 42.07 in this session, (Monday’s high having been 42.36). At Market Trends, with the exception of Oil for which its 21-day linreg trend is flat, all other seven BEGOS components are in uptrends; however specific to the Spoo, its “Baby Blues” of trend consistency are (in real-time) falling for a sixth consecutive trading day as such uptrend becomes less positive; too by Market Values, the Spoo (in real-time) is +101 points “high” above its smooth valuation line. Specific to the S&P 500 itself, its futs-adj’d P/E is 44.7x and the yield 1.190%; the “risk-free” annualized 3-month T-Bill’s yield compared at 3.928%. Nothing is due today for the Econ Baro.

08 September 2025 – 08:42 Central Euro Time

Presently, both Copper and Oil are above today’s Neutral Zones; none of the other BEGOS Markets are below same, and volatility is moderate. The Gold Update notes yet another All-Time High for the yellow metal (3656) from Friday, price having modestly come off a bit today (3634); however by Market Values, Gold (in real-time) is +241 points “high” above its smooth valuation line; still per Market Trends, Gold’s “Baby Blues” (as too are those for Silver) of linreg consistency continue to climb. The Economic highlights of an otherwise fairly quiet week for the Econ Baro are Wednesday’s PPI for August and CPI on Thursday: we’ll see if July’s PPI inflation spike leads into a higher CPI for August. Else, the poor employment data as detailed in The Gold Update certainly secures a Fed rate cut come 17 September. Late in today’s session we’ve July’s Consumer Credit.

The Gold Update: No. 825 – (06 September 2025) – “Is Gold (Again) Getting Ahead of Itself?”

The Gold Update by Mark Mead Baillie — 825th Edition — Monte-Carlo — 06 September 2025 (published each Saturday) — www.deMeadville.com

Is Gold (Again) Getting Ahead of Itself?

Today is 06 September 2025.  Do you recall up to where Gold traded on this very date 14 years ago?

“On this day in 2011 price reached an all-time high of 1923, right mmb?

Precisely so, Squire, yet then for nearly nine years ’twas never higher.  Rather, from that landmark day’s All-Time High of 1923, Gold embarked on an almost -46% correction to as low as 1045 on 03 December 2015, before fully recovering through the ensuing four and one-half years to reach 1942 on 27 July 2020 whilst COVID cloaked the globe.

And long-time readers may recall ’twas shortly after 06 September 2011 — indeed on 01 October 2011 in the 98th Edition of The Gold Update — we wrote that Gold had gotten “ahead of itself”.  As above shown in the righthand panel of the Gold Scoreboard, the price of Gold as graphed was exceeding the track of the green “M2” money supply line.

Now fast forward to today’s title, we query same:  “Is Gold (Again) Getting Ahead of Itself?”  The answer is (a little drumroll please…):  

NoBut’tis not far from so doing!  Again per the Scoreboard, Gold settled its week yesterday (Friday) at 3640, an All-Time Closing High, recording en route an All-Time Intraday High of 3656.  And the current Dollar debasement value for Gold — even in duly adjusting for its own supply increase — is 3864.  That’s just +224 points (+6.2%) higher than here.  So given that Gold’s current EWTR (“expected weekly trading range”) is presently 124 points, come September’s end, Gold truly may have again gotten ahead of itself.  ‘Tis not a prediction, but well worth minding.

Too, by our Market Value graphic for Gold (wherein price’s movement is measured vis-à-vis those of the other primary markets which comprise BEGOS (Bond / Euro / Gold / Oil / S&P 500), the yellow metal shows as currently +253 points “high” above valuation to which it always reverts (be it up or down) … just in case you’re scoring at home:

 

“But mmb, are you getting bearish then on Gold?

Oh heavens no, dear Squire.  We’re merely sensitive to the fact that markets don’t move in a straight line, (save, ‘twould seem, for the ever-higher S&P 500).  As noted and per the above oscillator, price always reverts to the BEGOS valuation, which itself too (albeit more ponderously) rises and falls.

Meanwhile making the rounds in the midst of it all is a Goldman Sachs call (should the Fed fall) for Gold 5000.  We read the FinTimes piece of GS’ warning over “Trump political this” and “lost confidence that”.  But despite the mention of inflation, hardly was the key driver of Gold’s value directly stated:  again, (for you WestPalmBeachers down there) ’tis Dollar debasement.

So typically as is our wont, we did the math.  And to the nearest trillion, were the Federal Reserve to add another $6T to the StateSide money supply, ‘twould “equate” to valuing Gold at 5000.  Albeit, you’ll recall the $7T accommodation for COVID instead benefitted the S&P 500 rather than Gold.  Which is why the S&P to this day remains so dangerously overvalued:  “How’s that 45.3x price/earnings ratio workin’ out for ya?”  Cue Nat King Cole in parody from ’51: “Unsustainable…”.

Certainly sustaining its weekly Long trends is Gold as we turn to those bars from one year ago-to-date.  Our wee friend therein points toward present price being high above the dashed linear trendline; however the blue-dotted parabolic Long trend now seven weeks in duration offers 421 points of safe space between here (3640) and there (3219).  Note too how our forecast high for this year (3262) is providing support at its green line.  All-in-all, quite the bullish picture to this point:

More broadly, here we’ve daily Gold from our opening discourse about price having gotten ahead of itself away back there in 2011.  Came the aforementioned correction, followed by years of battling ad nauseum in and about “The Box” (1240-1280, remember that?)  Yet now in retrospect, we surely can say “You’ve come a long way, baby!”

More recently, the Economic Barometer had been making its own way back up … until this past week having gone bottoms-up.  Of the 13 incoming metrics, just five improved period-over-period, notably so for August both the Manufacturing and Services readings from the Institute for Supply Management.  Too, Productivity for Q2 was revised sharply higher from the initial +2.4% read to +3.3% … and you know what that means:  less jobs!

Thus barring inflation having spiked (as shall be determined in the new week), here comes the 17 September Fed cut, because for August, both ADP’S Employment and Labor’s Payrolls data were poor.  ADP reported job creation of less than 100k for the fifth time in the past seven months, prior to which such benchmark had not been missed since September 2023.  And Labor missed the 100k mark for the third consecutive month.  ‘Twill be interesting to see if the leading pace of July’s very  inflationary  Producer Price Index (+0.9%) feeds into that for August’s Consumer Price Index come Thursday.  Stay tuned…

Too, we must acknowledge the S&P 500 yesterday having reached another record high (6533), before taking a -51-point drubbing into the close (6482).  We see a wary September wearing on, so much so that we made this “X” remark (@deMeadvillePro) earlier in the week prior to yesterday’s still higher high:

The S&P 500 ‘September Storm’ (per The Gold Update) is beginning.  How low do we go?

  • High: (28 August) 6508
  • Gap fill (08 May): 5720 (-12%)
  • Golden Ratio (high to 07 April low): 5474 (-16%)
  • 07 April low re-test: 4835 (-26%)
  • Current P/E:  44.1x”

  • As for record-setting Gold, here next we’ve our classic two-panel display of price’s daily bars from three months ago-to-date on the left and 10-day Market Profile on the right.  Gold may be getting a tad stretched, but the baby blue dots of day-to-day trend consistency are nicely on the up move.

    Too for Silver, here’s the like graphic.  Her new-found 40s held through the entire week as she traded from as low as 40.56 to as high as 42.29.  The “Baby Blues’ (below left) are getting a bit of a boost, whilst by her Profile (below right) 41.60 shows as the most volume-dominant price of the past fortnight.  “Way to go, Sister Silver!”

    So to close for you, how stormy is becoming the September view?

    Even if ahead of itself, ‘tis best to keep Gold in your investment queue!

    Cheers!

    …m…

    05 September 2025 – 08:25 Central Euro Time

    Basis the Spoo (6527) adjusted for fair value, the S&P 500 would open at an all-time high come 13:30 GMT, given yesterday’s poor ADP data “ensuring” a Fed rate cute (17 Sep). At present, the Spoo is above its Neutral Zone for today, as the other BEGOS Markets, save for the Swiss Franc and Oil being within same; session volatility is light-to-moderate. Going ’round the Market Values horn in real-time for the five primary BEGOS components: the Bond is +0^28 “high” above its smooth valuation line, the Euro essentially in sync with its valuation line, Gold +225 points “high”, Oil -2.30 points “low” and the Spoo +137 points “high”. Is Gold again getting ahead of itself? More on that in tomorrow’s 825th consecutive Saturday edition of The Gold Update. In the interim, the Econ Baro awaits August’s payrolls data, wherein we’ll see if bad continues to be good for the S&P.

    04 September 2025 – 08:25 Central Euro Time

    Each element of the Metals Triumvirate is presently below today’s Neutral Zones; the other BEGOS Markets are within same, and volatility is moderate, noting that Gold — after having traded yesterday up to another All-Time High at 3640 — has today already traced 106% of its EDTR (see Market Ranges). Currently 3592, Gold is (in real-time)+210 points above its smooth valuation line (see Market Values). At Market Trends, the Spoo’s “Baby Blues” of linreg consistency are in real-time falling for a third consecutive session. Looking at Market Rhythms for pure swing consistency, on a 10-test basis our current leaders are the Spoo’s 60mn Price Oscillator, and both Copper’s 2hr Moneyflow and 15mn Parabolics; for the 24-test basis they are the Euro’s 1hr MACD, plus Silver’s Parabolics on both the 4hr and 6hr timeframes. Today’s incoming Econ Baro metrics include (ahead of tomorrow’s key Labor report) August’s ADP Employment data and ISM(Svc) Index, July’s Trade Deficit, and the revision to Q2’s Productivity and Unit Labor Costs.

    03 September 2025 – 08:20 Central Euro Time

    We’ve presently the Bond, Copper and Spoo all below their respective Neutral Zones for today; none of the other BEGOS Markets are above same, and volatility is light-to-moderate; watch over the ensuing days our Market Ranges page for EDTRs to expand. The Spoo yesterday recovered the bulk of its intra-session loss; however by Market Trends, the Spoo’s “Baby Blues” of linreg consistency dropped as they are further so doing in real-time today: this is indicatively leading of the uptrend beginning a rotation from positive to negative perhaps during the course of next week; see our post yesterday on “X” ( @deMeadvillePro ) as to how low the S&P looks to go. Gold continues its run of All-Time Highs, thus far today reaching 3617, albeit today Silver has not been participating with Copper as noted being down. For the Econ Baro we’ve July’s Factory Orders; then late in the session comes the Fed’s Tan Tome.

    02 September 2025 – 08:32 Central Euro Time

    The BEGOS Markets’ two-day session continues, Gold having furthered its All-Time High to 3578 and Silver having traded up to one pip below 42.000 at 41.995; also above its Neutral Zone is Oil and the Bond is below same; volatility for the combined two days is largely robust, albeit the Spoo has been the least rangy of the bunch in tracing only 53% of its EDTR (see Market Ranges) given the absence of the S&P 500 not trading yesterday. As stocks commence their historically-worst month, the “live” futs-adj’d P/E of the S&P is 44.7x and by Market Values the Spoo is (in real-time) +101 points above its smooth valuation line. The Econ Baro begins its week with August’s ISM(Mfg) Index and July’s Construction Spending.

    01 September 2025 – 08:41 Central Euro Time

    Gold starts September with a fresh All-Time High up to 3554; The Gold Update emphasizes Silver’s recent run, price this morning up to as high as 41.64. Both precious metals along with Copper, the Euro and Swiss Franc are at present all above today’s Neutral Zones; the Bond is below same, and BEGOS Markets’ volatility is moderate-to-robust into what is a two-day session given the StateSide holiday. Amongst the five primary BEGOS components, our best correlation remains positive between the Euro and Gold.  Staggered holiday halts (save for the EuroCurrencies) begin from 17:00 GMT, the all-in Tuesday session resuming across the board at 22:00 GMT.

    The Gold Update: No. 824 – (30 August 2025) – “Gold Lookin’ Sporty; Silver Lovin’ Forty!”

    The Gold Update by Mark Mead Baillie — 824th Edition — Monte-Carlo — 30 August 2025 (published each Saturday) — www.deMeadville.com

    Gold Lookin’ Sporty; Silver Lovin’ Forty!

    Absolutely we must start with Sweet Sister Silver.  By her “continuous contract” (the front month for which is now December), she attained $40/oz. yesterday for the first time since (deep breath!) 21 September 2011; (for you math-challenged WestPalmBeachers down there, that is essentially 14 years ago).  “Brava, Brava, Sista Silva!!”

    ‘Tis been long overdue, and yet Silver still remains “La Cheapa”.  In settling out the week and August yesterday (Friday) at 40.75, the Gold/Silver ratio now at 86.3x nonetheless remains excessively above the century-to-date average of 69.3x.  Thus as fabulous as ’tis to see Silver lovin’ $40/oz., were she priced today at that ratio’s average, she’d instead be +25% higher at $50/oz., (indeed at 50.76 for those of you scoring at home).

    As for good old Gold, price settled the week lookin’ sporty at 3516, which too by its “continuous contract” (also now December) is another All-Time Closing High on both a daily and weekly basis; however the All-Time Intraday High remains 3431 from three weeks prior on 08 August.  But “sluggish seasonality” aside, we’ll take it.  Here are Gold’s weekly bars from a year ago-to-date, the rightmost blue-dotted parabolic Long trend nicely in place with price itself sitting upon the dashed regression trendline:

     

    And whilst September is the worst month of the year for S&P 500, (as herein penned a week ago that “…through the 24 Septembers century-to-date, that month’s cumulative S&P change is -32.3%…”), ’tis been for Gold on balance a decent month, its past 24 Septembers netting an all-in gain of +7.2%.  Too, by current conventional wisdom, Gold stands to benefit from this next 17 September Federal Open Market Committee vote to cut the FundsRate by -0.25%.  Butought they so do?  Let’s go to our completed StateSide inflation summary table for July, bearing in mind that red backgrounds are in excess of the Fed’s inflation target of 2%…

    …and “Uh-oh, say it ain’t so…” every measure now is backed in red.  ‘Course that can be resolved with a rate hike … else exacerbated with a rate cut.  Plus for August, both wholesale and retail inflation data shall be reported the week prior to the FOMC’s Policy Statement.  Either way, if next week brings poor data for August’s payrolls, that shall be cut-friendly.

    “But mmb, if jobs go down and inflation goes up, then what?

    ‘Twould be ever so stagflative, dear Squire, such that the Fed may have to simply sit on its hands in being “…attentive to the risks to both sides of its dual mandate…”  Not great.  Add in the ongoing, ridiculous overvaluation of the S&P 500, and September may not be a very happy month, (unless one holds Gold).

    Indeed as we next turn to our year-to-date standings of the BEGOS Markets, the Metals Triumvirate continues to own the podium, with Silver (as we’ve herein anticipated) rightly topping the stack in regaining $40/oz. by her rallying comeback:

    Therein we also see the severely-stretched S&P 500 up +9.8% to this point, but actually underperforming the full percentage changes of the prior two years.  And now with September in the balance, ‘twouldn’t be untoward by year-end to find the S&P in the red (see later our closing graphic).

    Yet in looking at the BEGOS bunch across the past 21 trading days (one month), let’s go ’round the horn by their respective daily bars, grey trendlines and “Baby Blues”, the dots which depict each trend’s day-to-day consistency.  And specific to the Bond, yesterday was its worst net daily change since 15 August, that day having been a week prior to non-committal FedChair Powell in Jackson Hole.  So, are the “Bond Ghouls” (hat-tip the late Louis Rukeyser) thinking the Fed may not cut come 17 September?  That would not make for a happy head of The Executive Branch in Washington: 

    However on a happier note, let’s go to Gold’s percentage track from one year ago-to-date along with our usual top-tier precious metals equities.  And from “worst-to-first” — the leverage of the equities over Gold really now standing out — they rank as:  Gold itself +38%, Newmont (NEM) +41%, Franco-Nevada (FNV) +51%, Pan American Silver (PAAS) +60%, the VanEck Vectors Gold Miners exchange-traded fund (GDX) +61%, the Global X Silver Miners exchange-traded fund (SIL) +72%, and Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM) +75%.  Cue Steve Miller from back in ’76: “Fly Like an Eagle”:

    Next let’s zoom in on the 10-day Market Profiles for Gold on the left and our star player Sister Silver on the right, the respective white bars being yesterday’s settles.  To borrow from a 1913 newspaper advertisement for Ohio’s Piqua Auto Supply House, “One look is worth a thousand words“.  Thus in this case, nothing else need be said:

    Too, words are challenging by which to come as we turn to Gold’s Structure per the monthly bars since 2010.  But unlike the S&P 500 — which for month-after-month has been valued pathetically beyond perfection despite unsupportive earnings — Gold remains priced (per our opening Scoreboard) at a discount to Dollar debasement.  Got Gold?

    For this week’s missive we’ve saved the Economic Barometer toward the end as it segues well with what we’re perceiving as the perfect September storm.  As aforementioned, across the past 24 years the S&P 500’s cumulative percentage changes for September come to -32.3%; moreover from the “7/11 Dept.”, seven of the past 11 Septembers have finished in the red.  And what if en rout the Fed does not budge on 17 September?

    Again, August job creation (or lack thereof) works in the Fed’s cutting favour.  And the Chicago Purchasing Managers’ Index for the month just came in as quite sour, down from July’s 47.1 — and missing by a mile the consensus for 46.0 — at 41.5.  Yet on the other hand, (hat-tip Bloomy), Chicago FedPrez (and FOMC voting member) Austan “The Gools” Goolsbee is less concerned about the employment picture than the inflation outlook.  Also, both Personal Income and Spending increased their paces for July.  Further too, of the past week’s 12 incoming Econ Baro metrics, just four were worse period-over-period.  Therefore:  does apparent economic strength warrant cutting the rate?  The perfect September storm indeed:

    Thus into September we go with this friendly graphic reminder:

    Reprised query:  “Do you know where your stops are?”

    Here’s to Gold and Super Stellar Silver!

    Cheers!

    …m…

    29 August 2025 – 08:45 Central Euro Time

    At present we’ve Copper above its Neutral Zone for today; all the other BEGOS Markets are within same, and session volatility is expectedly light ahead of July’s PCE data which shall be a key determinant (12:30 GMT) as to the FOMC’s 17 September rate decision. A reduced “core” reading of +0.2% ought spike the Spoo to still further record levels, whereas a +0.4% would initiate selling; consensus calls for +0.3%. The S&P 500 yesterday settled above 6500 (6501.86) for its first time, albeit the MoneyFlow for the session actually was negative, (see S&P MoneyFlow); the futs-adj’d “live” P/E is now 46.0x. Silver seems to be making a bid to trade at $40/oz., a level not seen since 21 September 2022: indeed, Silver’s “high if an up day” for this session is 40.26; either way, more on Silver in tomorrow’s 824th consecutive Saturday edition of The Gold Update. In addition to the PCE, the Econ Baro also awaits July’s Personal Income/Spending, plus August’s Chi PMI and revised UofM Sentiment Survey.

    28 August 2025 – 08:38 Central Euro Time

    Both the Bond and Silver are presently above today’s Neutral Zones; Oil is below same, and BEGOS Markets’ volatility is again light. In looking at Market Rhythms for pure swing consistency, our Top Three on a 10-best basis all pertain to the Swiss Franc: its 15mn MACD, 15mn Moneyflow and 30mn Parabolics; on a 24-test basis the leaders are currently again the Swiss Franc’s 15mn Moneyflow, plus the Bond’s 30mn MACD and Gold’s 6hr parabolics. The shorter time frames of these leading Rhythms reflect the narrowing EDTRs (see Market Ranges) of late as the “Dog Days of August” wind down before what we see as a chaotic September in the offing, especially with respect to extreme equities’ overvaluation and a return to reality. Amongst today’s incoming Econ Baro metrics are July’s Pending Home Sales and the first revision to Q2 GDP.

    27 August 2025 – 08:42 Central Euro Time

    The Euro, Swiss Franc, Gold and Copper are all at present below their respective Neutral Zones for today; none the the other BEGOS Markets are above same, and volatility is light. Yesterday’s 27-point gain in the S&P 500 was almost all NVDA (in regressing its moneyflow contribution into S&P points): in other words had the stock been “unch”, too would have been the S&P; NVDA is currently 7.791% of the S&P with a market cap 52x its balance sheet net worth; whilst we’re really not stocks-specific, ’tis well known the company’s earnings are released post-session today, just as Friday shall have all eyes on the “Fed-favoured” PCE for July. The “live” (futs-adj’d) P/E of the S&P is 45.8x and the yield 1.197%. Nothing is due today for the Econ Baro.

    26 August 2025 – 08:40 Central Euro Time

    The Bond at present is the sole BEGOS Market outside (below) today’s Neutral Zone; session volatility is moderate, with Gold notably active having already traced 94% of its EDTR (see Market Ranges) before having now returned to its Neutral Zone. The Bond’s 21-day linreg trend (see Market Trends) has provisionally rotated from positive to negative, in line with increasing inflation concerns such that there is no guarantee of a 17 September FedFunds rate cut, (between now and then there being the PCE, PPI and CPI). At Market Values for the five primary BEGOS components, we’ve no extreme deviations. Copper’s cac volume has rolled from September into that for December; following suit over the next day or two shall be Silver and the Bond. The Econ Baro awaits August’s Consumer Confidence and July’s Durable Orders.

    25 August 2025 – 08:17 Central Euro Time

    In commencing the week we’ve at present both the Bond and Swiss Franc below today’s Neutral Zones; the rest of the BEGOS Markets are within same, and session volatility is light. The Gold Update cites the yellow metal having just recorded its narrowest trading week of the year-to-date, even in the euphoria of an “assumed” FedFunds cut come 17 September, our stance to which is far more skeptical as inflation seemingly is increasing: next Friday’s PCE report for July may instill discouragement for the S&P which rallied last week to within two points (6479) of the all-time high (6481). ‘Tis a fairly busy week for the Econ Baro, beginning today with July’s New Home Sales.

    The Gold Update: No. 823 – (23 August 2025) – “Gold Gains a Little; Dollar Drools Spittle; Powell Non-Committal”

    The Gold Update by Mark Mead Baillie — 823rd Edition — Monte-Carlo — 23 August 2025 (published each Saturday) — www.deMeadville.com

    Gold Gains a Little; Dollar Drools Spittle; Powell Non-Committal

    With reference to the above title’s adjective “non-committal”, let’s open with another of our infamous pop quizzes!  Ready?

    In Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s address yesterday (Friday) from ever-stunningly magnificent Jackson Hole, how many times did he say either the word “reduce” or “cut”?

    By FinMedia reports, multitudinous times.  Hat-tip NBC News in quoting one independent strategist:

    • “Today’s speech could not be more clear that Powell is ready to cut rates on September 17th…”

    But if you said “Not once!” — that neither “reduce” nor “cut” was mentioned — you are correct!

    Thus, the highlight of the “Nuthin’ but Fed!” week was The Chairman (to invoke an apt double negative) not saying the Open Market Committee would not cut rates.  Still, to his credit, he acknowledged the Fed’s current monetary stance as “modestly restrictive” such that the Eccles Building bunch shall “carefully” proceed to assess if conditions “may warrant” a shift in policy.

    But in which direction? Clearly from the opposite end of the spectrum, the prior week’s report of wholesale inflation via July’s Producer Price Index may well warrant a rate hike, given that month’s annualized +10.8% pace.  (Such fact was deftly skirted in the address, but sorry Jay baby,  somebody has to do the math).

    Regardless, more observed in the offing (double entendre) come the “Fed-favoured” Personal Consumption Expenditures’ readings for July (due next Friday, 29 August) followed by August’s PPI (10 September) and (yikes?) Consumer Price Index (11 September).  Then we’ve the FOMC’s Policy Statement (17 September), centered in the month which for the S&P 500 historically is at its worst:  through the 24 Septembers century-to-date, that month’s cumulative S&P change is -32.3%.

    Either way, equities enthusiasts interpreted The Chairman’s remarks as 100% confirmation the Fed will cut its FundsRate on 17 September:  ’tis already a done deal, which in turn elicited the S&P 500 returning up to within two points (at 6479) of its all-time high (6481) in sporting the year’s 12th-best net daily gain (+1.5%). The mighty Index settled its week at 6467, putting the “live” price/earnings ratio at an affordable 45.5x and ever so attractive yield at 1.215%; (yes, for you WestPalmBeachers down there, ’tis italicized cynicism).

    So with the perception, (or perhaps better stated, “hope”) of cheaper StateSide money on the way, the Dollar drooled spittle.  The currency’s concoction called “Dixie” suffered on Friday its 13th-worst single-day high-to-low percentage drop (-1.3%) through the 166 trading sessions year-to-date, (just in case you’re scoring at home).  For when the U.S pays less, elsewhere may be best:  by sovereign rates, within “Dixie”, Canada (4.95%) tops the U.S. (4.50%); or beyond that, for example, there’s Iceland’s Króna (7.50%) if one can absorb a currency-risk profile that is more chilling.

    ‘Course here at deMeadville, we prefer an alternative currency:  Gold … albeit hardly is it robust at present.  For bang on time following last week’s piece “Gold Sensing Seasonal Sluggishness”, price just recorded (both by points and percentage) its narrowest trading week of the 34 year-to-date, toward settling at 3417. From low-to-high, Gold’s up week spanned “only” +70 points (+2.1%), netting a change of just half that.  Here ’tis as Gold gains a little:

    Indeed, Gold’s weekly parabolic trend remains comfortably Long with -241 points of “wiggle room” down to the ensuing week’s “flip-to-Short” level of 3176.  And any further foaming-at-the-mouth by the Dollar’s decline generally works favourably for Gold.  However, we duly point out that price’s daily parabolic trend is now Short as of last Tuesday.

    Yet, have a look at this next measure for assessing the ebb and flow of Gold:  direct from the both the website’s Market Rhythms and Gold pages, we bring you price’s 12-hour MACD (moving average convergence divergence).  With our usual disclaimer that nothing in hindsight works in perpetuity, this Market Rhythm of late has been top-rate.  The 10 most recent crossings (from 30 May-to-date) of the 12-hour MACD have produced — again in hindsight — minimum price follow-throughs of 20+ points either Long or Short, (even as “Shorting Gold is a bad idea”).

    But we’ve this cautionary note thereto:  as suggested, the perfection of hindsight calculates exiting at 20 points of gain, for instead if having purely swung from one signal to the next — in turn suffering “give back” — ‘twould have been a consistently losing proposition.  Therefore (yet again):  cash management, as ever, is King.  Still, let’s graphically look at Gold’s 12-hour bars across the past five months:  when the MACD is positive, price is in green, else in red if the MACD is negative, such as to portray a reasonable sense of near-term direction.  At the foot of the graphic is the track of the MACD itself.

    “But hardly is it perfection, mmb, as you say there’s a lot of ‘give back’ in every case…

    For which we’ve obligingly noted, Squire, per the aforementioned cash management quip.  Market Rhythms can be profitable along the trail, but eventually fail as the trend turns tail.

    And talking of turning tail, the Economic Barometer is appearing a bit pale.  To be sure, Spring’s decline reversed into Summer’s climb.  But since the Baro’s recent peak (31 July), reports have not been as sweet … which ought eventuate into a FedFunds rate cut, barring inflation’s eliciting a stagflative gut-punch.

    Thus far in August, the Econ Baro has taken in 37 metrics, of which only 14 (38%) have improved period-over-period.  So hardly was it a surprise that Thursday’s lagging indicators for July per the Conference Board’s report of “Leading Indicators” came in at -0.1%.  ‘Tis the sixth month in the past seven such measure has been negative … “so someone please fax the Fed and tell them to cut right now!”  Anyhooo, here’s the Baro as the “Dog Days of August” continue:

    Meanwhile, to Gold’s two-panel display we next go featuring the daily bars from three months ago-to-date on the left and 10-day Market Profile on the right.  The Dollar’s end-of-week demise gave Gold some rise, albeit by the track of the baby blue dots depicting regression trend consistency, seasonal sluggishness continues.  The good news is per Gold’s Profile, present price appears well volume-supported:

    With the similar graphic display for Silver, whilst her price track (below left) remains much like that of the yellow metal, Friday’s “Powell Boost” moved the white metal well up into her Profile (below right).  That in turn brought the Gold/Silver ratio down to now 87.9x, its lowest daily reading so far this month.  ‘Course, with the ratio’s century-to-date average at 69.3x, Sister Silver is still a steal relative to Gold.  And as we mused two missives ago, 40.00 Silver is not that far to go from here at 38.80:

    To wrap, ’tis the Stack.

    The Gold Stack (continuous contract pricing):

    Gold’s Value per Dollar Debasement, (from our opening “Scoreboard”):  3864
    Gold’s All-Time Intra-Day High:  3534 (08 August 2025)
    2025’s High:  3534 (08 August 2025)
    Gold’s All-Time Closing High:  3483 (07 August 2025)
    Trading Resistance:  by the Profile, none of note
    Gold Currently:  3417, (expected daily trading range [“EDTR”]:  44 points)
    Trading Support:  by the Profile 3417 / 3405 / 3394 / 3383 / 3369
    10-Session “volume-weighted” average price magnet:  3394
    10-Session directional range:  down to to 3354 (from 3465) = -111 points or -3.2%
    The Weekly Parabolic Price to flip Short:  3176
    The 300-Day Moving Average:  2883 and rising
    2025’s Low:  2625 (06 January)
    The 2000’s Triple-Top:  2089 (07 Aug ’20); 2079 (08 Mar’22); 2085 (04 May ’23)
    The Gateway to 2000:  1900+
    The Final Frontier:  1800-1900
    The Northern Front:  1800-1750
    On Maneuvers:  1750-1579
    The Floor:  1579-1466
    Le Sous-sol:  Sub-1466
    The Support Shelf:  1454-1434
    Base Camp:  1377
    The 1360s Double-Top:  1369 in Apr ’18 preceded by 1362 in Sep ’17
    Neverland:  The Whiny 1290s
    The Box:  1280-1240

    Next we’ve Summer’s final snoozer week for August … but for the Econ Baro robust?  Or a just a bust?  12 incoming metrics are scheduled including as aforementioned on Friday “The Big One”:  July’s PCEWhat shall it be?  One can wait and see…

    Or garner more Gold if you please!

    Cheers!

    …m…

    22 August 2025 – 08:28 Central Euro Time

    Presently we find the Euro along with Gold below their respective Neutral Zones for today, the Dollar continuing to get a bid throughout the week; the rest of the BEGOS Markets are within their Neutral Zones, and volatility — not surprisingly ahead of the FedChair’s address (14:00 ET) — is quite light. Equities may not take kindly to lack of affirmation for a FedFunds rate cut; clearly July’s PPI spike is an inflationary concern upon which we’ll again address in tomorrow’s 823rd consecutive Saturday edition of The Gold Update. Should the S&P 500 “let go” over the ensuing trading days, there is a structural support “island” spanning from 6059 down to 5767, the mid-point of which is 5913; instead should the FedChair put a rate cut on the table, we’d expect the S&P to resume rallying. The Econ Baro concluded its week yesterday, as posted on its page.

    21 August 2025 – 08:33 Central Euro Time

    Both the Swiss Franc and Gold are presently below today’s Neutral Zones; the other BEGOS Markets are within same, and volatility is very light. Despite the S&P 500 having made “lower lows” for three days in a row, the Index nonetheless remains technically “textbook overbought”, and obviously by any fundamental yardstick, dangerously overvalued, the fut’s-adj “live” P/E now 44.8x. Do mind an eye on the S&P MoneyFlow page: the outflow in recent days has been notably larger than the decline in the Index itself, the cumulative regressed differential for the past five sessions being -282 more flow points than actual S&P points lost; again, this is a valued leading indicator for lower levels ahead. Our best correlation amongst the five primary BEGOS components is currently positive between the Euro and Gold. And the Econ Baro concludes its own week today with metrics including August’s Philly Fed Index, plus July’s Existing Home Sales and Leading (i.e. “lagging”) Indicators.

    20 August 2025 – 08:07 Central Euro Time

    Presently, only the Spoo is outside (below) its Neutral Range for today; volatility for the BEGOS Markets to this time of day remains lights. Ahead of the “Friday Fed”, the S&P 500 is seemingly a bit worried of a rate cut not being soon on the table, unless July’s PPI spike was a “one-off”; the Spoo (6417) has found its Market Profile support area ’round 6414 basically holding; should 6400 break, the next volume-supportive area is 6372-6368. By our Market Rhythms for pure swing consistency, the best on a 10-test basis are currently the Bond’s 30mn Parabolics, the Swiss Franc’s daily Price Oscillator and Silver’s 4hr MACD, whilst on a 24-test basis we’ve Silver’s 1hr Price Oscillator, the Bond’s 15mn MACD and Oil’s 8hr MACD. Nothing is due for the Econ Baro; then late in the session we’ve the FOMC’s Minutes from its 29-30 July meeting.

    19 August 2025 – 08:30 Central Euro Time

    Silver is presently the sole BEGOS Market outside (below) its Neutral Zone for today; session volatility is again light, as has become the overall state of the BEGOS components throughout the trading day: first they’ve been on hold for UKR at White House, then for UKR allies at White House, and next at week’s-end for FedChair at Jackson Hole; thus again, the Dog Days of August are in full swing. For the Spoo (currently 6459) by its Market Profile, the volume-dominant overhead resistor is 6468, whereas it appears as “nothing but air” from here down to 6414, were some selling to ensue, albeit we don’t see much directional impetus either way until the Friday’s Fed is out of the way. Still, the S&P 500 remains beyond extremely overvalued, the “live” (fut’s adj’d) P/E 46.2x at this moment. July’s Housing Starts/Permits come due for the Econ Baro.

    18 August 2025 – 08:31 Central Euro Time

    The week begins with, at present, all eight BEGOS Markets inside their respective Neutral Zones for today; session volatility is light. The Gold Update speaks to its typical “seasonal sluggishness” as we now laze through the Dog Days of August; both the weekly and daily parabolic trends for Gold remain Long, however the latter has little downside room with which to work: currently 3393, the daily “flip-to-Short” price for today is 3365, well within range given’s Gold’s EDTR (see Market Ranges) of 48 points. Q2 Earnings Seasons has concluded: for the S&P 500, whilst 79% of the constituents beat estimates, 67% actually improved from Q2 a year ago; that’s a pip above the average of 66% generally improving from 2017-to-date. For the Econ Baro ’tis a fairly muted week, starting today with August’s NAHB Housing Index.

    The Gold Update: No. 822 – (16 August 2025) – “Gold Sensing Seasonal Sluggishness”

    The Gold Update by Mark Mead Baillie — 822nd Edition — Monte-Carlo — 16 August 2025 (published each Saturday) — www.deMeadville.com

    Gold Sensing Seasonal Sluggishness

    When we blow it, we’re obliged to show it.  For after last week’s scintillating song and dance about a “Double Shot of that Golden Love”, Gold this past week succumbed as a fallen dove, now further facing a stint of “sluggish seasonality” per the shaded strip in the above graphic encompassing these last four years.

    “Well, don’t beat up on yourself too much, mmb, as you did leave the door open for a down week…

    And “down” indeed was this past week’s direction, Squire, Gold settling yesterday (Friday) at 3382, price sporting just its 11th lower week of the 33 year-to-date, and therein the fifth worst of those 11 downers by both percentage (-2.2%) and points (-77).  But to Squire’s observance, let’s update our cautionary graphic from a week ago of John Bollinger’s Bands on Gold by the day since April.  This is the original graphic then presented, onto which we’ve added the past week’s five trading days:

    You’ll recall a week ago our opining that — despite Gold having pierced the upper band — that this time price would break even more to the upside (the “?”) rather than decline (the “!”) as otherwise has been its wont as you can see per the prior “white lines” following such upside piercings.  So technically the upper band as a barrier again prevailed, as did fundamentally the 180° reversal on the initial Swiss Gold “Trump Tariff!”  price spike.  Note too in the graphic that Gold’s recently new daily parabolic Long trend (the rightmost blue dots below price) appears to be nearing its end.

    Fortunately as we turn to Gold’s bars from a year ago-to-date, the blue-dotted weekly parabolic Long trend is still easily in force, price today at 3382 substantially above the “flip-to-Short” level for the coming week of 3162, albeit as entitled, “sluggish seasonality” may be ensuing:

     

    Indeed as highlighted by the shaded band in our opening Gold Scoreboard, we are entering what through the years has been a period of “sluggish seasonality” for Gold:  century-to-date, the median net change for Gold across these next three calendar weeks has been 2% either way.  ‘Tis that time of year when the so-called “Dog Days of August” remind us from mid-month onward that vacations still linger ahead of the markets’ September hand-wringer.  For even as the “Casino 500” (its “live” price/earnings ratio now 46.3x) ascends ever further up into the Stoopid Zone, the amount of money requisite today to move the mighty S&P one point is but 50% of that just two months ago on 16 June.

    ‘Course, that won’t be on CNBS, but we are very wary of just how thin (emboldened) markets have become, which adds of course to the case for a massive “correction” (mildly put) come the fall (double entendre).  Query:  do you know where your equities’ stops are?

    “But Q2 Earnings Season just finished and it was pretty good, eh mmb?

    Squire, ’twas fairly ok.  As usual, the FinMedia fawned all over the beating of estimates (marketing tool) rather than comparatively assessing results vis-à-vis the prior year’s like quarter (your investment).

    Specific to the S&P 500, 79% of the 435 reporting constituents exceeded analysts’ estimates, the largest percentage since Q2 of 2024.  As to the far more important reality of companies actually having made more money for shareholders, such ignored stat of 67% so did:  that’s one pip above the 66% average for such year-over-year quarterly improvement across the past nine years.  Here’s our chart by the quarter since 2017 for the percentage of reports beating estimates versus actually improving, (the dashed green line being the evolving average thereto):

    And thus speaking of stocks, let’s straightaway segue to the Economic Barometer along with the S&P 500 (red line) from a year ago-to-date.  The S&P seemingly is making new highs by the day (regardless of constituents’ earnings support, and often the lack thereof), whilst the Econ Baro after its recent up binge is suddenly suffering a bit of a twinge.  The Baro took in 15 metrics this past week … of which only five bettered their prior period.  Thus from the “Math Dept.”  it stands to reason that rising stock prices + frail metric improvements = higher price/earnings ratios (meaning for those of you scoring at home that ’tis difficult for economically-challenged earnings to keep pace with higher stock prices).  ‘Course in this Investing Age of Stoopid, nobody cares (yet). Have a nice day:

    Moreover, therein came came the Whopper of the Week:  per the above graphic, wholesale inflation for July as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Producer Price Index roared in at +0.9% for both the headline and core readings, in turning bringing the headline 12-month summation to +2.9%, that for the core to +3.3%, and both annualized strictly by July to (deep breath…) +10.8%!  As penned Friday in the website’s Prescient  commentary:  “…July’s very inflationary PPI ought make it clear for no rate cut perhaps through the balance of this year…”  (Sorry Michelle).

    Yet notwithstanding the BLS arguably losing data credibility, the Federal Reserve leans more toward the Bureau of Economic Statistics for its Personal Consumption Expenditures inflation read:  ’tis due 29 August.  Then the next Open Market Committee Policy Statement comes 17 September, even after the BLS inflation data for August.  But if the data again is hot, do they … (don’t say it) … raise?  ‘Twould be marvy timing to match with a September S&P crash.  On verra…  Reprise:  do you know where your equities’ stops are?

    We know where our “Baby Blues” are for the precious metals:  they’re out of puff.  To our two-panel graphic of the daily bars from three months ago-to-date on the left for Gold and on the right for Silver.  The baby blue dots reflect regression trend consistency, for which neither metal presently is positive, nor are the respective structures of their rightmost bars:

    Then too we’ve the 10-day Market Profiles for the yellow metal (below left) and white metal (below right).  Although the price of Gold obviously is down in the dumper, Silver sees mid-Profile support at the depicted 37.90 level.  But to avoid a Silver slip, Gold need get a grip:

    To wrap, we’ve already reviewed inflation’s Whopper of the Week.  Let us thus close with our favourite Headline of the Week, courtesy of Bloomy just last evening.  Ready?

    • “Wall Street Wrestles With Hedging Conundrum as Valuations Swell”.

    Cue a pet quip of ours:  “They’re just figuring this out now?”  ‘Tis to laugh, but let’s try to help those floundering in Manhattan’s financial canyons.  The S&P 500 settled yesterday at a near-record high 6450 with the aforementioned p/e ratio of 46.3x and paltry yield of 1.201%.  What that means for you WestPalmBeachers down there is in purchasing the S&P right now, you are paying $46.30 for something that earns $1, (plus some dividend change for your usage of gas station toilets), along with the thrill of your $46.30 being halved upon the next -50% market “correction”; (recall we’ve already had two such “corrections” thus far this century).  Instead, one can opt for the U.S. Treasury’s 3-month Bill currently yielding an annualized 4.112% and return of the Bill’s face value.  So what’s the conundrum, eh?

    “Well, you’d have to trust the U.S. Treasury’s solvency, mmb…

    Good point, Squire.  So alternatively…

    Got yours?

    Cheers!

    …m…

    15 August 2025 – 08:20 Central Euro Time

    Both the Euro and Spoo are at present above today’s Neutral Zones; none of the other BEGOS Markets are below same, and volatility is again light. The Spoo has made another all-time high this morning such that should the current area hold, ‘twould pull the S&P 500 up to a record high at its open. The Bond’s “Baby Blues” (see Market Trends) of linreg consistency confirmed closing below their key +80% axis: we thus sense a run from here (114^31) down at least into the very low 114s if not the mid-113s: July’s very inflationary PPI ought make it clear for no rate cut perhaps through the balance of this year. By correlations amongst the five primary BEGOS components, the best currently is negative between the Euro and Oil, the latter for which cac volume is rolling from September into that for October. 9 metrics come into the Econ Baro today, notably including August’s NY State Empire Index and the UofM Sentiment Survey, July’s Retail Sales, Ex/Im Prices and IndProd/CapUtil, plus June’s Business Inventories. Too, ’tis the final day of Q2 Earnings Season.

    14 August 2025 – 08:24 Central Euro Time

    At present, all eight BEGOS Markets are within their respective Neutral Zones for today, and session volatility is light. Yesterday, further all-time highs were recorded by both the Spoo (6503) and S&P 500 (6480). By Market Rhythms (10-test basis) our top five for pure swing consistency currently Silver’s 4hr MACD, 4hr Parabolics and 1hr Price Oscillator, plus the Euro’s 2hr Price Oscillator and 30mn Parabolics. Following Gold’s Swiss tariff “Spike n’ Plunge” last Friday-Monday, trade of the yellow metal has been extremely subdued in terms of daily range: Gold’s EDTR (see Market ranges) for today is 51 points; however, Tuesday’s actual range was only 32 points and yesterday’s just 30 points. Incoming metrics for the Econ Baro today include wholesale inflation for July via the PPI.

    13 August 2025 – 08:08 Central Euro Time

    All-time highs have been recorded for both the Spoo (6475) and S&P 500 (6447), the latter’s “live” futs-adj’d P/E now 47.1x. Presently we’ve the same BEGOS Markets’ status as was the case ’round this time yesterday: Silver is above today’s Neutral Zone, whilst the other seven components are within same, and volatility again is quite light, (again with Silver posting the largest EDTR [see Market Ranges] tracing of 52% to this point, the average for the whole bunch being but 27%). Looking at Market Values for the five primary BEGOS entities in real-time: the Bond is +1^07 points “high” above its smooth valuation line, the Euro basically in sync with same, Gold +47 points “high” despite its recent pullback (both the daily and weekly parabolic trends still being Long), Oil +4.30 points “low” and the Spoo +159 points “high”. Nothing is due today for the Econ Baro ahead of 12 incoming metrics Thursday through Friday; and three days remain in Q2 Earnings Season.

    12 August 2025 – 08:17 Central Euro Time

    Silver is the sole BEGOS Market presently outside (above) its Neutral Zone for today; session volatility is quite light: the largest EDTR (see Market Ranges) tracing to this point indeed being that for Silver at 58%, the average for all the BEGOS components thus far just 29%. At Market Trends, the Bond’s “Baby Blues” have in real-time just kinked lower, albeit are still above the key +80% axis: a break below that level would likely bring still lower prices; too, the Spoo’s “Baby Blues” continue to weaken despite the on balance positive price track since last week’s low (6240); by Market Values, the Spoo in real-time at 6402 is +103 points above its smooth valuation line. And today the Econ Baro gets its own week underway with July’s retail inflation via the CPI, plus late in the session comes the Treasury Budget, (which for June was a surplus, but is expected for July to have returned to deficit status).

    11 August 2025 – 08:18 Central Euro Time

    At present we’ve both the Euro and Swiss Franc above today’s Neutral Zones, whilst below same are both Gold and Silver; BEGOS Markets’ volatility is light. The Gold Update highlights the weekly parabolic Long trend having now been joined by the daily parabolic Long trend; however Friday’s Swiss tariff price spike pierced Gold’s upper BollBand, such that some natural price retraction (as already we’ve seen) is natural prior to price moving on toward its next All-Time High, which by the December contract would be above 3586; and by Market Trends, Gold’s “Baby Blues” of linreg trend consistency are higher still in real-time. The Econ Baro, although quiet today, awaits 15 metrics as the week unfolds. And Q2 Earnings Season moves into its final week.

    The Gold Update: No. 821 – (09 August 2025) – “Double Shot of that Golden Love”

    The Gold Update by Mark Mead Baillie — 821st Edition — Monte-Carlo — 09 August 2025 (published each Saturday) — www.deMeadville.com

    Double Shot of that Golden Love

    Back in ’63, Dick Holler & the Holidays crooned a tune (penned by Don Smith and Cyril Vetter) entitled “Double Shot (Of My Baby’s Love)”.  The catchy piece has since been covered ‘twould seem some 5,000 times, similar to Gold’s being recognized as real money for some 5,000 years.  Be that exaggerative or otherwise, we’ve just been gifted a “Double Shot of that Golden Love” as follows:

    • Shot One:  as you regular readers already know, just back on 25 July, Gold’s weekly parabolic trend formally flipped from Short-to-Long;

    • Shot Two:  price’s settle this past Thursday (3483) in turn confirmed Gold’s daily parabolic trend also flipping to Long.

    “I’m feelin’ the love there, mmb!

    As well we ought, Squire.  Toward settling yesterday (Friday) at 3458, Gold’s “continuous contract” en route made an All-Time High at 3534, albeit that needs a bit of qualification, by which again we bullet-point three types:

    • Spot Gold:  is the de facto hard-money resource, the official All-Time High for which is 3500 as traded this past 22 April;

    • Continuous Gold:  is the chaining together of futures contracts (Gold’s most liquid trading form) such as to present (per our weekly bars graphic) a continuous history of the futures price, its new All-Time High just achieved as noted yesterday at 3534;

    • December Gold:  is the current so-called “front-month” futures contract, its All-Time High too achieved back on 22 April at 3586 (when June was then the “front-month”, with its 3510 high).

    Regardless of which All-Time High you prefer to apply, what we now see as key is December’s 3586 being relatively short-lived (no pun) given the timing of this fresh “Double Shot of that Golden Love”, should price evolve similarly as it has by both the various weekly and daily parabolic Long trends across the past 10 years.

    Recall from two missives ago our historical table of Gold’s prior 10 weekly parabolic Long trends having produced average upside price follow-through of +10%, which applied to this stint would find Gold well up into the 3600s.  And per our Market Rhythms’ analyses, Gold’s best study for pure swing consistency is its daily parabolics, presently ranked (on a 24-test basis) at No.1 of the 405 rhythms tested nightly.

    All of which in an encapsulated Golden nugget means we anticipate still higher highs through these ensuing weeks.

    That stated, even the best markets’ analyses are no holy grail, provably as signals can — and do — fail.  To wit, beware of John Bollinger and his Band(s).  The following graphic depicts December Gold by the day from this past April-to-date.  The two encircled rightmost wee blues dots are, of course, the commencement of this new daily parabolic Long trend for Gold.  However, we’ve also applied the two violet Bollinger Bands, the upper through which — at Friday’s open — price penetrated (thank you StateSide tariff on Swiss Gold … see our close).  Therein, note price’s imminent decline per the white lines after such prior upside penetrations:

    “But it’s different this time, right mmb?

    Our sharp-eyed Squire gets it.  Unlike the graphic’s prior “white-line” declines following upper Bollinger Band penetrations occurring into already well-established parabolic Long — and even Short — trends, this time ’round we’ve the “Double Shot of that Golden Love” of both the weekly and daily versions having instead just commenced.  Further, being this near to the next All-Time High per the December contract (3586), we sense the net trading push is in that direction, (in turn slapping the Shorts silly).  So as we turn to Gold’s weekly bars from a year ago-to-date, clearly the slant is toward still higher levels:

    More broadly, here next we’ve Gold by the day across the past 15 years-to-date, notably with respect to price’s once highly-regarded 300-day moving average.  The Gold Short may argue that price is far too high above the average.  To which the Bull shall snort and retort that price today (3458) vis-à-vis the value of Gold by Dollar debasement (3861) is at a very attractive -10% discount.  Don’t pull the wool over the bull:

    Yet just as Gold remains undervalued relative to its most foundational metric of Dollar debasement, so does the S&P 500 remain overvalued (understatement) to its most foundational metric of earnings.  With but a week to run in Q2 Earnings Season, an above-average 79% have beaten The Street’s marketing tool known as “estimates” … but just 67% — only one pip above the historical mean — have improved their year-over-year quarterly performance.  Is it any wonder the “live” price/earnings ratio is 46.7x?  Baffling is the S&P red line in the Baro:

    As to the Econ Baro itself, the past week’s set of incoming data points elicited a bit of a negative bent:  of the eight reports, just three bettered their prior period result, Q2 Productivity being the star there in swinging from -1.8% in Q1 to now +2.4%.  The five stinkers were lowlighted by Factory Orders, after being +8.3% for May, shrinking -4.8% in June.  Oh yes, and with respect to last Tuesday’s -0.5% “the world is ending” drop in the S&P, ’twas ever so severely blamed on the Institute for Supply Management Services Index’s wee July drop from June’s to 50.8 to now 50.1.  ‘Course, this time of year, the FinMedia desks are staffed by summer interns:  “Hey, look at this plunge!  That’s headline stuff, man!”  (They’d be better off in Summer School learning arithmetic).

    As for Gold’s Friday “Spike n’ Plunge”, ’tis the rightmost bar below on the left as we view the lot across the past three months-to-date.  Whilst arguably a “failure day”, of greater import are the rising “Baby Blues” indicative of the regression uptrend nonetheless gaining strength.  Too, on the right, price remains in the upper-third of the 10-day Market Profile, the most volume-dominant underlying supporter being 3431:

    But not exactly similar is the like graphic for Silver.  Her “Baby Blues” (below left) are falling away as the regression trend has rotated to negative; but perhaps ’tis mostly momentary given her price getting a grip across recent sessions.  And by her Market Profile (below right), 38.25 shows as key support.  Moreover, how close is Sweet Sister Silver to 40!  She has not traded at that handle since 21 September 2011!  And we have to think that given Gold getting on the move per both its fresh daily and weekly parabolic Long trends, Silver ought finally get swept up over 40.  “C’mon Sister Silver!!”

    As teased, let’s close with the high-drama event of the week:  the evoking of “Tariff Terror!” on Gold bars  of both one kilogram and 100 ounces imported from Switzerland into the U.S.  And with the utmost respect for our beloved Swiss family to the north of us, we had to chuckle.  We don’t know how many folks StateSide regularly engage in buying 1kg bars of Swiss Gold (currently $122k/bar + 39% tariff = $170k/bar), let alone nearly triple that for a 100/oz. bar.  Regardless, our mobile phone here lit up with chaotic panic over the 39% imposition, (for which ’tis now said may be misinterpreted).

    ‘Course, unlike today’s FinMedia, the late great Paul Harvey would have additionally reported to us “the rest of the story”.  To be sure, after having settled Thursday at 3482,  four minutes into Friday’s session found Gold having spiked +1.5% to the aforementioned new “continuous contract” All-Time High of 3534.  But “left out of the story” was that 31 minutes into the session, Gold was back down to where it had ended Thursday.  Further, the Swiss Franc was completely docile over it all, trading just 54% of its EDTR (“expected daily trading range”) on Friday.  As for Gold, here is Friday’s first hour of trading by the minute, courtesy of the “If You Blinked, You Missed It Dept.”:

    Either way, our double-shot bottom line is:  do not miss out in owning Gold, and Silver too with $40/oz. in view!

    Cheers!

    …m…

    08 August 2025 – 08:25 Central Euro Time

    As expected, Gold confirmed its daily Parabolics flipping to Long per yesterday’s close, following which at this morning’s open price briefly swiftly spiked from 3488 to 3534, which by the “continuous contract” is a new All-Time High; more of course in tomorrow’s 821st consecutive Saturday edition of The Gold Update. For the present, Gold is above its Neutral Zone for today, whilst below same is the Euro; session volatility for the BEGOS Markets is pushing toward moderate, aided by Gold having already traced 111% of its EDTR (see Market Ranges). Yesterday’s MoneyFlow into the S&P 500 was +1.5% vs. the actual Index’s change of just +0.1%: this has been a hallmark of Q2 Earnings Season wherein “estimates” quite regularly are being beaten, even as actual earnings improvement has been but average; there remains one more week to run for Q2 results. As noted yesterday, the Econ Baro already has concluded its week., which on balance was negative.

    07 August 2025 – 08:28 Central Euro Time

    Gold, Silver and Oil all are at present above today’s Neutral Zones; none of the other BEGOS Markets are below same, and session volatility is light. For the Precious Metals, Gold (3449) is above its most volume-dominant Market Profile supporter (3431), whilst Silver (38.25) is just below its most volume-dominant Market Profile resistor (38.30); on a broad-term basis, the white metal remains attractively priced vis-à-vis the yellow metal give the Gold/Silver ratio now 90.1x; on a 10-test basis for pure Market Rhythm swing consistency the best for Gold currently is its 15mn Price Oscillator, whereas for Silver ’tis her 4hr MACD. Our best overall Market Rhythm on a 10-test basis is the Swiss Franc’s 6hr Moneyflow, and on a 24-test basis ’tis Gold’s daily Parabolics which likely confirm a flip from Short-to-Long at tonight’s settle. The Econ Baro concludes its week today (Thursday) with five incoming metrics, notably including Q2’s Productivity and Unit Labor Costs along with Wholesale Inventories for June; then late in the session comes that month’s Consumer Credit.

    06 August 2025 – 08:28 Central Euro Time

    We’ve presently both Oil and the Spoo above today’s Neutral Zones; the rest of the BEGOS Markets are within same, and volatility is very light, the average EDTR (see Market Ranges) tracing to this point just 26%. At Market Trends, 3 of the 8 BEGOS Components are in 21-day linreg up trends: the Bond and Gold with reinforcement as their “Baby Blues” of trend consistency too are rising, along with the Spoo, albeit there the “Baby Blues” continue to drop; the other five markets are thus in downtrends. As to the Bond’s rally of late, by both Market Values and Market Magnets, price is better than 1.5 points above those measures, although that is not what we’d consider an “extreme” deviation; but the Bond has been getting the bid given its far better yield over the S&P 500 which price-wise we consider to view as close to the edge. Nothing is due today for the Econ Baro; and this “average” (by improvement) Q2 Earnings Season has another 8 trading days to run.

    05 August 2025 – 08:18 Central Euro Time

    Both the Euro and Swiss Franc are presently below their respective Neutral Zones for today; the balance of the BEGOS Markets are within same, and volatility is light. EDTR (see Market Ranges) tracings to this moment range from 47% for the Swiss Franc down to just 10% for Copper. Amongst the five primary BEGOS components, the best correlation currently is positive between the Bond and Gold: per their Market Rhythms on a 10-test basis, the Bond’s best for pure swing consistency is presently the 12hr MACD, whilst for Gold ’tis the 30mn MACD; and by Market Values, both the Bond and Gold are above their smooth valuation lines. The Econ Baro looks to July’s ISM(Svc) Index, plus June’s Trade Deficit.

    04 August 2025 – 08:20 Central Euro Time

    The Bond, Euro and Swiss Franc are presently below today’s Neutral Zones, whilst above same is the Spoo; session volatility for the BEGOS Markets is moderate. The Gold Update reviews the recent turbulence within The Metals Triumvirate, plus assesses if the S&P 500 has at long last reached a significant turning point to substantively lower levels, albeit as noted the Spoo is rising thus far today even as its “Baby Blues” of trend consistency are in full plunge (see Market Trends); currently 6291, the Spoo’s Market Profile support is 6264 with major overhead volume-dominant resistors at 6345, 6371 and 6406. Two weeks remain in Q2 Earnings Season with year-over-year quarterly improvement just a tad below average. And ’tis a relatively quiet week for the Econ Baro, beginning today with June’s Factory Orders.

    The Gold Update: No. 820 – (02 August 2025) – “Turbulence in The Metals Triumvirate”

    The Gold Update by Mark Mead Baillie — 820th Edition — Monte-Carlo — 02 August 2025 (published each Saturday) — www.deMeadville.com

    Turbulence in The Metals Triumvirate

    As you studied aficionados of deMeadville well know, we refer to those BEGOS Markets comprising Gold, Silver and Copper as “The Metals Triumvirate”.  And lately, turbulent indeed has been its components’ price paths:

    • Gold from 23 July through 30 July fell by as much as -5.4%;
    • Silver from 23 July through 31 July fell by as much as -9.1%;
    • Copper from 23 July through 31 July fell by as much as -27.3% (ain’t no typo).

    Then specific to the week just past, Silver had no net weekly gain, and worse, “economy-leading, but now tariff-butt-kicked” Copper had no hope, period.

    However, Gold was a gainer, its December contract settling yesterday (Friday) at 3416 for an actual net weekly advance of +0.7% (+23 points).  Gold’s so-called “continuous contract” gained +2.3% (+78 points) given +54 points of fresh price premium per the August contract having rolled forward to December.

    Thus, this being a graphics-rich “end-of-month, plus-a-day” edition of The Gold Update, let’s get going with the yellow metal’s weekly bars by the continuous contract from one year ago-to-date, highlighted by a second week of the fresh parabolic Long trend.  The run from here to the All-Time High (3510 on 22 April) is another +2.8% (+94 points).  And as we detailed a week ago, given recent parabolic Long trend history, that is reasonably within range during this stint:

    As for Sister Silver — sadly donned in her industrial metal jacket — she was pulled down in sympathy with Cousin Copper’s colossal collapse, the Gold/Silver ratio in turn leaping from 87.1x just a week ago to now 92.1x (as above depicted).  Surely Silver shall swiftly come to her senses and re-don her precious metal pinstripes.  Either way, she’s had an amazing year-to-date, second only to Gold as we turn to our BEGOS Markets Standings.  Think things are uncertain out there?  Look at the top three podium positions:

    Indeed for the precious metals at large, “Up!” has been “It!”  From this time a year ago-to-date, here we’ve the following percentage tracks of Pan American Silver (PAAS) +22%, Franco-Nevada (FNV) +27%, Newmont (NEM) +32%, Gold itself +37%, the Global X Silver Miners exchange-traded fund (SIL) and the VanEck Vectors Gold Miners exchange-traded fund (GDX) both +42%, and ever-amazing Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM) +67%.  Is livin’ with equities’ leverage your favourite beverage?  Per the “It All Depends From Where You Start Dept.”, Gold itself has been the Big Winner from 2020-to-date:  +124%; the balance of the equities bunch then range from +103% for AEM down to +14% for PAAS … just in case yer scorin’ at home.  Here’s the year-over-year graphic:

    As entitled, “turbulence” has characterized The Metals Triumvirate of late.  ‘Tis starkly evident here in going ’round the horn for all eight BEGOS Markets.  Each frame depicts that market’s last 21 trading days (one month), grey trendline and “Baby Blues”, the directionally-leading dots which define the trendline’s day-to-day consistency.  Specific to the metals’ turbulence, Gold has well-recovered most of its recent plunge; but not so Silver, nor clearly Copper.  However:  we see the biggest story therein as the S&P 500 (“SPOO”).  We’ve purposefully re-coloured several of its blue dots in red, as when they fall (from above the +80% area), we anticipate lower prices.  And akin to Copper, that’s one heckova long-anticipated S&P “Whoopsie!” in the lower righthand panel:

    “But was yesterday just a one-day wonder-plunge for the S&P, mmb?

    Squire, if the market is at long-last coming to its senses, en route to reverting to important means — be they fundamental, technical or quantitative — no ’twas not a one-day wonder.  As posted only internally for deMeadville on Thursday evening, (the S&P then 6339 and now 6238):

    • IF this is the beginning of the broad correction, the initial fib golden ratio retracement (basis today’s high to April’s low) is down to 5861; then the mid-point is 5673; then the full golden ratio retracement is to 5485.  Retracement to the top of the  55-year regression channel is  4513.  And retracement to the top of the “had covid never happened” regression channel is 2941.”

    But that boldly stated, you know how this market behaves in The Investing Age of Stoopid:   “Earnings mean nothing, stocks always triple, buy every dip!”

    “You always go on about ‘earnings mean nothing’, mmb…

    And here is why, Squire.  Look at the ongoing Q2 Earnings Season, (with two weeks to run in the balance).  80% of the S&P 500 reporting constituents have beaten the investment banker’s marketing tool known as “estimates”.  Yeah, ok, so that’s cute.  But comparatively, only 65% have actually done better year-over-year, which is a slightly below average pace.  That never gets any notice.  And with the honestly-calculated “live” P/E of the S&P now 46.5x but hardly any dividend yield (1.233%) versus “risk-free” (gulp!) short-term U.S. dough paying 4.182%, the problem is obvious:  the overall level of S&P 500 earnings is not sustainable for price.  Period.  We’ve been through this before — and barring Stoopid continuing to prevail — here it comes again.  For whenever the next material correction does come, the fear factor shall be massive:  “But, we were never taught about ‘selling’!”  Have the popcorn ready.

    Moving on to the Federal Reserve, when was the last time you read dissent into the foot of the Open Market Committee’s Policy Statement?  Oh to be sure, there’s been some minor disagreement in recent years; but this past Wednesday, both Ms. Bowman and Mr. Waller voted in the minority for a -0.25 basis points reduction in the bank’s Funds Rate, which instead rightly was maintained in the target range of 4.25%-to-4.50%.

    Meanwhile, President Trump’s contention is that a rate cut is absolutely necessary because (paraphrasing):  “the economy is strong and inflation is low”.  Having spoken with a number of market mavens ’round here, all agree that opinion makes no economic sense.  Moreover, inflation has reversed its recent pace of slowing and is again growing.  Here’s our June Inflation Summary table, nonetheless noting therein the benign wholesale pace of the Producer Price Index.  Still, “Fed-favoured” Personal Consumption Expenditures ratcheted higher:

     

    As to the past week’s biggest surprise, for us ’twas the initial read of Stateside Q2 Gross Domestic Product:  the consensii had it pegged for a +2.5% annualized pace, whereas we wouldn’t have been surprised by a negative pace given both the leading Q2 fallout in the Economic Barometer along with the Conference Board’s lagging report of “Leading Indicators” which hasn’t been positive since last December.  So what happened?  The GDP came in at +3.0%.  To quote John Patrick McEnroe:  “You canNOT be SERious!!”  –[The All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club, 22 June, 1981].  Let’s see what the first GDP revision is come 28 August.  Here’s the Baro:

    Indeed, of the Baro’s 18 incoming metrics last week, 10 improved period-over-period.  Cursiously though again, July’s ADP Employment creation directionally differed from Labor’s Payrolls.  The former beat consensus and had June favourably revised; the latter missed consensus and had June unfavourably revised.  Reprise:  “It depends thus on who’s counting what.

    What we can count on from week-to-week are the 10-day Market Profiles for the precious metals.  And next on the left we’ve that for Gold (in December pricing), the present 3416 level being the white bar near the Profile’s center.  But on the right, Silver’s dallying with Copper finds her price (37.11) lower down in the stack.  “C’mon, Sister Silver…”:

    Naturally it being month-end, plus one trading day, here is the monthly Gold Structure for the past 15 years.  The rightmost green bar is merely Friday (yesterday) alone, it having been 01 August.  ‘Tis been quite the run for Gold across this time frame, ‘specially after only just two-to-four years ago when Gold’s infamous Triple-Top pricing was “Dancing on the ceiling…”, –[Lionel Richie, ’86]:

    Metals turbulence notwithstanding, next week is a bit more benign for the Econ Baro with just eight metrics due, including improved (purportedly) Productivity for Q2.  Are you productively maintaining a sound supply of Gold?

    Cheers!

    …m…

    01 August 2025 – 08:22 Central Euro Time

    The Swiss Franc is the sole BEGOS Market at present outside (below) its Neutral Zone for today; session volatility is light. Although the S&P 500 recorded a third consecutive modest down day yesterday, per our page of the Index’s MoneyFlow, such measure remains positively robust, despite our overwhelming sense of a significant correction being nigh. In real-time at Market Trends, the Spoo’s “Baby Blues” have again broken below the key +80% axis: recall their last so doing (18-22 July) was an unusual “failed signal” for this otherwise reliable leading indicator of near-term market direction. As for correlation within the five primary BEGOS components, our best at present is negative between the Euro and Oil. The Econ Baro concludes its busy week with July’s Payrolls data, ISM Index and revised UofM Sentiment Survey, plus June’s Construction Spending. And with essentially two weeks remaining in Q2 Earnings Season, S&P 500 year-over-year quarterly improvement is now up to 66%, which is an average rate, the fly in the ointment of course being the harrowingly-high “live” P/E at a futs-adj’d 47.5x.

    31 July 2025 – 08:26 Central Euro Time

    Copper is further falling this morning: netting a loss yesterday of -18.3% following tariff implications, the red metal is now down an additional -5.1%, obviously below its Neutral Zone for today, as is Oil; above same are the Bond, Euro, Swiss Franc, Gold and the Spoo; BEGOS Markets’ volatility is moderate. Going ’round the Market Values horn of the five primary BEGOS components in real-time: we’ve the Bond basically in sync with its smooth valuation line, the Euro as -0.026 points “low”, Gold as -13 points “low”, Oil as +1.84 points “high”, and the Spoo as +258 points “high”; the S&P 500 itself is now 26 consecutive days “textbook overbought” and the futs-adj’d P/E now a whopping 48.0x. ‘Tis a key inflation day for the Econ Baro featuring for June “Fed-Favoured” PCE data, plus Personal Income/Spending; too due is July’s Chi PMI and Q2’s Employment Cost Index.

    30 July 2025 – 08:29 Central Euro Time

    As was the case ’round this hour yesterday, all eight BEGOS Markets are presently within today’s Neutral Zones; volatility is light. By Market Trends, yesterday both Silver and Copper confirmed their “Baby Blues” of trend consistency having fallen below the key +80% such that we anticipate lower prices near-term. Per Market Rhythms for pure swing consistency, our best on a 10-test basis currently is the Swiss Franc’s 6hr Moneyflow, whilst on a 24-test basis ’tis Gold’s daily Parabolics. The S&P 500 despite yesterday’s mild down session nonetheless recorded a fourth consecutive day as being “extremely textbook overbought”: with so much on the table through the balance of this week, we expect the Index to crack at any time. And today, the Econ Baro looks to July’s ADP Employment data, June’s Pending Home Sales, plus the first peek at Q2 GDP, which — give the steep decline in the Baro notably for April and May data — shan’t be up to the +2.5% consensus expectation. Then come 18:00 GMT is the FOMC’s Policy Statement within which there shan’t be a FedFunds’ rate change.

    29 July 2025 – 08:27 Central Euro Time

    All eight BEGOS Markets are at present within their respective Neutral Zones for today, and session volatility is very light with 18 Econ Baro metrics plus the FOMC in the balance of the week. Gold’s cac volume is rolling from August into that for December with +57 points of fresh premium. The S&P 500 is now “textbook overbought” through its last 24 sessions, indeed “extremely” so for the past 3: we sense the Index is very close to a significant correction, especially with all that’s on the able as noted over these next four days; the futs-adj’d “live” P/E of the S&P is currently 47.7x and the yield 1.204% vs. the 3-month T-Bill’s annualized 4.235%. The Econ Baro gets its data parade rolling today with July’s Consumer Confidence.

    28 July 2025 – 08:41 Central Euro Time

    Presently the Euro and Swiss Franc are below today’s Neural Zones, whilst above same are both Oil and the Spoo; session volatility for the BEGOS Markets is firmly moderate. The Spoo gapped up some +21 points at the open on tariff resolution: that puts the “live” futs-adj’d P/E at of the S&P at now 47.7x. The Gold Update confirms price’s weekly parabolic trend as having flipped from Short-to-Long, the opening price of the new stint effective this morning’s opening trade at 3321; acknowledged therein is Gold’s negative MACD stance also on the weekly timeframe, but that its performance has been a net failure per the last five signals, whereas the last five parabolic Long trends have been a net success. ‘Tis a very busy week for the Econ Baro with 18 metrics due, however none for this session.

    The Gold Update: No. 819 – (26 July 2025) – “Gold Ends Its Short Spell; But Then Falls Pell-Mell”

    The Gold Update by Mark Mead Baillie — 819th Edition — Monte-Carlo — 26 July 2025 (published each Saturday) — www.deMeadville.com

    Gold Ends Its Short Spell; But Then Falls Pell-Mell

    We open with both Good News and Bad News for Gold:

    The Good News is this past Wednesday at 00:21 GMT, Gold provisionally ended its 10-week parabolic Short spell upon breaking above 3449, confirmation then coming at the (albeit quite a bit lower) 3339 settle yesterday (Friday).

    The Bad News is in surpassing 3449 by only a few points to 3452, Gold then fell pell-mell through the week’s balance to as low as 3323 — a three-day -3.7% El Plungo (technical term) of -129 points — en route to the noted 3339 settle.

    Thus Gold has begun its new weekly parabolic Long trend by going the wrong way, in turn sporting its sixth worst “points given up” from high to settle of the year’s 30 weeks-to-date.  ‘Twas not a beautiful thAng.  Either way, here year-over-year are Gold’s weekly bars, featuring its fresh rightmost encircled parabolic Long trend blue dot, which in itself always is a beautiful thAng:

    ‘Course, one trend’s inference is not necessarily that of all measures on the same time frame.  As herein posted in our 28 June missive, we’ve since updated Gold’s weekly bars for these past three calendar years along with the MACD (“moving average convergence divergence”) study.  And by that construct, it keeps the “bad idea” of being Short — rather than Long — on the table, given the recent and still ongoing negative MACD crossover.  However, we don’t sense ’tis that worrying:

    Nonetheless cited, let’s go the “What To Do? Dept.”  Clearly by Gold’s upward slant across the above graphic, the Long side has been the right side.  ‘Tis easy to prove mathematically:  in purely swinging solely on the Short trends of Gold’s last five weekly MACD negative crossovers, the silly Shorts have amassed a single contract loss of -$57,500; whereas purely swinging on Gold’s last five weekly Parabolic Long trends is a single contract gain of +$69,600.  Reprise:  “Shorting Gold is a bad idea.”  Case closed.

    “So because the parabolic trend now is up means another all-time high is coming, right mmb?”

    Squire, whilst over time inevitably yes, ’tis hardly “automatic” during this new Long stint.  But we conservatively give it a 60% chance of occurring given the following table’s statistics.  Therein we display the performance of Gold’s last 10 weekly parabolic Long trends.  Bearing in mind that from here at 3339, Gold need gain at least +5.2% on this trend to reach 3511, (the current All-Time High being 3510 since 22 April).  So why a 60% chance of getting there?  In the “Max Gain” column, six of the 10 trends bettered +5.2%.  Further, why “conservatively”?  Because the both the average and median gains of Long trend are basically +10%.  Moreover, solely in that +10% vacuum with durations running 13-15 weeks, November would bring us Gold 3700.  That’s not a predication, rather a reasonable assessment of potential upside range, barring this Long trend becoming Short-lived.  Here’s the table:

    And to be sure, there’s a lot on the mid-summer table to affect the price of Gold.  Most imminently, next Wednesday (30 July) brings The Big Double-Whammy of StateSide Q2 Gross Domestic Product followed by the Federal Open Market Committee’s Policy Statement.  Then two days hence brings 01 August and the introduction of more “Trump Tariffs!”

    Too, there’s this from the “Oh By The Way Dept.”  ‘Tis time for the U.S. Treasury to spritely come up with $7T to pay its noble holders of maturing Bills, Notes and Bonds.  According to “AI” (“Assembled Inaccuracy”), as of this year’s Q1, operating cash amounted to about $406B, which combined with other monetary assets totaled a tad over $1T for 2024.  Thus by your six-year-old’s first grade arithmetic, the Treasury is about -$6T short of its looming funding requirements.

    So who or what is going to buy all this requisite new debt?  Here’s a thought:  remember that (as we herein mathematically constructed) “all” $7T of the COVID monetary “creation” essentially found its way into the S&P 500.  So, why not have the Treasury thus promote a “group sell” of $7T in stocks with the  proceeds moving into debt at its currently attractive rates?  ‘Tis so easy, a WestPalmBeacher can do it.

    “But mmb, that might crash the stock market…”

    The stock market, Squire, is so overdue for a harrowing crash, be it driven fundamentally, technically and/or quantitatively, a “group sell” to save the U.S. Treasury would be the perfect crash catalyst.

    But with respect to Gold (and barring such selling of stocks), should the ensuing Treasury auctions be feeble, ‘twould fall to the Fed being forced to make that next BIG accounting entry to buy up the difference.  And Gold, in turn, would go upside gonzo nuts (again, a technical term).

    Speaking of stocks, we’ve run out of ways to indeed express (purposeful repeat) how we’ve run out of ways to describe the LooneyTunes overvaluation of the S&P 500.  During recent years, we’ve herein detailed in-depth (using what is today an unknown science called “math”) sensible scenarios for the “Look Ma! No Earnings!” crash and the “Look Ma! No Money!” crash.  Now let’s add to those the “That’s All, Folks!” crash, wherein upon it all going wrong, the market doesn’t so much crash as instead ’tis just closed, (rather akin to the “Look Ma! No Money!” crash).  Then again the Fed can create the difference and ’tis more upside gonzo nuts for Gold.

    As to the current state of the S&P, ’tis now 23 consecutive trading days “textbook overbought”, as well as having arrived at our “extremely overbought” classification with a sub-par Q2 Earnings Season in process.  Oh yes, we saw the CNBC[S] end-of-week headline last evening:  “S&P 500 posts fifth straight record close this week, powered by solid earnings”.  Hardly are earnings “solid”.  To wit:

    In this era of dumbing-down earnings estimates to dirt, ’tis super easy to beat ’em:  so far for Q2, we’ve 149 S&P 500 constituents having reported, of which 79% have exceeded expectations!  Why typically, only 76% so do!  Sadly however, here’s where the “solid” earnings hocus-pocus loses focus.  In an average Earnings Season,  66% of the constituents improve their bottom lines over the like quarter of a year earlier.  To this point for Q2, such rate has slowed to 63%.  ‘Course that shan’t be on CNBS, Bloomy nor FoxyB.  But ’tis why the following multiple has gone beyond stoopid:

    Again, don’t argue nor ask “AI“; just do the math.  And per last week’s piece, yes, we still sense “The Sell” shall be ever-intense.

    As to the math that makes up the Economic Barometer, as anticipated, ’twas well ahead of last Monday’s lagging indicator known as the Conference Board’s “Leading Indicators”.  So severe had been June’s Econ Baro plunge, we knew the consensii for just -0.1% shrinkage in the June reading was too timid:  rather, it came in (no surprise) at -0.3%.  Too, the month’s Existing Home Sales slowed and Durable Orders shrank.  But bailing the Baro out by just the wee-est of bits was growth in June’s New Home Sales, plus a reduction in the prior week’s Initial Jobless Claims.  So below, we’ve the whole picture from one year ago-to-date.  Duly therein note the insert of the S&P 500 futures chart for the past month (21 trading days):  we made such a song-n’-dance a week ago about the baby blue dots of trend consistency being finally in decline … but they’ve suddenly lurched back up (per the three red dots).  “Perfect timing ain’t easy…”:

     

    Back to Gold, per our opening observation, ’tis a bit of a dismal start to the fresh weekly parabolic Long trend.  You can see the selling quite starkly in the lower left-hand panel following the rightmost high of last Wednesday, the “Baby Blues” having just kinked lower, too. As for the lower right-hand panel, Gold has formed quite a bevy of overhead volume-dominant resistors as labeled:

    The like graphic for Silver shows her having also just taken a bit of a beating per her daily bars from three months ago-to-date (at left).  Still, her 10-day Market Profile suggests some safety in the 38s (at right):

    We see next week as pivotal for both Gold and the S&P.  Inclusive of the GDP, the FOMC and the renewed tariffs spree come 18 metrics for the Econ Baro’s scrutiny. As well, Gold’s contract volume rolls from that for August into that for December with better than +50 points of fresh premium, merci!   Where might your money be?

    Cheers!

    …m…

    25 July 2025 – 08:39 Central Euro Time

    Gold is presently below its Neutral Zone for today; the other BEGOS Markets are within same, and again volatility is light. The Spoo continues to make all-time highs, today (to this point) having reached 6421; currently at 6414, accounting for Fair Value (+36) would pull the S&P 500 higher still at its opening to 6378, just short of its all-time high yesterday of 6381. The S&P is now “extremely textbook overbought” meaning that each of its BollBands, RSI and Stochastics are stretched as such; this last occurred just on 03 July, the following trading day (07 July) then finding a intraday -78-point drop in the S&P. Tomorrow’s 819th consecutive Saturday edition of The Gold Update shall cite the weekly parabolic trend as having flipped from Short-to-Long despite price intraweek having dropped nearly -100 points high-to-low. And the Econ Baro closes out its mild week with June’s Durable Orders.

    24 July 2025 – 08:39 Central Euro Time

    Both Gold and Silver are presently below today’s Neutral Zones, whilst above same are both Copper and Oil; BEGOS Markets’ volatility is light. Currently our best correlation amongst the five primary BEGOS components is positive between the Bond and Gold. We continue to monitor Market Trends’ “Baby Blues” for the Spoo which have popped back above the key +80% axis: but by Market Values, the Spoo is (in real-time) +269 points above its smooth valuation line, whilst the S&P 500 itself is now “textbook overbought” through its last 21 days; the futs-adj’d “live” P/E is 47.0x even as Q2 Earnings are thus far underperforming their average year-over-year pace of improvement. Today’s Econ Baro incoming metrics include June’s New Home Sales.

    23 July 2025 – 08:33 Central Euro Time

    Gold’s weekly parabolic Short trend has — after 10 weeks — provisionally flipped to Long as 3449 traded early on at 00:21 GMT; confirmation comes at Friday’s settle, (barring 3123 unlikely trading in the interim). Presently, we’ve the Bond, Euro and Swiss Franc all below their respective Neutral Zones for today; the other BEGOS Markets are within same, and volatility is pushing toward moderate. For the S&P 500, not recognizable in yesterday’s +0.1% gain was a cap-weighted -$62B drain alone from NVDA: mind our S&P Moneyflow page. At Market Trends, the Spoo’s “Baby Blues” of linreg consistency have exceptionally in real-time lurched from +76% to +81%: however, they soon ought well sink sub-80% toward price selling off. Looking at Market Rhythms, on a 10-test basis our leader in the non-BEGOS Yen’s 2hr Parabolics, whilst on a 24-test basis we additionally note the Spoo’s 15mn Parabolics and Gold’s 6hr MACD. June’s Existing Home Sales come due for the Econ Baro.