Gold is flooding out of the US at a record pace
US non-monetary gold exports surged to a record $17.1 BILLION in October. This refers to physical bullion shipped for investment, jewelry, and industrial use, not central bank reserves. This marks an unprecedented spike compared with the typical ~$1–3B monthly range over the last 15 years. The surge reflects soaring demand for hard assets as investors hedge against currency weakness, geopolitical tensions, and trade-policy uncertainty. Truly unprecedented. Source: Global Markets Investor
Long EM. Short US large caps.
Is the Dalio playbook about to break out? Source: Trend Spider
CPI: 2.7% YoY vs. 2.7% expected Core CPI: 2.6% YoY vs. 2.7% expected
Core U.S. consumer prices rose less than predicted in December, reinforcing hopes that inflation is tempering as the Federal Reserve contemplates its next move on interest rates. The consumer price index, a broad measure of the costs for goods and services across the sprawling U.S. economy, posted an increase of 0.3% for the month, putting the headline all-items annual rate at 2.7%. Both were exactly in line with the Dow Jones consensus estimate. At the same time, core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, showed a 0.2% gain on a monthly basis and 2.6% annually. Both were 0.1 percentage point below expectations. Source: CNBC Peter Tuchman, @EinsteinoWallSt
Speculators Are Positioning For A Fiscally Dominant World
In 2026, the global financial landscape is shifting from central bank independence to Fiscal Dominance, where political spending needs now dictate interest rate policy. To hedge against this, "smart money" is fleeing the US Dollar and Treasury bonds fearing structural inflation and pivoting into hard assets like gold and copper. This trend is confirmed by current Commitment of Traders (COT) data, showing record institutional positioning in precious metals as a final shield against currency debasement. Source: zerohedge, Simon White, Bloomberg macro strategist
The Divergence of Commodities and Consumer Inflation (2017–2026)
Source: Lawrence McDonald, Bloomberg
Strategists and economists at JPMorgan no longer expect the Fed to cut interest rates this year and see a rate hike next year
A forecast change made in response to December employment data released Friday. Source: Annmarie Hordern, Bloomberg
Largest stock market in the world at the time
not always U-S-A... Source: Meb Faber
Iran's currency has completely collapsed.
Source: Max Crypto, TradingView
