Precious metals prices "spiked" up today, with Gold closing at $2082.55. What makes this strange is that the DOW didn't do much at all - which makes the Gold move, unusual.
Typically, Gold moves up as stocks are moving down, when investors flee to the security of precious metals. That didn't happen today. So what's going on that would cause such a sudden spike?
There is a whirlwind of speculation. From bigshots selling stocks of their OWN companies, to rumors of an International geopolitical "situation" the reason being offered are literally all over the place.
Let's look at the Bigshots who sold-off stock in their own companies.
Mark Zuckerberg sold $661 million of Meta (FACEBOOK) shares between Jan. 31 and Feb. 21. (Proof)
Jamie Dimon sold $150 million of JPMorgan shares on Feb. 22. (Proof)
Jeff Bezos sold $8.5 billion of Amazon shares between Feb. 9 and Feb. 20. (Proof)
Some folks speculate the Bigshots might be buying up precious metals today, while others speculate "Maybe they know something is going to happen this weekend, or early next week?"
Others point to the US Federal Reserve ENDING the Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP) on March 11.
The Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP) was created to support American businesses and households by making additional funding available to eligible depository institutions to help assure banks have the ability to meet the needs of all their depositors.
The BTFP offers loans of up to one year in length to banks, savings associations, credit unions, and other eligible depository institutions pledging any collateral eligible for purchase by the Federal Reserve Banks in open market operations (see 12 CFR 201.108(b)), such as U.S. Treasuries, U.S. agency securities, and U.S. agency mortgage-backed securities. These assets will be valued at par.
The BTFP is an additional source of liquidity against high-quality securities, eliminating an institution’s need to quickly sell those securities in times of stress.
Some speculate that with the Fed ending the BTFP, Banks that are "under stress" will no longer be able to grab fast cash from the fed, and someone - perhaps someone BIG - may end up with no chair to sit on when the music stops.
Then, in Geo-Politics, there's the whole Russia-Ukraine thing going from bad to worse.
Earlier this week, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told Congress "If Ukraine fails, we may have to fight Russia." This was a sharp departure from prior statements of US/NATO intention to "inflict a strategic defeat upon Russia." In one statement, the entire paradigm for the US/NATO went from Inflict defeat to engage in war. THAT was a huge change, and to hear those words uttered by the US Secretary of Defense is no trivial thing.
Yesterday, news broke that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz "accidentally" revealed intelligence information proving that the United Kingdom and France both have active duty military troops in Ukraine that are not only firing cruise missiles, but in some cases, guiding them to targets like Russia's Black Sea naval vessels.
The Russians recoiled in shock at this admission, and discussions in the Russian Ministry of Defense and Kremlin are looking at a way to retaliate MILITARILY against the British Navy by sinking British naval ships, without triggering NATO Treaty, Article 5, "Collective self defense" because . . . get this . . . "Britain attacked Russia FIRST." (Story Here)
Then, overnight, news broke that German troops were intercepted or otherwise "outed" having a discussion as to how they could provide "TAURUS" cruise missiles to Ukraine to attack -- and destroy -- the Crimea Bridge, but do so in a way that HIDES German efforts from the Russians! (Story Here)
Wrapping-up the Geo-political developments was Russian President Vladimir Putin's remarks earlier this week pointing out that the present actions of NATO are leading to World War 3 which will be a NUCLEAR war with Russia.
So the geo-politics is definitely one possible reason that uber-wealthy people might be going into Gold . . . to preserve wealth if everything collapses. After all, Paper "money" holds no value if the entity that printed it is destroyed, but gold holds its value within itself, no matter what economic system collapses or rises anew.
So if Europe and/or the USA get nuked; their currency is instantly worthless. But gold always has a value for those who HOLD IT. [Folks who own "paper gold" in the form of certificates in someone else's vault, will find out the hard way they have nothing, when it comes time to demand delivery.]
So the action in the Gold Market has a lot of people talking and none of it is good.
