evening wrap, december 16
market vibes
Following somewhat dire economic news from China yesterday, oil prices made 5-year lows on the NYMEX today. Stocks fell again in another sloppy session. Metals were steady to higher, led by platinum. Bond yields were lower for a second day. Bitcoin rallied $1,000. The dollar index mysteriously closed at its highs but settled lower against all its major components.
NFP posted a 14k beat (64k vs. 50k est.) because healthcare hiring is off the charts. However, full-time employment fell by 983k since Sept., to 134.17 million, the lowest of 2025… and part-time workers soared by 1.025 million to 29.486 million, to a new all-time high. Even so, the pundits say this BLS bump takes another cut off the table for January.
Meanwhile… this next chart via Bloomberg’s Lisa Abramowicz on X. True… the pros are 100% invested (except Buffett) but $7 trillion in money market cash is still historically huge.
In AI news, apparently Grok is leading. Bucking the trends in tech, Tesla made a 2-year high, just $10 from an ATH. Elsewhere on X, IBM called bullshit on unprofitable AI CapEx and Jim Chanos is shorting it.
In the markets
Platinum is up 10% to a 14-year high in 3 sessions. Technical development is consistent with large moves in gold and silver earlier in Q4.
Silver was actually down a bit but closed near the high of the day.
