kemosabe
market vibes
February 14…)
"I paint life as I would like it to be.” Norman Rockwell
In the news
The Korea Times reported local banks have halted sales of silver bars. “[With] silver bar prices also soaring, the Korea Gold Exchange exchange notified banks of the suspension of silver bar supply on Thursday. It also noted that the remaining stock of 1-kilogram gold bars would no longer be available.”
RFK Jr was sworn in as Secretary of HHS yesterday during one of Trump’s “fireside chats” in the Oval. He gave what I thought was a moving acceptance speech; censored by MSNBC of course for which they were pilloried on X.
In a sign of the times, CNN saw 522,000 total viewers and 118,000 in the A25-54 demographic during primetime in January 2025 and averaged 421,000 total viewers for the total day, with 80,000 in the A25-54 demographic. By comparison, FOX viewership is approximately five times greater.
I would love to buy CNN or MSNBC and turn either of them into a credible source for liberal thinkers… a $25 billion no brainer.
Data at 8:30 this morning includes…
In the markets
Silver is up. OI is up ca 25 million ounces. And we have a well-formed DMI 1 bar up in daily data.
This is inauspicious timing for the SLV short sellers. Although today’s SLV option expiration is relatively modest, there will be a cash call for about 14 million shares of SLV above $30.50, and SLV is trading $30.24 as I write. This would, in turn, require APs (authorized participants) to either buy shares or silver or borrow the equivalent at settlement if prices close above strikes noted below.
The normal modus of creation is to acquire the metal to be held by the custodian. However, as we saw last week, there was a spate of frantic borrowing in front of the February 7 expiration, and that was only 3 million shares (one share = one ounce). That would be 4,448 tons or 14,000 bars to move from one rack to another if they are available.
Gold, S&Ps, Dow Jones E minis, oil and bitcoin and “it’s different this time in the vibe.
