German chancellor Ferkel spoke at the Davos economic forum yesterday, coinciding with the FOMC's actions here. Coincidence? Or timed to manipulate fall of the dollar against the euro? No matter, she said nothing new. Crisis continues to be the elephant in the living room.

An Israeli website reported yesterday that India has agreed to pay for Iranian oil with gold. Not sure whether this can be believed, but if it's true it is a flashing harbinger of change.

Markets followed through today as expected from yesterday: gold & silver up, dollar down, stocks down. Maybe inflation isn't the universal economic panacea after all -- but what do I know? I'm no central banker, I'm just a natural born fool from Tennessee, not rating even 3 MLCs on the Scientific Stupidity Scale.

STOCKS melted when they approached the Kryptonite of last spring's highs. Dow gave up 21.65 (0.17%) to close 12,735.31 while S&P500 lost 7.60 (0.57%) to close 1,318.45. Dow below 12,650 will accelerate the fall.

More instructive is the last few days' behavior of the Dow in Gold Dollars (DiG$) & the DiSoz. From G$164.94 (7.969 oz) on 29 Dec. the DiG$ has fallen to G$152.47 (7.376 oz) today. From 450.5 oz the DiSoz has plunged to 377.88 oz today. Since the December highs showed upside breakouts on the chart, their retreat and failure now underlines one future: silver & gold will gain much more value against stocks, or, stocks will lose more value against metals. Same thing.

US DOLLAR INDEX today fell 17.7 basis points (0.23%) to 79.402. This further fall below 79.50 merely confirms that the dollar has broken down from its uptrend. Low came at 79.07, and dollar may be forming a rounding bottom there, which would send it higher for a few days. Owch, it's below its 50 DMA (79.59). Lower closes will simply nail more nails into the dollar's coffin.

Euro took a breather today, closing down 0.02% (nothing, basically) to 1.3104. Must remain above 1.3050 or foster suspicions that the ultimate bottom for the euro's long move is not yet behind us.

Silver & gold added more credibility to their résumé today, pushing higher after upside upside breakouts. Gold gained $26.60 (1.8%) to $1,726.70 while silver added 61c (1.8%) to close Comex at 3370.2, within easy spitting distance of our 3400c target.

Gold pushed aside the $1,705 resistance like King Kong pushing down New York City streetlights, and sprang clean to next resistance around $1,725.

What more can you ask? Gold has (1) broken out above its downtrend line from September, and (2) traded above the 200, 50, 20, and now 150 day moving averages. Momentum hardly gets more unanimous than that.

Road for gold stretches out to $1,800. Someday will come a correction, not too long looking at the RSI, but not before gold makes more gains.

SILVER traded overnight barely below 3300c, at 3297.5c, then climbed like a stubborn Sherpa all day to a 3377.5c high. Comex close at 3370c came very close to the day's high.

Here are the bounds: silver must not close below 3300c, and must exceed 3400c to keep on rallying. With the world's largest central bank announcing that it will most surely keep on depreciating the dollar, what else would you expect silver to do? If you don't buy the silver breakout at 3400c, you'll never buy anything. It screams too loudly that it intends to move higher.

All that said, remember humility & recall that markets turn on a time. Closes below 3300c or $1,700 gainsays everything above.

Some of the silly websites that offer This Day in History say that on 26 January 1848 or 1838 Tennessee became the first state to prohibit alcohol. That is a shameful canard, and not even nearabout true. In fact, on that day the General Assembly approved a charter for the "Sons & Sisters of Temperance" organization, and probably adjourned and went out for a drink afterwards.

Following the US Declaration of Independence as precedent, on 26 January 1861 Louisiana resumed her status as an independent nation. Certain people didn't like that.

Today is Australia Day, commemorating the first European settlers in led by Captain Arthur Phillip, landed in what is today Sydney. Well, "led" is maybe not the right word. "In the custody of" comes closer, as it was founded as a penal colony. Still, it's interesting to me that the people that England considered so much trash -- Scotch Irish, Scots, Irish, and English convicts -- when moved to a new world established free, tough, & thriving commonwealths. Did somebody in England overlook something?

On 26 January 1564 Pope Pius IV issued a bull ratifying the Council of Trent's conclusions on the dispute between Rome and Protestants, and effectively closed out any hope of the reconciliation many on both sides hoped for. The Council had been convened in 1545, but met off and on through the intervening years until 1563.

Argentum et aurum comparanda sunt —
Silver and gold must be bought.

— Franklin Sanders, The Moneychanger

Copyright Notice

© 2015 Little Mountain Corporation, d.b.a. The Moneychanger. All rights reserved. May not be republished in any form, including electronically, without our express permission.

Warnings and Disclaimers

To avoid confusion, please remember that the comments above have a very short time horizon. Always invest with the primary trend. Gold's primary trend is up, targeting at least $3,130.00; silver's primary trend is up, targeting 16:1 gold/silver ratio or $195.66; stock's primary trend is down, targeting Dow under 2,900 and worth only one ounce of gold or 16 ounces of silver. US$ and US$-denominated assets, primary trend down; real estate bubble has burst, primary trend down.

Be advised and warned:

• Do NOT use these commentaries to trade futures contracts. I don't intend them for that or write them with that short-term trading outlook. I write them for long-term investors in physical metals. Take them as entertainment, but not as a timing service for futures.
• NOR do I recommend investing in gold or silver Exchange Trade Funds (ETFs). Those are NOT physical metal and I fear one day or another may go up in smoke. Unless you can breathe smoke, stay away. Call me paranoid, but the surviving rabbit is wary of traps.
• NOR do I recommend trading futures options or other leveraged paper gold and silver products. These are not for the inexperienced.
• NOR do I recommend buying gold and silver on margin or with debt.
• What DO I recommend? Physical gold and silver coins and bars in your own hands. For additional information, please see our Ten Commandments for Buying Gold and Silver.
• One final warning: NEVER insert a 747 Jumbo Jet up your nose.

Explanation of Terms

The US DOLLAR INDEX is the average exchange rate for the US dollar against the Euro, Yen, Pound sterling, Canadian Dollar, Swiss Franc, and Swedish Krona, weighted for each country's trade with the US. It gives a general measure of the US dollar's performance against all other currencies.

The DOW IN GOLD DOLLARS measures the Dow Jones Industrial Average in gold dollars (0.048375 troy oz. by law). The DiG$ depicts the Primary (20 year) Trend of stocks against gold. When the DiG$ is dropping, gold is gaining value against stocks in a trend that should last 15-20 years. The DiG$'s chart is identical to the Dow in ounces of gold, but gives us one unvarying measure all the way back to 1896. Because it shows the primary trend ("tide") of gold against stocks, for investors it is the single most important financial chart in the world today. Since its August 1999 high at G$925.42 (44.8 ounces), the DiG$ has trended down, targeting a G$80-G$20 (4-1 oz. of gold will buy the whole Dow).

The DOW IN SILVER OUNCES shows how many ounces of silver are needed to buy the entire Dow. The DiSoz is trending down with a target of under 36 ounces.

The GOLD/SILVER RATIO is the gold price divided by the silver price, and shows how many ounces of silver it takes to buy one ounce of gold. The Ratio shows us the Primary (20 year) Trend of gold's value against silver. When the Ratio's trend is dropping, silver is gaining value against gold. This trend targets a gold/silver ratio of 16 ounces of silver to one of gold within the next 5-10 years. That implies that silver will massively, vastly outperform gold before this bull market ends. When both metals are rallying, the ratio often (but not always) drops, confirming the rally.

Other Important Information

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