Monday precious-metal trading highlights: spot gold surged as much as $100 to a $4,117 high (+2.49%), Dec. gold futures soared as much as $136 (+3.4%) and spot silver closed at a new all-time high at $52.37 (+4.4%). Spot gold touched $4,180 this morning and is now matching the record monthly RSI from December 1979 (90.5).
Silver lease rates remain sky-high with 1-month at 33.5%, 3-month at 21.9% and 12-month at 33.5%. This suggests that despite silver’s continued surge (+11.4% since 10/2), shorts have yet to close. At a monthly rate of 33.5%, it costs roughly 0.64% every week just to carry silver shorts in addition to the price appreciation loss. Unless exchanges default on physical delivery, it would appear silver has further to run.
Treasury Secretary Bessent said the government shutdown is starting to negatively impact the economy. “This is getting serious. It’s starting to affect the real economy.”
The U.S. and China will begin charging additional port fees on ocean shipping firms. China said it has started to collect special charges on US owned, operated, built, or flagged vessels but clarified that Chinese built ships would be exempted from the levies. The US is also scheduled to begin collecting fees from today on the higher charges previously announced.
Euro Stoxx 50 -0.86%, S&P futures -0.9% and Nasdaq futures -1.2%. European bonds trading higher by 3bps-5bps across the board. 10-year Treasury yield -1.5bps (4.017%). DXY dollar index +0.1%, spot gold +0.4% and spot silver -1.75%.