What we’re reading (1/14)
“Tech Selloff Weighs On Nasdaq; Precious Metals Scale New Peaks” (Wall Street Journal). “Stocks retreated Wednesday, with the Nasdaq composite leading declines as Nvidia and other chip stocks such as Broadcom traded lower. On Tuesday, the Trump administration said Nvidia must meet new security requirements before sending H200 artificial-intelligence chips to China.”
“The Confidence Paradox” (Larry’s Substack). “This divergence between sentiment and fundamentals signals an unease about the sustainability of current conditions. Beneath the surface of steady GDP growth and resilient employment figures, 11 significant risks are developing that warrant consideration.”
“Supply - Demand Imbalance And Commodities” (Disciplined Systematic Global Macro Views). “The current supply-demand imbalance is not just a gold problem, but a silver problem. In fact, there is a supply imbalance with nickel, cobalt, copper, palladium, rhodium, and aluminium, along with a rare earths supply change problem. Surprisingly, all of these imbalances have been documented yet are only now being recognized.”
“Gold, Silver, Copper Surge As Explosive Rally Sweeps Over Metals Market” (Yahoo! Finance). “Gold futures hit a high of $4,650 per troy ounce, marking a 5% year-to-date gain. Wall Street analysts upped their forecasts in recent days in light of the recent US intervention in Venezuela, geopolitical tensions with Iran, and growing questions about Federal Reserve independence.”
“Age Of Invention: Tudor Trade War” (Anton Howes). “The places that protested, in other words, were where the raising of the wage caps would have felt the most out of step with their rising costs; but also where their costs would have fallen furthest and fastest upon the resumption of trade, which would explain why there was no further complaint upon the wage caps being lowered again the following year. In any case, regardless of what really happened in 1495-7 to the wage caps, the effects were brief. But the labour laws were indisputably in force in again, and their enforcement had been significantly tightened. They were soon — as I’ll explain in the next instalment — to become more painful and restrictive than ever before. If the effects of Henry VII on England’s economy were severe, the son whose succession he readily sacrificed it for, Henry VIII, were to be downright devastating.”
