Gold and Silver prices are languishing with Gold flat in the past 5 days at $6245CAD and down 3.5% month over month. Silver is flat this month and up ½ % from the last 5 days now $105CAD. Silver is still up 132% Year over Year. US Dollar index DXY is flat this week at 99.31 and down 1.5% YOY. SP500 Volatility Index VIX is down 14%. SP 500 ES futures rose 1.5% and are now trading 7509 at new all time highs and having remained above 7000 since mid April..
U.S. private credit default rates have climbed to record highs, with Fitch Ratings placing the trailing 12-month rate at 6.0%. Driven by soaring borrowing costs and macroeconomic pressures, the market faces a divergence, with smaller middle-market companies and software loans seeing the most significant distress.
Each of the Big Four alternative asset managers: BlackStone, Apollo, KKR and Brookfield - which was formerly Chaired by PM Mark Carney - have posted negative returns between January 1 and May 8, 2026, CNBC reported on Thursday. “KKR led the decline with a -19.4% total return.”
Forecasts of the market wide US private credit default rates vary, with Morgan Stanley’s estimates of default rates around 8.0%
Crude WTI futures are down 4% at $97 and now up 57% YOY. On March 2, 2026, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officially declared the strait closed.
NYMEX NG natural gas futures which spiked over 100% above $7 in January are now trading $2.93 USD per Million BTU.
Crypto is consolidating, with BTC up 0.5% this week to $77,000 and ETH down 5% at $2100. The crypto crash originally started on Oct. 10 when Trump threatened to impose an extra 100% tariff on Chinese imports
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Ai powered Government Contractor Palantir is up 3% - PLTR currently trades at $136.50, and up 9% YOY after falling from a 52 week high of 207.52.
NVDA is down 6% in the past 5 days at $217.09, still above the previous all time high of $216.83 and is a 5 Trillion dollar market cap. NVDA accounts for approximately 8% of the entire SP500
S&P AeroSpace and Defense ETF XAR rose 2% in the past 5 days to $271.60 after making a new All Time High in March of 295.23 following the assasination of the Iranian Supreme Leader. XAR is up 12% Year to Date
Weekly Jobless Claims were down 3,000 at 209,000 for the week ending May 15th.
The Gold/Silver ratio fell 0.5% now at 59.49 up from a low this year of 43.52 after falling steadily since late October and from its March high of 107. Longer 20 yr and 30 yr US government bonds yields remained above 5%, currently 5.09 and 5.08% respectively.
The Polymarket quoted probability of a total 0 bps in cuts rose to 71%. The probability of 25 bps is 17%. Short term rates are above 4% in the 2yr at 4.13%
US Comex Copper Futures HG, a leading indicator of economic growth, are up 1.5% $6.37 usd/lb after hitting a new all time high in this week of $6.72 usd/lb.