Weekly Market Update Gold over USD $5000 and Silver over $100!!

Gold and Silver prices are mixed with Gold up 2.25%  in the past 5 days at $6926CAD.  Silver is down 2.5%  from last week to $140CAD. Silver is currently up 219% Year over Year.  US Dollar index DXY is down 0.5%  this week at  96.07 and down 10% YOY. SP500 Volatility Index VIX rose 5%. SP 500 ES futures are now trading 6973  having pierced 7000 three weeks in a row but so far unable to stay above that key technical level. On Wednesday US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell left interest rates unchanged. Powell has been investigated by the DOJ over spending on the renovation of the Federal Reserve Building and claims the President is weaponizing the DOJ to pressure the Fed to lower interest rates despite their independent mandate. Powell's current term is set to expire May 15th opening the position to an appointment by the President who is expected to be more dovish.  While Powell's term as chair ends in May, his 14-year term as a member of the Board of Governors does not expire until January 31, 2028. 5-year old Liam Ramos -the preschool child that was allegedly held hostage by ICE in order to coerce his father to leave the safety of their home - has fallen ill in custody and is reportedly not doing well. He and his father, a documented immigrant with an outstanding asylum case, are currently in a federal detention centre in Texas. Minnesota mass protests continue in sub freezing temperatures in the wake of the shooting of Nurse Alex Pretti who was shot 10 times in the back after an ICE agent removed his legally concealed firearm while Pretti was being attacked by officers on his hands and knees on the ground. Polymarket US Government shutdown odds for this Saturday stand at 75% down from a high on Monday at 80%. Crude WTI futures are up 6%  at $65.01 and down 12.75% YOY. Since Jan 16th NYMEX NG natural gas futures have spiked over 100% from a low of $3.02 to a high of $7.44 now trading $3.88 USD per Million BTU on cold weather this winter. Ai powered Government Contractor Palantir is down 9% - PLTR currently trades at $151.86, and up  105%  YOY. NVDA is up  2.5% in the past 5 days and up 2.5% this past  month at $184.84. Crypto fell back with  BTC down  7.5% this week to  $82,600 after  a November  low of $80,500 USD. BTC fell sharply on Friday morning following the near certainty of a government shutdown as Senate Democrats are positioned to filibuster the funding of ICE. ETH is down 7.25% at  $2741 this past week. The crypto crash started on Oct. 10 when Trump threatened to impose an extra 100% tariff on Chinese imports — on top of the 30% already in place. S&P AeroSpace and Defense ETF XAR fell  3.5% in the past 5 days to $277.91. XAR is up 57% in the past 12 months.  XAR rose 4% on the Monday following Maduro's weekend capture, and has risen 14.5% in January alone. Weekly Jobless Claims rose  1,000 to 209,000 for the period ending Jan 24th. The Gold/Silver ratio  rebounded 5%  at  50.20 from a low this yeast of 43.52  after falling steadily since late October and down 53% from its March high of 107.  Longer 20 yr and 30 yr US government bonds are up 3 bps to  4.84 and 4.88% respectively. The Bank of Japan (BoJ) left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 0.75% last Friday. Japan's 40-year bond yields surged to 4.21% on Last  Tuesday, now trading 3.9% Rising interest rates in Japanese bonds risks a collapse of the Japan Carry trade when investors shorted cheap Japanese Yen to buy higher-yielding foreign assets (US equities/bonds), sell those assets to cover the Yen short, causing Yen strength and potentially triggering global market sell-offs and capital repatriation to Japan, a process intensified by recent Bank of Japan (BoJ) policy shifts towards normalization.  The Polymarket quoted probability of a total 100 bps in cuts coming in 2026  is currently 15%,  75 bps in cuts in 2026 stands at  26% and the probability of 50 bps is  23%.  Short term rates are down 5bps in the 2yr at 3.54.    US Comex Copper Futures HG, a leading indicator of economic growth,  rose   2%  to $6.07 usd/lb after hitting a new all time high last Thursday of $6.58 usd/lb.