Gold and Silver prices stayed up this week with Gold up 2.5% in the past 5 days and up 5.25% in the past month at $5874 CAD. Silver is up 7% from last week to $75.76 CAD. US Dollar index DXY is up 0.5% this week at 99.60. SP500 Volatility Index VIX fell 33.70%. SP 500 ES futures rose 4.25% this past week at $6835. Markets are pricing in an over 80% probability of a December quarter-point rate cut Crude WTI futures have lifted 0.5% to $59.08.
The US Government shutdown caused a decrease in consumer spending according to the most recent Federal Reserve Beige book. "Employment declined slightly over the current period with around half of districts noting weaker labor demand," the report said.
President Trump unveiled what he calls is the “Genesis Mission” to create a federally funded Ai program for Scientific Discovery on Monday. Earlier this month Open Ai CEO Sarah Friar sparked controversy when she suggested the US Government should “Backstop… the guarantee, that allows the financing to happen, that can really drop the cost of the financing but also increase the loan-to-value, so the amount of debt that you can take on top of an equity portion.” Open Ai has been criticized, along other players in the Ai space, for circular deals and specifically their lofty plans to create a possible $1.4 trillion dollars in datacenter infrastructure.
Crypto’s storm has abated with BTC up 7.5% this week to $91,400 from a recent low of $80,500 USD. ETH is up 1% to $3015 this past week and still down 27% this past month. The total market capitalization for cryptocurrencies has fallen by approximately $1 trillion since its most recent peak in early October 2025. This decline represents approximately 25% of the total value of all CryptoCurrencies combined.
Republican Congresswoman and Chairwoman of the House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE), Marjory Taylor Green has resigned effective Jan 5th, 2026. Brian Glenn, her “significant other” explained “we both agreed that this is the right decision,” after they announced her resignation. Green has been under fire since she pushed for the release of the Epstein Files contrary to the President's leadership.
According to Glenn “I instantly knew what was happening, because I had not ordered a pizza,” he said. “It’s always a precursor to something more.
… Somebody’s feeling us out, seeing if we are home.” Subsequently the couple received multiple bomb threats. Green was later quoted as saying ‘Do I Have To Stay Until I’m Assassinated Like Charlie Kirk?’
S&P AeroSpace and Defense ETF XAR fell 1/4% in the past 5 days and 9.25% in the past month to $229.30
Weekly Jobless Claims fell 6000 to 216,000 for the period ending Nov 22nd. The Gold/Silver ratio is down 4.25% at 77.56. Longer 20 yr and 30 yr US government bonds are down 7-8bps to 4.62 and 4.67% respectively.
Ai powered Government Contractor Palantir PLTR has not recovered from the tank initiated by the publication of “Big Short” investor Micheal Burry’s SEC filings and his large bets against them.
PLTR currently trades at $165.77, down 3.5% this week and 12% this past month. NVDA is down 8% in the past 5 days. Nvidia is no longer a $5 Trillion dollar company by Market Capitalization despite the announcement of Trump's “Genesis Mission”
With the first two rate cuts now in since the Sept 17th FOMC meeting; the probability of a total 50 bps in cuts (no more cuts) in 2025 fell 52pts to 13% and the probability of 75 bps (one more cut) in rose 56pts to 86%. Short term rates are down 4bps in the 2yr at 3.51. US Comex Copper Futures HG, a leading indicator of economic growth, rose 4.5% to $5.18 usd/lb.