“Kindness and intelligence are the preoccupations of age. Being cruel and thoughtless is far more fascinating when you’re twenty.”— Ray BradburyFirst and foremost, a thank you to everyone subscribing. I’ve been doing this (almost) daily for a little over a year and am approaching 400 susbcribers, which is amazing! If you’re enjoying it, please consider a paid subscription-the annual cost is only $100. Either way, I appreciate it; I know how many offerings there are. Any and all suggestions are more than welcome.
Sign that times have changed; Lebron coming off the bench for first time in 22 All-Star games.
TRUMP SAYS TO CLOSE KENNEDY CENTER FOR 2 YEARS FOR RENOVATIONS. I guess it wont matter since no one is willing to perform there.
According to WaPo, Trump has supersized his plans for an Arch on the Potomac ( i’m sure its the ‘Arc de Trump’) to a height of 250 feet, which which would make it equivalent to the Capital Dome
Pursuant to my comments yesterday about the centrality of upcoming midterm elections, this will give the WH more agita. This is an R+17 district.
There are no limits; maybe the corruption IS the point. Right out of a bad movie: ‘‘Spy Sheikh’ Bought Secret Stake in Trump Company: $500 million investment for 49% of World Liberty came months before U.A.E. won access to tightly guarded American AI chips’
(WSJ)‘Four days before Donald Trump’s inauguration last year, lieutenants to an Abu Dhabi royal secretly signed a deal with the Trump family to purchase a 49% stake in their fledgling cryptocurrency venture for half a billion dollars, according to company documents and people familiar with the matter. The buyers would pay half up front, steering $187 million to Trump family entities.’
Interesting article in WSJ which likely explains the delay in kinetic activity: ‘Before Any Strike on Iran, U.S. Needs to Bolster Air Defenses in Mideast’
(WSJ)The article reminded of the dimensions of the Chinese political and military reach and opacity of strategy. The basic continuity of policy, deades-long use of economic and industrial statescraft: ‘Xi Jinping calls for China’s renminbi to attain global reserve currency status’
(FT)Looks ike we are looking at a weak opening> Current stae of play:
The commodities world, especially metals, has seen crazy price and volume spikes.
Sounds lie it aint over yet: The CME Group has just announced its second margin increase in only three days, signaling a significant shift in the trading landscape for precious metals.
Effective Monday, February 2, 2026, maintenance requirements are set to jump:
Gold Futures: ↑ 33%
Silver Futures: ↑ 36%
Platinum Futures: ↑ 25%
Palladium Futures: ↑ 14%
Also from CME, and I do not know what to make of this:
Crypto continues to sell hard. Current situation:
It appears avg purchase cost of BTC etfs is $81,000, so now under water
Friday was definitely a risk-off event in response to Warsh nomination, but sentiment and positioning is still very bullish and rotation to growth
In Financials…
Small cap bank have been the best performers YTD
Regionals have been outperforming larger cap banks by 5.7% ytd, but the sledding gets tough techinically in here
Looking at the weekly, Banks/Insurers ratio (KRE/KIE) testing top of 3 year sideways channel and breaking out through 200w mva. If this holds, there is a lot of upsdie to recapture the underperformance since 1.1.22 peak
OK, I’m due on the red carpet…. stay warm!
