ALWAYS CONSULT YOUR INVESTMENT PROFESSIONAL BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENT DECISION
February 21, 2026 | Trading Desk Notes for February 21, 2026
The massive American military buildup near Iran Markets have reacted to US/Iran tensions (Nymex WTI closed at a 7-month high above $66, Comex gold had the highest ever weekly close at ~$5,130, albeit ~$500 below the January high, and the DXY US Dollar Index has rallied ~2% from the 4-year low reached in January). Polymarket is pricing ~60% chance that the USA […]
February 21, 2026 | Trump’s Tariffs & The New Risk Ahead
QUESTION: I just saw you on Russia Today explaining the Supreme Court decision. You said this will have a psychological impact on Trump internationally. Would you elaborate? GR PS. I agree it is strange how you will appear on TV in Asia and Europe even in Russia but not in America. ANSWER: President Trump […]
February 21, 2026 | Tech Talk for Saturday February 21st 2026
The Bottom Line Surprising response by U.S. equity indices on Friday on news that the U.S. Supreme Court disallowed President Trump’s tariff policy! U.S. equity indices recorded significant gains following the news. Look for a counter proposal from Trump this week! Economic focus this week is on the January U.S. Producer Price Index to be […]
February 20, 2026 | Chinese AI Companies Rock Silicon Valley
The United States is spending hundreds of billions to win the AI race. China is trying to win by spending far less. Nvidia’s high-performance chips and multi-billion-dollar data centers have become the foundation of America’s AI strategy. The largest U.S. technology companies are committing extraordinary capital — potentially as much as 500 billion dollars this […]
February 20, 2026 | Canada to Provide Express Entry to Trained Foreign Military Personnel
I have warned many times that immigration policy is increasingly being shaped by political ideology rather than long-term social cohesion and economic stability. The report that Canada is considering an express entry pathway for highly trained foreign military personnel raises very serious questions that go far beyond labor shortages or skills-based immigration. When […]
February 19, 2026 | Housing and Recessions
The benchmark Canadian home resale price has fallen more than 21% in nominal terms (25-30% in real terms) from the 2022 cycle peak (shown below since 2020). But new home prices have fallen just 8% from the peak nationwide because builders have used incentives, including mortgage rate buydowns, to avoid top-line price cuts. More price cuts […]
February 19, 2026 | US Home Buyers Shift from Luxury to Practicality
Zillow is now openly acknowledging a shift in the US housing market that most analysts are still refusing to properly interpret. They are framing it as a “trend change” in homebuyer preferences toward smaller, adaptable, and more functional homes rather than large status properties, but this is not a lifestyle trend. It is an economic […]
February 18, 2026 | Deflating Housing Bubble is a Major Macro Force in 2026
Residential real estate is the most widely owned and highly leveraged asset class for households. For these reasons, housing cycles have outsized effects on consumer confidence, spending, the economy and financial markets. The deflating housing bubble will remain a major macroeconomic force in 2026. The discussion below is worth a listen. Demand for US homes […]
February 18, 2026 | Canada Completes Construction of Nuclear Power Plant
What you are looking at with Canada completing the roughly $9.4 billion Darlington nuclear refurbishment early and under budget is something that completely contradicts the prevailing political narrative about energy policy in the West. The final 878-MW unit is now preparing to return to commercial operation, marking the end of a decade-long rebuild of […]
February 17, 2026 | When China’s Away, the Silver Shorts Play
It’s been a brutal few days for precious metals, especially silver: And — completely coincidentally — China’s gold markets are closed. Here’s an AI summary of the situation: The Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) and Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) are closed from February 15 to February 23, 2026, due to the Lunar New Year holiday, with trading resuming on February 24, 2026. […]
February 17, 2026 | Gale-Force Winds Will Test Fair-Weather Sailors
Global equities began the year near record highs, supported partly by continued enthusiasm around Artificial Intelligence (AI) investment and expectations of policy easing. However, February has seen more uneven performance: Technology shares have led the weakness as investors reassess how AI translates into corporate profits, GDP, jobs, and security/insecurity. See, AI Fears Drive Volatility, Triggering Declines […]
February 17, 2026 | Kim Jung-Un Names Successor
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service has reported that Kim Ju-ae, the daughter of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, is now in the “successor nomination stage,” a phrase indicating not just symbolic visibility but active internal positioning as the next leader. This marks the clearest signal yet that Pyongyang is preparing for a fourth-generation transfer of […]
February 16, 2026 | The Euro vs Dollar
QUESTION: Marty, you said that the euro would first rise against the dollar and that would lead to a wave of deflation in Europe. Are we close to the reversal in this trend that you said would be the second half of 2026? FD ANSWER: The philosophy between the US and Europe when it comes to currency […]
February 16, 2026 | A Paradigm Shift in Employment
We have been inundated with employment and labor data over the past few weeks. Some of it is finally catching up from reports delayed due to the government shutdown. Readers can be forgiven for feeling a bit of whiplash from the widely varying analysis of those numbers. Depending on who you read, things are either […]
February 16, 2026 | AI: Why We’re Underestimating the Threat
The Asian Guy phenomenon is a wake-up call for podcasters, as the same avatar — and AI content-generating engine — proliferates in the precious metals space. Now, he/it is branching out into other fields. Recognize this voice? The point? AI is beginning to affect people who thought they were immune to artificial competition. Here’s the psychological basis […]
February 15, 2026 | Musk Will Be the Last AI Entrepreneur Standing
AI hubris has got itself in a bind, trapped between two conflicting stories, neither of which seems likely to end well. One story has the boys in the billionaire’s club throwing untold sums of money at a technology that seems increasingly unlikely to produce commensurate returns. The other story has been threatening whole sectors of […]
February 15, 2026 | Trading Desk Notes for February 15, 2026
The S&P 500 Index is drifting sideways while some sectors soar and others tank S&P futures have chopped sideways within a 200-point range since November. They traded to a record high above 7000 on January 28 (the day gold and silver had record high closes), but subsequent rallies have reversed lower. While the S&P drifted sideways, […]
February 14, 2026 | Crashing Gold and Silver Prices — How Long Will It Last?
What if the economy wasn’t chaotic at all-but followed a hidden code? The Armstrong Economic Code reveals the powerful cyclical patterns discovered by legendary forecaster Martin A. Armstrong, whose Economic Confidence Model (ECM) has predicted every major boom, bust, and geopolitical shift for more than four decades. Compiled and expanded by Kerry Lutz, host of the […]
February 13, 2026 | The Gordie Howe International Bridge Makes Donald Trump Furious
The Gordie Howe International Bridge isn’t even open yet, and it’s already stirring up political drama from Windsor to Washington. This week, President Donald Trump lashed out on Truth Social, threatening to block the bridge’s opening — even though he personally supported the project during his first term and once called for its speedy completion. So why […]
February 13, 2026 | Rick Mills: The Copper Shortage Has Arrived
One of the wild things about copper is that it’s now trading at an all-time high price while supply and demand are more or less in balance. Kind of makes you wonder what it will do when the long-awaited shortage hits. According to commodities analyst Rick Mills, we’re about to find out because 2026 is […]
February 13, 2026 | EU Bankers Call for Visa and Mastercard Alternative
According to ECB data cited by the Financial Times, American firms Visa and Mastercard now account for nearly two-thirds of all card transactions in the eurozone, while 13 EU countries have no national card schemes. Now, EU officials have issued a warning that an alternative medium must be deployed to counter US interference. As […]
February 12, 2026 | Putin Whacks Silver
Silver just had one of its steepest declines on record: And this might be why: (Economic Times) – Russia is actively considering a return to the US dollar settlement system as part of a potential economic partnership with President Donald Trump, according to a 2026 internal Kremlin memo reviewed by Bloomberg. The proposal outlines […]
February 12, 2026 | EPA to Repeal Greenhouse Gas Regulations
The Environmental Protection Agency under the Trump administration is on the verge of repealing the 2009 “endangerment finding” that formed the legal and scientific basis for regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. That finding, first issued early in the Obama administration, concluded that carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases “may reasonably […]
February 11, 2026 | The Silver ‘Great Divorce’: Is the COMEX About to Break?
Silver: A Setup That Often Precedes Potentially Severe Corrections There is a lot of noise right now surrounding the physical availability of silver, and it’s creating uncertainty for investors in both the futures and ETF markets. The silver market is entering a period where price behavior may be driven less by fundamentals and more by […]
February 11, 2026 | The Gold/Silver Bull Market, in Eight Charts
Incrementum just published its Monthly Gold Compass chartbook. As usual, it tells the story of an epic bull market that still has room to run. Here are some of the highlights, with a bit of commentary: Gold is doing great in US dollars but even better when priced in foreign currencies. When valued in gold, the […]