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 […]

February 11, 2026 | Financial Stress is Driving Rents and Home Prices Down, at Last

As I have noted many times, historically, a maximum of 3x household income has been considered the limit of what is considered “affordable” for homes. In Canada, with a median household income of 84k, this would mean homes priced at no more than $252,000. Today, the national average home sale price is $660k (down from […]

February 10, 2026 | Dow to 100K?

Donald Trump recently stated that the Dow could reach 100,000 by the end of his presidency, and the usual crowd immediately rushed to either cheer or ridicule the statement without understanding why such a number is even possible. The problem with modern analysis is that it assumes markets rise because governments are doing something right. […]

February 10, 2026 | Risk Trade Poised To Follow Crypto’s Lead

Stocks, commodities, junk bonds, precious metals, and crypto assets all leapt together into late 2025; now, Bitcoin, the crypto leader, is down 44% since October, and the broader crypto market has vaporized trillions in notional value while billions flow out of crypto-based Exchange Traded Funds. US stocks trading at all-time bubble-high valuations (S&P 500 composite […]

February 9, 2026 | Pre-Sale Flip Flop

Happy Monday Morning! As we noted last week, Greater Vancouver home sales continued their slump into 2026. January home sales fell 29% year-over-year in January, and were a whopping 35% below the 10 year average. The sales to actives ratio was just 9%, the lowest reading since September 2012. In other words, only 9% of […]

February 9, 2026 | Spring Listings Start Early in 2026

The spring listing wave traditionally starts at the end of February, but supply is already off to a strong start in 2026. Canadian housing inventory rose in January, with listings higher across most regions, as prices declined (home price index for the 5 largest urban centers shown below for December and January). See Supply surge keeps […]

February 8, 2026 | So…About That Chinese Silver Short Whale

Many of you have probably heard at least part of this story. But for those who haven’t, read on because it’s wild. And potentially favorable for our silver. Let’s start with a Chinese whale putting on a Hunt Brothers-level silver futures short in Shanghai: Silver, possibly in response, tanked: And then — while the markets were […]

February 8, 2026 | Time to Jump on Miners

[The following commentary was written by Steve Houck. He is a longtime investor in bullion and knows the markets well.  He is also a friend and former business partner.  RA ] Looking at the froth in silver, it became apparent it was time to rotate from overvalued to undervalued once again.  Selling precious-metal ETFs like SLV and AGQ […]

February 8, 2026 | Federal Regime Change

Like people, institutions of all kinds get old. Some age less than gracefully. They become set in their ways, fixating on the past and ignoring new conditions. But because they’re “institutions,” change happens slowly. The Federal Reserve System is a great example. It has a critically important role in the economy but is designed to […]

February 7, 2026 | Why Gold and Silver Crashed (Pt. 1)