Baltic
Dry Index. 2016 +17 Brent Crude 69.30
Spot Gold 5550 Spot Silver 118.18
US 2 Year Yield 3.56 +0.03
US Federal Debt. 38.667 trillion
US GDP 31.106 trillion.
Remember everything is right until it's wrong. You'll know when it's wrong.
Ernest Hemingway
What message about the fiat currencies, but in particular the US dollar reserve standard, are the precious metals sending?
With the Fed about to become politicised under President Trump later this year and the US official debt headed towards 40 trillion dollars by about this time next year, what do the global central banksters think they see right ahead?
Adding to the upward pressure on precious metals and oil, President Trump, (the peace president?) war armada has arrived near Iran. If/when President Trump pulls the trigger on a new middle east war, just how far will the chaos and damage spread?
Below, how mainstream media is covering this week’s developments.
Gold jumps over 3% to fresh highs as Asia stock
markets trade mixed after U.S. Fed holds rates
Published Wed, Jan 28 2026 6:57 PM EST
Spot gold prices rose to a fresh record
Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve overnight kept its benchmark rate
steady at a target range of 3.5% to 3.75%.
The bullion rose more than 3% to breach
the $5,500 per ounce mark for the first time.
Asia-Pacific markets mostly traded lower
Thursday. Australia’s S&P/ASX
200 declined 0.69%.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 reversed early
gains to fall 0.14%, while the Topix lost 0.33%. South Korea’s Kospi was
unchanged, while the small-cap Kosdaq advanced 1.87%.
Shares of Samsung Electronics rose 2.58%
at the open on Thursday before reversing course, falling around 1%. The company
reported an over threefold surge in fourth-quarter profits Thursday,
hitting a new record and beating estimates, on a memory chip shortage and
strong demand for artificial intelligence servers.
Hong Kong Hang Seng Index rose 0.23% in
choppy trade, while mainland’s CSI 300 fell 0.31%.
Investors will be keeping an eye on
developments in Indonesia after the benchmark Jakarta Composite plunged over 8%
on Wednesday after index provider MSCI had issued a statement warning of a
potential downgrade of the country to frontier-market status.
Trading halted after the benchmark fell 8%
on Thursday, according to a press release from the bourse, while
the Indonesian rupiah weakened marginally to 16,778 against the greenback.
Goldman Sachs lowered Indonesia to
underweight on the back of expectations of further passive selling, the
investment bank said in a note published Thursday. The bank’s strategists also
regarded this development as “an overhang that will impede market performance.”
Singapore’s central bank left its monetary
policy unchanged Thursday, while warning of upside risks to inflation and
demand as the city-state’s economic outlook stays resilient. The country’s
benchmark Straits Times Index inched 0.19% higher.
Overnight in the U.S., the S&P 500 reached a
milestone level, hitting 7,000 for the first time, before pulling back as the
Federal Reserve left
interest rates unchanged and upped its economic growth assessment.
The broad market index ended the day down
0.01% at 6,978.03. Earlier, the S&P 500 was up 0.3% on the day, hitting an
all-time intraday high of 7,002.28.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added
0.02% to close at 49,015.60. The Nasdaq Composite outperformed
and gained 0.17%, settling at 23,857.45.
Treasury yields moved
up following the Fed’s decision, as the central bank’s statement
revealed that economic activity has been “expanding at a solid pace” and that
the unemployment rate has “shown some signs of stabilization.”
“I think, and many of my colleagues think,
it’s hard to look at the incoming data and say the policy is significantly
restrictive at this time,” said Fed Chair Jerome Powell during his press
conference.
Asia-Pacific
markets: U.S. Fed rates, gold, Nikkei 225, HSI
Gold nears $5,600 as investors seek safety; silver
targets $120
January 29, 2026 4:36 AM GMT
Jan 29 (Reuters) - Gold extended its
blistering rally on Thursday to hit a record just shy of $5,600 an ounce, as
investors sought safety amid geopolitical and economic uncertainties, while
silver came within a whisker of breaching $120.
Spot gold shot up 2.6% to $5,538.69 an
ounce by 0349 GMT, after hitting a record $5,591.61 earlier in the day.
"Growing U.S. debt and uncertainty
created by signs that the global trade system is splintering into regional
blocs as opposed to a U.S.-centric model (are leading investors to pile into
gold)," said Marex analyst Edward Meir.
The yellow metal jumped past the $5,000
mark for the first time on Monday and has gained more than 10% so far this
week, driven by a cocktail of factors including strong safe‑haven demand, firm
central bank buying and a weaker dollar.
"Gold is no longer just a crisis
hedge or an inflation hedge; it is increasingly viewed as a neutral, and a
reliable store of value asset that also provides diversification across a wider
range of macro regimes," OCBC analysts said in a note.
Gold has gained more than 27% this year
following a 64% jump in 2025.
"Although the parabolic nature of the
rally suggests a pullback is not far away, the underlying fundamentals are
expected to remain supportive throughout 2026, positioning any dips as
attractive buying opportunities," IG market analyst Tony Sycamore said.
n geopolitical news, U.S. President Donald
Trump urged Iran on
Wednesday to come to the table and strike a deal on nuclear weapons. He warned
that any future U.S. attack would be far more severe than the one last year
when Iranian nuclear sites were struck.
Tehran responded with a threat to strike
back against the U.S., Israel and those who support them.
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve decided to
leave rates unchanged on Wednesday, as widely expected. Fed Chair Jerome Powell
said inflation in December was likely still well above the central bank's 2%
target.
On Thursday, the precious metal also drew
support from crypto group 's plans to allocate 10%–15% of its investment
portfolio to physical gold.
Meanwhile, with elevated gold prices,
customers have been cramming into
stores in Shanghai and Hong Kong that sell the precious metal, with some
betting it could rise even further.
Elsewhere, spot silver was up 0.6% at
$117.30 an ounce after hitting a record high of $119.34 earlier. Demand from
investors looking for cheaper alternatives to gold, along with supply shortages
and momentum buying, helped the white metal, which has jumped more than 60% so
far this year.
"The silver market is forecast to
deliver yet another deficit this year, but the real market tightness stems from
the reduced availability of above-ground stocks," analysts at Standard
Chartered said in a note.
Spot platinum rose 1.6% to $2,739.48 an
ounce, after hitting a record high of $2,918.80 on Monday, while palladium fell
1.3% to $2,047.0.
Gold
nears $5,600 as investors seek safety; silver targets $120 | Reuters
Fed leaves rates unchanged, sees 'somewhat
elevated' inflation and stabilizing job market
January 28, 20261 0:30 PM GMT
WASHINGTON, Jan 28 (Reuters) - The Federal
Reserve held interest rates steady on Wednesday amid what U.S. central bank
chief Jerome Powell described as a solid
economy and diminished risks to both inflation and employment,
an outlook that could signal a lengthy wait before any further reductions in
borrowing costs.
"The economy has once again surprised
us with its strength," Powell said at a press conference after Fed
policymakers voted 10-2 to hold the central bank's benchmark interest rate in
the 3.50%-3.75% range following a two-day meeting.
Noting broad internal support for the
decision, Powell said the Fed remains "well-positioned" to assess
when or whether another rate cut may be needed.
"There could be combinations,
infinite numbers of combinations that would cause us to want to move," he
said, with labor market weakening or inflation heading back down to the Fed's
2% goal as two of those possibilities.
Since the Fed's last policy meeting in
December, when it delivered a third straight rate cut, "the upside risks
to inflation and the downside risks to employment have diminished. But they
still exist," Powell said. "We think our policy is in a good
place."
Both Governor Christopher Waller, a
contender to replace Powell when his term as central bank chief ends in May,
and Governor Stephen Miran, on leave from his job as an economic adviser at the
White House, dissented in favor of a quarter-percentage-point rate cut.
The actual rate decision, which was widely
expected by financial markets, was overshadowed during the
post-meeting press conference as reporters questioned Powell about threats to
Fed independence and whether he intended to stay on at the central bank after
his term as central bank chief ends in May, a possibility given new life after
the Trump administration opened a criminal
investigation into him earlier this month.
More
Fed
leaves rates unchanged, sees 'somewhat elevated' inflation and stabilizing job
market | Reuters
In other news, another warning from the Bank of England. What do they know (BlackRock's private credit risk?) that we don’t and they’re not sharing?
Bailey warns of ‘urgent need’ to improve resilience in non-bank finance
Wednesday 28 January 2026 6:04 am
The
Governor of the Bank of England has warned of an “urgent need” to
improve the resilience of the sprawling network of financial firms lending
beyond the traditional banking sector.
Andrew Bailey said that the financial
sector was significantly more robust than it had been before the financial
crisis, but warned that regulators still faced risks from so-called
market-based finance.
“Just because the banking system is in a
far more resilient position now than in the past is no reason to rest on our
laurels,” he wrote in an article for the
Banker.
“There remains a particular and urgent
need to increase resilience in market‑based finance globally given that the
sector is very large and fast-growing. It is disparate in nature and opaque in
important places, meaning that the international interlinkages are, perhaps
unsurprisingly, complex and hard to observe.”
Market-based finance includes a wide range
of different firms, such as hedge funds, private credit firms, insurers, and
pension funds. The sector has grown rapidly since the financial crisis, as
post-crisis regulation pushed riskier forms of lending into murkier corners of
the financial sector.
The rise of private credit
According to a report last year from the
Financial Stability Board (FSB), non-bank financial institutions account for 51
per cent of total global financial assets.
In recent years regulators have grown
increasingly concerned about the risks posed to the wider economy by the opaque
interlinkages of market-based finance, particularly after a string of
high-profile corporate blow-ups and market meltdowns.
The UK’s bond market meltdown in September
2022 was amplified by liability driven investment strategies in pension funds,
while two US firms funded by private finance, First Brands and Tricolor,
collapsed last September, drawing attention to the risks of private
credit.
The Bank of England’s most recent
financial stability report estimated that UK banks had exposure of £173bn to
private market funds and corporates backed by financial sponsors, including
private equity funds.
But part of the problem with market-based
finance is that it is difficult for regulators to get accurate data on the
sector.
The Bank of England has launched major
initiatives to better understand market-based finance and its connections to
the financial sector, including a new system-wide
exploratory scenario (SWES)
in 2023.
The first SWES was concentrated on the
gilt market, but the second – launched in December – will be focused on private
markets, and private credit in particular.
“We need a robust understanding of how
risks might flow through the financial system in a stress,” Sarah Breeden,
deputy governor for financial stability, said when launching the test.
Bailey warns of 'urgent need' to improve resilience in non-bank finance
Global Inflation/Stagflation/Recession
Watch.
Given
our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians,
inflation now needs an entire section of its own.
Amazon
laying off about 16,000 corporate workers in latest anti-bureaucracy push
Published
Wed, Jan 28 2026 6:22 AM EST
Amazon said
Wednesday it plans to eliminate about 16,000 corporate jobs, marking its second
round of mass job cuts since last October.
In a
blog post,
the company wrote that the layoffs were part of an ongoing effort to
“strengthen our organization by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and
removing bureaucracy.” That coincides with a push to invest heavily in
artificial intelligence.
The
cuts come just a few months after October’s layoffs, when 14,000
employees were
let go across Amazon’s corporate workforce. At the time, the company indicated
the cuts would continue in 2026 as it found “additional places we can remove
layers.”
Beth
Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice president of people experience and technology,
didn’t rule out more job cuts in the future, but said the company isn’t trying
to create “a new rhythm” of broad layoffs every few months.
“That’s
not our plan,” Galetti wrote. “But just as we always have, every team will
continue to evaluate the ownership, speed, and capacity to invent for
customers, and make adjustments as appropriate.”
On Tuesday, some employees
in Amazon’s cloud unit received an email sent in an apparent error
acknowledging “organizational changes” at the company. The note referenced a
post from Galetti and said Amazon notified “impacted colleagues in our
organization.”
Amazon
had about 1.58 million employees as of the end of its third quarter. That
figure is primarily made up of warehouse and logistics workers.
The
30,000 job cuts since October represent about 10% of its corporate and tech
workforce, which comprises about 350,000 people.
Amazon
has been in the midst of a significant downsizing for the past several years.
The company laid off more than
27,000 employees between 2022 and 2023, and it conducted smaller cuts across
various organizations in 2024.
CEO
Andy Jassy has looked to slim down Amazon’s workforce after the company went
on a hiring spree during the
Covid-19 pandemic, partly to meet a surge in demand for e-commerce and cloud
computing services.
More
Amazon layoffs:
16,000 jobs to be cut in latest anti-bureaucracy push
3 reasons the US is
closer to a recession than GDP suggests, according to a top economist
January 23, 2026
Mark Zandi isn't feeling
great about the economy as 2026 get underway.
The top economist at
Moody's Analytics was ringing the alarm all throughout 2025, and he's still convinced
that the headlines about strong GDP and a stable economy are masking other issues.
Zandi's thesis centers on
the weakness he sees in the labor market, which he believes is being masked by
a strong headline GDP number.
In his latest outlook for
2026, Zandi wrote that while the US economy is expanding, the growth is
fragile. Whether it becomes stronger in the coming year will largely depend on
the Trump administration's policies, specifically regarding tariffs and immigration.
If economic policy
continues in its current direction, Zandi maintains that the problems that
plagued the US last year are likely to persist, and even reasonably high GDP
growth can't cover up the cracks below the surface.
Zandi said there are
several reasons to believe the likelihood of a recession is high.
The economy is growing, but not fast enough
The economy may look
strong, but Zandi said that the numbers look misleading. Accounting for the
six-week government shutdown, he estimates that real GDP growth in the fourth
quarter will be 2%. That's short of the growth rate needed to employ everyone entering
the labor force, and continued growth below potential will ultimately be a
hindrance to further expansion.
"Of course, the
economy cannot consistently grow below its potential for long. This is not
sustainable. Consumers and businesses will eventually lose faith in the economy
and become more cautious in their spending and investment, leading to even more
job losses and higher unemployment," he said. "Recession will
ultimately ensue."
The deteriorating labor market is a clear recession
indicator
Zandi has repeatedly
flagged problems in the labor market as an indication of an oncoming downturn. For 2026, he is still
deeply concerned about cracks in the labor market, as the economy isn't able to
absorb new labor supply fast enough.
"That unemployment
is definitively on the rise is evidence that the economy's 2% underlying growth
rate is falling short of its potential rate of growth—the rate at which it
needs to grow to employ all those entering the labor force," he noted.
Zandi added that hiring
has fallen to levels historically in line with other economic downturn cycles,
something that often precedes a recession.
More
A Recession May Be Closer Than GDP Data Suggests, Mark Zandi Says -
Business Insider
Technology
Update.
With events happening fast in the
development of solar power and graphene, among other things, I’ve added this
section Updates as they get reported.
Engineers set efficiency world record for emerging solar cell
material
January 23, 2026
UNSW engineers have made a major step forward in the development
of a new type of solar cell that could help make future solar panels cheaper,
more efficient and more durable.
The research team has improved the performance of solar cells
made from antimony chalcogenide, which is an emerging photovoltaic material
regarded as a strong candidate for next-generation solar technology.
Their work, published in Nature Energy, has
resulted in a certified efficiency of 10.7 % - the highest independently
verified performance for this material anywhere in the world to date.
This result earned antimony chalcogenide its first ever inclusion
in the international Solar Cell Efficiency Tables which track
record-setting results worldwide.
And just as importantly, the team say they have discovered the
fundamental chemical mechanism underlying the hydrothermal deposition process.
It explains why earlier versions of the material underperformed.
And that knowledge could accelerate the development of antimony
chalcogenide even faster and further moving forward.
Professor Xiaojing Hao, from UNSW’s School of Photovoltaic
and Renewable Energy Engineering,
led the research and says: “The next generation of technology for solar
panels is tandem cells, which is where two or more solar cells are stacked on
top of each other.
“Each layer absorbs different parts of the sunlight to make more
electricity. What researchers around the world are trying to work out is what
material is best to use as the top cell, in partnership with a traditional
silicon cell.
“Each material has its own pros and cons, and I don’t think there
is an ideal top cell candidate yet. We need more top cell candidates that can
partner with silicon cell. Antimony chalcogenide is one of those and very
positive, especially given its distinct properties.”
Related Stories
Antimony chalcogenide has several advantages that make it
attractive for use as that top solar cell.
Firstly, it is made from abundant elements that cost relatively
little to produce, unlike some high-performance solar materials that rely on
scarce or expensive materials.
Secondly, it is inorganic, which means it is inherently more
stable than some newer solar materials that can degrade over time.
Thirdly, its high light absorption coefficient means a layer only
300 nanometers thick - about one-thousandth the thickness of a human hair - is
enough to harvest sunlight efficiently.
Another benefit is the fact the material can be deposited at low
temperatures, reducing energy usage during manufacturing and opening the door
to large-scale, low-cost production.
Energy Barrier
Despite these advantages, the efficiency of antimony chalcogenide
had not progressed beyond 10 % since 2020 as developments frustratingly
stalled.
But during their latest research, the UNSW team found the major
problem was being caused by the elements that make up the material - sulfur and
selenium - not being distributing evenly as it was being produced.
This uneven distribution created a so-called ‘energy barrier’
which was making it harder for the electrical charge generated by the sunlight
to move through the solar cell.
Dr Chen Qian, the first author of the paper, said: “It was
like driving a car up a steep slope. If you do that, you need to use more fuel
to get to the end, whereas if the road is flat it’s more efficient to reach
there.
“When the distribution of the elements inside the cell is more
even, then the charge can move more easily through the absorber rather than
being trapped before they are collected, which means more sunlight is converted
into electricity.”
The solution to the problem was shown to be the addition of a
small amount of sodium sulfide during the manufacturing process which
stabilizes the chemical reactions that form the solar-absorbing layer.
The improved antimony chalcogenide solar cells reached a power
conversion efficiency of 11.02 % in UNSW laboratory, with an independently
certified value of 10.7 % by CSIRO, one of nine internationally recognized
independent photovoltaic measurement centers.
The UNSW team, which also includes Dr Jialiang Huang,
acknowledge that further work is required to reduce defects inside the
material. They are confident that can be achieved through chemical treatments
known as passivation.
More
Engineers set
efficiency world record for emerging solar cell material
Next, the
world global debt clock. Nations debts to GDP compared.
World Debt Clocks
(usdebtclock.org)
"How did I go bankrupt? Two ways. Gradually and then
suddenly."
Uncle Scam, with apologies to Earnest Hemmingway. The Sun Also
Rises.
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