U.S. MARKETS

Despite the greatest economic lockdown in world history, the Dow Jones Industrial Average built on Friday’s gain of 260 points, adding another 358 points yesterday to close above the market makers 24,000 milestone at 24,133 on speculation that the broader economy is moving closer to reopening.
The NASDAQ added 95 points, ending the day at 8,730, driven up 1.7 percent by strong performances by large-cap tech stocks.
Today was a different story. The Dow snapped its four-day winning streak.
Again spreading fear, as he has since being anointed America’s greatest COVID-19 expert with a documented track record of inaccurate predictions, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned the virus would “not disappear from the planet” and to expect a “bad fall” season if an effective treatment for coronavirus is not found by then.
Expecting more of the worse to come, the Dow, after being up over 300 points in early trading, closed down 32 points… and slumping tech stocks drove the NASDAQ down 1.4 percent.
Oil lost ground after last week’s minor uptick with Brent Crude closing at $20.74 and West Texas Intermediate closing at $12.99.
Gold closed at $1,710, down $19 from Friday’s close at $1,729 per ounce.
Bitcoin finished its trading day slightly above 7,440, remaining above its 10-day and 50-day moving average.
TREND FORECAST: Despite Washington and the U.S. Federal Reserve pumping trillions of digital cash printed on nothing and backed by nothing, the U.S. dollar continued to strengthen, gaining 0.9 percent in value against 12 other currencies… including those of Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, the Eurozone, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, South Korea, Singapore, Sweden, and Switzerland.
The dollar remains the international choice for safety and the preservation of value since, regardless how dire the current and economic future is in the United States, the geopolitical and socioeconomic conditions of other nations are in greater jeopardy of sharp declines.
Therefore, since the dollar is still considered a safe-haven investment, gold prices have not been able to stabilize above our $1,740 range required to then spike to $2,000 and above.
As reality strikes following the un-locking of the locked down global economy that it will not bounce back in the hopeful V or W recovery championed by The Street, the U.S. dollar, as with other currencies, will sharply weaken, pushing gold prices much higher.