Consumer Sentiment Index from University of Michigan fell in March to 63.4 vs. 67 est. & 67 prior; expectations fell to 61.5 vs. 64.7 prior; current conditions down to 66.4 vs. 70.7 prior. That was the first time in 4 months it fell, and 85% of the survey was completed before the recent banking crisis. #CoSoFinance

SVB was a fraction of its recent size when the Trump administration and congressional Republicans led a bipartisan effort to roll back banking regulations in 2018, ending automatic annual stress testing for banks smaller than $250 billion in assets.

SVB became the fastest-growing major bank in the nation over the past five years. By this year, it was the country’s 16th largest by assets.

Assets on the Fed's balance sheet increasing $297 billion over the last week, the largest spike higher since March 2020. Thus nearly half of the Quantitative Tightening since last April was undone in a single week. The spike was not due to asset purchases (Treasuries and MBS holdings actually declined) but from a $303 billion increase in "Loans." Part of that was the new Bank Term Funding Program ($12 billion) #CoSoFinance

More than a fifth of Fox News Channel viewers are less trusting of the cable network in the wake of publicly disclosed text messages and emails from Fox executives and on-air personalities. But only 9% of Fox News viewers say they aren’t watching the network as much as they used to. https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/fox-news-dominion-lawsuit-viewers-less-trust-1235554399/

Monday, thanks to the burgeoning banking crisis, I took gains on double-inverse ETFs in Resource Trader and Supercycle Investor. Yesterday, I took more gains in Resource Trader and added another gold stock. Today, the banking crisis continues, and gold goes higher, and gold stocks along with it. It's a scary market, but manageable. #CoSoFinance

Today, in the Weiss Ratings Daily, I talk about how the banking crisis is sending gold higher. That's just what we're seeing again today. What comes next? Read the article and find out. https://weissratings.com/en/weiss-ratings-daily/svb-s-collapse-should-send-gold-higher #CoSoFinance

Dems are very good at capitalism, as these charts show. https://simonwdc.substack.com/p/nyt-another-stronger-than-expected #CoSoEconomics

Looking forward to the new season of Schmigadoon. Though I think it's really a sequel. https://youtu.be/FBn4jL4xKNw

Rolling Stone's review of the new D&D movie starts by dissing the people who play D&D as basement dwelling sad sacks. I plan to see the movie, but I'll skip the review. #HonorAmongThieves

In 1 hour, at 11:15 today, I'll make a presentation for the MoneyShow. I talk about investments that can do well in inflation, including #Copper and #oil. Watch it: https://online.moneyshow.com/2023/march/accredited-virtual-expo/speakers/50a8463072b6404a8b1a00fe930f4ecc/sean-brodrick/

At 11:15 today, I'll be making a presentation for the MoneyShow. I talk about investments that can do well in inflation. #Copper and #oil, sure, but also strategies on when you want to buy i-bonds, etc. https://online.moneyshow.com/2023/march/accredited-virtual-expo/speakers/50a8463072b6404a8b1a00fe930f4ecc/sean-brodrick/

Price action tells us that #inflation is putting the bite on Kellogg (K).

Weekly #Crude #oil chart (West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. oil benchmark) shows more sideways action. What about rising China demand? What about Russian oil cuts? Oil shrugs off that news. Oil traders are likely to die of boredom #CoSoFinance

Rally in the small-cap Russell 2000 Index #IWM last week on good volume; that brings it right up to overhead resistance. Wait to see how it works out. #CoSoFinance

The daily S&P 500 $SPX bounced from support at both its broken downtrend and the 200-day moving average last week. I'm watching the 4060-4080 zone as overhead resistance. We should know this week. #CoSoFinance

So what's driving the action in metals? The zig-zag in the U.S. dollar. The weekly greenback chart bounced off support a few weeks ago, and now is up against overhead resistance. This MAY be make or break time, or it could confound bulls and bears and keep channeling. #CoSoFinance