Trump Is Driving Gold Crazy, Along with the Rest of the World

US Adds Only 57K Jobs, Missing Estimates, As Unemployment Rate Slides On Plunge In Workers In our jobs preview post we quoted Goldman Delta One head, Rich Privorotsky, who said that "equities marginally want something weaker than consensus: with no forward guidance, hot NFP means hikes in play, which is unfriendly for pockets of equity risk." Well, they got it because moments ago the BLS reported that in June the US added just 57K workers, half the 113K expected, and the worst monthly print since the big February drop.  Except for...

Lutnick Eyes Crackdown On Chinese Humanoid Robots One day after the House Select Committee on China sounded the alarm over China-based Unitree selling humanoid robots on Amazon to U.S. consumers, a new Politico report states Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick held a closed-door meeting with top U.S. executives and signaled that the Trump administration is considering strong action against subsidized robotics imports from China. Unitree was recently designated as a Chinese military company and its products are a threat to our national security, yet here is @Amazon selling a Unitree robot...

Xi Jinping Refocuses On Taiwan With Renewed Political Outreach China hosted a high-profile meeting between Xi Jinping and a senior Taiwanese opposition figure from the Kuomintang (KMT), marking a notable resumption of party-to-party engagement after years of limited direct contact, according to Nikkei Asia. The meeting was tightly choreographed, featuring an extended handshake, formal seating arrangements, and controlled media coverage. These elements were designed to convey parity and legitimacy, signaling that Beijing views engagement with Taiwan’s opposition as politically substantive. The KMT has historically supported closer economic and political ties with mainland...