Gold/Housing/Bank comments and a good around the world from Jane Fraser

If you didn't notice, gold had a big move higher last week, particularly on Friday with its $58 price rise on Friday, regaining what it had lost over the few prior weeks. We also saw on Friday that for the week ended 10/10, the net speculative long positions (non-commercial traders) fell to the lowest level since November 2022 and not far from a level last seen in April 2019. Thus, using this as a contrarian indicator (as opposed to the positioning of commercial traders) means that there are much fewer that are net long and a foundation for even higher prices.

Non-Commercial net longs in Gold, 71,433 contracts

Defining how unaffordable it is to buy a home, the National Association of Realtors reported its August index Friday and its housing affordability index fell to 91.7, the lowest print going back to when they started accumulating data in 1989. The level of 100 is where the median income can qualify for a mortgage with a 20% down payment. Currently that income threshold is about $107,000. The NAR said according to Bloomberg News as I didn't see the press release as it's behind a paywall, "The highest mortgage rate in two decades is detrimentally limiting the homeownership opportunity for many middle class households. Unintentionally, no doubt, the Federal Reserve is widening social inequality with only the high income families - earning $100,000 - able comfortably buy a home." I'll say, the Fed's manic monetary policy over the past 25 years has done a lot of damage to the affordability of many things that most negatively impact lower income households.