Gold might be plunging... but the bull market isn't over.
During the 70s, gold went up 24x... but most of us wouldn't have been able to stomach the volatility.
Along the way, Gold suffered 3 major pullbacks ranging from 26% to 50%...
The real move only began after all the weak hands were shaken out.
I expect history to repeat...
But the ride will be anything but smooth.
The scale of Big Tech's AI future financial obligations is extraordinary:
Alphabet, $GOOGL, Meta, $META, Anthropic, Microsoft, $MSFT, Amazon, $AMZN, Oracle, $ORCL, and Nvidia, $NVDA, have disclosed a combined $4.49 trillion in off-balance-sheet obligations.
These include future lease payments that have not yet commenced, data-center commitments, equipment purchases, and other contractual obligations.
Alphabet accounts for the largest amount, at $1.08 trillion, followed by Anthropic, at $865 billion, and Meta, at $810 billion.
By comparison, their combined on-balance-sheet obligations total just $758 billion, consisting of long-term debt and existing lease liabilities.
This means off-balance-sheet commitments are nearly 6 times larger than their on-balance-sheet obligations.
In total, these 7 tech companies face ~$5.25 trillion in combined financial obligations.
The AI infrastructure race is facing enormous future financial commitments.
BREAKING: US data center construction spending jumped +90% YoY in September, to a record annualized rate of $96.5 billion.
This also marks the largest YoY increase in 10 years.
This figure is now risen more than +60% YoY for 4 consecutive months.
Since the start of 2024, data center construction spending has nearly quadrupled.
Meanwhile, general office construction spending fell -8% YoY in September, to $46.0 billion, near its lowest level since January 2016.
This brought the gap between data center and general office construction spending to a record $50.5 billion.
Overall, US construction spending fell -1.9% MoM in September, its biggest monthly decline since April 2020.
The AI infrastructure buildout is transforming the US economy.
US mortgage demand is down to historic lows:
US purchase mortgage applications index fell -2% last week, to 131 points, its 2nd-lowest since January 2025.
This also marks the 6th-lowest weekly reading since 1995, down -32% since January.
As a result, US mortgage applications are now -50% below the pre-pandemic levels seen in 2019.
This comes as the 30Y fixed mortgage rate has risen +120 basis points since February, to 7.18%, near its highest since November 2023.
Rates have now been above 7.0% for 7 consecutive weeks.
The US housing market is frozen.
US data-center expansion faces growing regulatory risks:
~45% of planned US data-center capacity is located in states where newly elected Democratic leaders campaigned on tighter development restrictions.
Texas has the largest pipeline at roughly 47 GW, followed by Virginia at 33 GW and Georgia at 26 GW, while only 10 states account for over 70% of national capacity.
Over the last few years, data-center investment has become a major engine of US growth, with spending on information-processing equipment and software delivering its largest economic contribution on record, exceeding even the Dot-Com Era boom.
However, tighter restrictions could delay projects and curb excessive investment, potentially reducing the risk of an AI spending bubble.
At the same time, a sharp slowdown could remove a key source of economic growth and reverse the wealth gains supporting consumer spending.
A slowdown in the AI investment cycle could push the US economy into a recession.
@cissan_9984 Big TechのAI隠れ債務返済の見通し不透明=暴落継続🤔
Big Techの「簿外債務」が激増中
・米IT大手5社の簿外債務が半年で約2倍の3.2兆ドルに拡大
・約60%が半導体や電力等の購入契約、総資産の約80%に相当
・最大はGoogleの1.05兆ドルで、巨額のAIインフラ投資に伴う長期負担が表面化
BREAKING: US federal debt surged +$422 billion in October, to a record $40.6 trillion.
Since July 1st alone, US federal debt has soared +$1.2 trillion, averaging +$300 billion per month.
This is equivalent to an increase of ~$10 billion per day.
As a result, the US total public Debt-to-GDP ratio is up to 123%, the highest since the 2020 pandemic peak.
Meanwhile, the Treasury borrowed a record $839 billion through auctions of Treasury bills and notes last week, with the majority going toward repaying holders of maturing bills.
This surpassed the previous all-time high of $834 billion set during the same period in 2025.
The US debt crisis is in full-swing.
This is a good take by TaoRay:
“I didn't originally want to say this—you won't find such a straightforward revelation anywhere else across the entire web. But since so many people have been asking, I'll just lay it out. The underlying reason for the pressure on gold prices is actually a massive positive signal. One major abnormal factor behind the recent gold price movements is that many major central banks are taking advantage of this window to "secretly" ship gold back from the US to their own countries. The method they're using is to sell off the US gold and then repurchase it in new markets, completing the swap. Why go about it this way? Because under the current market sentiment, the buildup of selling pressure would be even greater. For example, if you sell ten tons of gold, the price will immediately get smashed down. Then you use shadow buyers to gradually repurchase those ten tons in batches, and the price won't even climb back to its previous high. Rinse and repeat, and you'll end up buying even more at a better deal. That's exactly what I mean when I say that national-level forces are ramping up their gold reserves right now—but since they're buying by weight, of course they want it cheaper. This is a form of market manipulation: suppressing prices to accumulate. But you need to understand that they hammer the price down hard when selling, take it slow when buying, and keep the cycle going, so prices stay under pressure. Yet in reality, physical gold is getting scarcer and scarcer until it hits a tipping point—ultimately, supply and demand will dictate the price. It will explode upward in an instant. So smart investors should see through the market sentiment, realize that the sentiment itself is just a tactic, and at a time like this, follow the lead of those national-level forces. Of course, the prerequisite is to keep an eye on your cash flow.”
#Gold #Silver