1. Options expiration is this Friday. That means that this trading week will be filled with lots of institutional game playing. We see this every month around the monthly expiration. Traders and investors should watch for ridiculous up-grades and down-grades by many of the big firms. There will also be a few take-over rumors, mostly untrue. Then you will often get lots of crazy news that is unexpected. As I always say, let the games begin. Be prepared for anything. The volume in August have been extremely light so it’s even easier than usual to manipulate. Par for the course. The institutions can move the markets easily for 3-5 days, especially when there’s light volume.

2. This is a big week for many leading retail stocks. We will get earnings this week from Home Depot (HD), Walmart (WMT), Kohls (KSS), Lowes (LOW), Target (TGT), TJ Max and several others. The big box stores have been very strong so it will be important to see how they react afterthe earnings reports. These companies have mostly thrived during the pandemic.

3. Gold and silver back on track. Gold is on fire up $48 on the futures, big surge. Same for silver up over 5% but some more backing and filling is on the way. Setting up for a big future advance. Money printing has run amuck. We’re at debt levels we’ve never seen before. We can never recover. Tip of Iceberg.

4. People are putting their money into their homes.