Non-Manufacturing ISM Rises Most In 8 Months

This is good news, and combined with better news out of Europe, stocks are up sharply to all-time record highs today.

Gold Surpasses $1927/Oz.

No surprised there!

Gold Glitters -- New Record High

Even on a stronger Dollar today, gold continues to set a record pace.

Gold Gains Momentum

New all-time record of $1636!

Gold Reaches Another Record

And based upon what Bernanke is saying today, it's going to go much higher.

And Gold Continues Setting New Records Minute By Minute

I feel like I'm recording a broken record!

Bernanke to Market: Buy Gold

Because we're going to continue to destroy the Dollar! Gold up $23 today to a new all-time record!

Gold Explodes to New Record On Bernanke Statements

Gold, Silver Set New All-Time Records

Crude Oil Reaches New Two-Year Record at $108.50

Gold Erupts to New Record High

$1450/ounce and still rising.

Gold Just a Few Dollars From New Record

Just a few dollars more now...

Cost of Living in U.S. Reaches New All-Time Record

from CNBC:

One would think that after the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, Americans could at least catch a break for a while with deflationary forces keeping the cost of living relatively low. That’s not the case.

A special index created by the Labor Department to measure the actual cost of living for Americans hit a record high in February, according to data released Thursday, surpassing the old high in July 2008. The Chained Consumer Price Index, released along with the more widely-watched CPI, increased 0.5 percent to 127.4, from 126.8 in January. In July 2008, just as the housing crisis was tightening its grip, the Chained Consumer Price Index hit its previous record of 126.9.

“The Federal Reserve continues to focus on the rate of change in inflation,” said Peter Bookvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak. “Sure, it’s moving at a slower pace, but the absolute cost of living is now back at a record high in a country that has seven million less jobs.”

The regular CPI, which has already been at a record for a while, increased 0.5 percent, the fastest pace in 1-1/2 years. However, the Fed’s preferred measure, CPI excluding food and energy, increased by just 0.2 percent.

“This speaks to the need for the Fed to include food and energy when they look at inflation rather than regard them as transient costs,” said Stephen Weiss of Short Hills Capital. “Perhaps the best way to look at this is to calculate a moving average over a certain period of time in order to smooth out the peaks and valleys.”

The so-called core CPI is used by the central bank because food and energy prices throughout history have proven to be volatile. However, one glance over the last two years at a chart of wheat or corn shows they’ve gone in one direction: up. And many traders say Fed Chairman Bernanke’s misplaced easy money policies are to blame.

Over time, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has made changes to the regular CPI that it feels make it a better measure of inflation and closer to a cost of living index. It improved the way it averages out prices for items in the same category (e.g., apples) and also uses the often-criticized method of hedonic regression (if you're curious, you can learn more about that here) to account for increases in product quality.

In 2002, the BLS created this often-overlooked cost of living index in order to account for the kinds of substitutions consumers make when times are tough. It is supposed to be even closer to an actual “cost of living” measure than the regular CPI.

“For example, pork and beef are two separate CPI item categories,” according to the BLS web site. “If the price of pork increases while the price of beef does not, consumers might shift away from pork to beef. The C-CPI-U (Chain Consumer Price Index) is designed to account for this type of consumer substitution between CPI item categories. In this example, the C-CPI-U would rise, but not by as much as an index that was based on fixed purchase patterns.”

“As the cost of living increases, we are headed toward a bigger problem with the slowing of housing permits,” said JJ Kinahan, chief derivatives strategist at thinkorswim, a division of TD Ameritrade. “As the staples start to cost more, this could lead to a quick slowdown in the auto and technology sectors as an iPad is an easy thing to pass on if you are paying more for your gas and food and need to cut back somewhere.”

To be sure, it’s nearly impossible to get a perfect “cost of living” measure, and the BLS acknowledges this on their web site: “An unconditional cost-of-living index would go further, and take into account changes in non-market factors, such as the environment, crime, and education.”

Still, states will be cutting back services drastically this year at the very same time they are raising taxes in order to close enormous budget deficits and avoid a muni-bond defaults crisis. So while it may be the missing link to a perfect cost of living measure, one can assume that Americans will be paying more for unquantifiable services such as police enforcement and education, but getting them at a lesser quality.

Bottom line: The cost of living for Americans is now above where it was when housing prices were in a bubble, stock prices at a record, unemployment low and consumer confidence was soaring. Something has gotta give.

$223 Billion -- Largest Monthly Deficit in History

A new record high deficit! Well, fancy that! Meanwhile, the 10-year is higher. Makes perfect (tongue-in-cheek) sense!

from Washington Times:

The federal government posted its largest monthly deficit in history in February at $223 billion, according to preliminary numbers the Congressional Budget Office released Monday morning.
That figure tops last February’s record of $220.9 billion, and marks the 29th straight month the government has run in the red — a modern record. The last time the federal government posted even a monthly surplus was September 2008, just before the financial collapse.
Last month’s federal deficit is nearly four times as large as the spending cuts House Republicans have passed in their spending bill, and is more than 30 times the size of Senate Democrats’ opening bid of $6 billion.
Senators are slated to vote this week on those two proposals — both of which are expected to fail — and then all sides will go back to the negotiating table to try to work out a final deal.

Precious Metals Rebound, Silver Sets New High

Silver Setting New Records Too!

Gold Setting New Records

But Copper Continues to New Record High

Copper was one of the few holdouts today.

Copper's Continued Climb to New Record High

Commodities Blast to new Record Highs

from Bloomberg Commodities:
Raw sugar rose to a 29-year high in New York on speculation supplies from India and Brazil, the world’s largest growers, won’t be enough to avoid a third consecutive annual shortage. Cocoa prices resumed gains.
Global output will lag behind demand by almost 3 million metric tons in the marketing year that ends Sept. 30, ABN Amro Bank NV and VM Group said Dec. 10, reversing an earlier forecast for a surplus. C. Czarnikow Sugar Futures Ltd. also forecasts a deficit. Raw sugar prices have jumped 23 percent this year.


NYBOT -- new 2010 high

Sugar -- new 29-year high

Cotton -- limit up, new all-time record high