Craig weighs in again and offers a concise and clear explanation on what’s been happening in the broken and rigged silver futures markets. And also tells us why he sees 2019 being a similar setup to what we saw in gold and silver back in 2010 and 2011 when the metals went on an historic run. Don’t miss a fantastic interview with Craig Hemke, coming up after this week’s market update.

Markets got roiled this week on some downbeat economic reports and a surge in the U.S. dollar.

The Dollar Index broke out to a 21-month high on Thursday after the European Central Bank came out swinging with more stimulus measures. The ECB indicated it intends to leave ultra-low interest rates in place at least through early 2020. That coupled with bleak new forecasts for European economic growth helped drag down the euro and give life to the dollar on foreign exchange markets.

Dollar strength is usually negative for precious metals, and this week was no exception, at least until today. With a bit of a bump here on Friday gold now shows a slight weekly gain of 0.3% to bring spot prices to $1,298 per ounce. Similar story in silver, which seems to have found a temporary bottom perhaps and is now moving off of it. The white metal currently comes in at $15.40 an ounce, up 0.8% now on the week. Platinum is lower since last Friday by 5.2% to trade at $818. And white-hot palladium is succumbing to selling pressure – down 2.2% this week to trade at $1,515 per ounce as of this Friday morning recording.

For the near term, metals markets appear vulnerable to further selling if the dollar breakout holds. So the question is: How high can the Dollar Index go?

The dollar closed Thursday at 97.63 on the Index. If it continues to rally, then the key level to watch would be 100. The dollar rally of 2015 stalled twice right at 100.

Check out the full podcast here: https://goo.gl/uBmjM2