u/Dramatic_Beginnings

In a Sunday interview, President Trump said he plans to visit Fort Knox to see if the gold is still there. He added that “they steal a lot” and that it’s something he’s wondered about for a while. The US Bullion Depository holds roughly 147 million ounces according to official figures, and the Treasury has said it undergoes regular audits with everything accounted for.

Here’s the article: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-fort-knox-gold-steal-b2973930.html

Gold prices can get twitchy on any headlines that touch US reserves or government trust, even if nothing actually changes on the ground. Miners and ETFs sometimes move with the noise too.

Anyone watching $GLD, $GDX or physical gold seeing any reaction today, my pportfolio trading on Bitget is 20% gold and I'm curious what the gold crowd thinks.

National average gas price jumped to $4.48 a gallon as of May 5. That’s up sharply from under $3 before the Iran conflict heated up. The NPR poll out today shows 81% of Americans say it’s hurting their budget, including most Republicans. 63% directly point at Trump’s handling of the situation. His overall approval sits at 37%, and Democrats lead the generic congressional ballot by 10 points with higher enthusiasm heading into midterms.

I’ve been watching XOM and CVX. Both have moved with the crude spike, but the real story is downstream, refiners like MPC and VLO are seeing margin pressure while consumers pull back on spending. XLE ETF is up on the energy side but the broader market feels the drag through higher costs.

My own fill-up last week cost almost $70. Curious how others here are positioning, staying long energy names or rotating into defensives like LMT and RTX as the political heat rises?

The poll suggests this could become a bigger midterm issue than some expected.

https://www.npr.org/2026/05/06/nx-s1-5810555/trump-iran-gas-prices-midterms-polling

Smart business decisions...

Chinese courts in Beijing and Hangzhou ruled this week that companies cannot terminate staff simply because AI can do their jobs cheaper. AI adoption counts as a normal business decision, not an objective major change under labor law. Firms have to retrain workers, offer comparable reassignments, or pay severance instead.

The cases involved tech roles like data entry and AI output checks. This setup raises ongoing labor expenses for Chinese internet and AI players. BABA and BIDU run big operations in e-commerce, maps, and content that have leaned on automation to cut headcount. TCEHY faces similar issues in its content and gaming divisions.

Higher costs here could slow pure AI replacement plays and push more mixed human-plus-machine setups. NVDA and other chip suppliers might see softer demand from Chinese customers if local projects face extra friction or delays.

Full details here: https://www.caixinglobal.com/2026-04-30/chinese-courts-rule-companies-cannot-fire-workers-simply-to-replace-them-with-ai-102439602.html

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that OpenAI fell short of its own goals for ChatGPT weekly active users (the 1 billion target by end of 2025) and multiple revenue targets earlier this year. The company’s CFO and board are now questioning whether it can keep up with the massive data-center and compute contracts it has signed.

This news hit AI-related stocks right away. NVDA, ORCL, and AMD all moved lower in trading, along with CoreWeave. It added some pressure to the broader tech sector and Nasdaq.

Stocks in the AI supply chain took the clearest hit, while commodities like crude oil stayed relatively flat amid other headlines and the U.S. dollar index ticked slightly higher as traders turned a bit more cautious overall. Nothing dramatic, but it shows how quickly sentiment can shift on growth expectations in the sector.

Anyone else watching these names, or does this feel like normal volatility ahead of more earnings? Link in comments