Wealthion Macro Bites 2-27

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has expanded the list of permitted assets to allow the country’s $385B of actively managed equity funds to invest up to 35% of their assets in gold and silver instruments. In January, Indian investors poured more money into gold ETF’s ($2.6B) than into all general stock funds. The SEBI guidelines will create a new source of demand for gold and silver.

Privately held copper inventories across key Chinese regions (Shanghai, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Chongqing and Tianjin) have jumped to 531,700 tonnes as of 2/26/26, the highest since the early ’20 pandemic outbreak. The rapid buildup has been driven by tepid downstream demand following the Lunar New Year and increased supply arrivals

Stock Top Watch: S&P 500 companies grew earnings 13% in Q4 (six percentage points better than estimates), yet the Index fell 1.7% in the six weeks between JPMorgan and Walmart earnings, the worst earnings period performance in 10 quarters. After another blowout quarter, Nvidia shares fell 5.5% in Thursday trading.

In the new bipolar world, Bloomberg reports U.S.-allied countries bought $463.9B of Treasuries in 2025 (biggest annual net purchase since 2016) while those least united with the U.S. offloaded $125.2B in American debt (most in 6 years). Non-allies and neutral nations sold $673B of Treasuries between 2016 and 2025, while allies added to their reserves in all but 1 of those years (classifications based on U.N. voting records). Got gold?

Pakistan bombed Taliban government forces in Kabul and Kandahar overnight (the first time it has directly targeted its former Islamic allies) and called the situation an “open war,” raising tensions in a volatile nuclear-armed region.

Physical ETF’s tracked by Bloomberg hold 101Moz of gold, up 25% from the 5/13/24 low (81Moz) and the highest since August ’22.

Buyside attendance at the BMO mining conference set an all-time record (up 17% y/y).

During February, JPMorgan exercised 13,687 CME gold contracts for customers versus just 2 contracts for the house.

S&P futures -0.4% and Nasdaq futures -0.35%. 10-year Treasury yield -2.1bps and under 4% (3.983%). DXY dollar index -0.1%, spot gold flat and spot silver +1.7%.

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