with House democrats refusing funding for ICE during the Siege of Minneapolis. There doesn’t seem to be any middle ground on this one. Expect the economy to grind to a halt as it did before. Without Senate approval of the deal by Friday, the federal government will begin a partial shutdown. The funding package needs 60 votes to overcome the filibuster and pass the Senate. Republicans hold a 53-47 vote majority in the Senate, meaning Democratic support will be needed to pass the measure.

beating the forecast for the poor man’s gold I made a year ago. Gold finally made $5,000. The retail buying has been relentless, and there is no knowing the top. When precious metals go ballistic, they can do it for a long time. Buy Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM) on dips.

a potential alternative to leading processors from Nvidia and to offerings from cloud rivals Amazon and Google.  The Maia 200 comes two years after Microsoft said it had developed its first AI chip, the Maia 100, which was never made available for cloud clients to rent. The Maia 200 is the most efficient inference system Microsoft has ever deployed. Developers, academics, AI labs, and people contributing to open-source AI models can apply for a preview of a software development kit.

New orders for key U.S.-manufactured capital goods increased more than expected, indicating business spending on equipment maintained a steady growth pace in the fourth quarter. The fifth straight monthly rise in the so-called core capital goods orders was ​reported by the Commerce Department on Monday.

but will likely take no action. Inflation has risen continuously for eight months, moving it far from the Fed’s 2% target. The announcement will come out at 2:00 PM EST on Wednesday.