Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Pour Nous Les Petits de Dieu

 

"Almighty God lets the sinner go his own way, for He has given to man free-will, and does not want a forced obedience, but an obedience springing from love.  In his forgetfulness of God, the sinner squanders his fortune, the natural and supernatural gifts which he has received, using his natural gifts, his health, his physical powers, and his reason, to offend God.   The sinner, having forsaken the service of his God, falls under the dominance of Satan, and becomes the slave of his lowest passions, which are signified by the swine which the prodigal was forced to feed. He feels an emptiness and spiritual hunger in his heart which he is powerless to satisfy.   He knows no rest; he only knows that he is miserable, and hateful to himself."

Friedrich Justus Knecht

"Oh my God, forgive me for what I have been, correct what I am, and direct what I will be."

Elizabeth Ann Seton

"When we forgive, we do not simply put up with the person’s hurtful behavior, blame ourselves for the person’s behavior, pretend that we weren’t hurt, or say the person didn’t mean to hurt us. Instead, we acknowledge that we are all imperfect humans. Forgiveness is a moral decision to see the other person’s worth, let go of anger, and offer compassion, benevolence, and love toward the offender."

Robert D. Enright, Forgiveness Is a Choice

"He has shown you what is good. The Lord requires you to act justly, and to love kindness and mercy, and to walk humbly with your God."

Micah 6:8

"Every century is like every other, and to those who live in it seems worse than all times before it.  The Church is ever ailing, and lingers on in weakness.  Religion seems ever expiring, schisms dominant, the light of Truth dim, its adherents scattered.   The cause of Christ is ever in its last agony, as though it were but a question of time whether it fails finally this day or another.   The Saints are ever all but failing from the earth, and Christ all but coming; and thus the Day of Judgment is literally ever at hand."

John Henry Newman, The Via Media, 1834

"Let us ever bear in mind this divine truth, — the more secret God's hand is, the more powerful — the more silent, the more awful."

John Henry Newman

"To escape the pain caused by regret for the past or fear about the future, this is the rule to follow: leave the past to the infinite mercy of God, the future to His good Providence, and give the present wholly to His love by being faithful to His grace.”

Jean-Pierre de Caussade, L'Abandon a la Providence Divine

"Fear not, little flock, for your Father delights to give you welcome into His Kingdom."

Luke 12:32


Defy the world with love, and a light will come into your life.

If we love and serve the Lord, as He loves us, we need have no fear, despite our human weakness.  

Do not fear the blowing and bluster of men, for as you will see soon enough they are but shadows, a tempest of dust for a day.

You do not believe it.  Your fears threaten to drown out His voice.  

But you will see. 

Today was an option expiration.

Stocks rallied higher, because.

Gold and silver were stopped cold again at resistance and pushed back.

The VIX fell.

Markets will be closed on Monday in observance of Martin Luther King Day, and there will be the inauguration of Trump 2.0.

He is just a man, soon enough to be gone like the snows of yesteryear.  But he should be remembered in our prayers along with all others of our fellow creatures, especially those who might prompt us to falter.

I have a rule that if someone provokes me, I have to pray for them.  I have been doing this for some years now, and it helps me to abide.  I have been praying a lot lately, and I suspect the next year or that will continue.

Remember who you are, and what you have been called to do.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - They Worship Wealth and Power, Precedent and the Law Be Damned

 

"But perhaps the most stunning piece of news we're getting in the wake of the MF Global collapse is in the clients of the firm who managed to get away scot-free, with no freezing of accounts or capital -- particularly the accounts of the mega-cap independent oil company Koch Industries, run by the politically active Koch brothers.

A recent report in Reuters has described the billions of dollars of client accounts that were withdrawn from MF Global in the last few weeks before their collapse, including 8 accounts from Koch industries engaged in oil trade that were transferred to Mizuho Securities after years of a steady and profitable relationship with MF. The Reuters piece concentrates on the possibilities of legal "clawback" of client money if the bankruptcy does not allow remaining client accounts to be made whole.

The Reuters piece misses the point.

Both the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange were charged with overseeing MF Global, their clearing member. If we are to believe them, they had no idea of any difficulties within the firm before customer accounts went missing just a few days before the collapse. But someone clearly knew of the cratering positions and imminent collapse of MF Global, as billions of dollars of accounts were "coincidentally" withdrawn. And what do the Koch brothers say was the reason for these withdrawals? There's been no comment."

Daniel Dicker, MF Global and the Koch Brothers: Friends to the End, Huffington Post, Nov. 11, 2011

“It could be argued that we are now in the midst of a coup d’état in slow motion. Democracy is weakening; few people would disagree. Corporatism is strengthening; you only have to look around you. Yet none of us has chosen this route for our society, in spite of which our elites quite happily continue down it. Certainly corporatism is creating a conformist society. It is a modern form of feudalism.”

John Ralston Saul, The Unconscious Civilization, 1995

"The Ivy League-derived orthodoxy of the professional, educated class saturates all areas of American society.  Alternative voices and viewpoints are ostracized through a number of means.  If you do not possess the expertise and stamp of approval as authorized by the academic infrastructure, your ideas are often dismissed out of hand, however profound and substantive.  If you posses the authorization to speak, but step outside of the boundaries of permissible thought (and action), your voice will remain virtually meaningless, or worse, maligned.  While scholarship, research, writing, and practices outside of orthodox parameters exist at universities and in other professions, the work of these professionals does not generally penetrate the paradigms of larger society, nor does it affect large-scale public policies."

Kristine Mattis, The Cult of the Professional Class, April 4, 2016

"The American economy increasingly serves only a narrow part of society, and America's national politics has failed to put the country back on track through honest, open, and transparent problem solving.  Too many of America's elites-among the super-rich, the CEOs, and many of my colleagues in academia-have abandoned a commitment to social responsibility.  They chase wealth and power, the rest of society be damned."

Jeffrey Sachs, The Price of Civilization, October 4, 2011


As a reminder, tomorrow is a stock option expiration.

Stocks attempted to continue their rallied, but failed.   And the major indices went out on the lows.

Gold and silver were rallying, but lost ground into the late afternoon trade.

But gold has held on to its breakout from the big symmetrical triangle.   It needs to punch up through the overhead resistance on the charts to confirm it.

Stocks are continuing a trend of lower highs and lower lows.

This is not constructive to the bullish case being touted by the Wall Street talking heads to the spokesmodels head-bobbing agreement.

People tend to hear and forget what is going on, preferring to lose themselves in the slogans and passions of the moment.

It is like we have the situational awareness of goldfish.

Well, so much the better for the privileged few.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Even If Someone Who Has Risen From the Dead

 

"You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to serve your father’s desires.   He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him.  When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies."

John 8:43-44

"It is not possible to found a lasting power upon injustice, lies, and treachery.  These may, perhaps, succeed at first, and limp along on hope for awhile with a flourishing appearance.  But time betrays their weakness, and they eventually fall into ruin of their own designs."

Demosthenes, Bartleby, 1917

"What is offensive is that they lie, and worship their own lying."

Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishmen, December 1866

"'No man can serve two masters. He will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon.' The Pharisees, who were money loving and covetous, heard all these things and sneered at him. And Jesus said, 'You justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts.'"

Luke 16:13-14

“Then the rich man said, ‘I beg you, Father Abraham, send Lazarus to my father’s house. For I have five brothers for him to warn, so that they also will not come to this place of desolation and torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets. Let them listen to them.’

But the rich man again said, ‘No, Father Abraham, but if someone from the dead comes back and speaks to them, they will repent.’ And Abraham said, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they listen if someone tells them who has risen from the dead!’”

Luke 16:27-31

"Cromwell:  Sir Richard is appointed Attorney General for Wales.
Thomas More:  For Wales. Why Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world— but for Wales?"

Robert Bolt, A Man For All Seasons


As you may have heard the CPI number for US consumer inflation came in dovish this morning.

Stocks rallied like is was 1999.   Or 1929.

JP Morgan led the banking sector higher with record trading profits.

What a surprise.

Bitcoin took back 100,000.

There will be a stock option expiration on Friday.

VIX fell down smashing into its moving averages.

Gold and silver rallied.

The Dollar came back to unchanged from its early morning losses.

More gold leaked out of the Comex Hong Kong warehouses.

Biden is going to give his farewell speech tonight. 

Donny is going to be inaugurated in the near future.

Declarations of a cease fire in Gaza cheered the spokesmodels.

They were just bubbly this afternoon.

The outgoing crew, Blinken, Biden, and Sullivan, have been giving their farewell interviews and speeches this week.  No doubt prepping for their next lives in the private and academic sector.

Professional deceivers and delusionists, one and all. 

Are you not entertained?

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - And That's the Name of That Tune

 

“There are times when wisdom cannot be found in the chambers of parliament or the halls of academia but at the unpretentious setting of the kitchen table.”

E.A. Bucchianeri

Just charts tonight.

A large amount of physical gold left the Comex registered Hong Kong vaults, taking down the total ounces to a new low. China tends to be a physical market. That sucking sound is gold bullion flowing from West to East, not to return at these prices. 

There will be an option expiration on Friday.

Have a pleasant evening.