Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Blind and the Damned

 

"'To fight against an equal is risky; against a higher-up, insane; against someone beneath you, degrading,' Seneca wrote in De Ira.  He gave the example of Cato, that Stoic nonpareil who, when spat upon in public by an adversary, merely wiped his face and returned a good-natured quip.  If one could not turn a blind eye, one could at least forgive, knowing that all human beings are prone to do wrong.

Seneca had made the bargain that many good men have made when agreeing to aid bad regimes. On the one hand, their presence strengthens the regime and helps it endure. But their moral influence may also improve the regime's behavior or save the lives of its enemies. For many, this has been a bargain worth making, even if it has cost them—as it may have cost Seneca—their immortal soul.

The Rome he has been trained to serve, the Rome of Augustus and Germanicus, was gone. In its place stood Neropolis, ruled by a megalomaniac brat.”

James Romm, Dying Every Day: Seneca at the Court of Nero

"Hell for all eternity, for so little in exchange. It is true in many respects he assumed the role of the charlatan, yet how apropos, considering his willingness to follow the Father of Lies and deception.

The lofty mind of man can be imprisoned by the artifices of its own making.  If there are damned souls in Hell, it is because men blind themselves.”

E.A. Bucchianeri, Faust: My Soul Be Damned for the World

"Caesar was swimming in blood, Rome and the whole pagan world was mad. But those who had had enough of transgression and madness, those who were trampled upon, those whose lives were misery and oppression, all the weighed down, all the sad, all the unfortunate, came to hear the wonderful tidings of God, who out of love for men had given Himself to be crucified and redeem their sins. When they found a God whom they could love, they had found that which the society of the time could not give any one — happiness and love.

And Peter understood that neither Nero, nor all his legions, could overcome the living truth — that they could not overwhelm it with tears or blood, and that now its victory was beginning.  He understood with equal force why the Lord had turned him back on the road. That city of pride, of crime, of wickedness, and of a lust for power, was beginning to be His city."

Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis, 1905


Stocks remain quite edgy with regard to a looming recession in the US, and the burgeoning trade war sparked by Trump's new policy on tariffs.

The two major indices I track all approached the key red line of support, but setting lower intraday lows n the process.

The Non-Farm Payrolls report, along with any new geopolitical trade and military developments, may move the markets one way or another. 

Gold and silver marked time along with the Dollar.

VIX rose again.

I am glad to report that my eyes are in reasonably good shape, as God wills.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - That Day the Shadows Will Retire

 

"Those among the rich who are not, in the rigorous sense, damned, can understand poverty, because they are poor themselves, after a fashion; they cannot understand destitution.

Capable of giving alms, perhaps, but incapable of stripping themselves bare, they will be moved, to the sound of beautiful music, at Jesus’s sufferings, but His Cross, the reality of His Cross, will horrify them. They want it all out of gold, bathed in light, costly and of little weight; pleasant to see, hanging from a woman’s beautiful throat."

Léon Bloy

"I am telling you, if there is a God, when I get to heaven I'm not stopping to be interviewed.  I am heading straight in.  I have earned my place in heaven.  It's not even close."

Matt Vasilogambros, Bloomberg: I Have Earned My Place in Heaven, The Atlantic, April 14, 2014

"These are suitable feelings towards this attractive but deceitful world. To those who live by faith, every thing they see speaks of that future world; the very glories of nature, the sun, moon, and stars, and the richness and the beauty of the earth, are as types and figures witnessing and teaching the invisible things of God.   All that we see is destined one day to burst forth into a heavenly bloom, and to be transfigured into immortal glory.  Heaven at present is out of sight, but in due time, as snow melts and discovers what it lay upon, so will this visible creation fade away before those greater splendours which are behind it, and on which at present it depends.

In that day shadows will retire, and the substance show itself."

John Henry Newman, The Greatness and Littleness of Human Life, Plain and Parochial Sermons, IV, XIV

Ashes. Ashes!
We all fall down.

Nursery Rhyme

 

The US Dollar DX index took a swan dive today.

Stocks chopped around, managing to muddle through to a modest gain.

VIX fell slightly.

Most things like silver and bitcoin that run contrary to the US Dollar enjoyed rallies.

But not gold.  It's a special case.

There is just not enough of it to go around.  And they are robbing Peter to pay Paul.

How this ends up I don't know.

Power attracts the corruptible, and brings out the very worst in most people.

The administration is trying to manage the stock market reactions to their wackiness.  

You may wish to consider defensive measures for your portfolio in case they don't succeed. 

But let's see what happens.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Emptiness of the Exceptionals

 

“Every sin is an attempt to fly from emptiness.  Each person cries out in silence to be seen as they really are.  But it is a fault to wish to be understood, before we understand ourselves. Love is not a consolation; it is light.”

Simone Weil, La Pesanteur et la Grâce, 1947

"The more power a government has the more it can act arbitrarily according to the whims and desires of the elite, and the more it will make war on others and murder its foreign and domestic subjects.  Power will achieve its murderous potential.  It simply waits for an excuse, an event of some sort, an assassination, a massacre in a neighboring country, an attempted coup, a famine, or a natural disaster, to justify the beginning of murder en masse."

R. J. Rummel, Death by Government: A History of Mass Murder and Genocide Since 1900

"The inability to identify with others was unquestionably the most important psychological condition for the fact that something like Auschwitz could have occurred in the midst of more or less civilized and innocent people."

Theodor Adorno, Education After Auschwitz, 1966

 “Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil, but as a necessity, or even a duty.  Sin is not a distance, it is a turning of our gaze in the wrong direction.  Human beings are so made that the ones who do the crushing feel nothing; it is the person crushed who feels what is happening.  Power is as pitiless to the man who possesses it, or thinks he does, as it is to its victims; the latter it crushes, the former it intoxicates. The truth is, no one really possesses it."

Simone Weil, L'Iliade ou le poème de la force, 1939

 

Stocks were on a yo-yo today, losing ground early, gaining much of it back, and then doing a dipsy-doodle down and up in the last hour of trade.

I suspect marketeers who are not connected with the ruling elite are wondering what the Donald is going to say to the joint session of Congress tonight.

The Dollar continued to slide.

Gold and silver went higher.

Stocks fell to near a 'must hold' area on the charts at their low points.  I have marked those with  bolder lines in red on their charts.

VIX climbed a bit.

So let's see what Trump and His Merry Pranksters have in store for us tonight.

I am hoping his mercurial decision-making will cause at least a few in Congress to reconsider the encroachment of the imperial Presidency which they have been abetting these past 25 years or so.

And do their jobs and fulfill their oaths instead of trying to please the donor class and line their pockets.

Complicit as enablers of the erosion of freedoms and war crimes, crimes against humanity.

Hypocrites.   How can they avoid going to hell?

Have a pleasant evening.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Fire Burn and Caldron Bubble

 

"Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future."

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“Narcissists gravitate towards professions where they can control people and elicit adulation. They are more likely to work in politics, finance or medicine than in shoemaking. They are aware of what they are doing to others - but they do not care.  The narcissist devours people, consumes their output, and casts the empty, writhing shells aside.”

Sam Vaknin, Diary of a Narcissist, 2005

“I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their sin.   I will crush the arrogance of the proud and humble the pride of the mighty."

Isaiah 13:11

"Lack of accountability is a pet peeve for sure, and also a common problem with narcissists. Although there are many disturbing factors in the personality of a narcissist, this one is tough to deal with in any relationship. It’s hard to understand. What is so difficult about owning up to mistakes when we’re wrong? Have you ever met a perfect person who has never made a mistake? How about a perfect parent or a perfect family? I don’t think so. We all make mistakes and hopefully grow and learn from each one. Every failure becomes a significant stepping-stone for huge growth leaps in life if that is your worldview and you allow it to happen.

But, being accountable is difficult for a fragile self-esteem. For the narcissist, who has not developed a solid sense of self, and is emotionally stuck at a six-year old level, confrontation does not work well. In fact, when confronted, it is typical to see a six-year old temper tantrum that we call narcissistic rage."

Karyl McBride, Narcissists Are Not Accountable, August 19, 2013

"Double, double toil and trouble;
        Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Cool it with a baboon's blood,
        Then the charm is firm and good."

William Shakespeare, Macbeth

Stocks lost ground in an edgy trade today.

I suspect that the impending trade tariffs and concerns about war in the Mideast were weighing on the risk assets.

There was a fairly impressive wash and rinse in Bitcoin over the weekend.

Trump announced his preference for a strategic crypto reserve, and that sent Bitcoin and some of its ilk soaring.

But alas, it turned out to be an opportunity for those who had some heavy long positions to dump their holdings at a profit, and Bitcoin slid back down fairly quickly.  

If you did not see this coming you *might* be quaffing deeply of the true believer kool-aid.

Bears make money.  Bulls make money.  Pigs get slaughtered.

Wash and rinse.   It's what they do.

Gold and silver popped today, after last weeks pounding.

VIX rose sharply.

The Dollar slid steadily.

I don't know what they call Jimson weed in the UK, or what they might have that is like it, but I think Starmer is smoking it.  Boots on the ground. 

I doubt the average Brit or European desires a major war in Europe.  But the elites, the ruling class, and there servants in the media and the global deep state may be so inclined, as they so often are.

Trump seems to be doing the right things about the Ukraine with regard to American interests.

War in the Mideast is more concerning to me now.  Netanyahu and his war party are emboldened by support from the same class and types that are all for fomenting war in Europe.  But they will not be getting much pushback from any concerted effort of US thought leaders and politicians.

Their house may be made theirs, but will most likely be made desolate.

The first victim in war is the truth.   And after that the weak, the innocent, and the young.

And there is rarely a war, unless the ruling class thinks they can profit from it.

Non-Farm Payrolls on Friday.

Have a pleasant evening.