Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Shining a Light Through the Darkness

 

"For the things of the world, the desire for physical pleasures, the envy for the things that we see, the pride in our possessions, are not from the Father.  The world and its desires are passing away, but those who do the will of God remain forever."

1 John 2:16-17

"Greed, I say, is a great flood; it is a whirlpool sucking one down, a constant yearning, seeking a hold, continually in movement; difficult to cross is the morass of sensual desire.  A sage does not deviate from truth, a brahmana stands on firm ground.  Renouncing all, he is truly called 'calmed.'"

Gautama Buddha, Attadanda Sutta: The Training, trans J. Ireland, 1995

"Whoever loves money never has enough, and whoever loves abundant possessions is never satisfied with their income.  So this is a meaningless vanity."

Ecclesiastes 5:10

"The moon shines in the open, not under cover.  The sun shines in the open, not under cover.  The teaching and training proclaimed by an Awakened shine in the open, not under cover.  These three things shine in the open, not under cover."

Gautama Buddha, Paṭicchanna-sutta: Under Cover, trans Bhikkhu Sujato 2018

"You are the light of the world.  A city that is set on a mountain cannot be hidden.  Nor do people light a lamp and then put it under a basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house.  Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see good deeds and glorify our heavenly Father."

Matthew 5:14-16

Stocks managed to extend their rally again today.  Unless something seriously dislocates we can expect the stock bubble to continue being inflated.

I don't think I have seen anything quite like this, even at the worst of the Wall Street financial scandals.  The pretense of legitimate price discovery was always covered by at least a fig leaf of official imprimatur.

Gold and silver recovered a bit after a final, vicious smackdown for those brave souls still holding Comex claim checks on a shrinking store of precious metals.   

VIX is now flashing a warning into the weekend.

The Dollar is chopping around.

Bitcoin has slipped off its recent breakout attempt, and has fallen back down to key support.  A further decline below 70k would not be constructive to the crypto narrative.

The levels of risk in both financial and geopolitical terms is astonishing.   The world is most likely heading right into a global recession with the kind of stagflation that bites particularly hard.

And the flashpoints in the Mideast and Eastern Europe are sparking ominously.

Now we know what those who have gone before us have felt in turning points of history as those who would defy their mortality rage at their passing into dust. 

Where are the snows of yesteryear? 

Defy the madness, we who are no longer captives of this perishing world, and shine a light for the rest through the darkness. 

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - To Be Human

 

"They slander what they do not understand, and when they act by their animal appetites are destroyed. What sorrow awaits them.  They follow the way of Cain, chase after wealth into Balaam’s error, and perish in the rebellion of Korah."

Jude 10-11

"Never in the history of the world have so many people been so rich; never in the history of the world have so many of those same people felt themselves so poor.  The state of perpetual emptiness is, of course, very good for business."

Lewis H. Lapham, The Agony of Mammon, 1999

"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, 18 April 1966

“A thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy.  I have come that they may have life, and have it in abundance."

John 10:10

"Lordliness is not synonymous with aristocracy, nor does it signify any class difference or difference in wealth. But neither is it merely a moral trait. It is a synthesis of pride, decency, self-confidence, and magnanimity. You find Archons (Lords) scattered among all types of people. The Archon never becomes a part of a mass of people, no matter what class he belongs to; he always remains a person.

I cannot, perhaps it is my failing, define lordliness in a single phrase. But when I meet someone who possesses that complex set of virtues that compose it, then I recognize it. I say to myself: This is an Archon. He belongs to that select category of people. All of us together, with God's help should fulfill our duty, as human beings and Greeks, and leave as our bequest to our children and grandchildren our glorious inheritance. We have Archons in the legal sense who lack lordliness. But we also have manual laborers who possess lordliness in abundance." 

Konstantinos Tsatsos, Words for the Fathers, 1975

Even animals know when they have been harmed, and will react to prevent that harm to themselves and theirs from happening ever again.  

But only a human, fully developed and aware in the spirit of life, will take this experience and form it into a principle of moral justice to be applied in other situations, and to actions that are even their own.  

The glory of God is the human, fully alive; and the humanity of a person is found in reflecting the glory of God."   Irenaeus AD 180

Stocks have continued to maintain their lofty valuations and severe underestimation of risk.

I have stopped thinking of this as a mania, and rather as a conscious effort to accelerate the transfer of wealth to the power elite by pumping up certain financial assets, resulting in the general diminishment of all the rest of the assets under the Dollar through a stealthy, pernicious inflation.

It is a hidden tax on the working public.  The AI Bubble.  It is not the result of a well-intentioned policy error, or animal spirits, but a lack of character for the sake of personal gain. 

Gold and silver were hit particularly hard today in the aftermath of the Comex contract option expiration yesterday, as I suggested would happen.   They don't even bother to hide their lawlessness anymore.

VIX is near six month lows.

The Dollar continues to chop around in a well-managed trading range.  Which of the currencies in the DXY index basket can stand on their own?

I am expecting a severe resumption of hostilities in Europe and the Middle East as a result of the lack of moral and principled leadership amongst Western leaders.  They are corrupted by money and fear.  And they will sit down to a banquet of consequences.

What is our reaction to be in the face of this increase in lawlessness?

To adhere to the Way is not easy, especially with all the ugly selfishness that is so evident these days. It is never really between them and you, but between you and yourself, between you and your God. It is how you rise above, and become human. It is fine and necessary to look after your wealth in order to fill the needs of your family. But random acts of kindness will make a difference in your life and in theirs.

No act of kindness is wasted. You store them in your heart, and these are the only things that you will take with you when the day is done. You will remember them, and you will be remembered for them, if not in this life, then in the next. 

This is our decision, our choice.  Essere umano.  To be human.  Even when the world thinks it is foolish.  

This is the rule of our warfare.  We are called to remain standing, grounded in humility and love.  And the dawn will be ours.

In the end, the only real tragedy is not to have been a saint.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Bubble of Privilege

 

"And what is the origin of evil in us but pride?  For 'pride is the beginning of sin.'  And what is pride but the disproportionate desire for power and status?  This happens when we esteem ourselves too high, when the soul turn away from God, the unchanging good it should cling to, and becomes an idol to itself."

Augustine of Hippo, City of God, Book XIV,  AD 420

"For these are a rebellious people, deceitful children, children who refuse to listen to the commandments of the Lord. They say to the seers, “Do not see”; and to the prophets, “Do not tell the truth; speak only what we wish to hear - prophesy illusions."

Isaiah 30:9-10

"The powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences."

Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope, 1966

"Why is surprise the permanent condition of the U.S. political and economic elite?  In 2008, when the global financial system imploded, the cry that no one could have seen this coming was heard everywhere, despite the existence of numerous analyses showing that a crisis was unavoidable.  It is no surprise that one hears precisely the same response today regarding the current turmoil in the Middle East.  The critical issue in both cases is the artificial suppression of volatility—the ups and downs of life—in the name of stability.

As Seneca wrote in De clementia, 'Repeated punishment, while it crushes the hatred of a few, stirs the hatred of all.' In the realm of economics, price controls are designed to constrain volatility on the grounds that stable prices are a good thing. But although these controls might work in some rare situations, the long-term effect of any such system is an eventual and extremely costly blowup whose cleanup costs can far exceed the benefits accrued."

Nassim Taleb, The Black Swan of Cairo, Foreign Affairs, 1 June 2011 

"A day after Moscow pummeled the Kyiv region with hundreds of drones — and a powerful new hypersonic missile — Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on May 25 to advise him to pull American diplomatic staff and US citizens out of Kyiv.  Russia has justified its increasing threats citing an attack on a school dormitory in the Russian region of Luhansk last week. Local officials said more than 20 people [students] were killed in the town of Starobilsk."

Mike Eckel, Lavrov Warns US to Evacuate Kyiv, Radio Free Europe 26 May 2026


Today was an option expiration for gold and silver on the Comex.  The June contract is much more significant for gold. 

And so gold was sold down, but bounced back a bit into the close.  We might expect another 'gut punch' to test the resolve of those who held in the money calls, for which they are rewarded with active futures.

Stocks rallied hard on the latest announcement of 'a deal' by the wheeler-dealer-in-chief.

The substance of the 'deal' is vague and varying.  Its intent was to pump the stock market bubble higher.

But it provides an excuse for the stock insiders pool to push prices even higher.

VIX is coiling.

The Dollar is chopping in a channel.

What went largely unnoticed over the holiday weekend is the warning that the Russian Foreign Minister gave to Marco Rubio to evacuate US diplomats and civilians from Kyiv.  A warning like this is required by international law, and is often followed by major military action 24 to 48 hours later.

"Some men want war for sordid, others for idealistic, reasons; some for personal gain, others for impersonal principle. But most of those who consciously want war and accept it, and so help to create its 'inevitability,' want it in order to shift the locus of their problems." C. Wright Mills, The Causes of World War III, 1960

From Iran to the Ukraine, highly unpopular Western leaders seem determined to push the envelope of war.  And they may well get their wish, although I think most of their citizens want no part of it, but will be carried along with the tide of war and fog of lies.

Have a pleasant evening. 

US Dollar Very Long Term Chart - The Writing Is On the Wall

 

The DXY Index of the US dollar has a weighting against other currencies that made sense in the 1980s. 

It is heavily weighted to the Euro, the Yen, the Loonie, and the Pound.

The Euro replaced the Deutsche Mark, which has recently lost some of its global significance as Europe struggles to find its place in a world of shifting power.

A more useful index based on the current global realities of a new multi-polar world would be more appropriate.

Any new index must include a transnational standard of value such as gold.

"There can be no other criterion, no other standard than gold. Yes, gold which never changes, which can be shaped into ingots, bars, coins, which has no nationality and which is eternally and universally accepted as the unalterable fiduciary value, par excellence."

Charles De Gaulle, President of France, February 4, 1965

"I have always argued that the gold standard of the 19th century was a very effective stabilizer. It kept inflation essentially at zero, and I felt it was critical for the tremendous growth that occurred for the American economy in the latter part of the 19th century. When we went off the gold standard essentially in 1933, we then had to have what we call "fiat money" which is essentially money that is — it's printed paper money. Which unless we restrict the volume of, can be highly inflationary. The type of interest rate regulation that I and indeed most central banks in the last 20 years have been involved in has been to try to replicate the laws and rules that were governing the gold standard."

Alan Greenspan, Chairman Federal Reserve, September 18, 2007

"Gold is unique among assets, in that it is not issued by any government or central bank, which means that its value is not influenced by political decisions or the solvency of one institution or another."

Salvatore Rossi, Chairman Central Bank of Italy, 30 Sept 2013

Why did gold 'fall out of favor amongst the world's central banks in the 1980s and 1990s?  Because gold was an unpalatable restraint on the rise of the United States in its quest for unipolar global hegemony.  It has had to engage in continuing acts of interference and aggression to sustain this strategic leverage, the Petrodollar, and its predatory financial system.  It has even subordinated a large part of its own domestic economy to the concentration of wealth.

That period in history seems to be coming to an end as oil's role as the primary source of energy begins to diminish.  The powerful will resist this stubbornly, and attempt to control the remaining supply of oil while impeding the rise of alternatives. 

It is merely prolonging the inevitable.  Looting by the power elite ensues.  It is still not too late to restore the balance in the system, but the opportunity for endogenous reform is growing short.

The writing is on the wall.