Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - US Dollar: La Douleur du Monde

 

"A society that is in its higher circles and on its middle levels widely believed to be a network of smart rackets does not produce men with an inner moral sense; a society that is merely expedient does not produce men of conscience. A society that narrows the meaning of 'success' to the big money and in its terms condemns failure as the chief vice, raising money to the plane of absolute value, will produce the sharp operator and the shady deal.  Blessed are the cynical, for only they have what it takes to succeed.

America appears now before the world a naked and arbitrary power, as, in the name of realism, its men of decision enforce their often crackpot definitions upon world reality."

C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite, Oxford Press, 1956

Lord, thank you for withholding your righteous hand from our nation, for our arrogance in believing that for our betrayals, our greed, our cowardice, our pride, and the murders of innocents, that we are beyond your laws, and are not going to be judged. 

Help us instead to spread your presence wherever we go.  Fill our souls with your spirit and life.  Penetrate and possess our whole being, so that our lives become a radiance of yours. Shine through us, and be so in us, that every soul we come in contact with may feel your presence in our soul.

Let them look and see only you.  Stay with us, and then we shall begin to shine as you shine; shining as a light to others.  Let us thus praise you in the way that you love best by shining on those around us.  Let us preach your good news not with words but by our example, with your loving presence in what we do, by the evident fullness of the love our hearts bear to you.  Thank you for our many consolations, as we recall your loving kindness, and tender mercies.

 

Our foreign policy these days is to say to the rest of the world, 'Ok you're mad.  But how are you going to stop us?'

The answer, the judgement, when it inevitably comes, may be surprising.  

We have marginalized, silenced, and murdered our prophets and speakers of conscience.   How can we not be surprised when judgement inevitably comes?

Stocks rallied a bit after the big decline, but flopped a bit into the close.

The Dollar chopped sideways.

Gold bounced, silver held its own.

VIX dropped.   Risk is not a sentiment that this market embraces.

Non-Farm Payrolls and the FOMC meeting next week as indicated in the calendar below.

Need little, want less, love more.  For those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Where Are the Snows of Yesteryear?

 

"De loin en loin, elle vient jeter dans l'âme du profond artiste un peu de sa paix, de sa grandeur mystérieuse, puis elle retourne à sa solitude immense, au milieu des rues pleines de peuple.  Il n’y a qu’une tristesse, lui a-t-elle dit, la dernière fois, c’est de n’être pas de saints."

Léon Bloy, La Femme Pauvre, 1897

When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers,
      the moon and stars that you set in place—
What is man that you are mindful of him,
     and a son of man that you care for him?
Yet you have made him little less than a god,
     crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands,
      put all things at his feet.

Psalm 8:4-7

"Et Jehanne, la bonne Lorraine,
   Qu'Anglois bruslerent à Rouen;
Où sont-ilz, Vierge souveraine?
   Mais où sont les neiges d'antan."

François Villon, Ballade des dames du temps jadis, 1533

"Beauty is but a flower,
That wrinkles will devour.
Brightness falls from the air;
Queens have died, young and fair.
Dust hath closed Helen's eye.
I am sick, I must die.
Lord have mercy on us."

Thomas Nashe, A Litany in Time of Plague, 1593

"The broken wall, the burning roof and tower
And Agamemnon dead."

W. B. Yeats, Leda and the Swan, 1933

“The dead will lie on open fields,
like sheaves behind the reaper,
with no one to gather them.
So let not the wise boast of their wisdom
or the strong boast of their strength
or the wealthy boast of their riches,
but let the one who boasts boast about this:
that they have sought the understanding of my ways."

Jeremiah 9:22-24

“We'll always have Paris.”

Rick, Casablanca

Stocks tried to rally today, but fell off into the close to set new lows.

Gold and silver were hit overnight with selling in the futures, and this continued into the day.

As one might expect for an option expiration on the Comex.  Like clockwork.

FOMC and Non-Farm Payrolls next week, as indicated on the economic calendar below.

Gold has hit the fibonacci retracement target at 2350 intraday.

They may have to let the metals up a bit, to smack them back down again next week.

Or not.   Even a three card monte game falls apart every now and then.

VIX is relatively elevated.

The Dollar chopped sideways.

And because of the increase in lawlessness, the love of most will grow cold.

But those who remain standing, until the end, will be saved.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - In the Heart of Darkness

 

"There was war in heaven. Michael and the angels fought against the dragon. The dragon fought back, but he did not have the power, and so lost his place in heaven. The great dragon was thrown down – that ancient snake called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He fell to the earth, and his angels with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: ‘Now has come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the adversary of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down."

Revelation 12:7-9

"And he said to them, 'I saw Satan falling, like lightning from the sky.'"

Luke 10:18

"To enter heaven is to become more human than you ever succeeded in being on earth; to enter hell is to be banished from humanity.  What is cast (or casts itself) into hell is not a man: it is 'remains.'  To be a complete man means to have the passions obedient to the will and the will offered to God: to have been a man – to be an ex-man or 'damned ghost' – would presumably mean to consist of a will utterly centered in its self and passions utterly uncontrolled by the will."

C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, 1940

"Glorious Prince of the Celestial Host, Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in the battle which we have to sustain against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places.  Come to the rescue of men whom God has created to His image and likeness, and whom He has redeemed at great price from the tyranny of evil.  It is you whom the Church venerates as her guardian and protector; whom the Lord has charged to conduct redeemed souls into Heaven.

Pray, that the God of Peace will subdue Satan beneath our feet, that he may no longer hold men captive or do injury to the Church.  Present our prayers to the most High, that without delay they may draw His mercy down on us.  Seize the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, bind him and cast him into the abyss, that he may no longer seduce the nations."

Prayer of St. Michael the Archangel

Stocks took a dive today with a little bounce off the lows.

Gold and silver rallied, and held it for much of the day, but finally gave it up and slid a bit into the close.

VIX was elevated.

Comex option expiration for the precious metals tomorrow.

We are under the heel of powers and principalities, in the heart of darkness.

Only love will allow you to keep standing.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Lost Souls In the Court of Nero

 

"Diversity in the Democratic Party means politicians of various races, faiths and sexual persuasions lining up dutifully and immediately in support of the candidate and agenda selected by Wall Street billionaires."

Max Blumenthal, X, July 22, 2024

"The even larger problem is that there is a kind of chronic complacency that has been rotting American liberalism for years, a hubris that tells Democrats they need do nothing different, they need deliver nothing really to anyone – except their friends on the Google jet and those nice people at Goldman.  The rest of us are treated as though we have nowhere else to go and no role to play except to vote enthusiastically on the grounds that these Democrats are the 'last thing standing' between us and the end of the world.  It is a liberalism of the rich, it has failed the middle class, and now it has failed on its own terms of electability."

Thomas Frank, Trump to the White House, and liberals put him there, The Guardian, 9 November 2016

"The end result was to be a new Imperial Order and a New World Empire run by elite, self-perpetuating oligarchies from the leading nations of the earth."

Dr. Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope, 1966, p. 860

"It violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system.  Now it’s just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or to elect the president.  And the same thing applies to governors and U.S. senators and congress members.  So now we’ve just seen a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors, who want and expect and sometimes get favors for themselves after the election’s over."

Jimmy Carter, Citizens United Decision, The Thom Hartmann Show, July 2015

"Seneca had made the bargain that many good men have made when agreeing to aid bad regimes.  For many, this has been a bargain worth making, even if it has cost them—as it may have cost Seneca—their immortal soul.”

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

Stocks had the wobbles for most of the day, but managed to jump back to nearly unchanged after the close.

Earnings season is upon us, and the big names like Alphabet are pulling them in.

Tesla continues to struggle.

Gold and silver held a little bounce.  The miners as well.

Too early to call a turn.  Comex expiration for the precious metals on Thursday.

The Dollar edged higher. 

VIX fell.  

Have a pleasant evening.