As expected, JPM has won a dismissal of the civil price-fixing lawsuit. What a surprise!
I found this piece called Cyprus, Oh the Irony! by Hinde Capital to be an interesting read.
Gold and silver had a modest advance, nothing as one might have expected given the extraordinary risks that remain in Europe and the international financial system.
Stocks even managed to rally today based on 'good homebuilder news' and a series of rumours about the Cyprus situation.
This was almost exactly as I had said it would happen. There is a definite market operation going on to inflate stocks and to cap the precious metals. The hedge funds have significant event exposure here, although it is hard to determine it without seeing all of the trades on their books.
So what next?
Spain had a 'bank holiday' today as well as Cyprus. While Cyprus' banks will remain closed until Thursday, the banks in Spain will reopen tomorrow and there are concerns about 'contagion' as depositors may choose to move their funds to safer waters.
So let's see what happens. I expect that the central banks will wish to paper over this problem and move back to a muddle through strategy in which an uneasy equilbrium is achieved through the continuing force of printing money. But events can get out of hand, and rather quickly at times.
