Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Endless Song of Praise

 

"Let us remember the poor, and not forget kindness to strangers; above all, let us love God with all our soul, and might, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves.   For no part of Creation is left void of Him: He has filled all things everywhere."

Athanasius of Alexandria 

 

"Through our relationship with the Incarnation, we recover our true humanity, and at the same time are delivered from that perverse individualism which is the consequence of sin, and recover our solidarity with all mankind." 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

 

"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.  Wonderful providence indeed which is so silent, yet so efficacious, so constant, so unerring. 

This is what baffles the power of Satan.  He cannot discern the Hand of God in what goes on; and though he would fain meet it and encounter it, in his mad and blasphemous rebellion against heaven, he cannot find it.”

John Henry Newman

 

"Isn't it a riddle and awe-inspiring that things can be so beautiful, despite the horror?  I've seen something wondrous peering through my joy in the beautiful, a sense of its creator.  Only people can be truly ugly, because they have free will to separate themselves from this song of praise.  It often seems they will drown out this hymn with cannon thunder, curses, and blasphemy.  But I have realized they will not succeed.  And so I want to throw myself on the side of the victor.” 

Sophie Scholl

 

Gold and silver had their expected bounces off a fairly strong support level on their charts today.

While it will be nice to see if they can hold this level and build up from here, the real question is if gold can break out of the potential trading range with resistance overhead at 1770.  

Just look to the left on the chart, to see the last time gold dallied around these levels.

At this point I suspect that silver will continue to follow gold, and that gold will have some inverse correlation to the Dollar.

This is a choppy, highly technical trade.   It befuddles most, especially the momentum players, because by its very nature it lacks momentum.

Stocks are grossly overvalued, but they may continue to be so for some time, given the massive amount of money printing, with its distrubtion priorities to those who play with asset prices, a key facet of our financialized eonomcy.

There will be a Non-Farm Payrolls report early on Friday morning.

Alas, the money changers and their smirking chimps will not be able to gimmick the markets easily, because they will be closed here in the US for Good Friday.  How inconvenient that they may miss an opportunity to steal.

I have included the Comex Clearing Report for the gold April contract, because it has some interesting and somewhat impressive numbers.

Goldman has some interesting in and out action in their own house account.   

Is this the reflection of some custodial responsibility, or were their traders just having a day?

On a brighter note, asparagus is now widely available here and quite inexpensive.   So tonight we will be having a fresh cream of asparagus soup.  I am making it with vegetable broth so it can be eaten on the days of abstinence.  Nothing better for a rainy day, with freshly toasted and buttered croutons.

Our prayers each day are for the intentions of our readers, and for all those who visit here this week.  Especially we pray for those whose hearts are hardened against His grace and loving kindness by greed, fear, and pride, and the seductive illusion and crushing isolation of evil.  

We pray that we all may experience the three great gifts of our Lord's suffering and triumph: repentance, forgiveness, and thankfulness.  And in so doing, may we obtain abundant life, and with it the peace that surpasses all understanding.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Double Down

 

Stocks continued to be jittery today, as the leverage and hidden risks in the markets have institutions and traders concerned. 

Although the alt-reality crew will say that this is because of concerns for additional oversight and regulation.  Right.

Gold and silver were hit early on.   Let's see if gold can set a double bottom, or not.

There will be a Non-Farm Payrolls report early on Friday morning.

The weather was just beautiful today, and the lure of working outside was strong.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Idols of the Heart - Hedge Fund Margin Call Exposes Market Fragility

 

“Son of man, these people have set up idols in their hearts.  They hold on tightly to the things that will make them fall into sin.  Should I allow them to inquire from me at all?" 

Ezekiel 14:3

 

"Through our relationship with the Incarnation, we recover our true humanity, and at the same time are delivered from that perverse individualism which is the consequence of sin, and recover our solidarity with all mankind." 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

 

"And they cried to the mountains and the rocks, 'Fall on us, and hide us from the face of the one who sits on the throne, and from the judgement of the Lamb.'" 

Revelation 6:16 

 

A small hedge fund, Archegos, failed to meet a major margin call, triggering an avalanche of forced stock position liquidations. 

The subsequent effect on these markets can be summarized in this way: 

"'The margin call will force every prime brokerage to review their books,' said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda Corp.  'When you look at the stocks that were incorrectly bet on, Wall Street must ponder if the V-shaped stock market recovery got out of hand.'”

And so, if only briefly, the Masters of the Universe rediscovered the hidden shoals of risk, and were afraid. 

This morning was a minor liquidation event, in which most everything was sold. 

The small caps underperformed even as the SP and NDX managed to claw their way back to about unchanged.

Gold and silver were also sold, although gold managed to take back its losses more briskly.

The bigger cap, dividend paying miners that I hold among my positions ended up with a nice gain for the day.

This will be a light and short trading week, because of the religious holidays.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - No Winter Lasts Forever

 

"Then the angel said to me,  'Write, blessed are those who have been called to the supper of the Lamb.'  And he said, 'These are true words that come from God.'” 

Revelation 9:19

 

Our bipolar markets had a risk on day today.

Stocks had been wallowing, but caught a bid and ran up to the highs in the late afternoon.

Gold and silver attempted to rally, but ended up just marginally higher.

And the dollar was down just a bit.

The physical gold inventory in Hong Kong Comex warehouses is fully restocked.  Mission accomplished.

Even though the metals themselves barely moved, the big cap miners caught a bid this afternoon and rebounded strongly from the pressure which they have been under since the option expiration. 

Some times this presages a move higher in the metals themselves.

Let's see if that happens next week, or not.

It was 81° here today, very sunny with very strong winds from the West. 

After the day long rain which we had, the yard seems to be bouncing back to life.

And so we have Spring.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Willful Blindness - Wash and Rinse in Metals and Stocks

 

"In a community where the primary concern is making money, one of the necessary rules is to live and let live.  To speak out against madness may be to ruin those who have succumbed to it. So the wise in Wall Street are nearly always silent.  The foolish thus have the field to themselves."

John Kenneth Galbraith, The Great Crash of 1929 

 

“Foolishness is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice.  One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force.  Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. 

In conversation with them, one virtually feels that one is dealing not at all with a person, but with slogans, catchwords and the like that have taken possession of them.  They are under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in their very being.” 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Prisoner for God: Letters and Papers from Prison

 

"The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.” 

 Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

 

“When we trade the effort of doubt and debate for the ease of blind faith, we become gullible and exposed, passive and irresponsible observers of our own lives.  Worse still, we leave ourselves wide open to those who profit by influencing our behavior, our thinking, and our choices. At that moment, our agency in our own lives is in jeopardy.” 

Margaret Heffernan

 

Today was a general wash and rinse in the markets.

Wax on, wax off.

If you look at the charts you will see the deep plunges in the early trading hours in stocks and the metals, especially silver.

Simply put, it is called running the stops.

This is not 'the government' doing this.

These are the monstrous financial entities that we have allowed lax regulation and years of propagandizing to create, in the biggest Banks and hedge funds.

Most will run back to the familiar sources of their ideological addiction, the so-called 'news sites' that thrive on the internet and alternative radio funded by the oligarchs.  

If you are one of those who cannot wait to run back to your familiar ideological watering hole to relieve the tension of thought, you might just be one of the willfully blind and lost.

Truth is more palatable to the sick at heart when it has been twisted out of shape.

The good news perhaps is that a cleaning out like this often proceeds a resumption of a move higher.

First they kick off the riff raff.  Oh, certainly that does not include you, but those others, right?

Or not.   It is not easy to think like a criminal when you are not privy to the same jealously guarded information and perverse perspective on life.

On the lighter side I have experienced no side effects from the first dose of the Coronavirus vaccine which I had the other day.

Let's see if the second shot has the same results.

The whole experience reminded me of 'Sabin Oral Sunday' back in 1960.    I don't recall any anti-vaxxer or ideologically driven whack-a-doodlism back then, but I was too young to care.  And polio shots were no fun.  But it beat doing time in an iron lung.

And the band played on.

Have a pleasant evening. 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Trousered Apes of Wall Street - Comex Metals Option Expiration Tomorrow

 

"Indeed, the truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer, because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you, in proportion to your fear of being hurt.   It is therefore of supreme importance that we consent to live not for ourselves but for others."

Thomas Merton 

 

"They think that religion is a negative thing, a sort of moderate love of the world, a moderate luxury, a moderate avarice, a moderate ambition, and a moderate selfishness.  You see it in the course of trade, of public life, of literature, in all matters where men have objects to pursue.  Men are just, honest, upright, trustworthy; but all this not from the love and fear of God, but from a mere feeling of obligation." 

John Henry Newman

 

"And the world will look at you and they won't understand you, for your fiery furnace will be around you, but you'll go on anyhow.  But if not, I will not bow, and God grant that we will never bow before the gods of evil."

Martin Luther King 

"And if I can prophesy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.   If I give away everything I own, and if I give over my body in order to boast, but do not have love,  I gain nothing."

1 Corinthians 13

 

"Love does not make you weak, because it is the source of all strength, but it makes you see the nothingness of the illusory strength on which you depended before you knew it." 

Léon Bloy

 

Stocks dipped today, again.

If it were not externally manipulated you might think the US equity market is a bit bipolar market.

But shenanigans and risky behaviour are abounding in our neo-Romantic regulatory era.

Wash, rinse, repeat. 

Gold and silver went sideways, and the Dollar strengthened slightly.

Comex option expiration tomorrow.

Have a pleasant evening.