"Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the shaking knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart, ‘Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible judgement. He will come and preserve you.’ Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; in the haunts of jackals reeds and papyrus will grow."
Isaiah 35:3-7
"Christmas is more than a time of joy and gift-giving and receiving presents. It is a time to recall our blessings and to gain strength in the grace of our friends and bosom of our families and loved ones. And above all it is a time to remember that greatest, almost incomprehensible gift in all history, how our Lord made himself as us, as we are in our true selves, and came to us in the flesh, the incarnation of selfless love.
And thereby those who are no longer present in body at the Christmas hearth may still be there in spirit with us, as we will some day be with them. Not bound up in crippling self-pity, not immobilized by faceless fear, not fleeting as a merely morose remembrance, but to be there vitally in our lives as our good angels, reminding us that the Christmas spirit is to be found, as Charles Dickens noted, in 'active usefulness, perseverance, cheerful discharge of duty, kindness and forbearance.'
This is how we may not only honor and cherish their memory, but actually let them live again in love with us. What greater gift could we possibly desire to receive, than the ability to do good, to persevere in love, and to thereby live in the love of those for whom we care and who care for us, always? That gift is there, if only we will not shut the door of our hearts, and be open to it."
Jesse, 16 December 2015
Trading will be light this week as the adults have already left for their vacations, and the juniors are manning the helm.
I'd expect the markets to have a little upward bias, and chopping sideways, with an eye toward any exogenous events.
Valuations are rich and we are in a narrow bubble once again.
The walking back of Powell's somewhat misleading verbiage of last week by various Fed hjeads is not being taken up by the Street. It's not in their year end script.
Gold and silver had a little bounce higher, as the Dollar chopped sideways.
The narrative for the course of the US economy and Fed actions next year is a risible fairy tale.
Unless something notable happens I will not be posting anything tomorrow night. I have some obligations in the late afternoon.
Have a pleasant evening.
