Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Beware of Bears - Non-Farm Payrolls Tomorrow

 

"Beneath some burning, unknown gaze
I feel my very wings unpinned,
And give my name to the abyss
Which waits to claim me as its own.”

Charles Baudelaire, Lament of Icarus

"When humanity, subjugated by the terror of crime, has been driven mad by fear and horror, and when chaos has become the supreme law, then the time for the empire of lawlessness will have come."

Friedrich Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse

"And you could say in some respects this 'shadow behind the power' that makes money off war, period, no matter who's the belligerent, makes money off that volatility now, especially with computers that are able to assist them in doing so, like currency manipulation, for example, or just general speculation.  And they don't care about what they're doing to the real economy, because they're raking in the dough."

Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell

“How you are fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning.   How you have been cut down to the ground, You who laid low the nations.  For you said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of the most holy on the farthest sides of the north.  I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be as God.’

Isaiah 14:12-14

Stocks were lower today on a repricing of risk (again).

The Dollar was sharply higher, along with the VIX, in a risk off move.

Gold and silver were lower, moving inversely with the dollar.

Tomorrow is the Non-Farm Payrolls report, which may move markets.

I am not so sure where the market is going.

Theories abound, including the Fed pivot and the suppport for markets in anticipation of the mid-term elections.

However, we are clearly in a bear market. 

And we will remain in one until we start to see higher lows and higher highs.

So until then, beware of bears.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Not with a Bang But a Whimper

 

“The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.” 

George Orwell 

 

"They have treated the suffering of my people carelessly, saying, ‘all is well’ when there is no safety.  They act shamefully, they commit terrible offenses; and yet they are not ashamed, and do not even know how to blush.  They shall be found among those who are fallen." 

Jeremiah 6:14-15 

 

 "The selfishness of an age that has devoted itself to the mere cult of pleasure has tainted the whole human race with an error that makes all our acts more or less lies against God. It is better to find God on the threshold of despair than to risk our lives in a complacency that has never felt the need of forgiveness." 

Thomas Merton 

 

"The rich man replied, ‘If someone is sent to them from the dead, then they will repent of their sins and turn to God.’ But Abraham said, ‘If they won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded, even if someone rises from the dead.’” 

Luke 16:30-31 

 

"A true opium of the people is the belief in nothingness after death, the huge solace, the huge comfort of thinking that for our betrayals, our greed, our cowardice, our murders, that we are not going to be judged.”

Czeslaw Milosz, The Discreet Charm of Nihilism 

 

"Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the punishment prepared for the devil and his angels.  For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no hospitality, naked and you gave me nothing to wear, ill and in prison, and you did not care about me.’” 

Matthew 25:31-46

 

"The only real tragedy, in the end, is not to have be among the saints." 

Léon Bloy,  La Femme pauvre

 

It was a risk-on day today ahead of the three day weekend with the markets closed on Monday for the federal holiday of Washington's Birthday, also popularly known as Presidents' Day.

Stocks went out near all time highs.

The VIX dropped to a recent low.

Gold and the miners were hit, although they managed to gain much of that back by the close.

Today was the Lunar New Year, a widely celebrated holiday in Asia.

And like the slightly more significant Golden Week holiday in China in October, it is an opportunity for Western Bankers and Wall Street to take potshots at the metals while the big buyers of physical are on holiday.

The Impeachment Part Deux slumbers on

With the valuations of stocks at current level, the odds of a 'market break' from about now until April have become elevated.  

A stimulus package may diminish, but not eliminate, that possiblity.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Mutual Fund Cash Levels Near Historic Lows

The mutual funds, and those who give them their money to invest, look to be about 'all in' with regard to US equities.

As I recall, the bond funds have decent cash levels, and the piling into short term Treasuries at negative interest rates is certainly a phenomenon.

The hypocrisy and venality of the US financial sector knows no bounds, and they seem to have bought off the guardians of he public trust. The US government desperately needs to sustain confidence and the aura of recovery. They do not need a falling stock market to say the least. And yet, they have to continue funding record levels of debt issuance every month.

A lot of demand for funds, and many of the players close to flat busted.

It may be an interesting year.