Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Are You Not Entertained? - The Rulers of the Darkness of this World

 

"It was around July 2020, when we were all locked down and not knowing what was going on with our lives, our personal economies, our health, and our families, when I realized that the Federal Reserve had doubled the size – or even more so — of its book of assets.  It had created about $5 trillion worth of money in a very short period of time.

During that time, the markets went from being very afraid and down to being very, very high.  A lot of people said, well, we’re all at home using Zoom, so therefore the market just rebounded by so much.  But that was just a small part of it.  The bigger part was that money became available at such an immense level and therefore the distortion between where money goes in the financial markets and where it doesn’t go in the real economy became permanent.  At that moment I saw that this can happen in any amount, at any time.  There’s no restriction, no transparency, no responsibility."

Nomi Prins interviewed by Lynn Parramore, You’re Living in a World Wrought by the Fed, 17 November 2022

"Show me your ways, O Lord, and teach me your paths.  Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation, and I wait for you all the day.  Remember, O Lord, your tender mercies and loving kindness, as they have ever been of old."

Psalm 25:4-6

“Once central banks unleashed monetary policy to accommodate mega-banks, subsidize Wall Street financiers, and bolster global markets, the very idea of free and open markets and laissez-faire investing died.  No one wanted to call the Fed’s QE a Ponzi scheme.  But it was.

Whether it was done to soothe a stock market crash, a ruptured subprime housing market bubble, or a pandemic, the Fed’s response to the financial crisis of 2008 and later crises has confirmed that it will always seek a way to grease the wheels of capitalism for its wealthiest participants and private banks.  The results speak for themselves.  According to a 2022 Oxfam International report:

‘The world’s ten richest men more than doubled their fortunes from $700 billion to $1.5 trillion—at a rate of $15,000 per second or $1.3 billion a day—during the first two years of a pandemic that has seen the incomes of 99 percent of humanity fall and over 160 million more people forced into poverty.’”

Nomi Prins, Permanent Distortion

"Let everyone see your gentleness. The Lord is always near.  Do not be anxious about anything.   Instead, in every situation, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, tell your requests to God.  And the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds."

Phil 4:4-9

It was a fairly quiet stock options expiration today.

The SP 500 edged a bit higher with the tech heavy NDX trading lower.

Next Tuesday the 22nd there will a fairly substantial December Futures contracts option expiration on the Comex for gold and silver.

Cloudy with a chance of shenanigans.

The Dollar moved slightly higher in a sideways chop.

The VIX fell.

Next week will be a holiday shortened week in the US in observation of Thanksgiving.

The Great Lakes region will be enjoying what may shape up to be some epic snowfall this weekend.

I have included a brief video at the end of this post describing the 'Great White Hurricane' November storm that ravaged the Great Lakes.

I am glad that I no longer live in the Lake Erie snowbelt which is where I am originally from.   Thirty years was enough. LOL

As a bonus I have included another short video about the Blizzard of '49 that swept across the northern Great Plains.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - This Attractive But Deceitful World - Gold Hits 50% Fibonacci Retracement

 

“Only the humble believe him and rejoice that God is so free and so marvelous that he does wonders where people despair, that he takes what is little and lowly and makes it marvelous.  And that is the wonder of all wonders, that God loves the lowly.  God is not ashamed of the lowliness of human beings.  God marches right in.  He chooses people as his instruments and performs his wonders where one would least expect them.  God is near to lowliness; he loves the lost, the neglected, the unseemly, the excluded, the weak and broken.” 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Reflections on Advent 

 

“Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil, but as a necessity, or even a duty.  Sin is not a distance, it is a turning of our gaze in the wrong direction."

Simone Weil

 

"These are suitable feelings towards this attractive but deceitful world.  What have we to do with its gifts and honours, who, having been already baptized into the world to come, are no longer citizens of this?  Why should we be anxious for a long life, or wealth, or credit, or comfort, who know that the next world will be every thing which our hearts can wish, and that not in appearance only, but truly and everlastingly?  

To those who live by faith, every thing they see speaks of that future world; the very glories of nature, the sun, moon, and stars, and the richness and the beauty of the earth, are as types and figures witnessing and teaching the invisible things of God.  All that we see is destined one day to burst forth into a heavenly bloom, and to be transfigured into immortal glory." 

John Henry Newman 

 

Gold and silver had a follow on hit this morning, but they took much of that back into the afternoon.

Gold in particular hit its 50 percent Fibonacci retracement support level intraday. 

This was a buy point in the metals for me, fwiw.

Silver rebounded with a vengeance.   Bought that on the slump too.

It does look to me like the usual wash and rinse action we see around a big contract month expiration, and is often a multiday event. 

There is no bigger contract month for gold than the December contract.   

And this does seem to be an annual event.  Especially with the regulators asleep at the switch.

Stocks were week, most likely for the end of the month profit-taking and rebalancing. 

The election seems to be a done deal, except for some fantastical stories from snake oil salesmen and the purveyors of clickbait.

The COVD pandemic is still kicking, and taking a toll.  

The talking heads were whining that the VIX remains elevated.   How dare it see risk in these markets.

 Let's see how the rest of the week goes.  

Have a pleasant evening. 

 

Who is the father of this ugly financial system?

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Sloppy Trade for an Options Expiration - Thanksgiving in Sight

 

"When a man takes an oath, he is holding his own self in his own hands, like water. And if he opens his fingers then, he need not hope to find himself again." 

Thomas More 

 

"Nemesis, the goddess of retribution and vengeance, the punisher of pride and hubris, waits impatiently for her meeting with us." 

 Chalmers Johnson 

 

"It is a far, far better thing to have a firm anchor in nonsense than to put out on the troubled seas of thought." John Kenneth Galbraith 

 

“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” 

Søren Kierkegaard

 

Stocks attempted to rally but went out on the lows. 

Gold and silver rallied, but then gave some of it back in the afternoon. 

Let's see if their support holds next week.

Today was a stock option expiration, and the market action seemed to be heavily influenced by that.

Next week is the December contract metals option expiration on the Comex. 

Have a pleasant weekend. 

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Risk On! - Rattling Nonsense in Full Volleys Breaks

"The Lord is my light and my salvation –
     whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the refuge of my life –
     of whom shall I be afraid?"

Psalm 27


"For fools rush in where angels fear to tread
Distrustful sense with modest caution speaks,
It still looks home, and short excursions makes;

But rattling nonsense in full volleys breaks,
And, never shocked, and never turned aside.
Bursts out, resistless, with a thundering tide."

Alexander Pope, Essay on Criticism

Stocks were in a boisterous, risk-taking mood today on a much better than expected Non-Farm Payrolls Report.

The report was boosted by over 40,000 GM workers coming back onto the payrolls after a long strike.

The Dollar was slightly higher, but gold and silver were smacked down hard, as is traditional for a strong payrolls report in the heavily held December contract period.

But this all serves the purposes of the worst, who are loud and proud.

And so let all the worldly rejoice.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Chasing Beta On Light Volumes - Metal Prices Slump on an Option Expiration

"Honest, industrious, peaceful citizens were classed as bloodsuckers, if they asked to be paid a living wage.  And they saw that praise was reserved henceforth for those who devised means of getting paid enormously for committing crimes against which no laws had been [or could be] passed.  Thus the American dream turned belly up, turned green, bobbed to the scummy surface of cupidity unlimited, filled with gas, went bang in the noonday sun."

Kurt Vonnegut, God Bless You Mr. Rosewater


"Isn't it a riddle and awe-inspiring that things can be so beautiful, despite the horrors?  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 may 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

The saddest words in any language are those of irreparable regret, that come to haunt us in our last hours, 'If only...'

It was a risk on day in a big way today, as all the major stock indices ran up and out on new highs.

Optimism about China, and trade, and impeachment, and the economy all drove 'money on the sidelines' to try and 'catch up by investing' in risk assets at these bloated price levels.

If you were buying today it was not so much investing as banking on the greater fool theory and the quiet low volume markets in a trade-shortened week.

Gold and silver were lower, as befitting a major Comex option expiration.

We may get another gut check in the metals, given the quiet trading this week and the size of the December metals contracts.

On the brighter side, I have begun sous vide part deux today. The target this time are baby back ribs. Cooking time is about 24 hours at 155°. The ribs were vacuum sealed with a dry rub, a little brown sugar, a dash of liquid smoke, and a dash of bourbon early this morning and left in the fridge.  After they are done they will be quickly seared under the broiler or on the grill.  I'll let you know how it comes out.

The time grows short, shorter for some of us. And the powers of this world are never at rest, but prowl like ravening wolves, seeking to devour us.

Do not spend so much time looking at the other fellow and judging them harshly. First look to yourselves, and practice putting your own hardened hearts and foolish desires aside, for His sake.

The night approaches, and it is almost time to come home.  Do not be left out in the dark.

Have a pleasant evening.