SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - The Technical Fundamentals

This market feels heavier than it looks.

It is hard to judge 'sentiment' because the market is being almost totally dominated by a few institutions, a handful of very large trading desks, and a swirling crowd of HFT hit and run predators.

So given this concentration of power, the market can move in just about any direction that external events, or the lack thereof, may permit.

The 'fundamentals' are not in play, at least for now.  And so the markets may continue to diverge from the real economy, until they cannot.  And then the reckoning comes.

The Fed is absolutely NOT blameless in this exercise, as they were not blameless in the tech and housing crises past.  They publicly denied there was a stock or housing bubble, while discussing them in private. 

They just let their bubbles run their course without even taking the minimal actions which they possessed then as a regulator, which are much greater now.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

 

 

US Crude Oil Supply Landscape In Four Charts

"Total U.S. liquid fuels consumption rose by an estimated 60,000 bbl/d (0.3%) in 2014. Motor gasoline consumption increased by 80,000 bbl/d (0.8%) reflecting an increase in highway travel that was partially offset by fleetwide increases in fuel efficiency...

In 2015, total liquid fuels consumption is forecast to grow by 290,000 bbl/d (1.5%). Lower pump prices contribute to an 80,000-bbl/d increase (0.9%) in motor gasoline consumption."

EIA, Short Term Energy Outlook, 10 February 2015

The charts below are from today's This Week in Petroleum Report from the US EIA.

 

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - There For All To See

“He did not care for the lying at first. He hated it. Then later he had come to like it. It was part of being an insider, but it was a very corrupting business.”

 

Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls

"Und der Haifisch, der hat Zähne

und die trägt er im Gesicht

und Macheath, der hat ein Messer

doch das Messer sieht man nicht."

Berthold Brecht, Die Moritat von Mackie Messer

It was a remarkably quite day for the precious metals, as the option expiration for the inactive month of March contract went by quietly enough.

 

Madame Yellen, American Viceroy of Wall Street's careless few, paid a visit to the Senate, where the august personages threw posies and puffballs for the most part, with a little side muttering for the benefit of groundling in the pit. 

 

And between inanities and well trod but unremarked policy errors she reminded us that the Fed can consider raising interest rates at any meeting, and if they remove the word 'patient' from their pronouncement, it does not mean that they are losing theirs.  The patience which they have shown to their serially recidivist patrons at the Banks, for example, is legendary.

 

Speaking of recidivism, JP Morgan, which is currently on a mockery of 'two years probation' for a crime spree almost too long to comprehensively recount here, is once again under investigation with ten of its fellow Banks for rigging the London Precious Metals market.  Unashamed of course, it appears that the House of Morgan will now start charging for the privilege of given them your money. 

 

That's all rich, in its own way.  The mighty US regulators cast their eyes at the transgressions in London, which is of course their right since the plottings were apparently undertaken in the Banks US offices, while they turn their regal noses aside from the greasy, noisome bucket shop that is just a light breeze away in lower Manhattan.

 

The Greek government apparently accepted a document as it was handed to them by the Die Neue Reichskanzlei, according to the usual non-mainstream media suspects.  I suspect that the plot here might have a few more twists and turns ahead, and some additional complexities.

 

Let's see if gold and silver, which has been acting surprising well all things considered, can find some footing after Madame Yellen meets with the surlier House tomorrow.

 

This is the 6500th post on this blog.

 

Have a pleasant evening.