Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Heart of Gold

"Capable of giving alms, perhaps, but incapable of stripping themselves bare, the comfortable will be moved to the sound of beautiful music, at the thought of Jesus’s sufferings, but His Cross, the reality of His Cross, will horrify them.

They want it all out of gold, bathed in light, costly and of little weight; pleasant to see, and hanging from a beautiful woman’s throat."

Léon Bloy


"Beware the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hollow hypocrisy. There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and hidden, that shall not be made known. Whatever has been said in the darkness shall be heard in the light: and what has been whispered behind closed doors shall be shouted from the roof tops."

Luke 12:1-3

There will be quite a bit more economic data released next week compared to this holiday shortened trading week we have just seen.

The big event will be the FOMC rate decision on Thursday the 17th.

This has become more of a psychological issue than a substantial policy action.  25 basis points will not be making or breaking anything, but it does signal a 'change' in the long period of easy money, policy errors, and financial bubbles which we have seen since the big bailouts of the one percent and Wall Street since 2008.

Can you believe that this was over seven years ago, and here we still are, muddling along?

The draining of gold from West to the markets of the East continues, and physical bullion is becoming remarkably 'tight' particularly in that bastion of bullion, the storied vaults of London.

'Free gold' is unemcumbered physical bullion that can be utilized for immediate physical delivery.  It is more commonly called 'the float.'  And there is just not enough of it to go around, to cover the growing demand of Asia, much less the multiplicity of claims.

Rather than suggest higher prices, it is surprising how many supposed marketeers are calling on governments and NGOs to start 'monetizing their bullion' more aggressively.  As you may recall this is how these fellows got into their current problems in the first place, after the Banks showed them how easy it was to hypothecate their bullion, to increase it on paper for short term returns but longer term losses.

Now isn't that something.

The financial system is sick, and incapable of repairing or reforming itself.   The problem is that it has also badly infected the political and professional classes.

These things happen from time to time.  It seems almost common when one glosses over history, ignoring the dull periods of honest families and their progress, skipping along from crisis to cataclysm, most oftenly fomented by the folly of proud and selfish men.

Please remember the poor, and those who have no one to care for them.

People can too often fall in love with an almost paganistic fascination with the words, the ritual, the glamour and the shine of the outward trappings and the gleam of the gold on their altars. But in their misapprehension they do not want anything to do with the message which they can for a time ignore, but without which what they do has no meaning, no significance, no substance, nothing. Without love it is all just a vanity.  This is 'the leaven of the Pharisees,' which is hypocrisy.

The Lord calls to us, not in the palaces and halls of power, but in the markets, on the streets, in the news of the day, across the noise and bustle of the crowds, as He also called us, with a look or a motion of His hand, when He walked among us on the earth.   He is to be found, not reposing in the glory and grandeur of great wealth, but among His saints, the poor in spirit, the least of these.

There is no Christmas without the acceptance of His will and the journey to Bethlehem, no joyous Easter without the agony in the garden and the Cross.

Rather than for a vault filled with riches, let us strive then for a 'heart of gold' of our own.  The former is subject to decay, diffusion, and loss;  but the latter is with us, and will be ours, forever.

I may have a few updates to post later about the events in the markets of Asia, and the general decline of the 'float' of deliverable bullion in the West.

Otherwise, have a pleasant weekend.  See you Sunday evening.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - For the Times, They Are A-Changin'

FOMC Meeting next week on the 16th and 17th.

The Fed wants to get off the zero bound, but needs to do it in such a way that they are not blamed for the next financial crisis, while ironically preparing to fight it.

They will most likely raise 25 to 50 basis points this year, or 25 this year and 25 next year.

Since next year is a presidential election year the politics of that will inhibit any policy actions after June or perhaps a bit earlier, unless some exogenous event compels them.

I have lightly sketched the symmetrical triangle on the SP futures chart for your ease of viewing.  The markets will likely go with whatever direction they can break out and confirm from this.  There already has been one false breakout that retraced intraday.

I see so much impetus in the polls that the voters are rejecting the status quo, particularly those icons of privilege Bush and Clinton.

Let's see if this becomes a trend that the political establishment and their mainstream media cannot control.

As for now, winter is coming, if we can but feel it in the cooling of the evenings. The season, and the times, are changing.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Comex Hong Kong Sees Biggest Daily Gold Withdrawal at 19.17 Tonnes - Mr. Float Goes to Asia

In Hong Kong when you buy gold and take it out of the exchange warehouses it is called a withdrawal.

In other words, you do something with your bullion besides letting it sit around in some exchange warehouse to be passed around and hypothecated 230 times.

The other day at the Hong Kong Comex Metals Exchange 19.17 tonnes of .999 gold kilobars were taken out.

That is about 616,329 troy ounces.  Taken out by buyers in a single day.  That is a new record for the young exchange.

I hear they have quite a few over-the-counter dealers now, whose mission it is to faciliate the offtake of physical bullion.

Maybe that is why the Comex Hong Kong exchange trading volumes are so low, but the physical offtake levels are so high.  They are serious about their business.

Not bad but still not as much as Shanghai does, overall.  See the second chart.

It is almost like the New York - London float of unencumbered gold bullion available for delivery is— melting away.