"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem. You who murder the prophets, and abuse those whom God has sent as messengers to you. How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her young under her wings— but you would not let me. As you have willed it, so your house is now yours to command— but is made desolate. For I tell you truly, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'” Matthew 23:37-39
Stocks were weak throughout the session, and the futures started sliding a bit into the close.
This looked quite a bit like the effort to mark an 'end of month print' after a sharp rally higher that looks increasingly shaky.
Let's see if stocks start rolling over next week.
Non Farm payrolls coming on Thursday.
All in all the economic numbers are not good, and the real economy shows signs of slipping into recession. That is if you cut through some of the numbers massaging and spin. We might already be in a new recession. The leadership both in terms of economic and political thought is pretty thin, if not sad.
Happy Halloween everyone.
Have a pleasant economy. Not with these results. lol
"When a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is the fact that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental — men whose whole thinking is done in terms of emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand.
So confronted, the candidate must either bark with the pack or be lost. All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum.
The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
H. L. Mencken
I thought we had already been there and done that, several times perhaps, but I suppose it could always get worse.
The US GDP number for the third quarter was pretty bad coming in at only 1.5%. And that number is likely to be revised lower.
The Atlanta Fed is forecasting about the same or lower for Q4.
What is even worse, if you peel back the headline number, the big growth driver in that GDP number was healthcare costs. Talk about an unproductive was of capital in paying too much for healthcare.
Gold and silver were hit by a rather orderly bear raid today with the price declining throughout the day on a steady program of selling. It was most likely a follow up to the FOMC trying to knock down the open interest a bit more ahead of the key month of December. The Dollar was drifting lower today, so that provided no support for the metals bears.
There was the usual slow bleed of silver out of The Bucket Shop warehouses, and a little more gold passed from the house account of HSBC to JPM. I notice that a little more gold was marked deliverable in the Nova warehouse, and one might speculate that this is some of the recently acquired gold by JPM still held in Nova's warehouse.
Can't prove it without a warrant and a couple hairy-knuckled Federal lawmen to back it up, but I think it fits the model of JPM taking on the role of the bullion provider of last resort for physical bullion demands on the Comex.
The amounts of physical gold moving around in Asia dwarf the action in NY, and accounting for the musical chairs paper flows, provide a stark comparison to London as well.
I hope to put something more out about London and the leverage being used there, in addition to the leverage in New York.
Last night's GOP political debate was embarrassing. And not all of it was the fault of CNBC but they get an A++ for pandering. And since that is what they do on their financial broadcasts and commentary every day, it is not surprising.
Is this what we have come to at long last, this clown show?
The third quarter GDP number this morning was a rather light 1.5%, and likely to be revised lower.
Stocks ignored the real economy, and were trying to hold their gains and push higher, most likely with an eye on the easy money flows from the central banks, and not on real world economic results.
This provides us some information about the broken and disordered relationship between Wall Street and Main Street.
Let us pray for those whose hearts are hardened against His grace and loving kindness by greed, fear, and pride, and the seductive illusion and crushing isolation of evil.
We pray that we all may experience the three great gifts of our Lord's suffering and triumph: repentance, forgiveness, and thankfulness. And in so doing, may we obtain abundant life, and with it the peace that surpasses all understanding.
It is available for your use at no cost, but with attribution and a link to the original posting.
I make every attempt to respect the rights of others. If you feel that something here has infringed your work please let me know and I will correct it immediately. It is not always easy to determine the status of material posted to the Internet with regard to fair use and public domain.
