SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Stock Options Expiration This Week

As a reminder, there will be a stock option expiration this Friday.

We can probably expect some shenanigans leading up to it, although August is a sleepy month.

Stocks are largely drifting now, trying to digest a remarkable run to new highs.

The valuations look very full.  But the Fed et al. are printing money overtime.

Have a pleasant evening.

Links For Tuesday 16 August

The mechanism by which I add links to the sidebar under Matières à Réflexion seems to be broken today. This happens on occasion when the blogger platform software people fiddle with it.   I have been waiting for them to repair this, but it does not seem to be forthcoming.

So I will be adding links here in this post throughout the day.  As I recall this happened once before.

Debt Collector Thwarts Wrongful Practices Lawsuit By Buying the Lawsuit on the Cheap, Judge Agrees

TTIP:  The Suicide of Nations

Windows 10 Tracks Almost Everything You Do - Here's How to Opt Out - 'Settings' is reached by clicking on the Windows icon on the lower left

Core Consumer Price Inflation Up Over 2% For the 9th Straight Month    (It takes a policy error. Or a series of errors. Stagflation is not easy to achieve. Well done, Fed)

Industrial Production Down Year over Year, Negative Growth for the 11th Straight Month

SEC and Stock Frauds - Can This (NeuroMama) Dog Hunt?

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Crossroads

Gold and silver were drifting today, along with the markets in general.

Risk is low now as measured by the VIX. But it is really not 'risk' that is being measured, but rather 'uncertainty' in the markets.

And since the markets are massively mispricing the real economy and global situation, their certainty about their own ascendancy and the enduring power of paper assets is a little less than reassuring.

Have a pleasant evening.