“We have been called to heal wounds, to unite what has fallen apart, and to bring home those who have lost their way. Blessed are they who love their brothers and sisters as much when they are sick, as when they are well and of service. And blessed are they who love their brothers and sisters as well when they are far away, as when they are close. When you leave this earth, you can take nothing that you have received, but only what you have given.” Francis of Assisi
"Beneath some burning, unknown gaze
I feel my very wings unpinned.
And give my name to the abyss
Which waits to claim me as its own.”
Charles Baudelaire, Lament of Icarus
"Even great men bow before the Sun; it melts hubris into humility."
Dejan Stojanovic
"But, what creates the most intense surprise,
His soul looks out through renovated eyes."
John Keats
Stocks just could not get much lift today, despite early rally attempts centered on the SP 500 futures.
Tech was just a dead weight, and the financials could not carry the ball when it was handed to them.
Tech and financials have been the lead sled dogs throughout this entire post-election rally.
And unless a substitute can be found, it is going to be difficult for stocks to be able to pick up the moment again.
I had to chuckle a little this afternoon. The pundits and spokesmodels were making the case that the problem with stocks is 'isolated' to the extreme overvaluation in the big cap techstocks and the mispricing of risks in constructing their future profit and cash flows.
Nice theory. But that is like saying that a fellow's health problems are limited to his failing heart.
Tech has been 'the market' for some time now in this parabola of pricing. And the big five are stumbling badly.
Not that they have gotten any worse per se. Rather, the assumptions about them are getting less ridiculous.
Gold and silver were lower today, in what looked like a technical cross-currency play with the US Dollar. I have included the chart for Uncle Buck below.
In other words, their price performance has nothing whatsoever to do with supply and the demand in the short or long term-- it is a pricing exercise carried from the currency markets, which are some of the most manipulated markets around.
So let's see what happens next, with attention towards Shanghai and Hong Kong in particular where the commodity markets tend to touch down to the earth a little more often. Comex NY price action is like a game of Liar's Poker.
Markets will be closed on Friday. Tomorrow may have just charts as it is Maundy Thursday.
"So the old shell game plays out once more. In, 2016 millions of average Americans enthusiastically signed up for a war on elites; with boisterous hurrahs they climbed aboard the Trump train; and after a few years’ journey they are going to find themselves deposited right back where they started, with inequality growing, more monopolies springing up, and Wall Street ideologues running everything."
Thomas Frank, Trump's War on the Elite Is Pure Fantasy
What provoked this latest column from Thomas Frank are the appointments of Larry Kudlow and Kevin Hassett as two of Trump's economic advisors. His column is worth reading.
Now, getting back to the day to day world of very short term investing, otherwise known as momentum chasing, that certainly was an instructive day in the equity markets.
Bully got his dip-buying, bouncy booty spanked but good as stocks, which had been showing a tell tale divergence between the SP and the NDX most of the morning, turned south with a vengeance, going out near the lows.
The decline today wiped out most of the rebound from yesterday.
This was not constructive to the jolly, booming recovery for the economy story.
Gold and silver got the anticipated 'gut check' for the new holders of April futures positions after yesterday's options expiration.
The US Dollar rallied slightly during the day. Was this a flight to safety? Maybe.
The Bond market is telling us that something is wrong in River City. Is anyone listening?
Brace yourselves, because this kind of whipsaw activity in markets tends to exhaust the players.
At some point if they keep trying to pump stocks up and big cap techs keep giving it up and not joining in, we could be in for one hell of a trip downtown.
Let's watch the action for the rest of this week. I'm not convinced yet that the market is on the verge of a panic selloff, but I have a very open mind to the possibility after today.
According to the mainstream talking heads, spokesmodels, and pundits, the economy looks very good.
And as Fernando would say, "It is better to look good than to feel good, and darling, you look marvelous."
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.
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