Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - To Banish All Fears - Stunning Plunge in the VIX

 

"Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have a wicked and unfaithful heart, and abandon the living God. Encourage each other daily while it is still today, so that none of you may grow hardened by the deception of sin. We have become friends of Christ, if only we hold from the beginning of our fellowship, firmly until the end. For it is said: 'Today if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts in rebellion.’”

Hebrews 3:12-15

"Satan’s monomaniac concern with himself and his supposed rights and wrongs is a necessity of the Satanic predicament.  He has wished to ‘be himself,’ and to be in himself and for himself, and his wish has been granted.   To admire Satan, then, is to give one’s vote not only for a world of misery, but also for a world of lies and propaganda, of wishful thinking, of incessant autobiography."

C. S. Lewis

"Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring.  Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.  Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil, but as a necessity, or even a duty.  Humanism was not wrong in thinking that truth, beauty, liberty, and equality are of infinite value, but in thinking that man can get them for himself, without grace."

Simone Weil 

"Holiness consists simply in doing God's will, and being just what God wants us to be. Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, or even at their difficulty, but at the love with which we do them.  Without love deeds, even the greatest, count as nothing.  Our Lord's love shines forth as much in the simplest of souls as it does in the most highly gifted, as long as there is no refusal of His grace.  To live in love is to banish all fears."

Marie-Françoise Thérèse Martin de Lisieux

 

There are several ways to banish our fears.  One productive and creative way, according to the saints, is to live in and with love, and walk in the light.

Another way is to deaden our senses, with drugs, and alcohol, or as Maximilian Kolbe said, the whiskey of passion and hate.

They seem to be passing the jug of prideful and passionate judgement and hatred a lot these days.

The VIX took a sunning plunge today, as the markets chose an optimistic and dovish interpretation of the CPI data this morning.   Or perhaps there was some technical reason for this, but it did seem to be hopped up on something.

Stocks initially fell, but rallied back ionto the green at the end.

Gold and silver rallied, as the Dollar fell fairly hard.

We are heading into a three day holiday weekend for the markets in the States, as Monday is Martin Luther King day.  We may murder our prophets, but we'll take a day off for them.

Let's see how things go.  It is starting to feel a little 'rinsey' out there.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Where Are We Going, Lord? - CPI Tomorrow

 

"God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another.  I have my mission —  I may never know it in this life but I shall be told it in the next.  He has not created me for naught.  I shall do good, I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place while not intending it if I do but keep His commandments.

Therefore I will trust Him.  Whatever I am, I can never be thrown away.  If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him.  If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him.  He does nothing in vain.  He knows what He is about.  He may take away my friends.  He may throw me among strangers.   He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me — still He knows what He is about.

John Henry Newman

“Man has places in his heart which do not yet exist— and into them enters suffering, in order that they may have life.”

Léon Bloy

“The books which the Holy Spirit is writing are the living, with every soul a volume in which the divine author makes a true revelation of His word, showing it to every heart, unfolding it in every moment.  

There is not a moment in which God does not present Himself under the cover of some pain to be endured, of some consolation to be enjoyed, or of some duty to be performed.   All that takes place within us, around us, or through us, contains and conceals His divine action.   All souls must admire and respect one another, saying: 'Let us each continue walking along our path to the same goal, united in purpose and with the help of God's plan which, in its great variety, is in us all.'

'But,' say you, 'what will become of me if ...?'   This is indeed a temptation of the enemy.   Why should you be so inventive in tormenting yourself beforehand about something which perhaps will never happen?  Sufficient for the day are its troubles.  Uneasy worries do us much harm; why do you so readily give way to them?   We imagine troubles, and what do we gain by it

To escape the pain caused by regret for the past or fear about the future, this is the rule to follow: leave the past to the infinite mercy of God, the future to His good Providence, and give the present wholly to His love by being faithful to His grace.”

Jean-Pierre de Caussade, L'Abandon a la Providence Divine

Stocks caught a whiff of bullishness, and rallied hard into the close.

The VIX was largely unchanged.

The Dollar was unchanged.

Gold was unchanged, while silver edged a little lower.

The market has its eyes on the CPI data tomorrow morning.

The stock bullies are chomping at the bit it seems.

Everyone else, not so much.

I have no special insights.  Let's see what happens.

Have a pleasant evening.

"Cæsar was swimming in blood. Rome and the whole pagan world was mad.  But those who had had enough of sin and madness, those who were trampled upon, those whose lives were misery and oppression, all the weighed down, all the sad, all the unfortunate, came to hear the wonderful news of God, who out of love for men had given Himself over to be crucified, to redeem their sins.  When they found a God whom they could love, they had found that which the society of their time could not give to anyone— happiness and love. 

And Peter understood that neither Nero, nor all his legions, could overcome the living truth— that they could not overwhelm it with tears or blood, and that now its victory was beginning.  He understood with equal force why the Lord had turned him back on the road.   That city of pride, of crime, of wickedness, and of a lust for power, was beginning to be His."

Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Great Emptiness of Hardened Hearts -

 

"There was enslavement of men whose tribes came not from Rome, disdain for those who did not have the familiar visage.  And most of all, there was everywhere a contempt for human life.  What, to the strong, was one man more or less in a crowded world?

Then, of a sudden, there was a light in the world, and a man from Galilee. So the light came into the world and the men who lived in darkness were afraid, and they tried to lower a curtain so that man would still believe salvation lay with the leaders.  But it came to pass for a while in divers places that the truth did set man free, although the men of darkness were offended and they tried to put out the light.

Along the road to Damascus the light shone brightly. But afterward Paul of Tarsus, too, was sore afraid. He feared that other Caesars, other prophets, might one day persuade men that man was nothing save a servant unto them, that men might yield up their birthright from God for pottage and walk no more in freedom.

Then might it come to pass that darkness would settle again over the lands and there would be a burning of books and men would think only of what they should eat and what they should wear, and would give heed only to new Caesars and to false prophets.  Then might it come to pass that men would not look upward to see even a winter's star in the East, and once more, there would be no light at all in the darkness."

Vermont C. Royster, In Hoc Anno Domini, Wall St Journal, December 24, 1949

"What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?  Have you come to deprive us?  We know who you are—the Holy One of God.”

Mark 1:24

"They will be moved, to the sound of beautiful music, at 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, hanging from a woman’s beautiful throat."

Léon Bloy


The market is just treading water here, waiting for the CPI report on Friday.

There are some technical moves going on and a few responses to singular events, but trying to read trends here is like trying to predict the future from chicken bones.  

You my see what you wish to see.

We harden our hearts.  We look away.  We immerse ourselves in distractions.  We forget.

It's what all the finest people do.

Have a pleasant evening.