Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Harmonies

 

“Do not become angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.”

Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ


"We have been silent witnesses of evil deeds; we have been drenched by many storms; we have learnt the arts of equivocation and pretence; experience has made us suspicious of others and kept us from being truthful and open; intolerable conflicts have worn us down and even made us cynical.

If we look more closely, we see that any violent display of power, whether political or religious, produces an outburst of folly in a large part of mankind; indeed, this seems actually to be a psychological and sociological law: the power of some needs the folly of others.  It is not that certain human capacities, intellectual capacities for instance, become stunted of destroyed, but rather that the upsurge of power makes such an overwhelming impression that men are deprived of their independent judgment, and give up trying to assess the new state of affairs for themselves."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, 1943-1945


“He opened the book of nature before me, and I saw that every flower He has created has a beauty of its own, that the splendor of the rose and the lily’s whiteness do not deprive the violet of its scent nor make less ravishing the daisy’s charm.  I saw that if every little flower wished to be a rose, Nature would lose her spring adornments, and the fields would be no longer enameled with their varied flowers.  And so it is in the world of souls, Our Lord's living garden.  What delights Him is the simplicity of these flowers of the field, and by stooping so low to them, He shows how infinitely great He is.

Just as the sun shines equally on the cedar and the little flower, so the Divine Sun shines equally on everyone, great and small.  Holiness consists simply in doing God's will, and being just what God wants us to be.”

Thérèse de Lisieux


I don't know if it is in fact true, but for many years now I have had an abiding suspicion that the, or at least 'an', antichrist has walked the earth since at least 1948.

What first brought this to my attention was the reading of a privately printed transcript of an exorcism that had been conducted in the 1940s, shared by a professor acquaintance at university.  There is a phase of the ritual during which the possessing spirit can be compelled to answer questions.  How deceptive those answers might be is another thing. 

Stocks wallowed around again, with the usual wash and rinse action, finishing about unchanged with tech lagging again.

The VIX fell.

Gold and silver finished about unchanged, even though the Dollar rallied.

The Fed conference at Jackson Hole is on August 24-26.  

There will be a stock index option expiration on Friday.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Hope and Righteousness

 

"Each Christian has an inner longing that only Christ’s righteousness can satisfy.  But we cannot be filled with righteousness if we are filled with self.  Throughout the Scriptures the one who longs for Him with all his heart will find Him. As we crave righteousness, we will repent of our sin, and God will remove it.  Our selfishness will be replaced by the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. 

Righteousness is not to be taken lightly, nor is it easily attained.  God gives it to those who know they cannot live without it.  Our desire for personal righteousness must be powerful, all-consuming, dominating everything we do.  Pursuing righteousness means that we value the opinion of God far more than we treasure the opinions of people.  Righteousness is not merely an absence of sin.  It is allowing God to fill us with His holiness.  It is becoming like Christ."

Henry Blackaby, Hunger and Thirst

“Hope, on one hand, is an absurdity too embarrassing to speak about, for it flies in the face of all those claims we have been told are facts.  Hope is the refusal to accept the reading of reality which is the majority opinion; and one does that only at great political and existential risk.  On the other hand, hope is subversive, for it limits the grandiose pretension of the present, daring to announce that the present to which we have all made commitments is now called into question.  Our consumer culture is organized against history.  There is a depreciation of memory and a ridicule of hope, which means everything must be held in the now, either an urgent now or an eternal now."

Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination

"For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me no thing to drink, a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you gave me no clothing, sick and held in detention, and you did not care for me."

Matthew 25

"In the Incarnation the whole human race recovers the dignity of the image of God.  Thereafter, any attack, even on the least of men, is an attack on Christ, who took on the form of man, and in his own Person restored the image of God in all.  Through our relationship with the Incarnation, we recover our true humanity, and at the same time are delivered from that perverse individualism which is the consequence of sin, and recover our solidarity with all mankind."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

The Consumer Price Index of inflation numbers were in-line this morning.

Stocks had another wide ranging day with a failed rally, finishing up pretty much unchanged.

The Dollar chopped sideways finishing slightly higher.

Gold lost a little ground, silver was slightly higher.

VIX wandered around as usual.

How many grow cold and fall away, and so easily.

During my healing from eye trouble I have been listening to Mike Duncan's History of Rome on Youtube.  I did a second major in classics in college and it's a nice refresh of things I had studied, and is very well done, tying things together.  Since I am prohibited from reading for a while, this is a very nice audio-only substitute.

One day at a time.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - A Daunting Landscape - Consumer Inflation Data Tomorrow

 

"God beholds you.  He calls you by your name.  He sees you and understands you as He made you.  He knows what is in you, all your peculiar feelings and thoughts, your dispositions and likings, your strengths and your weaknesses. 

He views you in your day of rejoicing and in your day of sorrow.  He sympathizes in your hopes and your temptations.  He interests Himself in all your anxieties and remembrances, all the risings and fallings of your spirit.

He encompasses you round and bears you in His arms. He notes your very countenance, whether smiling or in tears.  He looks tenderly upon you.  He hears your voice, the beating of your heart, and your very breathing.

You do not love yourself better than He loves you. You cannot shrink from pain more than He dislikes your bearing it; and if He puts it on you, it is as you would put it on yourself, if you would be wise, for a greater good afterwards.

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.

I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. 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.

Let us feel what we really are — sinners attempting great things.  Let us simply obey God's will, whatever may come.  The more we do, the more shall we trust in Christ; and that surely is no morose doctrine, that leads us to soothe our selfish restlessness, and forget our fears, in the vision of the Incarnate Son of God.

May the Lord support us all the day long, till the shades lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done.  Then in His mercy may He give us safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at last.”

John Henry Newman

Stocks slumped today.

VIX was flattish.

The Dollar chopped sideways again, finishing essentially unchanged.

Gold and silver took a hit on some early selling.

The US Consumer Price Index information tomorrow will likely be a market mover.

The doctor had some constructive things to report today.   

Although the short term will be inconvenient and annoying and a bit painful, specialists will be surveying the internals of my right eye, and if sound or even in need of some remediation, will be eventually implanting a lens.   And perhaps this one will be successful.

God's loving kindness and tender mercies are there, sometimes obscured by life's brambles, but always moving before us, leading the way.

Have a pleasant evening.