Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Self-Interest Without Morals - Option Expiration

 

"It is no exaggeration to say that since the 1980s, much of the global financial sector has become criminalised, creating an industry culture that tolerates or even encourages systematic fraud.   The behaviour that caused the mortgage bubble and financial crisis of 2008 was a natural outcome and continuation of this pattern, rather than some kind of economic accident.

This behaviour is criminal.  We are talking about deliberate concealment of financial transactions that aided terrorism, nuclear weapons proliferation and large-scale tax evasion; assisting in major financial frauds and in concealment of criminal assets; and committing frauds that substantially worsened the worst financial bubbles and crises since the Depression.   And yet none of this conduct has been punished in any significant way."

Charles H. Ferguson, Heist of the century" Wall Street's Role in the Financial Crisis, The Guardian, 20 May 2012

“Leadership is getting results in a way that inspires trust. It’s maximizing both your current contribution and your ability to contribute in the future by establishing the trust that makes it possible.   A nation’s well-being, as well as its ability to compete, is conditioned by a single, pervasive cultural characteristic: the level of trust inherent in the society.  The more people rationalize cheating, the more it becomes a culture of dishonesty.  And that can become a vicious, downward cycle.  Because suddenly, if everyone else is cheating, you feel a need to cheat, too."

Stephen Covey, The Speed of Trust

"Capitalism is at risk of failing today not because we are running out of innovations, or because markets are failing to inspire private actions, but because we’ve lost sight of the operational failings of unfettered gluttony.  We are neglecting a torrent of market failures in infrastructure, finance, and the environment. We are turning our backs on a grotesque worsening of income inequality and willfully continuing to slash social benefits.  We are destroying the Earth as if we are indeed the last generation."

Jeffrey Sachs, Self-interest, Without Morals, Philadelphia Fed, April 17th, 2013
 

The economic data came in a little hot this morning, and with the recent earnings report flops, that served to take the equity markets down.

Gold and silver were hit rather hard in honor of an otherwise inconsequential Comex metals options expiration.

It's the spirit, never the substance, of the scam.

The Dollar chopped sideways.

VIX came in high and drifted lower.

The war in the Mideast is smoldering in a most ominous way.

The odor of the moral character of the centers of power is most foul.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Storm Warnings

 

"No one screams against this hell.  No one protests.  And if they abhor what they see, they do not have the courage to damn the damned.  One alone would not have failed us.  Péguy would have spoken, I hope, he would have let loose his scream.  He is not here, and there is no one else."

André Suarès, 1939

“We must always tell what we see.  Above all, and this is more difficult, we must always see what we see.”

Charles Péguy

"Bully-worship, under various disguises, has become a universal religion."

George Orwell, Review of Bertrand Russell's Power, Adelphi, 1939

“Ayn Rand's 'philosophy' is nearly perfect in its immorality, which makes the size of her audience all the more ominous and symptomatic as we enter a curious new phase in our society.  Moral values are in flux.  The muddy depths are being stirred by new monsters and witches from the deep.  Trolls walk the American night.  Caesars are stirring in the Forum.  There are storm warnings ahead.”

Gore Vidal, Comment, Esquire, July 1, 1961

"Legitimate power always includes attentiveness to justice.  When power is not attentive to justice it cannot endure.  The market ideology is now the new form of imperial power and many of us, without any critical reflection, have signed onto that and organized our lives in that way."

Walter Brueggemann, Truth Speaks to Power, 2013

"We've become, now, an oligarchy instead of a democracy.  I think that's been the worst damage to the basic moral and ethical standards to the American political system that I've ever seen in my life."

Jimmy Carter, television interview, September 27, 2015

"The gates of hell are open night and day; the descent is smooth, and easy is the way.  But to return to the open air again, and view the cheerful skies, in this the task and mighty labor lies."

Virgil, The Aeneid

Stocks took a dive today, finishing off near the lows.

VIX rose.

The Dollar climbed a little higher.

Gold rallied a bit while silver flattened after a big intraday drop.

The US apparently has persuaded Israel to hold off on their invasion of Gasa in order to allow the US to deploy more missile defense systems 'to protect US troops.'

I suspect this, and the timeliness for a rinse in the old wash-rinse cycle, was the primary motivation.

There was some positive economic news, but meh, it looks like the markets are a bit jumpy.

We'll be getting another Payrolls report at the end of next week, but really the timing and scope of a Middle East conflict seems to be the primary influence for market sentiment.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Willful Blindness

 

“Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged against provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.”

James Madison, Letter to Thomas Jefferson, 1798

“In truth, however, nothing is inevitable and very little is new.  Many of our most vaunted innovations are simply methods – electronic or otherwise – of pulling off some age-old profit-maximizing maneuver by new and unregulated means.”

Thomas Frank, Listen Liberal

“Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of man who can fabricate it.”

Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

"Our country is in a moment of crisis decades in the making, a moment in which America’s middle class has been hollowed out, working people have been betrayed, and democracy itself is under threat.  While it is easy to blame President Trump for our problems, the truth is that our challenges began long before him.  And without serious reforms, they are just as likely to outlast him."

Elizabeth Warren, A Foreign Policy that Works for All Americans ,, American University, November 30, 2018

“The combination of power, optimism and abstract thinking makes powerful people more certain.  The more cut-off they are from others, the more confident they are that they are right.”

Margaret Heffernan, Willful Blindness, 2012

Stocks wanted to bounce today, and they managed to pull it off, although finishing well off the highs.

VIX fell.

The Dollar rose sharply.

Gold and silver opened lower and pretty much finished up there unchanged for the day.

Alphabet reported after the bell, and the stock was sold.

Microsoft beat warnings and the stock was higher.

Meta, the vanity project formerly known as Facebook, reports tomorrow.

A shockingly large amount of the stock gains in the SP500 are attributable to just a handful of stocks.

Exogenous issues continue to weigh heavily, despite the assurance of the spokesmodels and strategists to just sit tight in equities or buy more. 

Apparently there has been an "unprecedented departure" of the Chinese banks from the LBMA Gold Price auctions.  

You probably have not heard about it.  You can read about it here.

 And in late breaking news after the bell, Trump's former chief-of-staff has accepted immunity from the Department of Justice, and presumably is going to be providing evidence for them.  

This is in addition to the earlier news that another one of Trump's attorneys Jenna Ellis pled guilty to a deal in the state of Georgia elections case.

If the GOP movers and shakers starts publicly distancing on Trump's candidacy you know he is done.   

Have a pleasant evening.