Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Rough Seas Ahead, Mateys

 

"I cannot imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder.  I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that."

Captain Edward John Smith, RMS Titanic

"It is not possible to found a lasting power upon injustice, perjury, and treachery.  These may, perhaps, succeed at first, and limp along on hope for awhile with a flourishing appearance.  But time betrays their weakness, and they eventually fall into ruin of their own designs."

Demosthenes

"Monetary and regulatory policy encourage asset bubbles to proliferate.  Hot money seeks out the conscious mispricing of risk. Capital, in the form of both money and personal talent, increasingly flows into malinvestment and the gaming of markets.   The productive economy languishes, left wanting for the lack of creative resources and attention. The bubble rises to unsustainable valuations— and fails, and a nation's capital is consumed."

Jesse 5 August 2019, The Men Who Sold the World

“When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, you may be certain that her desolation is near.  Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are within the city must escape from its boundaries, and those who are in country areas must not return.  For those will be days of retribution when all that is written will come to pass."

Luke 21:21-22

"Everyone knows that plagues have a way of recurring throughout history, yet somehow we find it hard to believe in the ones that crash down on us out of the sky. There have always been plagues and wars, yet they always take us by surprise. When war breaks out people say it's stupid and won't last long. Stupidity has a knack of getting in the way, which we would see if not wrapped up in ourselves. In this our townsfolk were like everybody else— they did not believe in plagues."

Albert Camus, The Plague


Stocks went out near the lows. 

The Dollar was flat.

VIX is on a coffee break.

Gold and silver rallied.  Silver is feisty.

PPI came in hot today but stocks failed to rally with the good 'bad news.'

Markets closed on Monday for President's Day. 

Why so serious?

Have a pleasant weekend.

Fed's Economic Outlook: Steady as She Goes

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Royal Death Pits of Ur

 

"What is offensive is that they lie, and worship their own lying."

Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

"You have lost your reason and taken the wrong path.  You have taken lies for truth, and hideousness for beauty.  You would marvel if, owing to strange events of some sorts, frogs and lizards suddenly grew on apple and orange trees instead of fruit, or if roses began to smell like a sweating horse; so I marvel at you who exchange heaven for earth.  I don't want to understand you.”

Anton Chekhov, The Bet

"You who make wicked judgements, who write oppressive laws, to deprive the needy of justice, and to rob the poor of their rights, that widows may be your victims, and that you may make the orphans your prey— what will you do on the day of reckoning, when the consequences come from afar? To whom will you run for protection, and where will you hide your wealth?"

Isaiah 10:1-3

“In progressive societies the concentration [of wealth] may reach a point where the strength of number in the many poor rivals the strength of ability in the few rich; then the unstable equilibrium generates a critical situation, which history has diversely met by legislation redistributing wealth or by revolution distributing poverty.”

Will and Ariel Durant, The Lessons of History

“You felt secure in your wickedness. ‘No one sees what I do,’ you think. But your ‘wisdom’ and ‘knowledge’ have led you astray. And you so believe that, ‘I am the only one, and no one else matters.’ Disaster will overtake you, and you won’t be able to charm it away. Misfortune will descend upon you, and you won’t be able to buy your way out. A catastrophe will strike you suddenly, one for which you cannot prepare."

Isaiah 47:10-11

 

Our bi-polar market mavens managed to be cheered by the less than robust economic numbers this morning, easing their fears of the restrictive rates of the Fed.

What a surprise.

Stocks went out near their highs.

The Dollar fell.

Gold and silver rallied.

VIX fell.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

Tomorrow will be the stock option expiration.

We are heading into a three day weekend here in the States, with Monday being a holiday in remembrance of the Presidents.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - As Old as Babylon, and Evil as Sin

 

"The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.”

Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

"Human beings are so made that the ones who do the crushing feel nothing; it is the person crushed who feels what is happening. Unless one has placed oneself on the side of the oppressed, to feel with them, one cannot understand. As soon as men know that they can kill without fear of punishment or blame, they kill; or at least they encourage killers, with approving smiles. Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil, but as a necessity, or even a duty."

Simone Weil, Lectures on Philosophy

"It is, I am afraid, the first step in a process which, if followed to the end, will make us into devils. You see, one is beginning to wish that black was a little blacker. If we give that wish its head, later on we shall wish to see grey as black, and then to see white itself as black. Finally we shall insist on seeing everything -- God and our friends and ourselves included -- as bad, and not be able to stop doing it: we shall be fixed for ever in a universe of pure hatred.”

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

"If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts."

Psalm 95:8

"Having thus become a mindless tool, the foolish person will also be capable of any evil and at the same time incapable of seeing that it is evil.  This is where the danger of diabolical misuse lurks, for it is this that can once and for all destroy human beings.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers From Prison

"Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning.  Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God.  For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment.  Perhaps he will again relent and leave behind him a blessing, Offerings and libations for the Lord, your God."

Joel 2:12-14

Happy Valentine's Day.

After the panic in Ratesville yesterday, stocks managed to shake off their fear of the Fed and bounce back again today.

Don't overthink this.   Either the market is being driven to and fro by hapless idiots, or rather clever conmen.  

Take your pick.

Gold was flat, silver bounced with equities.

VIX dropped.

The Dollar fell.

Did I mention that there will be a stock market option expiration on Friday?

Nuts.

Have a pleasant evening.