Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Darkness of Worldly Hearts

 

"You have to live in Truth to remain spiritually free.  Life in Truth consists of giving testimony, acknowledging the Truth and defending it in each situation.  Truth never changes.  It cannot be destroyed by any decision or legal act.  Our slavery stems from our surrender to the rule of the lie, our failure to unmask a lie, and to protest against it in everyday life.  Instead of correcting the lie we keep silent, or pretend to believe it is true."

Jerzy Popiełuszko, chaplain of Solidarność

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

Ephesians 6:12

"As a country becomes industrialized, its governance and corruption challenges do not disappear.  They simply morph and become more sophisticated: transfer of a briefcase stashed with cash is less frequent.   Instead, subtler forms of capture and 'legal corruption' exist: an expectation of a future job for a regulator in a lobbying firm, or a campaign contribution with strings attached.  In industrialized nations undue influence is often legally exercised by powerful private interests, which in turn influence the nation's regulations, policies and laws."

Daniel Kaufmann, Corruption And The Global Financial Crisis, Forbes, January 2009

"The abuse of buying and selling votes crept in and money began to play an important part in determining elections. Later on, this process of corruption spread to the law courts. And then to the army, and finally the Republic was subjected to the rule of emperors."

Plutarch, The Roman Republic

"The word of God is a living thing, and works among us.  It is sharper than a double-edged sword, and penetrates even to the dividing of soul and spirit, the joints and the marrow; it judges the innermost thoughts and inclinations of every heart.  Nothing in all of creation is hidden from the sight of the Lord.  Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we will some day give an account."

Hebrews 4:12-13

 

Stocks did a major pop and flop today, after the impressive decline of yesterday.

The pop was probably due to the usual wash and rinse action.  

The flop seems to have been triggered by the stunning plunge in the stock price of NYCB, a New York regional bank.

Otherwise the Dollar fell sharply.

The VIX was generally clueless.

Gold and silver extended their rallies, with gold setting another record high.

Powell will be continuing his song and dance before the Congress tomorrow.

Non-Farm payrolls on Friday could move the markets.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - What the Struggle Is All About - Gold Closes at All Time High

 

"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 are slow to master the great truth that even now Christ is, as it were, walking among us, and by His hand, or eye, or voice, bidding us to follow Him. We do not understand that His call is a thing that takes place now. We think it took place in the Apostles' days, but we do not believe in it; we do not look for it in our own case."

John Henry Newman

“God travels wonderful ways with human beings, but he does not comply with the views and opinions of people.  God does not go the way that people want to prescribe for him; rather, his way is beyond all comprehension, free and self-determined beyond all proof.

Where reason is indignant, where our nature rebels, where our piety anxiously keeps us away: that is precisely where God loves to be.  There he confounds the reason of the reasonable; there he aggravates our nature, our piety—that is where he wants to be, and no one can keep him from it.

God loves the lowly.  God is not ashamed of the lowliness of human beings.  God marches right in.  He chooses people as his instruments and performs his wonders where one would least expect them.  God is near to lowliness; he loves the lost, the neglected, the unseemly, the excluded, the weak and broken.

He comes in the form of the beggar, of the dissolute human child in ragged clothes, asking for help. He confronts you in every person that you meet. As long as there are people, Christ will walk the earth as your neighbor, as the one through whom God calls you, speaks to you, makes demands on you.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God Is in the Manger

“Prepare for great battles.  Know that you are now on a great stage where all heaven and earth are watching you.  Fight like a knight, so that He can reward you.  Do not be unduly fearful, because you are not alone.”

Maria Faustina Kowalska, Divine Mercy in My Soul

"The most important problem in the world today is your soul, for that is what the struggle is about."

Fulton J. Sheen

 

Today was very much a 'risk off' day as the equity markets looked down and succumbed to vertigo.

Apple was once again leading the way lower, as reality began to intrude on the 'Magnificent 7' fever dreams.

But not to worry, stocks put in a solid bounce off the lows into the close.

Gold was in rally mode once gain.  Silver not so much.

Another big tranche of physical gold left the Hong Kong warehouses yesterday.

Intraday gold futures matched its prior spike high from last December, but posted a close at a new all time high.

As you may recall it fell afterwards into the NFP report, finding a bottom after the Option expiration and the Fed as shown on the gold chart below.

Let's see what happens.

The Dollar was flat.

VIX rose.

Victoria 'The Red Queen' Nuland is retiring from the Biden Administration to pursue other pillaging opportunities, having limited out at State.

Non-Farm Payrolls and Jay Powell's yammering to the Congress lies dead ahead.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Christian Anger and the Unthinkable

 

"Few things are more destructive to Christians than anger.  Anger causes us to lose our self-control and to say and do things we would otherwise never consider.  Anger, if allowed to remain, turns into bitterness that eats away at our hearts. Scripture consistently commands believers to put away anger and lists it as one of the sins of the flesh. 

We must be careful not to justify our anger with Scripture. That does not mean that we cease to have strong convictions or lose our desire for justice. It does mean we refuse to allow the sins of others to cause us to sin.  Anger does not bring about God’s redemptive work; far more often it hinders what God is working to accomplish.

If you feel that you have a righteous anger because of something that has happened, see if you are holding anger in your heart without sin.  Is your anger turning into bitterness?  Is your anger causing you to speak in an unchristian manner to someone or to gossip about them?  Is your anger causing you to make excuses for your own ungodly behavior?  Is your anger preventing you from acting in a loving, redemptive, and Christlike way toward someone?  You must examine any anger within you and allow God to remove any sinful attitudes that your anger may have produced."

Henry Blackaby, Christian Anger

"'There were also many people with leprosy in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, but not one of these was cleansed except for Naaman the Syrian.'  When they heard these words, all the people in the synagogue were roused to fury.  They leapt up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the top of the hill upon which their town was built, intending to hurl him off the cliff.  However, he passed through the midst of the crowd and went on his way."

Luke 4:27-30

"Surely I would never betray the Lord!  Each disciple earnestly pled his loyalty to Christ.  As they reclined together in the comfort and security of the upper room, in the presence of their Lord, the disciples could not imagine themselves ever wavering in their loyalty to Christ.  Yet Jesus looked at them and said, 'One of you who eats with Me will betray Me.' 

How was it possible to share such an intimate and profound moment with the Savior and then rush so quickly toward betrayal and spiritual failure?  During the intense pressures of Gethsemane and the cross, the disciples did things they never thought they would do. They had no idea how cruel and hateful the world around them would be to their Lord. But only Jesus knew the full extent of the temptation they would face. In the pressure of the moment the heart does surprising things.

How quickly the surroundings of your life can shift from the security and tranquility of an upper room to the harsh reality of Gethsemane and the cross.  Guard your heart.  Listen now to the Lord’s gentle warning: the failure that was possible with His first disciples is also possible with you.  You, too, are capable of forsaking Jesus, just as the first disciples did.  If Jesus is warning you of an area in your life in which you could fail Him, heed His words today!

Henry Blackaby, The Unthinkable

Hate, fear, and anger are not Christian values.   

But they are how the world tries to control and distract you, and turn you from the way.

Gold and silver broke out today and stuck a solid close.

The Dollar was only nominally lower.

Stocks were struggling most of the day and turned in a mixed performance.

VIX continues to languish near recent lows.

The big tickle this week is the Fed, with Powell's testimony to the Congress.

But the big one will be the Non-Farm Payrolls report on Friday.

It's all about the bubble, and so its all about the Fed.

Grab something solid and hang on.  Rough seas ahead.

Have a pleasant evening.