Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Pop Go the Weasels

 

Here's what Grok has to say about my December 16th post on X warning of a bubble in market valuations which is pictured on the right:

Market Sentiment: The post indicates a cautious view on the current market conditions, suggesting that the market might be overvalued ("toppy") but expects some manipulation or positive portrayal ("paint the tape") towards the year's end. This reflects a common practice in financial markets where end-of-year performance might be artificially boosted.

Cultural Reference: The image used in the post references the character "The Mask" from the movie of the same name, known for his chaotic and exaggerated behavior, symbolizing the unpredictable and possibly reckless nature of market movements at this time.

Economic Context: The mention of market manipulation or artificial market support can be linked to historical practices like those seen during the Wall Street crash of 1929, where market manipulation was part of the broader economic events leading up to the Great Depression.

These AI things are mostly obvious plagiarists, but they do draw nice pictures sometimes.  But people tend to give it some credibility.   Maybe you will listen to it.

Here in the second picture on the right is what I posted earlier today before the FOMC meeting.  I was getting ready for a surprise.  I wasn't sure how big a surprise because I did not know the extent of the 'trigger event.'

I suspect that today is going to be more of a standalone event, with perhaps a day or two of aftermath that eventually finds a footing.

Once the wiseguys have their portfolios squared up they can go back to building something reportable for their year end results.

Why did stocks fall so sharply?  The valuations were so stretched that it took very little to set off the correction.   

What the Fed did and said today was utterly obvious to anyone watching what is going on, and thinking for themselves.

They did their 25 basis point cut, and affirmed their firmer stance on future cuts because of persistent inflation.  

I had some significant short positions built up in the equity assets over the past two days, and I made some money.  My PM related longs were on the slimmed down, but what there was got thoroughly toasted. According to plan I added some of the usual suspects in the afternoon today.  There were some fire sale items of interest for the longer term.  There will be time to add more. Slowly goes it.  And hedged.  

A geopolitical event will make some obvious Fed related temper tantrum look pale by comparison.

More gold left the Hong Kong warehouses yesterday.   Gold is flowing from West to East. 

As a reminder there will be a stock market option expiration on Friday.  This was most likely a wash and rinse for year end.

Things do eventually make sense.   It's just that the liars and those who fall for their lies can be ardent and persuasive, and very, very loud.

But if there is a message in this, it is that these financial things mean relatively little compared to the bigger traps and lies that are being told about theft, wholesale murder and wars of aggression.  It's almost astonishing, and it could be getting worse before it gets better.

“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be with the coming of the Son of Man.  People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given away in marriage, up until the very day that Noah entered the ark.  Then the flood came, and swept them all away.   And they said to him, 'Where will this happen, Lord?'  And He said to them, 'Where death is, there will be a gathering of vultures.'”

Luke 17:26-27, 37

Things can be replaced.  Your soul can't.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Gold Checks Out of the Hong Kong Hotel

 

"Those who are at present so eager to be reconciled with the world at any price must take care not to be reconciled with it under this particular aspect: as the nest of The Unspeakable.  This is what too few are willing to see.  

Be human in this most inhuman of ages; guard the image of man for it is the image of God.  You agree?  Good.  Then go with my blessing.  But I warn you, do not expect to make many friends."

Thomas Merton, Raids on the Unspeakable

“Who shall resist Anti-Christ when he comes if we show such patience towards the vices and crimes of his precursors? By such leniency, we encourage kings to become tyrants."

Thomas a Becket, December 29, 1170

"From the least to the greatest, they are greedy for unjust gains; and from prophet to priest they all deal falsely.  They have treated the suffering of my people carelessly, saying, ‘all is well’ when there is no safety.  They act shamefully, they commit terrible offenses; and yet they are not ashamed, and do not even know how to blush.  Therefore they shall fall among those who are fallen."

Jeremiah 6:13-15

"For what shall it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and loses his soul?"

Mark 8:36


A pretty big chunk of gold bullion decided to check out of the CME affiliated Hong Kong warehouses yesterday.

Thank you sir, may they have another?

That would be interesting. 

Stand and deliver.

The Dollar was up a few cents.

Stocks took a decline after the big bubblicious rally.  Still very in keeping as a correction.

VIX rose to its 200 DMA.

Gold and silver took a boogeyman hit, and then bounced back into the close.

The FOMC meeting is tomorrow.  They are likely to just cut 25 basis points.

The Street will focus on what they say in their writings and plots, and then what Slipping' Jay says in his press conference.

"The rich man said, ‘No, Father Abraham!   But if someone is sent to them from the dead, then they will repent of their sins and turn to God.’  But Abraham said, ‘If they won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded, even if someone rises from the dead.’”

Luke 16:19-31

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Awful Faces From Beyond

 

“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious.  But it cannot survive treason from within.  An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly.  But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself.

For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men.  He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist.”

Marcus Tullius Cicero, Orationum

“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, Leads to Self-Destruction, Financial Times, 18 January 2012

Demagogues are willing to do or say anything to gain office or to consolidate their power.  Unconstrained by ideology, they have no concern for the consequences of their actions.  Anything that serves to make them more powerful is good enough for them — even if the political system that facilitated their rise should be destroyed in the process."

Daniel Ziblatt, Saving Democracy from Demagogues, 2022

"The barbarian hopes — and that is the mark of him, that he can have his cake and eat it too.  He will consume what civilization has slowly produced after generations of selection and effort, but he will not be at pains to replace such goods, nor indeed has he a comprehension of the virtue that has brought them into being.  We sit by and watch the barbarian.  We tolerate him in the long stretches of peace, we are not afraid.  We are tickled by his irreverence; his comic inversion of our old certitudes; we laugh.  But as we laugh we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond, and on these faces there are no smiles.”

Hilaire Belloc, The Barbarians, 1912

As the trading year draws to a close, the paint to make the results (and bonuses) for the Wall Street wiseguys will be applied liberally to the tape.

The economic hitmen have come home to roost.

Stocks rallied to new highs.

The Dollar chopped sideways with a bit of a little loss.

VIX rose, even with stocks rallying.

Gold and silver did very little.

FOMC coming up on Wednesday.

Syria is overcome, and being carved up by the US, Turkey, and Israel.

That which is unsustainable will not be sustained.

And where they make a desert, they call it peace.

Have a pleasant evening.