Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Last Links With Joy and Reason

 

When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”  He replied, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”  Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.”

Jesus said to him again, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”  He replied, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”  Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.”

Jesus said to him a third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”  Peter was hurt that Jesus had asked him a third time, “Do you love me?”  “Lord,” he said to him, “you know everything.  You know that I love you.”  Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep."

“Verily verily, I say to you,
    when you were young
    you dressed yourself
    and walked where you liked.
But when you are old,
    you will stretch out your hands,
    and someone else will gird you
    and take you where you would not like to go.”

He said this to indicate the kind of death through which Peter would glorify God.  After this, he said to him, “Follow me.”

John 21:15-19

“The last moments before damnation are not often so dramatic.  Often the man knows with perfect clarity that some still possible action of his own will could yet save him.  But he cannot make this knowledge real to himself.  Some tiny habitual sensuality, some resentment, the indulgence of some fatal lethargy, seems to him at that moment more important than the choice between total joy and total destruction. 

With eyes wide open, seeing that the endless terror is just about to begin and yet, for the moment, unable to feel terrified, he watches passively, not moving a finger for his own rescue, while the last links with joy and reason are severed, and drowsily sees the trap close upon his soul.”

C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength, 1945

"And that same evening he went to the Ostian cemetery to teach and baptize those who wished to bathe in the water of life.  And thenceforward he went there daily, and after him went increasing numbers.  It seemed that out of every tear of a martyr new confessors were born, and that every groan on the arena found an echo in thousands of breasts. 

Caesar was swimming in blood, Rome and the whole pagan world was mad.  But those who had had enough of transgression and madness, those who were trampled upon, those whose lives were misery and oppression, all the weighed down, all the sad, all the unfortunate, came to hear the wonderful tidings of God, who out of love for men had given Himself to be crucified and redeem their sins.

When they found a God whom they could love, they had found that which the society of the time could not give any one — happiness and love."

Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis, 1905


Stocks rallied today on what was just a so-so jobs report.

Smells like teen spirit.

Gold took its usual NFP hit.

Silver on the other hand rallied higher.  Impressive.

The Dollar bumped back up a bit.

VIX is now saying we are in a risk extended range of bullishness.

Lots of geopolitical risk out there.  

Many years ago, when my wife was expecting our son, we went to Rome.

One day we took the bus out past the walls of the city to Santa Maria di Palma, also known as Chiesa del Domine Quo Vadis.  

It was a pleasant day, and we walked on on the old road, the Via Appia Antica, towards the catacombs.

All the ruling elite have to offer to us is hate and fear— both of which obscure reason, that instrument of scrutiny which their self-serving actions and policies cannot bear.  

Where are we going, Lord? 

Have a pleasant weekend. 

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Between Kind Chance and Tears

 

"Thus it happens that those who have force on loan from fate count on it too much and are destroyed.  But at the time their own destruction seems impossible to them.  For they do not see that the force in their possession is only a limited quantity; nor do they see their relations with other human beings as a kind of balance between unequal amounts of force.

Since other people do not impose on their movements that halt, that interval of hesitation, wherein lies all our consideration for our brothers in humanity, they conclude that destiny has given complete license to them, and none at all to their inferiors.

And at this point they exceed the measure of the force that is actually at their disposal. Inevitably they exceed it, since they are not aware that it is limited. And now we see them committed irretrievably to chance; suddenly things cease to obey them.

Sometimes chance is kind to them, sometimes cruel. But in any case there they are, exposed, open to misfortune; gone is the armor of power that formerly protected their naked souls; nothing, no shield, stands between them and tears."

Simone Weil, The Iliad, or The Poem of Force, 1940

“They're talking about things of which they don't have the slightest understanding, anyway.  It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of themselves.”

Franz Kafka, The Trial, 1915

"Nothing is so unworthy of a civilized nation as allowing itself to be 'governed' without opposition by an irresponsible clique that has yielded to base instinct. 

It is certain that today every honest German is ashamed of his government.  Who among us has any conception of the dimensions of shame that will befall us and our children when one day the veil has fallen from our eyes and the most horrible of crimes - crimes that infinitely outdistance every human measure - reach the light of day?"

The White Rose, First Pamphlet, Munich 1942


Stocks were in rally mode today to accompany the Donald's paean to his 'big beautiful bill' with Bessent and Vance singing the chorus.

But alas, stocks flopped rather hard and finished in the red.  This seems to be a recurring theme.

Silver managed to post some gains with style.  

Gold was just hanging on as the Dollar rallied back from earlier losses. 

Non-Farm Payrolls tomorrow.

Complacency abounds.

Geopolitical risks are not priced into this market.  

Therefore, an event will appear to be unexpected, and the pyramid schemes will crumble.

This is what passes for economic and regulatory policy in our plutocratic state these days.

Have a pleasant evening. 

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The People of the Lie

 

“Evil is not committed by people who feel uncertain about their righteousness, who question their own motives, who worry about betraying themselves.  The evil in this world is committed by the spiritual fat cats, by the Pharisees of our own day, the self-righteous who think they are without sin because they are unwilling to suffer the discomfort of significant self-examination.

The evil hate the light—the light of goodness that shows them up, the light of scrutiny that exposes them, the light of truth that penetrates their deception.”

M. Scott Peck, People of the Lie, October 10, 2023

"Narcissists damage and hurt but they do so offhandedly and naturally, as an afterthough. They are aware of what they are doing to others - but they do not care.”

Sam Vaknin, Malignant Self-Love

“'Woe to you, Pharisees.  For you love to sit in the seats of honor in the synagogues and receive respectful greetings as you walk in the marketplaces. What sorrow is awaiting you.  For you are like hidden graves in a field. People walk over them without knowing the corruption.'

'Teacher,' said an expert in religious law, 'you have insulted us too, in what you just said.'

And Jesus said, 'What sorrow also awaits you lawyers and teachers of the law.  For you crush people with unreasonable demands, and you never lift a finger to ease their burden.  What sorrow awaits you.  For you raise monuments to the very prophets that your fathers killed.'"

Luke 11:40-50

"We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.  It is not merely that at present the rule of naked force obtains almost everywhere.  Bully-worship, under various disguises, has become a universal religion."

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

 

This was an interesting way that Zelensky and Trump decided to kick off a proposed cease-fire discussion.

This isn't NY real estate deals, bullying  and threatening weaker parties.   

I suspect that Putin is from the Chicago School:  'They send one of ours to the hospital, we send one of theirs to the morgue.'

But this is not funny, and it is a game that comes with consequences.   Papa needs a brand new bag. 

Stocks lost their early rally attempt.

The Dollar declined.

VIX is now at the complacent level.

It's a matter of days to the next correction. 

Not even Bessent and the ESF can prop this mispriced pig up indefinitely.

Believe what you will, it's still a nominally free country.

But if you wish to trade the markets, it's good to see things as they are behind the enticing illusions. 

Have a pleasant evening.