SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Sharp Correction on Risk Off

The equity markets sold off sharply today on fresh jitters about the sovereign debt of Italy and Spain.

It is also quite important to remember that stocks have been very overbought short term and were ready for a correction.

Gold Moves Sharply Higher For No Particular Reason Yet Seen - Remarkable Divergence

I am checking various rumours, but so far nothing in the news can explain this remarkable short term rally in gold.

I am not going to bother repeating the rumours at this point, as they are mere speculation in my opinion.

This is a significant divergence from the equity markets. Silver also has rallied, but lagged a bit.

I would not chase it here, although that is easier for me to say as I did some additional buying earlier today, and then went out for a walk and some light reading on the patio. Spring is in the air. It is too nice to stay inside. The days are warm, and the evenings crisp.

Did some news leak out to the trading desks? Or is this a TBTF trading desk running the metal up in a cynical rally before hitting it with another bear raid, 'London Whale-style.'  If that is the case, then I would like to think that even the CFTC would be shamed into action.

It could even be the technical exhaustion of a selling program. But the divergence is highly remarkable.

The noticeable artificiality of big money moving prices around is what makes these light volume markets so difficult to trade in the short term. That, and that they are rather noticeably corrupt. Almost shamefully so in New York and London.

Gold and silver look like good long term holdings. But even they are only material things, and while they might help keep us alive, yet they cannot give us happiness and lasting life. They are things we are granted, like all material things and talents, and at the end our return to the master will be weighed, and hopefully, not found wanting.

Here is what I had been reading after my walk today. How kind is God, and wondrous his gentle mercies.

"Life passes, riches fly away, popularity is fickle, the senses decay, the world changes, friends die. One alone is constant; One alone is true to us; One alone can be true; One alone can be all things to us; One alone can supply our needs; One alone can train us up to our full perfection; One alone can give a meaning to our complex and intricate nature; One alone can give us tune and harmony..."

John Henry Newman

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts

A pop up rally on expectations that the demise of QE is greatly exaggerated.

I have rarely seen a market that is subject to so much blatantly phony 'commentary' as the metals market.

The talk on Bloomberg financial television this afternoon was that the Jobs Report was misleading, and that more people are not working because they want to 'take it easy.' 

The unemployed just want to retire and lead the good life on Social Security and/or their 'savings.'

John Williams: US Unemployment Rate Now at 22%

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts

Earnings season kicks off after the bell tomorrow with Alcoa.

A fairly moderate reaction to stocks in the first day of trading after the 'big miss' in the Jobs Report last week.