SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts

As a reminder, this is a stock market option expirations week.

VIX shows complacency.

Net Asset Value Premiums of Certain Precious Metal Trusts and Funds

State of the Union Message: Tonight Was the Wish List

Tonight's State of the Union was the 'wish list.'

And there were some very fine and workable ideas contained in that avalanche of possibilities.

Tomorrow begins the hard work of coming up with a 'prioritized list.' 

And the shame is that many of the good ideas are not constrained so much by budget,  or capability, but by special interests and ideologies, and petty jealousies and in-fighting.  

And I hate to say, a growing mindset amongst the powerfully fortunate that if something does not directly benefit them in the short term by increasing their wealth and power, then it must be stopped no matter what, and the rest be damned.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the essence of politics, at its worst in dysfunctional organizations, companies and countries that are set against themselves, in all its inglorious ugliness. And it is a deadly entangling embrace, given the fallen state of the human condition, and the pure damned cussedness of people.

Let the games begin.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Plus Ca Change...

"The greatest triumph of the banking industry wasn’t ATMs or even depositing a check via the camera of your mobile phone. It was convincing Treasury and Justice Department officials that prosecuting bankers for their crimes would destabilize the global economy.”

Barry Ritholtz

As a reminder, this is a stock option expiration week.

Obama's State of the Union message this evening. Regards to the staffers watching their bosses at Bullfeathers.

There was a hit on the metals but they clawed their way back.

I include the VIX here just to show the complacency and the likely cause for the divergence between stocks and the metals. Its a 'risk on' thing and its has been going on since the Republicans blinked on the fiscal cliff.