Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Shoving Paper Around the Plate

The hedge funds are on top of these precious metal markets and do not wish to let them up for air.

Gold is in one of those long consolidations we have seen in this bull market.  When it is ready to move again it is going to break out.

And it may take no prisoners from the bear camp when it does.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Complacency Reigns

Fresh revelations and a bloody day of testimony about shenanigans at JPM had the punters buying the dip to finish the day about evens on the financials side and thereby the SP.

VIX continues to be remarkably low as the market quietly grinds higher and the dips get bought.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Financialization of Justice: SEC Settles Insider Trading Case With SAC Capital For $600 Million

Stevie Calls His Shot, Hits It Out of the Park

Breaking news per Bloomberg:

SEC settles with SAC Capital for $600 million over insider trading related to Mathew Martoma case.

Apparently Stevie Cohen's deposition really was that bad. But luckily he was able to monetize any criminal charges.

I think this is a bigger fine than Goldman paid for Abacus.   Of course SAC is not as systemically important as Goldman.

But that fine is less than Steve Cohen's reported personal compensation in 2005 and 2010 alone, according to the WSJ, which pegs it as a billion dollar paycheck each year for Steve.  His normal compensation is in the mere many hundreds of millions.

Steven A. Cohen, aka The Wizard of Great Neck, or Guru of Gruntal, is worth approximately $8.8 Billion as of March 2012.

Obama: Iran 'Year or So Away From Nuclear Weapon', US Will 'Use All Options'

While we are enjoying the diversion of watching Carl Levin go through the JPM witnesses like a wrecking ball, this particular story caught my eye.

As a reminder, Matt Taibbi is live-blogging the JPM testimony event and is providing colorful commentary. 

But meanwhile, the world muddles on...

ABC News
Obama: Iran a Year Away From Nuclear Weapon
By Devin Dwyer
March 15, 2013

In an interview with Israeli TV ahead of his visit to the region next week, President Obama says he believes Iran is "over a year or so" away from being able to develop a nuclear weapon and that the U.S. will use "all options" to stop it.

"Right now, we think it would take over a year or so for Iran to actually develop a nuclear weapon, but obviously we don't want to cut it too close," Obama told Israeli Channel 2.

"They are not yet at the point I think where they've made a fundamental decision to get right with the international community," he said, "but I do think that they're recognizing that there's a severe cost for them to continue on the path that they're on and that there's another door open."

Read the entire article here.

As they say about all real estate: location, location, location.