SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Whoops

The economic news this morning was a bit thin as the ISM Services missed estimates a bit, while the ADP employment report missed consensus by quite a bit more.

In my own way of thinking, the stock markets took a big retrenchment after hitting the SP 500 chart's intermediate chart objective yesterday of 1565-1570.

All eyes should be on the Non Farm Payrolls report on Friday, as well as the growing crisis in the global banking sector. You may not be aware of it, but the smart money certainly is.

The financial system is inherently unstable now, and I would take defensive measures as one might be able.  When the time comes, there will not be time.

The VIX rose but is still relatively benign.  I will be a bit surprised if the market does not take at least one more run at a new high, but I am a bit discouraged of that unless the June futures can regain the big support area north of 1550.

I did shed some of the volatility which I purchased yesterday during the market's sojourn in the land of the lotus eaters.  I am in a more defensive posture here including bullion bought on weakness.

CBC: Canada To Adopt the Cyprus Model of Depositor 'Bail-In' In Case of Bank Failure

The smugness of the Canadian politicians is reminiscent of the Bank of New Zealand. 

Perhaps that is what the political do when they are making plans for a gathering storm and they wish for everyone to remain on the beach in the meanwhile.

I could be wrong, but in my judgement nothing in the global banking system is safe if the massive derivative bubble collapses. 

It will not only take down the private banks, but quite a few sovereign countries as well.

I am of the opinion that in the States there will not be the same sort of 'bail in' but a 'print in' in which the Fed will supply as much money as is required, taking value from all who hold Dollars including foreign holders.  So in that sense, the US is 'safe.'  It is all the holders of dollars around the world who are not.

You may wish to take some protective measures if you have not done so already.   When the times comes, there will be no time.

Ottawa weighing plans for bank failures
By Neil MacDonald
April 3, 2013

Buried deep in last month's federal budget is an ambiguously worded section that has roiled parts of the financial world but has so far been largely ignored by the mainstream media.

It boils down to this: Ottawa is contemplating the possibility of a Canadian bank failure — and the same sort of pitiless prescription that was just imposed in Cyprus.

Meaning no bailout by taxpayers, but rather a "bail-in" that would force the bank's creditors to absorb the staggering losses that such an event would inevitably entail.

If that sounds sobering, it should. While officials in Ottawa are playing down the possibility of a raid on the bank accounts of ordinary Canadians, they chose not to include that guarantee in the budget language.

Canadians tend to believe their banks are safer and more backstopped than elsewhere in the world. The federal government enthusiastically promotes the notion, and loves to take credit for it.

It may well be true, even if Canada's six-bank oligopoly isn't terribly competitive, at least in comparison to the far more diverse American banking universe.

But in the ever-more insecure world that has unfolded since the financial meltdown of 2008, it is also increasingly clear that nothing is safe anymore, not even blue-chip bank stocks and bonds or even, in the case of the Cyprus bail-in, private bank accounts.

And now, Canada is making a bail-in official government policy, too...

Read the rest here.

Net Asset Value Premiums of Certain Precious Metal Trusts and Funds - Part Deux

Blatant as can be.

In general, it is 'open season' on small investors in the markets, so why should gold and silver be otherwise?

The only thing that the precious metals are correlated to here is manipulation.

Canada Weighs Cyprus Solution For Bank Failures - CBC

Non-Farm Payrolls on Friday.

Net Asset Value Premiums of Certain Precious Metal Trusts and Funds - Cheating Is de Rigueur

“Our government teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.”

Louis D. Brandeis

Thinner.

The funds and bullion banks have a full court press on. 

Smells like teen spirit.  or desperation. 
Life imitates high school.

Jim Chanos observes that there is now A Fiduciary Duty to Cheat.

And the love of many will grow cold...