Moyers: Andrew Bacevich on the Duplicity of Ideologues and Chaos In Iraq

"Looking at the world as a whole, the drift for many decades has been not towards anarchy but towards the reimposition of slavery. We may be heading not for general breakdown but for an epoch as horribly stable as the slave empires of antiquity. James Burnham's theory has been much discussed, but few people have yet considered its ideological implications — that is, the kind of world-view, the kind of beliefs, and the social structure that would probably prevail in a state which was at once unconquerable and in a permanent state of 'cold war' with its neighbors...

It is the same in all wars; the soldiers do the fighting, the journalists do the shouting, and no 'true patriot' ever gets near a front-line trench, except on the briefest of propaganda-tours."

George Orwell

I found it interesting that Kagan's piece was published in The New Republic.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - July Metals Futures Option Expiration Next Week

There is an option expiration for the precious metals on the Comex next week. It is for the month of July which is not a particularly lively month.

Gold and silver both paused today, after their big move higher yesterday. I still have not quite figured out the reason for the move, except for the obvious technical boost it had from the short squeeze.

 

I will let you know if I see anything to either confirm or add to the usual suspects, Argentina and rehypothecation unwind.

Have a pleasant weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Complacency - Quiet Quad Witch

Today was a quad witch in stock option expiration and the day was very quiet with low volatility.

Next week there is not much in the way of new economic news, with the third iteration of 1Q GDP coming out.

I suspect that macro world events will tend to dominate an otherwise dull market with a bias upwards to sideways in the absence of some exogenous bad news.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Hi Ho Silver!

There was intraday commentary about the metals rally here. 

 

There is also a Summer assignment for those of you who wish to have a framework for the unfolding tragedy that is the Anglo-American financial system.  I suggest you scroll down for it.

I had taken my trading account down to effectively zero cash on this last move lower in the metals, especially in the last two weeks.  That was how sure I was that these market were grossly oversold. 

 

So this multiday move higher has been rewarding, and I thank God for it. I did take some trading positions off the table today to get back to a more 'comfortable' trading position. I do not touch my long term positions and try not to even think about them.

So what next?  Follow through is everything here. We have taken out some good resistance levels and some important moving averages as I show in a gold and silver technical chart below.

But we still have not taken out the big downtrend in gold. Silver as well.

Today was nice. It would have been nicer to have known why the metals moved so violently higher today, in what certainly turned into short covering. I have picked up almost no rumours from trading desk chatter today. That in itself is some information.

Price movement makes market commentary. I don't think the Fed's statement yesterday is what caused this, but it is the go to plug for those who have to say something. Anyone who thought the Fed would do anything else must be a tourist.

 

Tomorrow is stock option expiration.  The miners had a significant move higher today.  

 

There was no meaningful action in the Comex warehouses.  It is like watching a portrayal of some market in Madame Tussauds' Wax Museum.

I am leaning toward the unwind of commodity rehypothecation in China as is ZH, but it bothers me that so far it is all base metals being discussed. We know there is a lot of leverage in the precious metals. And as you know, these latest antics by the Pigmen and their Merry Pranksters with the sovereign debt of Argentina was a real stick in the eye for the BRICs.

So let's see what happens tomorrow. And let's enjoy today.

 

I include a closeup of the gold chart just below so you can more easily see exactly where we are with respect to the longer term trends.

Have a pleasant evening.