SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Pop Go the Weasels

The theme I struck that the record Alibaba IPO might strike a high watermark given the extreme ramp higher in stocks that the wiseguys provided to get that pig out at a high price is proving a little more credible now.

I did not look up the statistic, but I heard that the 25 or so IPOs that have come out since then have all sold weakly to lower in the secondary market, and several are lowering prices to even get them out the door.

The market was trading weakly most of the day. The algos and trade monkeys are looking hard at the cash SP 500 and its 200 Day Moving Average which is now around 1905. We *might* see support and a bounce there if they have it in them next week. But if not, the next day may see a gap down open and some cascade selling until we reach stronger support and a capitulation of sorts.

Another interesting statistic I saw today is that on average the stock market corrects about 15% over time after the Fed ends a QE program.

Hey, we're almost there!  At least in terms of the calendar.  The market have another ten or more percent to go. 

The talking heads are busily assuring mom and pop to stay fully invested. I own no stocks myself, except for a small position in a silver royalty play.

I have included the news for next week in the calendar below. As a reminder Friday is also a stock option expiration for October, so we will most likely see some shenanigans before and on that day.

Earnings season continues.  Tech was leading the way lower today, so lets see if tech can get its act together and provide a typical short covering rally which is typical of this thin, technically traded market.

Have a great weekend everyone.

S&P Cuts France's Sovereign Credit Outlook From 'Stable' to 'Negative'

The US equity markets, which had been trading weakly all day, turned decidedly south when this breaking news was released, to the minute.  I happened to see the flash headline, but the story did not appear generally in the news.

I think this merely demonstrates how skittish and thin the algo-dominated US stock markets really are.

As a reminder the US Bond markets are closed on Monday, but the stock markets will be open.

Reuters - France outlook revised to negative. AA ratings affirmed.

France ratings remain supported by view of French economy's high income per capita and productivity, diversification, and stable financial sector.

French government's budgetary position is deteriorating in light of France's constrained nominal and real economic growth prospects.

Negative outlook indicates view that robust recovery of French economy could prove elusive and public finances could deteriorate beyond 2014.

Corporate Media and Censorship In America

"Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it. And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment.

That I do not intend to permit to the extent that it is in my control. And no official of my Administration, whether his rank is high or low, civilian or military, should interpret my words here tonight as an excuse to censor the news, to stifle dissent, to cover up our mistakes or to withhold from the press and the public the facts they deserve to know."

John F. Kennedy, The President and the Press, 27 April 1961

"There are men, now in power in this country, who do not respect dissent, who cannot cope with turmoil, and who believe that the people of America are ready to support repression as long as it is done with a quiet voice and a business suit."

John Lindsay

This link below is a fairly long and very interesting discussion of the recent crisis in the Ukraine, and what some of the bigger picture implications and reasons for it may be.

However, I am starting this video towards the end, so that you can hear one key point that Professor Stephen Cohen of Princeton makes that is in my opinion essential.

He states that there is no longer a place in the popular mainstream media for debate over the different positions and opinions on key policy questions outside of a narrow range of acceptable views as decided by a few major media outlets.  If there is a dissenting view that is distasteful to the powerful interests that influence the government, they will not allow it to be heard or discussed rationally, except perhaps in a few scholarly journals out of the reach of most.

And in this I think he is absolutely correct. And it is not just about issues such as a new Cold War, but on a broad range of social and financial topics as well.  Journalism as I once knew it no longer exists except in select locations on the Internet.

Staged discussions between paid 'strategists' from the two major political parties with commentary from a few corporate media representatives is not journalism, and does not provide the platform for the serious discussion of issues that affect all of us.

The seeds for the decline of American mainstream media were sown by the overturn in 1987 of the Fairness Doctrine which required broadcasters to air both side of controversial subjects, and not just the officially sanctioned sides of a carefully selected and phrased question or topic. 

And the Communications Act of 1934 was further gutted by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 which permitted corporate conglomerates to acquire and establish powerful monopolies across the press, radio, and television.

I am finding too many cases where topics are being effectively censored by implicit agreement of the corporate media to either not cover a story, or to permit only certain aspects and views of an issue to be heard.

I am no big fan of the governments of either Russia or China.  It is the oligarchs who like the way these statist governments operate, but only when they are making deals with them and getting their way.   It was Bill Gates who came back from a tour of China in 2005 and praised this new kind of capitalism.

I have been to both Russia and China, and I prefer neither of those brands of oligarchy and monopoly in alliance with the State.  And so I am concerned about the modern attraction by the powerful in the West to emulate them, to manage the news, to establish monopolies, and to hide behind secrecy as they engage in undemocratic backroom deals with powerful interests as a standard matter of doing the business of the nation.

This de facto censoring of the news in the West is not a healthy situation.  And so we must get information about important topics where we can.   The coverage of too many news topics, from Snowden to the financial crisis to the Ukraine, have been disgracefully one sided and carry the stink of propaganda wrapped in a  press under the thumb of a few moneyed interests.

You may wish to listen to the entire interview which I found to be most interesting.  Please click on the link below to start the interview at the point of discussing censorship.

Stephen Cohen, The New Cold War: It's Five Minutes to Midnight

Related: National Publications Refuse Journalist Bill Cohan's Expose of Price Rigging in the Silver Market

               Salon, Obama's Unprecedented War on Whistleblowers

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - China Is Back From Holiday

"I have come to realize that the vast majority of decent, wonderful people have no idea how they are being hoodwinked, day in and day out, by the scum of this world. We are lied to, misled, bamboozled, suckered, cheated, misrepresented, conned, manipulated and royally screwed!

They take us to the cleaners day in and day out in every way possible. We, the people, pay the price of their cheating, their folly, their lying and their sheer stupidity."

Pierre Rinfret


"How could I have done this? I was making a lot of money. I didn’t need the money. Am I a flawed character?”

Bernie Madoff

Silver was under pressure most of the day, while gold was able to gain a bit of ground after yesterday's rally.

China is back from holiday for its 'National Week.' The markets that count for gold bullion are open again.

Nothing of particular consequence happened on the Comex in the markets or their warehouses for precious metals yesterday.

The associated trades with silver such as miners and royalty plays continue to get hammered. That they gained so sharply yesterday seems to suggest that the much remarked short interest in some of those plays really is that significant.  I wonder if some of the 'smart money' isn't advantageously picking up some positions on the cheap ahead of some forthcoming event.

As you know there are some real divergences between gold and silver, both in paper and physical levels, that have some of us shaking our heads a bit. You know, the kind of people who actually notice things and ask about them.

There was intraday commentary from Robert Johnson in The US System Is Broken and Heading Towards Social Conflict

Some of the things that he says might appear to be shocking, but he is only saying what a lot of well informed and intelligent people are thinking.

But it is considered impolitic to actually say these things out loud, because the status quo thinks you are stirring things up, and speaking ill of insiders. And that makes them angry. It is the same type of anger that a friend who has had too much to drink might feel when you attempt to take their car keys and offer to call them a cab. They have been driving under the influence for years and never had a problem before.  Who are you to question their abilities?

"The dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself."

Archibald Macleish

And the elites in the US and the UK are driving inexorably forward under the mass delusion of their own will to power.  I am not stopping unless the others stop first.   And in their inability to stop, their groupthink keeps rationalizing and reinforcing the idea that they are not only right, but are acting nobly in taking the lead by obtaining an historically inordinate and unsustainable amount of money and power.  They clearly deserve it. People must be jealous of them, since they can do no wrong and are superior, if not to everyone then at least most of those fools and parasites.

Neo-liberalism brings out the worst in people, and fosters a culture that nurtures sociopathic tendencies that become self-reinforcing and self-justifying.   It is calls forth the kind of power that makes men into monsters.

After this latest financial crisis the Western Banks think they are holding unbeatable hands.  And the pathologically greedy never wish to surrender even one iota of money or power, even to save themselves.

The ever expanding Ponzi scheme of Western finance has its reckoning at the borders of Eurasia.  And so it is a time of historic change.

Have a pleasant evening.