Gold Daily And Silver Weekly Charts - His Mills Grind Slow, But Exceedingly Fine

Today was gloom over Europe day, as concerns about European economic growth had stocks on the ropes, and a late day downgrade on the credit outlook for France had stocks selling off.

Traders are watching 1905 on the SP 500 cash very closely, because that is its 200 DMA. If we break it and don't bounce, the day after next could see a gap down open.

The Comex continues to be a showpiece, Madame Tussaud's on the Hudson, with little actual metal activity except for CNT which is providing bullion for the US government in their silver eagles sales, which are breaking records.

Jack Lew spoke to the IMF today, and had some hard words for Europe about doing things to stimulate aggregate demand.

Well considering that the Russia sanction which the US forced on Europe are hurting, and the austerity they imposed thanks to the massive control fraud perpetrated by the US based global Banks, I doubt the Europeans were taking his advice too well.

I might like to remind Jack that despite the lower unemployment rate that has the intelligentsia so mesmerized and happy, in fact the jobs being added are low wage, and overall the real median wage is falling.

In other words, Jack, unless you are one of the one percent, things do not look so good in the States either, and it is going to start showing through the threadbare sleeves of our real economy statistics beyond the accounting gimmicks.

I am keeping a very open mind on this, but to me the lower highs and lower lows that have been steadily hammering away at the precious metals are going to break down fairly soon, and the reaction might help us to forget some of the distasteful actions of our own guys in papering over their errors and missteps. And we ought not to forget. These half measures keep adding to the growing climate of moral hazard in the Western financial sector.

 

Party like its 1999

 

Here is an interesting article about IPOs and their financials.  Are we really at the threshold of a bubble?   I think we are beyond all that if you account for the real economy in this equation.

 

Let Wall Street tell us again that gold and silver are dodgy investments, but stocks and bond are such values?

 

Control frauds, leverage, counterparty risk, and other people's money, bitchez.   Mostly yours.

Have a pleasant weekend.

 

 

 

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