SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Ebolanomics

The US economic numbers this morning sucked out loud.

After the bell Netflix missed its numbers and its stock was being monkey hammered.

Amex and eBay and Las Vegas Sands missed the top lines but hit earnings.

As I noted last week, it is easier to gin up profits with accounting, but topline revenue is a bit more problematic, unless you are a revenue recognizing sandbagger like a few tech companies that we might know.

As the markets melted down this morning, with a reported 179 flash crashes in the first 15 minutes according to Nanex, the talking heads were in fire drill mode, trying to figure out some way to restore confidence on Main Street, short of saying,  "buy our stocks.  Please!"

One of the themes the spokesmodels struck, believe it or not, was that a fear of ebola is dampening economic activity because they are afraid to go out and spend money.

Blame it on Ebolanomics. 

Ebolanomics. Yes I would imagine that is the reason that Netflix missed its numbers from last quarter. People are afraid they can catch a disease by watching crappy movies on television.

Most people are not spending more because they do not have any money, and they are reluctant to borrow and slip more deeply into debt.

They are afraid because they believe, based on what they are seeing, that the financial system is dominated by quasi-criminal cartels, and their political leaders are lying, craven, hand-waving nincompoops.

For the most, their real wages are lower since The Recovery™, and the one percent's wealth hoarding zillionaires do not buy the kinds of things that stimulate the economy through increased aggregate demand.  

Yeesh.  What is it going to take?

No matter how much money the Fed prints and hands over to Wall Street, the money has to reach the public to do any good.  You can see an existence proof of this phenomenon in every Third World oligarchy that is an American ally in the fight for the corporate brand of democracy around the world.

Have a pleasant evening.

Modern Crisis Leadership

Gold's Potential Triple Bottom and the 1.618 Golden Ratio In Timing

The timing is not exact but it is darn close.  Depending on when you measure the actual first two bottoms it looks like about 1.65ish.

Dave from Cincinnati sent me a picture of the gold potential triple bottom with his Golden Ratio calipers and brought my attention to it.

This ratio is probably more familiar to those technical analysts who follow Fibonacci retracements which are related to the Golden Ratio.

This last bottom may have come about five or six days late at 1.618 perhaps.  A valiant but failed effort perhaps to extend and pretend.

Close enough for government work.

I cannot account a trend change until we break the trend firmly of lower highs and lower lows.  But there is no reason not to have a bit of fun while waiting to find out.

Fat Lady Singing: The Alibaba IPO Top-Ticked the Market, Precisely

"As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods. They kill us for their sport."

William Shakespeare, King Lear

Wall Street puffed up the stock market indices to get the 'largest ever' IPO of Alibaba out the door.

Just in case you still had any illusions about these being 'free markets,' as if such a thing can even exist without the hard work of honest and objective referees.

After they took that piggy to market, the underwriters and the market manager (GS) let the markets go their own way.

Home again, home again, jiggety jog.

NAV Premiums of Certain Precious Metal Trusts and Funds

Flight to safety.

The prices have not yet begun to reflect the supply situation which is being extended and papered over by leverage.

When that leverage starts unwinding, the prices may go higher with somewhat impressive velocity.

It would be better for the price managers to allow the precious metals markets to go higher now, with a more controllable slope. But their fears and hubris may betray their wiser counsels.

I have this wonderful image of some Captain Bligh (as played by Larry Summers) of an economist shouting that they must 'hold the line' on the precious metals.

And the harried bureaucrats of Treasury and the Fed continue to lease out vast amounts of other people's gold, while privately shitting their pants with the thought of what will happen if their miscarried intervention is disclosed to the markets.  My career!