SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Stocks Wallowing On Lower Volume

Stock continued to wallow in a low volatility, lower volume trading range best described as 'lackluster.'

I suspect quite a bit of this is due to the vacations being taken in this hot August by the seniors, leaving the markets in the hands of those who are under instructions to pretty much do little and not screw it up.

Certainly there is little organic purchasing of stocks at these prices. Besides the Feds and company stock buyback programs determined to skew the results for bonus purposes, who would bother?

Aggregate demand is sluggish, revenues are flattish to declining, and profits are not worth the accounting ink which dreams them up.

A friend and I were considering the economic forecasts past by government tools, otherwise known as big name expert economists, and for the most part they were very high end fantasy in retrospect, and not worth the electrons used to transmit them.

Are they just that bad? Or just that servile to what their paymasters demand? One can only wonder.

Have a pleasant evening

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Marking Time In a Dollar World

It certainly seems as though some entities with real clout have had the markets in a virtual lockdown since Brexit.

Gold and silver continue chopping sideways in a relatively tight range, with exceptions for the usual shenanigans, and stocks have been trading in less than 1% moves daily.

The 'deliveries' for gold on the Comex continue, with little action in silver this month, and the usual playing with their food in the precious metals warehouses.

I know, it is a bit boring.  I could just make things up, and maybe one of them would be right.

Or I can skip the legendary predictions game and just say that the metals look quiet, but are continuing to coil, perhaps winding up for a move out of these chart formations.   It is worth watching.

Have a pleasant evening.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Sleepy Summer Days

Stocks were sleep-walking once again, with the VIX volatility index moving lower.

It has been quite some time since stocks saw a greater than 1% daily move, not since Brexit I think.

Earnings continue rolling in, and we will be getting a new macroeconomic numbers this week as noted in the calendar below.

Have a pleasant evening.

Thomas Frank: The Rise of the Professional Plutocrat and the Betrayal of the Democratic Base

The Bush government of hacks and cronies was replaced by Obama's government of 'well pedigreed and highly educated'experts,' and nothing changed...  The professional class, the so-called meritocracy, have just learned to repeat all the same phrases, and are the servants of the prevailing orthodoxy.

Thomas Frank