Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - After Many a Summer...

"Here, at the quiet limit of the world."

Alfred Lord Tennyson, Tithonus


"A rose will bloom, it then will fade.
So does a youth.
So does the fairest maid."

Nino Rota, What Is a Youth

There is a story to be told here, of twisted markets, and legitimate pursuits taxed by insidious corruptions, and their patrons.

But it is nothing new.  It is a story all too familiar, as old as Babylon, and evil as sin.  Perhaps, then, another time.

It was a beautiful autumn day.   The warmth is slowly fading from the fields, captured in the harvests, and taken away.  Darkness is falling earlier, and the nights are growing colder.

And as fields fade, so too do empires— and the vanities and illusions of  proud and willful men.

Not then so rare as we had thought.   But still, after many a summer, dies the swan.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - End of the Line

"If govts take control of virtual currencies no need for tax bills & payment issues. Taxes, fines, etc automatically deducted from your account. Tax collectors & intel community can hardly wait for mandated single ledger for crypto currency systems, (w/global access for them). As govts tighten grip on virtual currencies, individual discretion on money mgmt will become restricted and right of privacy extinguished."

Dr. Harald Malmgren


"One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them,
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie."

J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Non-farm Payrolls report on Friday.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Risk On - Non-Farm Payrolls on Friday

Stocks were in 'rally mode' today, although the results were more mixed than one might initially realize. Big cap Techs, which have been leading the parade higher, ended the day essentially unchanged.

That is a big non-confirmation of the push to a new high on the SP 500. Let's see if the kool-aid is served up again by Wall Street tomorrow.

The economic news this morning via the ISM was viewed as just peachy.

There will be a non-farm payrolls report on Friday.

Over the weekend there was police violence against voters in Catalan, and a very tragic mass shooting in Las Vegas.   These are the times in which we live. 

It was an absolutely gorgeous day here, with the bright but cool autumn weather settling in.  The leaves have not started to change here yet.  It will take a hard freeze or two to turn them.   Dolly and I were out cruising the 'hood with the sun roof open and the windows down,  grabbing some fresh sweet cider and powdered sugar donuts from one of the local farms, along with the usual suspects from the vegetable family.  We are getting exceptionally good white sweet corn much later than usual thanks to the weather.   Even zucchini and tomatoes are still going gangbusters.

I dropped some out of town relatives off for a cruise out of Cape Liberty in Bayonne on Sunday.   Apparently it is becoming quite the place to grab a ship to the Caribbean and parts south, although this time they were taking a 'fall foliage' cruise north to Bar Harbor and on to Quebec.  They are cruise ship enthusiasts.

I had another rewarding year as a long-time Cleveland Indians 'fan,' at least for the last 55 years or more.  It is nice to see them finish strongly, and take their division title again.  I don't mind if they don't go all the way, because it is such a pleasure to watch them playing.   And as desperate as they were for a World Series win last year, the long time Cubs fans had a rougher time of it, and I was glad to see them win. But maybe not again.  lol.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - End of Third Quarter - Rounding Kap Hoorn Into Uncharted Waters

"Over the last 10 years, there has been so much financial scandal, so many battles between regulators and financiers, and so much complexity (more liquidity and less leverage with your tier one capital, anyone?) that a large swath of the public has become numb to the debate about how to make our financial system safer.

That’s a dangerous problem, because despite all of the wrangling and rule making, there’s a core truth about our financial system that we have yet to comprehend fully:  It isn’t serving us, we’re serving it."

Rana Foroohar, How Big Banks Became Our Masters, NYT

As the paint is drying on the tape for the end of the third fiscal quarter, I am posting out a little early. Visitors from out of town are coming, and I wish to make some preparations to make them welcome.

The Dollar caught a big today on speculation that President Trump will be appointing a 'hawkish' replacement for Janet Yellen as the Chairman of the Fed. Whether the bias of one person, even the Fed Chief, will be able to swing interest rates markedly higher is open to debate.

Nevertheless, the President promises us a decision in a couple of weeks, so we will have to put up with giddy speculation out of the financial class. It is good to remember that when it comes to fiscal and economic governance, the focus these days is on the process, the financialization of the economy, rather than the product, which is the economy itself.

I do not wish to draw too many conclusions, therefore, about the action this week, because it was the end of the quarter and the posting of financial results that was driving the Street, and not the fundamentals underlying what it is that they do.

The mispricing of risks has become so profound, and our leadership so casually scurrilous to the truth, that it is now difficult to determine just how far off course we really are.

Have a pleasant weekend.