Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - What Do Bonds and Gold Know That Stocks Don't?

Daniel 5:25  מנא ,מנא, תקל, ופרסין (Mene, Mene, Tekel u'Pharsin)

"A baited banker thus desponds,
From his own hand foresees his fall,
They have his soul, who have his bonds;
'Tis like the writing on the wall.

How will the caitiff wretch be scared,
When first he finds himself awake
At the last trumpet, unprepared,
And all his grand account to make!

For in that universal call,
Few bankers will to heaven be mounters;
They'll cry, 'Ye shops, upon us fall!
Conceal and cover us, ye counters!'

When other hands the scales shall hold,
And they, in men's and angels' sight
Produced with all their bills and gold,
'Weigh'd in the balance and found light!'

Jonathan Swift, A Run Upon the Bankers

Gold continued to move higher, closing around the $1420 mark. Silver is at $15.50.

The dollar moved slightly lower, giving up the 96 handle.

Stocks appeared skittish and hesitant, moving in a tight range around the open.

Geopolitical events *finally* seem to be weighing on the risk consciousness of bully.

There will be a precious metals option expiration on the Comex this week.

The G20 meeting is coming up this weekend at Osaka. Eyes are on the US and China presidents.

Have a pleasant evening.

Physical Holdings of Gold and Silver with Commitments of Traders - Dollydollars

"For ten years, if not longer, financial tectonic forces have been building up; artificial central bank forces vs the market trying to correct itself. While many investors keep dancing on the fault line, eventually the market wíll move towards equilibrium."

Jan Nieuwenhuijs, the analyst formerly known as 'Koos Jansen'

And finally, here is a safe and sensible alternative to the newly proposed, global cryptocurrency from Mark Zuckerberg called Libra, or 'Facebucks.'  Be assured that Dolly has no interest whatsoever in what you are doing with Dollydollars, much less monitoring it, unless it clearly involves Zuke's Mini roast pork treaties.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - And the Band Played On - Quad Option Expiration

“When the music stops, in terms of liquidity, things will be complicated.  But as long as the music is playing, you’ve got to get up and dance.  We’re still dancing,”

Chuck Prince, CEO Citigroup, July 9, 2007

Today was a quadruple stock option expiration fur June.

Last night it was revealed that the US was fully ready to strike Iran, but that at the last minute Trumpolini changed his mind, and pulled back the walrus.

And while gold was soaring last night, fully hitting the short term objective of 1410, equities pretty much ignored the growing risks, preferring to wallow in the hot money promises of the Fed.

Stocks were attempting to rally today, but as is usual once the mischief was managed they gave the gains back into the close, ending up almost unchanged on the day.

I was surprised that so many bulls held their positions into this weekend.

Next week the focus will be on the geopolitical economic issues, with the G20 upcoming in Osaka. I don't think expectations should be set too high for any sort of progress in the US-China trade talks, but we'll have to see what happens.

The Dollar has given up quite a bit of ground in the latter part of this week, and is hovering around the 96 hand on the DX index.

We may see gold and silver backing and filling here after a serious move out of the hard coiling of the descending triangle.

The speed with which it reached its objective was almost stunning, especially after the long years of grinding sideways.

Need little, want less, love more. For those who abide in God abide in them.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Fed Caught in the Enveloping Horns - Gold and Silver Overwhelm Resistance

As you know the Fed showed its dovish side in their decision yesterday, which is ironic given all the happy talk about the tight employment picture and booming economy.

The markets are expecting at least 25 basis points cut in July, and there is a great deal of talk about 50 basis points.

Can things get even more crazy than this? I think that they can, and will.

Gold caught fire yesterday, and silver was following.

Money is starting to hit the exits, looking for some safe havens when the consequences of this latest financial asset bubble come to fruition.

After the close yesterday, gold took another strong leg up and was hitting the 1400 market in the globex futures. They maintained this strength during the London and New York sessions, and managed an impressive close aroud 1390.

Silver blew through resistance at 15 and stuck a close around 15.50 today.

Stocks followed suit, rallying hard today.

The SP 500 managed to top its previous closing high.

The tech heavy Nasdaq 100 diverged a bit, and is still short of its prior high, the last blowoff top.

There will be a stock option expiration tomorrow.

The China trade situation, and the steady beat of war drums beating along the Potomac for Iran, should be casting more of a chill on the markets.

The US and China may meet next Tuesday. The G20 meeting in Osaka, which may feature a meeting between Chinese President Xi and Trumpolini, will be next weekend.

Let's see how things continue to unfold.

Those of you famliar with the movies about the Zulu uprising in South Africa will know about their war strategy called 'the enveloping horns' which is a classic pincer movment.

It looks from here that the Fed is caught in such a difficult set of enveloping problems of declining confidence and credibility.  And their cronies on Wall Street and in the Banks may have advanced just one financial asset bubble too far.  

Have a pleasant evening.