Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Markets Reverse on 'Breakthrough' in US-China Trade

Yet another breakthrough in the ongoing trade dispute with China.

It certainly was a nice suprise for the markets, especially for those who knew about it in advance.

UK election coverage starts at 5 PM here after the voting stations close. Very sensible.

The exit polls there are indicating a Tory majority, which indicates for Brexit sooner rather than later.

That should be interesting to watch.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Fed at Ease - Dollar Down, Metals Up

"Neoliberalism sees competition as the defining characteristic of human relations. It redefines citizens as consumers, whose democratic choices are best exercised by buying and selling, a process that rewards merit and punishes inefficiency. It maintains that “the market” delivers benefits that could never be achieved by planning.

We internalise and reproduce its creeds. The rich persuade themselves that they acquired their wealth through merit, ignoring the advantages – such as education, inheritance and class – that may have helped to secure it. The poor begin to blame themselves for their failures, even when they can do little to change their circumstances.

It has played a major role in a remarkable variety of crises: the financial meltdown of 2007‑8, the offshoring of wealth and power, of which the Panama Papers offer us merely a glimpse, the slow collapse of public health and education, resurgent child poverty, the epidemic of loneliness, the collapse of ecosystems, the rise of Donald Trump. But we respond to these crises as if they emerge in isolation, apparently unaware that they have all been either catalysed or exacerbated by the same coherent philosophy; a philosophy that has – or had – a name. What greater power can there be than to operate namelessly?"

George Monbiot


"Over the past few years, in this Committee, we have seen the Trump Administration dismantle many of the protections we put in place after the last financial crisis, putting our financial system and hardworking families around the country at risk.  The SEC has flown under the radar, but often the agenda has been the same – taking Wall Street’s side over and over, instead of standing with investors saving for retirement or college or a down payment."

US Senator Sherrod Brown, Oversight Hearing of the SEC, 10 December 2019

The Fed did nothing as expected today.

And the indications are that they will continue to do nothing for some time, unless their hand is forced by some exogenous event in the world, or some systemic misadventure with the mispricing of risk.

As I have indicated, the Fed now has a 'high bar' for raising rates. And lowering them will just fuel the asset bubble.
So gold and silver caught a bid, while the Dollar dived.

Stocks finished up a little higher, but seem to be struggling at these levels despite the enormous amount of liquidity being put into the hands of Wall Street by the Fed.

And so now the eyes of the markets now turn to the UK general election, and even moreso to the 'trade war' and the deadline for tariff increases on this coming Sunday.

I have a feeling that things are going to become quite a bit worse before they can get better. The general strike in France, and civil unrest in other parts of the world, is just a taste of things to come.

We are afflicted by some social and economic theories that are quite mad, and rather destructive.   And as Yeats noted, 'the best seem to lack all conviction, while the worst are filled with passionate intensity.'   And willful madness, in some circles at the fringes, has become fashionable.

This too shall pass. Pride always struggles with the humility of creation, and seeks to destory it as it destroys itself. It cannot win of course, because that victory has already been won by the most human and most humble of all His creation.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Waiting for the Fed in a Lackluster Trading Day

"Progress is a nice word.  But change is its motivator.  And change has its enemies.”

Robert F. Kennedy

Stocks remained largely unchanged in a weak trade with a deceptively wide trading range.

The Dollar was lower while gold and silver moved higher.

I think it is fair to say that the markets are waiting to see how something unfolds.

I suspect that the FOMC tomorrow is the first shoe to drop, if only to confirm that the Fed is going to be on hold with a high bar for increases.

The UK general election will be the next, followed by the anticipated action on tariffs with China this weekend.

Let's see what happens.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stille Nacht

"Let the children have their night of fun and laughter. Let the gifts of Father Christmas delight their play. Let us grown-ups share to the full in their unstinted pleasures before we turn again to the stern task and the formidable years that lie before us, resolved that, by our sacrifice and daring, these same children shall not be robbed of their inheritance or denied their right to live in a free and decent world. And so, in God’s mercy, a happy Christmas to you all."

Winston Churchill, Christmas radio address, December 1941


"Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings."

William Arthur Ward

Music and a thought on a rainy, dreary day, with a good book, a crackling fireplace, and a gently snoring little Dolly.

Although I had written this below in happier times, not knowing what the future would bring, I nevertheless find comfort in it now as then, understand it more fully, and hold it ever more dearly in my heart.

Christmas is more than a time of joy and gift-giving and receiving presents. It is a time to recall our blessings and to gain strength in the grace and bosom of our families.

And above all it is a time to remember that greatest, almost incomprehensible gift in all history, how our Lord made himself as us, and as we are of him, and came to us in the flesh, the incarnation of selfless love.

And thereby those of us who are no longer present in body at the Christmas hearth may still be there in spirit with us, as we will some day be with them. Not bound up in crippling self-pity, not immobilized by faceless fear, not fleeting as a merely morose remembrance, but to be there vitally in our lives as our good angels, reminding us that the Christmas spirit is to be found in 'active usefulness, perseverance, cheerful discharge of duty, kindness and forbearance.' This is how we may not only honor and cherish their memory, but actually live again in love with them.

What greater gift could we possibly desire to receive, than the ability to do good, to persevere in love, and to thereby live in the love of those for whom we care and who care for us, always? That gift is there, if only we will not shut the door of our hearts, and be open to it. It is not always easy, because love is too often clumsy, and turns back on us when we serve it out of selfish expectations. But if we serve it in its true Christmas spirit, for the right reasons, then it will light a fire in our hearts.

In the end this is the only real tragedy, when out of fear mostly, or pride, or feelings of disappointment we harden our hearts, and destroy our selves while thinking to preserve them, pinned to boards like dead specimens in our own dark rooms of selfishness, unrecalled at the hearths of even friends and family.

Christmas is a time of life, remembrance, forgiveness, tolerance, and love. And so may God bless us, everyone!

Jesse, 16 December 2015