Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Risk On - Among the Lowest Trading Volumes of the Year

"It is possible to make people contented with their servitude.  I think this can be done. I think it has been done in the past.  I think it could be done even more effectively now because you can provide them with bread and circuses and you can provide them with endless amounts of distractions and propaganda.

Aldous Huxley


"The purpose of bread and circuses is, as Neil Postman said in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death, to distract, to divert emotional energy towards the absurd and the trivial and the spectacle while you are ruthlessly stripped of power."

Chris Hedges


"Two things only the people actually desire now— bread and circuses."

Juvenal

Stocks were in melt up mode, especially after Europe went home for the weekend, and the denizens of Wall Street had the playground to themselves.

As you might expect most of the gains were centered on five stocks, the usual 'story stocks.'

Gold was off a bit with the Dollar in keeping with risk on.

But silver managed to pull back and close over the 19 handle. Good job.

We are enjoying a tropical rainstorm today. The winds are not bad at all, but the rain is rather intense at times.

Good. We needed it. The lawns were being baked into bricks.

During a 'mystery visit' at Walter Reed hospital Trumpolini passed a 'cognitive test' and boasted about it on Fox News.

Maybe this is the kind of simple verbal test for early dementia and strokes that doctors give to most of the elderly patients during routine visits. You know, like what year is it, the date, draw the hands on a clock, who is president. Very reassuring that he passed, which according to Trump apparently surprised and amazed the doctors. Congrats Donnie.

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

Have a pleasant weekend.

"I hope I am over wary; but if I am not, there is, even now, something of ill-omen, amongst us.  I mean the increasing disregard for law which pervades the country; the growing disposition to substitute the wild and furious passions, in lieu of the sober judgment of Courts; and the worse than savage mobs, for the executive ministers of justice.  This disposition is awfully fearful in any community; and that it now exists in ours, though grating to our feelings to admit, it would be a violation of truth, and an insult to our intelligence, to deny. Accounts of outrages committed by mobs, form the every-day news of the times.

At what point shall we expect the approach of danger?  By what means shall we fortify against it?-- Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow?  Never!--All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."

Abraham Lincoln, Lyceum Address, January 27, 1838

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Respite

“The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike,
The devil will come, and Faustus must be damned...
Mountains and hills, come, come, and fall on me,
And hide me from the heavy wrath of God!”

Christopher Marlowe, The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus


"The Fates are just: they give us but our own;
Nemesis ripens what our hands have sown."

John Greenleaf Whittier

Stocks managed to hold on today.

They are tired after this spectacular speculative run higher.

They could be consolidating, and absent any kind of event to call the bull mania into question, could move higher.

Gold and silver pulled back a back in their own consolidation, and the Dollar edged higher.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - I Hear the Rolling Thunder - Where Are We Going From Here

"When the person at the top is malignant and self-serving, unethical behavior cascades through the organization and becomes legitimized.

Narcissists change the companies or countries they lead, much like bad money drives out good, and those changes can outlast their own tenure, O’Reilly says.  Divergent voices are silenced, flattery and servility are rewarded, and cynicism and apathy corrode any sense of shared purpose in a culture where everyone’s out for themselves.  In the extreme, they can destroy the institution itself.

But the gravest danger posed by such leaders is that their malignant influence guides the behavior and expectations of others — and ultimately shapes the culture of the organization or polity in their own image. Studies of businesses show that self-serving, unethical behavior at the top cascades through the organization and becomes legitimized, or at least normalized.

“Once they’re in power, narcissists consolidate their position by firing everyone who challenges them,” O’Reilly says.  In their place rise a plague of toadies, opportunists, and enablers equally guided by self-interest and short on scruples. 'So you end up with these individualistic cultures with no teamwork and low integrity. We’ve documented this in a bunch of Silicon Valley tech firms.'”

Lee Simmons, Stanford Business, How Narcissistic Leaders Destroy From Within

Stocks managed to turn things around and provoke a risk on day, led by big cap techs of course.

The dollar moved lower. The US is making noises about breaking the Hong Kong peg to the US dollar 'to punish China.'

LOL

Gold moved higher and hit $1830 before giving way to some profit taking.

Silver was the big news as it finally cracked $19 and held it.

Let's see if it can hold that 19 handle.

Thunderstorms have been rolling across the northeastern US for a week now.

It is a natural outcome of the hot and steamy July weather.

And in another sign of summer, the local NJ sweet corn has made its debut at our local farm stand.

It seems likely that Trumpolini will not be elected to another term.  Our national masochism and gullibility does seem to have its bounds.

But it is hard to be optimistic, since the orange one is but a manifestation of the general tone in leadership, and the general lack of character of our elites.

Better spoken certainly, seemingly more empathetic, and certainly not so obvious.

Still, the corruption runs deep.  And the old guard from both sides has been thriving in this corrupt system long enough to be thoroughly rotten to the core.

But what is that to us, in the greater scheme of things.  The only real tragedy is to fall in with them, to be led astray, and when judgement comes, not to be a saint.

Need little, want less, love more.

For those who abide in love, abide in God, and God in them.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Brace for Impact - Gradually and Then Suddenly

"All will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word that they have spoken.  For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned."

Matthew 12:37


"The problem with movies and books is they make evil look glamorous, exciting, when it's no such thing. It's boring and it's depressing and it's stupid. Criminals are all after cheap thrills and easy money, and when they get them, all they want is more of the same, over and over."

Dean Koontz


“Crime, once exposed, has no refuge but in audacity.”

Tacitus


“Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating. Everything beautiful has a mark of eternity.”

Simone Weil


"To be fearless and proud and alone.  To need no one.  All for the Fatherland.  Now only the reality reigns, cruel and large. I was drunk with this dream. (sobs) Now this emptiness is the reality."

Werner, Das Boot

Justice is coming.  And hell is coming with it.

As you may recall gold broke out of its chart formation at 1770, and then successfully retested that breakout level several times to the downside.

Now it has taken out the psychologically important 'round number' at 1800 which some of the players were watching.

As long as it holds the breakout, the nearer term target is 1860.

I won't speculate on longer term targets, but they are well in excess of the previous all time highs.

Silver is following along, but needs to take out 19 on its own chart.

Stocks were giving back some of the recent melt up rally.

The SP500 is giving a screaming non-confirmation of the new bubble high in the NDX. The new era valuations in big cap tech are approaching insane levels.

Picking an exact time for a big slide in a financial asset bubble.

But when it does come, this one is going to leave a mark.

Have a pleasant evening.