Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Risk On!

Today was one of those 'risk on' days when the punters on Wall Street decide that there are blue skies ahead.

Gold and silver were off a bit, and the Dollar bounced a little higher off the recent low.

Tropical Storm Isaias is due to rip through here tomorrow, so I was taking the usual precautions for one of these late summer storms coming up the coast.

This one looks to be a proper nor'easter, with 60 mph winds and 4-6" of rain.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Crazy Train All Aboard

Gold and silver moved higher today, along with the Dollar which gained back a little of yesterday's loss.

Stocks came in much lower this morning.

And I was carrying an overnight short in the small caps, which I covered before I left around lunchtime.

Stocks managed to drift higher, to finish up on the cash market and almost unchanged in the futures after a big after hours pop last night.

Next week is August and with that comes the Non-Farm Payrolls Report for July.

The 'risk on' attitude for today seems like bravado.

Eyes are on Washington and the expiration of the unemployment benefit kick.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Thurston Powell III - The FANGs Report After the Bell

"But, outside the realm of business, these men are stupid.  They know only business.  They do not know mankind nor society, and yet they set themselves up as arbiters of the fates of the hungry millions and all the other millions thrown in...

You are anarchists in the realm of thought.  And you are mad cosmos-makers.  Each of you dwells in a cosmos of his own making, created out of his own fancies and desires.  You do not know the real world in which you live, and your thinking has no place in the real world except in so far as it is phenomena of mental aberration.

We know, and well we know by bitter experience, that no appeal for the right, for justice, for humanity, can ever touch you.”

Jack London, The Iron Heel


"I willingly believe that the damned are, in one sense, successful, rebels to the end;  that the doors of hell are locked on the inside.   I do not mean that they may not wish to come out of hell, but they certainly do not will even the first preliminary stages of that self-abandonment through which alone the soul can reach any good. 

They enjoy forever the horrible freedom they have demanded, and are therefore self-enslaved: just as the blessed, forever submitting to obedience, become through all eternity more and more free."

C. S. Lewis

Alphabet, Amazon, Apple and Facebook are reporting earnings after the bell.

All of them are beating estimates of course.

AAPL has announced a 4 for 1 stock split.

Gold and silver were off a bit today, and the Dollar slumped lower, falling into the 92 bucket.

Stocks were weak on the overnight.

I took profits on an overnight short position in the first hour of trading. And that proved to be a good move, as stocks tended to drift higher during most of the day.

Google Blogger has changed the interface with which I create these blog postings.  And it no surprise that it offers no advantages or advanced features, and makes it much more difficult to do what one normally does.   It is like they went out of their way to throw away useful capabilities and dumb down the platform.   And of course there is no way of offering feedback.  And none has been solicited.

Very disappointing and annoying to say the least.  Not what we have come to expect.

Well, at least the price is right, so I suppose it would be very ungrateful to complain about it.

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 - FOMC Does Uber-Dovish as Desired

The Fed came through with their 'uber-dovish' FOMC statement, for which Wall Street wiseguys were yearning.

And it wasn't because the economy is just that good.

The tech weenies gave their testimony about monopoly and competition to the House today.

The SP 500 and the Russell 2000 were pulling the weight today, although a few of the big name techs were leading the way higher as well.

Gold and silver managed to move a little higher again today.

The dollar moved lower, towards the 93 level. How low can it go?  I should update my longer term DX dollar chart.

One of the talking heads on Bloomberg referred to gold today as an 'unreliable boyfriend' among risk aversion assets.

And further, that it is vulnerable to a return to normalcy in interest rate yields from a robust economic recovery.

So don't bother with gold if you want a safe and stable haven from economic craziness.

As if.  And my garden is vulnerable to a meteor strike

I think is almost the very definition of a alternative safe haven.

I seem to recall that financial legend Bernard Baruch once said, "Gold has 'worked' down from Alexander's time.  When something holds good for two thousand years I do not believe it can be so because of prejudice or mistaken theory."

With the current crew of financiers and politicians in charge, I think we can find some comfort in taking a lesson from history, as most of the central banks in the rest of the world have done.

Have a pleasant evening.