Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Storm Warnings - Silver and Stocks Soar

 

“All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.” 

Frank Herbert, Chapterhouse: Dune 

 

“He did not care for the lying at first.  He hated it.  Then later he had come to like it.  It was part of being an insider, but it was a very corrupting business.” 

Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls 

 

“I know not why any one but a schoolboy in his declamation should whine over the Commonwealth of Rome, which grew great only by the misery of the rest of mankind.  The Romans, like others, as soon as they grew rich, grew corrupt; and in their corruption sold the lives and freedoms of themselves, and of one another.” 

Samuel Johnson

 

Silver exploded higher in the overnight, but did give back a chunk of it as the day wore on. 

Still, the metal was up sharply on the day and managed to hold the 29 handle on the close. 

Gold also closed higher, but not nearly as impressive. 

Stocks turned around their early losses and managed to finish quite a bit higher, taking back much of their losses from late last week. 

The dollar moved higher as well and took back the 91 handle. 

Pushing silver higher from the retail side, as presumably had been done with some relatively small stocks that had been heavily shorted by a few hedge funds, is going to be quite a challenge.

Hedge funds are one thing.  Global bullion banks with direct pipelines to Fed cash are another.

And unlike a stock, which although it may suffer from naked shorting of a sort, a monetary metal like gold and silver is a relatively more opaque market, with leverage of 100 to 1 of paper to metal not all that uncommon.

It may be possible, but only with the cooperation of some major bullion banks, and the passive acceptance of such an effort by the central banks.  And they often act in concert with one another.

But these are strange times indeed.  Let's see what happens.

We were hammered by a major snowstorm overnight and today, and it looks to continue until tomorrow morning with blizzard like winds driving drifts as the nor'easter passes up the coast.  

We have about two feet on the ground, but the drifts of this light snow in high winds is very impressive.  The drifts that cover the cars are elegant.

 I am grateful that we have not lost power, and are well supplied and content to remain at home with loved ones.   But mostly Dolly.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Silber über Alles - As January Goes...

"As January goes, so goes the rest of the year." 

Yale Hirsch, The Stock Trader's Almanac 

 

“As we view the achievements of aggregated capital, we discover the existence of trusts, combinations, and monopolies, while the citizen is struggling far in the rear or is trampled to death beneath an iron heel.” 

Grover Cleveland (about that other gilded age)

 

"Over the last thirty years, the United States has been taken over by an amoral financial oligarchy, and the American dream of opportunity, education, and upward mobility is now largely confined to the top few percent of the population.  

Federal policy is increasingly dictated by the wealthy, by the financial sector, and by powerful (though sometimes badly mismanaged) industries.  These policies are implemented and praised by these groups’ willing servants, namely the increasingly bought-and-paid-for leadership of America’s political parties, academia, and lobbying industry. 

If allowed to continue, this process will turn the United States into a declining, unfair society with an impoverished, angry, uneducated population under the control of a small, ultrawealthy elite.  Such a society would be not only immoral but also eventually unstable, dangerously ripe for religious and political extremism."

Charles Ferguson, Predator Nation, 2012

 

And it is.

So we bid a fond farewell to January. 

Year to Date it looks like stocks are about unchanged to slightly negative. 

Gold popped this morning, but was steadily worn down during the day to finished unchanged. 

But the mighty, mighty silver held on to its gains and finished the month a bit ahead of the pack. 

And that is not counting some of the miners who are finding a boost with the investing public, as it were. 

As a reminder only the Wall Street Banks and insiders are allowed to manipulate prices for their advantage, so take note, all you Redditor upstarts and retail peons.

And that goes double for monetary policy, and the subsequent asset bubbles it may evoke, which is formulated to transfer wealth to the top from everyone else, don't ya know.

RHIP

It looks like a nor'easter will be tearing through the tri-state area on Monday. 

Don't forget to feed God's lesser creatures. and perhaps share a kind word and a good deed with one of those who are created in His image, just like you.

Have a pleasant weekend. 

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Silver Shines as the Too Often Naked Shorts Run for the Exits

"Democracy is held captive, not just by money, but by ideas — the ideas that money buys." 

William Greider

 

"A multibillion-dollar bailout and Wall Street’s swift, subsequent reinstatement of gargantuan bonuses have inspired a narrative of parasitic bankers and other elites rigging the game for their own benefit. And this, in turn, has led to wider—and not unreasonable—fears that we are living in not merely a plutonomy, but a plutocracy, in which the rich display outsize political influence, narrowly self-interested motives, and a casual indifference to anyone outside their own rarefied economic bubble."

Chrystia Freeland, The Rise of the New Global Elite, January 2011 

 

"They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest.  Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection."

Henry Wallace, 9 April 1944

 

"Our future could be one in which continued tumult feeds the looting of the financial system, and we talk more and more about exactly how our oligarchs became bandits and how the economy just can’t seem to get into gear.  Recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform.  And if we are to prevent a true depression, we’re running out of time." 

Simon Johnson, The Quiet Coup, May 2009

 

Silver exploded higher today.

The capping on gold continued.

It too will fail as all long term price manipulation schemes do..

Stocks look wobbly.

I took quite a bit of profit and risks off the table today.

Have a pleasant evening. 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Better Call Powell - Bad Day for Stocks

 

“We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade, the presence of God.  The world is crowded with him. He walks everywhere incognito."

C. S. Lewis

 

"I am so resplendent in my creation that in order not to see me these poor people would have to be blind." 

Charles Péguy, Le Porche du Mystère de la Deuxième Vertu

 

"Our faith is stronger than death, our philosophy is firmer than flesh, and the spread of the Kingdom of God upon the earth is more sublime and more compelling.  

The greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us?" 

Dorothy Day

 

Most stocks that have some connection to reality were hammered lower today. 

This is bubble action. when the selling starts in earnest, almost everything gets sold. 

And despite the elevated perception of risk, as clearly shown by the VIX, the mineres were sold heavily as well. 

Let's see how the rest of the week goes. 

Thanks to my friend Tony S for the 'Better Call Powell' idea.

Have a pleasant evening.