Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Here Comes Santa Claus - Paint the Tape

 

"Sorrowful will be those who draw out evil with cords of deceit,
And with ropes pull a legacy of sinfulness behind them.
Who say, 'Let the Lord make haste, and bring His judgement that we may see it.
Let the end times come, that we may know them.'

Sorrows will fill those who call evil good, and good, evil,
Who promote darkness as light, and call light as darkness,
And the bitter as sweet, and the sweet, bitter.
Woe to you who are so wise in your own eyes,
And clever in your own sight."

Isaiah 5:18-21

 

"Those who are at present so eager to be reconciled with the world at any price must take care not to be reconciled with it under this particular aspect: as the nest of The Unspeakable.  This is what too few are willing to see." 

Thomas Merton 

"And because of the increase in wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. But those who stand firm to the end, will be saved." 

 Matthew 24:12

 

 Stocks were steadily drifting higher on light volumes.

Barring some exogenous event, this is how they like to paint the tape for the end of year.

If the specs start leaning too hard on the melt up we might see a wash and rinse, after we see the big houses close their books.   

Or before.   It's always something.

The Dollar chopped sideways on the 96 handle.

Gold and silver were higher.

VIX of course dropped.

Underneath the markets, a simmering volcano.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

 

Christmas Eve

 

"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them a light has shined." 

Is 9:1 

 

"And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were stricken with fear. And the angel said to them, 'Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be for all people. For this day in the city of David there is born to you a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 

And this shall be a sign; you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger.' And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace toward men of good will." 

 Lk 2:9-14 

 

“You are fettered,” said Scrooge, trembling. “Tell me why?” 

“I wear the chain I forged in life,” replied the Ghost. “I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it. Is its pattern strange to you?” Scrooge trembled more and more. “Or would you know,” pursued the Ghost, “the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself? It was full as heavy and as long as this, seven Christmas Eves ago. You have laboured on it, since. It is a ponderous chain!..." 

“But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,' faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself. 

Business!' cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The deals of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!” 

Charles Dickens,  A Christmas Carol

 

“We are slow to master the great truth that even now Christ is, as it were, walking among us, and by His hand, or eye, or voice, bidding us to follow Him.  We do not understand that His call is a thing that takes place now.  We think it took place in the Apostles' days, but we do not believe in it; we do not look for it in our own case."

John Henry Newman

 

"The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

John 1:5 

 

"Do not fear, for I have redeemed you,
I have called you by name;  you are mine."

Isaiah 43:1 

"They will be moved, to the sound of beautiful music, at Jesus’s sufferings, but His Cross, the reality of His Cross, will horrify them.  They want it all out of gold, bathed in light, costly and of little weight; pleasant to see, hanging from a woman’s beautiful throat. 

In the end, the only real tragedy is not to be a saint." 

Léon Bloy

 

 ... à vous tous, et spécialement à tous mes amis de la Cène de l'Agneau, et du sang de l'alliance nouvelle et éternelle, qui a été répandu pour vous et pour la multitude— joyeux et béni noël.

 

  

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Blessed Are Those Called to the Supper of the Lamb

 

"In the beginning was the Word,
    and the Word was with God,
    and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came to be through him,
    and without him nothing came to be.
What came to be through him was life,
    and this life was the light of the human race;
    the light shines in the darkness,
    and the darkness has not overcome it."

John 1:1-5

"Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." 

John 1:29 

 

“And in the Incarnation the whole human race recovers the dignity of the image of God. Henceforth any attack, even on the least of men, is an attack on Christ, who took the form of man, and in his own Person restored the image of God in all that bears a human form.

Through fellowship and communion with the Incarnate Lord, we recover our true humanity, and at the same time we are delivered from that perverse individualism which is the consequence of sin, and retrieve our solidarity with the whole human race.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

 

The unsustainable will not be sustained.  It ends in flamboyant deceits, and a spectacle of vulgarities.

The US markets will be closed tomorrow in observance of Christmas eve.

God bless us, everyone.

 

 

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - And They Would Be As Gods

 

“Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." 

Aleister Crowley 

 

“Religion used to be the opium of the people. But now we are witnessing a transformation: a true opium of the people is the belief in nothingness after death, the huge solace, the huge comfort of thinking that for our betrayals, our greed, our cowardice, our murders, that we are not going to be judged.” 

Czeslaw Milosz, The Discreet Charm of Nihilism 

 

"Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus.  ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’  And Jesus said to him, ‘What is written in the law?  What do you read there?’ And the lawyer answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.’ 

But wanting to justify himself, the lawyer asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’

 As you know, this passage above is the introduction to one of the greatest and most memorable of the parables from our Lord's own lips, that story of The Good Samaritan.   And the introductory passage itself is therefore sometimes overlooked, but it ought not to be. 'Do this, and you will live.'

It might be better to never have had any knowledge of His word and His commandments than to hear His words and His most solemn commandments, and then hypocritically parade in them and His sacraments, as a call to hatefulness, pride, division, self-justification, and oppression of others.  This is the leaven of the Pharisees, and a sin against the Spirit, about which our Lord himself warned when He walked on this earth.

We are a generation made drunk with power and a perverse individualism, that has been foretold for increasingly dark times.  Do not worry so much about the wealth you may gather up on this earth, so that you forget the only real and enduring possessions you may take with you to the next.   Examine your own actions and thoughts and behaviors first and foremost.  For you will not be called upon to answer for what others do, but what you have done. 

May God have mercy on any who provide provocation and false teachings to others, and scandalous example to their brothers and sisters, children and grandchildren, especially because of their willful selfishness, stubborn greed, and foolish pride.

Jesse, 19 January 2015

 

No risk, no consequences, for anything.

That was the theme of the US markets today.

Stocks were higher, and went out near their highs.

Gold and silver rallied back from their recent suppression.

The Dollar slid back down to the 96 handle.

VIX dropped to the bottom of its moving averages.

Have a pleasant evening.