Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Weighed, and Found Wanting

 

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’ 

Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” 

Matthew 25:41-46

 

“Now go and learn what this Scripture means: ‘I want kindness and mercy, and not sacrifices." 

Matthew 9:13 

 

"Those who have strong interests one way or the other, cannot be dispassionate observers and candid judges.  They are partisans; they defend one set of people, and attack another.  They are prejudiced against those who differ from them, or who thwart them.  They cannot make allowances, or show sympathy for them."

John Henry Newman

 

"Forgiveness is a moral decision to see the other person’s worth, let go of anger, and offer compassion, benevolence, and love toward the offender." 

Robert D. Enright

 

"Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made.  As a result, they have no excuse; for although they knew God they did not accord him glory as God or give him thanks.  Instead, they became proud in their reasoning, and their senseless minds were darkened." 

Romans 1:20-21

 

The spokesmodels were all smiles on the open, as another dramatic overnight plunge in the futures markets was seemingly reversed, and brought back to nearly unchanged.

But alas, the markets had an epiphany of sorts.  

And the perception of risk and its implications came home to roost, with a vengeance.

Stocks reversed again, and started falling in that most deadly sort of bearish dance, a controlled, orderly descent.

We may see more volatility and downside, until we reach some sort of denouement, and perhaps a capitulation.

Remember the pattern:  we have a blow off top, with several failed rallies at lower highs.

Gold and the Dollar were the safe havens of choice.

 Gold managed to take and hold $2,000. 

Who could have seen it coming?

Despite an early spike higher, silver gave up much of its gains as it was pulled down in the relentless equity selling.

Unfortunately silver has a correlation to equities in addition to its character as a precious metal.

Bitcoin, aka digital gold, declined again. 

Crypto has a correlation to pokemon cards.

There are some potential implications on the physical gold supply in London, given the potential blocking or Russian refiners.

Oil is rocketing.   And in the US probably excessively so.

And so are the prices at the pump, as the gas monopolies are looking to cash in quickly and establish a pattern of price inflation.

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

Have a pleasant evening.

 

 

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Seeking Safe Harbors

 

"But, what creates the most intense surprise,
His soul looks out through renovated eyes."

John Keats, Ode to Apollo
 

"Our little systems have their day;
They have their day and cease to be:
They are but broken lights of thee,
And thou, O Lord, art more than they."

Alfred Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam

“Many politicians are tantalizing storytellers, as they mix facts with fiction, grab our emotion and tell things they want us to believe.  Their factoids are unremittingly reiterated, take a life on their own, and in the end become the very truth— until the bubble bursts." 

Erik Pevernagie

 

"When humanity, subjugated by the terror of crime, has been driven mad by fear and horror, and when chaos has become the supreme law, then the time for the empire of lawlessness will have come." 

Friedrich Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse

 

"Some day an absolutely correct verdict—if you like, a perfect critique—will be passed on what each of us is.   We shall not only believe, we shall know, beyond doubt in every fibre of our appalled or delighted being, that as the Judge has said, so we are: neither more nor less nor other.  We shall perhaps even realize that in some dim fashion we could have known it all along.  The unanswerable and (by then) self-evident truth about each will be known to all." 

C. S. Lewis, The World's Last Night

The Jobs Report came in hot today. 

This seemed to provoke more of a lean to a Fed tightening down further on their asset purchases, and also raising rates, as early as this month. 

Stocks took another dive lower, and managed only a small bounce off the lows for the close.

The war in the Ukraine continues to unsettle markets, and pierce the Panglossian bubble of risk mispricing.

Gold, silver, and the Dollar continued to power higher in a flight to safety.

Bitcoin continues to wallow.  

Year to date 'digital gold' compares with the Nasdaq 100, while the 'pet rocks' are performing like safe harbors.

Let's see if gold and silver can hold their breakouts.

Have a pleasant weekend.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Repentance, Forgiveness, Thankfulness - Non-Farm Payrolls Tomorrow

 

“People with advantages are loathe to believe that they just happen to be people with advantages. They come readily to define themselves as inherently worthy of what they possess; they come to believe themselves 'naturally' elite; and, in fact, to imagine their possessions and their privileges as natural extensions of their own elite selves.”

C. Wright Mills

 

"They have become foolish in their reasoning, and their senseless minds are darkened." 

Romans 1:21 

"All sin, indeed, when repented of, He will put away; but pride hardens the heart against repentance, and sensuality debases it to a brutal nature." 

John Henry Newman

"What will you do on the day of reckoning, and in the time of desolation which follows? To whom will you flee for relief?  Where will you safeguard your riches?" 

 Isaiah 10:3

 

"God has a way of standing before the nations with justice, and it seems I can hear God saying to America 'you are too arrogant.  And if you don't change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power, and I will place it in the hands of a nation that doesn't even know my name.  Be still and know that I'm God.'"

Martin Luther King

 

Wash, rinse, rotate.

Stocks once again failed to extend their snapback rally, and fell lower again today.

The VIX remains in the 30's.

Gold and silver and the Dollar advanced modestly.

There will be a Non-Farm Payrolls report on Friday.

After two failed rally attempts from a decline off a blow off top, the burden of proof is firmly on the bulls.

Until they can turn this around, the primary trend for stocks has a downward bias.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Ashes - This Attractive But Deceitful World

 

"Again, the devil took Him up to a high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendors,  and said, 'All these things I  will give you, if you will only fall down and give homage to me.' "

Matthew 4:8-9

 

"Turn to me now, while there is time.  Give me your hearts.  Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Don’t tear your clothing in your grief, but tear open your hearts instead."

Joel 2: 12

 

"Give up yourself, and you will find your real self.  Lose your life and you will save it.  Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and the death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life.  

Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay.  But look for Christ and you will find him, and with him everything else."

C. S. Lewis

 

“I imagine Lent as a great departure from the greedy, anxious anti-neighborliness of our economy, a great departure from our exclusionary politics that fears the other, a great departure from self-indulgent consumerism that devours creation. 

You will find verification that God’s promises are kept among the daily performances of the trusting ones who live out their trust in ways that the world terms foolish:  in the acceptance of those who are unacceptable; in the commitment of time to neighbors when we prefer to have that time for ourselves; in the telling of hard truth about the world, and that in a culture of denial; in the slant toward justice and peacemaking in a world that loves violence and exploitation too much. 

Gathering God, draw us out beyond our cramped circles of care.  Draw us toward the neighbor, the other, the outsider, the hurting one.  May we practice compassion.  Amen.” 

Walter Brueggemann

 

It was risk on today.

Wash, rinse, rotate.

Stocks were buoyed by Jay Powell's testimony to the Congress.

Powell punch for everyone.

Gold, silver, and the Dollar as safe havens were off a bit.

All eyes are on the Ukraine, and the Non-Farm Payrolls report on Friday.

Have a pleasant evening.