Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Dog That Did Not Bark

 

"Satan’s monomaniac concern with himself and his supposed rights and wrongs is a necessity of the Satanic predicament.  Certainly, he has no choice.  He has chosen to have no choice.  He has wished to ‘be himself,’ and to be in himself and for himself, and his wish has been granted.  To admire Satan, then, is to give one’s vote not only for a world of misery, but also for a world of lies and propaganda, of wishful thinking, of incessant autobiography."

C. S. Lewis


"These are suitable feelings towards this attractive but deceitful world.  What have we to do with its gifts and honours, who, having been already baptized into the world to come, are no longer citizens of this?  Why should we be anxious for a long life, or wealth, or credit, or comfort, who know that the next world will be every thing which our hearts can wish, and that not in appearance only, but truly and everlastingly?  Why should we rest in this world, when it is the token and promise of another?   Why should we be content with its surface, instead of appropriating what is stored beneath it?

To those who live by faith, every thing they see speaks of that future world; the very glories of nature, the sun, moon, and stars, and the richness and the beauty of the earth, are as types and figures witnessing and teaching the invisible things of God.  All that we see is destined one day to burst forth into a heavenly bloom, and to be transfigured into immortal glory.  Heaven at present is out of sight, but in due time, as snow melts and discovers what it lay upon, so will this visible creation fade away before those greater splendours which are behind it, and on which at present it depends.  In that day shadows will retire, and the substance show itself."

John Henry Newman 

"The Lord is my light and my salvation –
     whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the refuge of my life –
     of whom shall I be afraid?

I believe still that I will see the goodness of the Lord
     in the land of the living!
Wait for the Lord;
    be strong, and let your heart take courage;
Yes, wait upon the Lord."

Psalm 27

Stocks came in with another overnight attempt at rallying higher.

And once again it faded away during the daylight trading, and stocks were lower.

The Dollar rallied back to 99 and the VIX was higher.

So it was clearly 'risk off' most likely about concerns with the Ukraine, although there is some influence from the Fed meeting and likely 25 bp rate increase this week.

What was curious is that gold and silver both diverged significantly from their risk off partner assets.

Maybe it was in sympathy with commodities in general, and maybe it was something else.

I did see the miners taking it on the chin especially, although there was a significant easing up on the downward pressure in the late afternoon.

I have marked the 50% Fibonacci retracement level on the chart for gold.   You may take note of it. 

This is where the price closed today, after flirting with it previously.

Let's remember what all is occurring this week, including the FOMC meeting Wednesday and a stock option expiration on Friday.

I have pretty much stopped watching the news, and even bubblevision.

I think that all is not as it seems, in a number of areas, where that which cannot be sustained has been extended again and again by lies and various deceptions.

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

Tacitus

Nominations are being entertained for the position(s) of designated scapegoat.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Idols and Images, Exhaustion and Despair - The Market as God

 

“Every idol, however exalted, turns out, in the long run, to be a Moloch, hungry for human sacrifice.”

 Aldous Huxley, The Devils of Loudon

 

"All of the traditional religions teach that human beings are finite creatures and that there are limits to any earthly enterprise.  A Japanese Zen master once said to his disciples as he was dying, 'I have learned only one thing in life: how much is enough.'  He would find no niche in the chapel of The Market, for whom the First Commandment is 'There is never enough.' Like the proverbial shark that stops moving, The Market that stops expanding dies.  That could happen."

Harvey Cox, The Market As God

 

"A society that narrows the meaning of 'success' to the big money, and in its terms condemns failure as the chief vice, raising money to the plane of absolute value, will produce the sharp operator and the shady deal." 

C. Wright Mills

“Possibly the most devastating realization of all is when the real God shows up, and in the showing up all of this comes crashing down.” 

Craig D. Lounsbrough

 

Stocks were coming in higher this morning, and gold and silver were smacked down.

And voila, all of this reversed by the end of the day.

What a surprise.

The Dollar, VIX, gold and silver moved higher.

Stocks went out near the lows.

Bitcoin fell, even as the spokesmodels cheered its performance and durability in the morning vis a vis gold. 

Let's see what happens geopolitically over the weekend.

Options expiration for stock indices next Friday.

See you next week.

 

 

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - A Gathering of Vultures

 

"Whoever shuts their ears to the cry of the poor
       will also cry out and not be answered."

Proverbs 21:13


"When you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind.   And then blessed indeed will you be because they are not able to repay you.  For there will be a repayment for you at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Luke 14:13-14

"If anyone has sufficient worldly goods, and upon seeing a fellow in need, closes their hearts against them, how does the love of God abide in them?  Little children, let us love not in words and speeches, but in action and in the truth. And in this way we will know that we are of the truth, and our conscience will be at peace in Him."

1 John 3:16-19

 

“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

“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” 

Voltaire

 

“Each day we are becoming a creature of splendid glory, or one of unthinkable horror.”

C. S. Lewis

 

Stocks fell back a bit from yesterday's Jäyger Bomb short squeeze deluxe.

Gold, silver and the Dollar all bounced back higher respectively.

VIX fell, but remains elevated.

Let's see how this goes into the weekend.

The eastern US is expecting snow bomb cyclone this weekend. 

As usual the rain-snow line will be the wild card.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Wash and Rinse Deluxe - Markets in Reversals

 

“Those who are capable of tyranny are capable of perjury to sustain it.”

Lysander Spooner

 

"The American fascist would prefer not to use violence.  His method is to poison the channels of public information.  With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power.  We must not tolerate oppressive government or industrial oligarchy in the form of monopolies and cartels.”

Henry Wallace

“The point of modern propaganda isn't only to misinform or push an agenda.  It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.”

Garry Kasparov

“Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of man who can fabricate it.”

Hannah Arendt
 

"It [Citizens United] violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system.  Now it's just an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations."

President Jimmy Carter

Stocks exploded higher today, based on some lame excuse of a news item about how Ukraine offered to engage in cease fire talks with Russia-- but won't give them anything.

That's like a guy whose girlfriend has given him the boot offering to talk about taking her back, but won't change anything he does.

The news flow around this Ukraine-Russia military action is a little surreal at times.

In terms of market effects, today was a 'technical trade' off a deeply oversold short term condition.

The insiders saw a great opportunity to squeeze those leaning too far on the short side.

Forget alcohol, the mavens of the financial markets dropped some potent pharmaceuticals in the punch bowl.

You can wrap any lingo and terms around it you want, but that was what happened. 

And so in the same spirit of 'risk on' gold, silver and the Dollar all got hammered.

All a technical trade.

I have to admit I was a little concerned about this when we saw JPM selling big tranches of gold contracts out of their house account at 1993 and 2040. 

What does 'technical trade' mean?

It means that today was probably not a trend reversal, or something weighty in terms of market direction.  

At least, not until they run out of over-eager shorts and small specs to burn.

Liars poker.   It's what passes for the market distribution of capital in these days of the systematic mispricing of risks by an out of control financial system.

Have you noticed the spokesmodels and talking heads grilling their guests about why Biden and crew don't do more to increase oil production, to 'open the spigots' and start dealing way federal lands for more drilling?

If oil at $130 doesn't provide incentive for these jokers to increase production without more government subsidies, then our system is broken beyond belief.  Or hopelessly entangled in shameless monopolies and cartels.

But let's see what happens next.  As I've said, this is a double black diamond market.

Have a pleasant evening.