Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Stock Option Expiration Next Week

 

"For the hearts of these people are hardened,
and their ears cannot hear,
and they have closed their eyes,
so their eyes cannot see,
and their ears cannot hear,
and their hearts cannot understand,
and they cannot turn to me
and let me heal them."

Matthew 13:15


"It is a far, far better thing to have a firm anchor in nonsense than to put out on the troubled seas of thought."

John Kenneth Galbraith


"In spite of every sage whom Greece can show,
Unerring wisdom never dwelt below;
Folly in all of every age we see,
The only difference lies in the degree."

Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux


"Obstinate ignorance is usually a manifestation of underlying political motives."

Michael Kalecki

 

Stocks shook off geopolitical and economic concerns and moved higher.

But they ran out of gas towards the end of the day, and gave back some of their gains.

Was this just a bounce, or the beginning of a turnaround.

Stay tuned and we'll see tomorrow.

Gold and silver managed to post some gains and hold on to them.

Silver is now back to even on the week.

The VIX fell back a bit.

But The Dollar pushed higher toward the 100 handle on the DXY index.

Next week things could be a little more lively because we start to get earnings numbers for the first quarter, and there is a stock option expiration on Thursday. 

The markets will be closed on Friday in observance of Holy Week.

But first let's see how the markets go into the weekend.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - But If Not - The Vast Wasteland

 

“Why do you not understand what I am saying?  Because you cannot bear to hear my word.  You belong to your father the devil, and you willingly carry out your father’s desires.'"

John 8:43

 

"O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter.  If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand.   But if not, even if he does not preserve us, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods, or worship the images of gold you have set up and commanded us to worship." 

Daniel 3:16-18

 

"Take a stand for that which is right, and the world may misunderstand you and criticize you, but you never go alone.  Walk with him this morning and believe in him and do what is right and he'll be with you even until the consummation of the ages. 

You're going with justice, you're going with goodness, and you will have an eternal companionship.  And the world will look at you and they won't understand you, for your fiery furnace will be around you, but you'll go on anyhow.  But if not, I will not bow, and God grant that we will never bow before the gods of evil."

Martin Luther King 

 

"For evil to appear disguised as light, as charity, as historical necessity, or social justice is quite bewildering to anyone raised on traditional ethical concepts.  But for the Christian who builds his life on the word of God, it merely confirms the fundamental perversity of evil." 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer 

 

"The most important problem in the world today is your soul, for that is what the struggle is about." 

Fulton J. Sheen

 

Stocks sold off again today, dropping down to some key support levels.  

They managed to bounce back a bit into the close.

Keep an eye on those support levels, because they may be pivotal between what is a 'normal' correction and another failed rally.

Gold finished unchanged and silver managed to bounce back into the green with stocks, but both were hit hard in the early trading in New York and London.

The Dollar edged a little higher.

The VIX rose with the morning declines, but pulled back a little in the afternoon.

This is a dangerously volatile market, with a number of significant exogenous factors that could move stocks significantly.

I have taken down my index shorts and am not just sitting in cash.

I have pretty much stopped watching network television because the fog of war is flowing thick and heavy.   Most shows and series are just not very interesting or entertaining or enlightening.

I remember the FCC commissioner in 1961 referred to network television as 'a vast wasteland.'

Now it is more like a noisome swamp, clouded with thick mists, populated by will o' the wisps and phantoms.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

 

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Arsenal of Kleptocracy - Rinse and Repeat

 

"All the most noted destroyers and deceivers of our species, all the founders of arbitrary governments and false religions have been extraordinary people; and nine tenths of the calamities that have befallen the human race had no other origin than the union of high intelligence with low desires."

Thomas Babington Macaulay

"This empire, unlike any other in the history of the world, has been built primarily through economic manipulation, through cheating, through fraud, through seducing people into our way of life, through the economic hit men."

John Perkins

 

"Democracy has become a weapon of moneyed interests.  It uses the media to create the illusion that there is consent from the governed.  The notion of democracy is often no different than living under a plutocracy or a government by wealthy elites.”

Oswald Spengler, The Decline of the West

"Mischief springs from the power which the moneyed interest derives from a paper currency which they are able to control, from the multitude of corporations with exclusive privileges which they have succeeded in obtaining in the different States, which are employed altogether for their benefit."

Andrew Jackson, Farewell Address

"We’re told that we’re a polarized society, right?  That’s the way the ruling classes have manipulated people for more than two thousand years: divide and rule.   The only difference between the Republican and Democratic parties is the velocities with which their knees hit the floor when corporations knock on their door."

Ralph Nader

 

"We cannot look to the conscience of the world when our own conscience is asleep."

Carl von Ossietzky

Stocks took a dive today in a 'risk off' session that smelled like the rinse to yesterday's wash.

I hope you saw the article I linked on the sidebar that disclosed that the Fed provided north of a trillion dollars in liquidity to the global Banks during the stock market slump in March.

Gold and silver fell off today, a little surprising with regard to gold, but adding to the suspicion that this was not a conventional risk off day.

The Dollar took the 99 handle and then some.

VIX bounced back higher.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

The Banks and their systems seem to be the new dreadnoughts in the latest form of US international 'relations.'

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - As Old As Babylon, And Evil As Sin

 

“Lawlessness has come out of Babylon, that is, from the elders who were to govern the people as judges. They perverted their thinking; they would not allow their eyes to look to heaven, and did not keep in mind just judgments.  How you have grown evil with age. Now have your past sins come to term, passing unjust sentences, condemning the innocent, and freeing the guilty."

Daniel 13:5,9,52-53


"A kleptocracy is sucking the life out of working men and women by force and fraud.  A group of sociopaths, who have committed one of the great crimes in history, not only blithely walk away with their loot unpunished, but come back to rob their victims once again, to finish the job.

Those fallen into wickedness bear the fruits of hate, deceit, greed, fear, pride, and anger. They forsake love by washing their hands of it, and eventually come to condemn it, and persecute it— and thereby condemn themselves."

Jesse, September 2012



“I think that the depth of Satan's pride is difficult for humans to understand, and therefore it is easy to fall into this error and partake of it, thinking, all the while, that we are instead doing something great and beautiful...

Above all, avoid lies, all lies, especially the lie to yourself. Keep watch on your own lie and examine it every hour, every minute. And avoid contempt, both of others and of yourself: what seems bad to you in yourself is purified by the very fact that you have noticed it in yourself. And avoid fear, though fear is simply the consequence of every lie.”

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

"Woe to you, you hypocrites.  You scrupulously observe the details, but neglect the more important spirit of His commandments – justice, mercy and faithfulness.  Woe to you, you hypocrites.  You carefully perform the rituals, but inside you are full of greed and self-indulgence.   Woe to you, you hypocrites.  You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.  On the outside you appear righteous, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.  You snakes, you brood of vipers." 

Matthew 23: 23-33

 

“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

 

"For the oppression of the poor, for the groans of the much abused, now will I arise, says the Lord.  I will set them in safety from those that sneer at them.  The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tested in a furnace purified seven times.  You shall keep them safe, O Lord, you shall preserve them from this generation of vipers forever, where the wicked prowl on every side, where vile men are exalted." 

Psalm 12:5-8

 

Stocks were weak overnight and in the opening today, but gained a footing and then took to the upside.

Tech was buoyed by the news that Elon Musk bought a 9.2% passive position in Twitter.

Has Elon ever been passive for long in anything?

Gold moved a little higher, silver a little lower.

The Dollar moved higher, just short of taking back the 99 handle.

I suppose today would be called 'risk on' despite the upside in gold.

Have a pleasant evening.