Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Waschen und Spülen - Bankers' Jawbone Jab Jolts Markets

 

"And so without justice, what are kingdoms except great robber bands?  For what are robber bands except little kingdoms?  The band also is a group of men governed by the orders of a leader, bound by a social compact, and its booty is divided according to a law agreed upon.  

If by repeatedly adding desperate men this plague grows to the point where it holds territory and establishes a fixed seat, seizes cities and subdues peoples, then it more conspicuously assumes the name of kingdom, and this name is now openly granted to it, not for any subtraction of greed, but by addition of impunity. 

For it was an elegant and true reply that was made to Alexander the Great by a certain pirate whom he had captured.  When the king asked him what he was thinking of, that he should molest the sea, he said with defiant independence:  'The same as you when you molest the world!  Since I do this with a little ship I am called a pirate.  You do it with a great fleet and are called an emperor.'”

Augustine of Hippo, City of God IV


"Nothing from the rising to the setting of the sun is enough for them.  Among all others only they are compelled to attack the poor as well as the rich.  Plunder, rape, and slaughter they falsely call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace."

Tacitus

 

I would like to say that today was something different, but it was not.

It was more of the same old wash and rinse, on an economy sized scale (pun), designed to benefit a relatively few insiders at the expense of all the rest.

Fed Chair Powell came out and laid on a heavy tone of hawkish, and the 'rally' from yesterday went into a meltdown, tout de suite.

The public and real economy must once again pay the price for the sins of the Banks and their bubbles.

Everything was down in the risk assets, improperly priced as they were from the rally just yesterday. 

What a coincidence.

Gold and silver took a hit.

The Dollar rose on the rise in short term interest rates.

Many of the miners were clocked, although some bounced back a little at the end.

September could be a dangerous month for the markets as I have cautioned previously.

The bulls need to take out the second high on the Crashtrak model.  

Today they were going in the wrong direction.

There are some benefits to staying on the higher ground.

Have a pleasant weekend.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Thy Will Be Done

 

"Wonderful providence indeed which is so silent, yet so efficacious, so constant, so unerring.  This is what baffles the power of Satan.   He cannot discern the Hand of God in what goes on; and though he would fain meet it and encounter it, in his mad and blasphemous rebellion against heaven, he cannot find it."

J. H. Newman


“The books which the Holy Spirit is writing are the living, with every soul a volume in which the divine author makes a true revelation of His word, showing it to every heart, unfolding it in every moment.  The will of God presents itself like an immense sea that your heart cannot exhaust.

There is not a moment in which God does not present Himself under the cover of some pain to be endured, of some consolation to be enjoyed, or of some duty to be performed.   All that takes place within us, around us, or through us, contains and conceals His divine action.  All simple souls must admire and respect one another, saying: 'Let us each proceed along our path to the same goal, united in purpose and by means of God's order which, in its great variety, is in us all.'

This state of abandonment to providence is full of consolation for those who have attained it; but to do so it is necessary to pass through much anguish. The doctrine concerning pure love can only be taught by the action of God, and not by any effort of the mind. God teaches the soul by pains and obstacles, not by ideas.  With God, the more one seems to lose the more one gains.  The more He strikes off of what is natural, the more He gives of what is supernatural.  He is loved at first for His gifts, but when these are no longer perceptible He is at last loved for Himself.

'But,' say you, 'what will become of me if ...?'  This is indeed a temptation of the enemy.  Why should you be so ingenious in tormenting yourself beforehand about something which perhaps will never happen?  Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. Uneasy forebodings do us much harm; why do you so readily give way to them?  We make our own troubles, and what do we gain by it

To escape the pain caused by regret for the past or fear about the future, this is the rule to follow: leave the past to the infinite mercy of God, the future to His good Providence, and give the present wholly to His love by being faithful to His grace.”

Jean-Pierre de Caussade, L'Abandon a la Providence divine


“Man has places in his heart which do not yet exist— and into them enters suffering, in order that they may have life.”

Léon Bloy


Stocks rose.

The VIX fell a little.

The Dollar drifted lower.

Gold and silver were higher.

The markets are obviously waiting to see what Fed Chairman Jay Powell has to say tomorrow at 10 AM.

Let's see what happens.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Crescendo - Metals Expiry Tomorrow, Jackson Hole Friday

 

“The real conflict is the inner conflict.  Beyond armies of occupation and the catacombs of extermination camps, there are two irreconcilable enemies in the depth of every soul: good and evil, sin and love.   And what use are the victories on the battlefield if we are ourselves are defeated in our innermost personal selves?”

Maximilian Kolbe

"God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission— I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.

Yet I have a part in this great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connexion between persons.  He has not created me for naught.  I shall do good, I shall do His work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling.

Therefore I will trust Him.  Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away.  If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him.  My sickness, or perplexity, or sorrow may be necessary causes of some great end, which is quite beyond us.

He does nothing in vain; He may prolong my life, He may shorten it; He knows what He is about.  He may take away my friends, He may throw me among strangers, He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide the future from me—still He knows what He is about."

John Henry Newman, Meditations and Devotions

"Holiness consists simply in doing God's will, and being just what God wants us to be.   Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, or even at their difficulty, but at the love with which we do them.  Without love deeds, even the greatest, count as nothing.   Our Lord's love shines forth as much in the simplest of souls as it does in the most highly gifted, as long as there is no refusal of His grace."

Thérèse Martin de Lisieux

"Those who have faith had better keep in the state of grace, and those who have neither had better find out what they mean, for in the coming age there will be only one way to stop your trembling knees, and that will be to get down on them and pray. The most important problem in the world today is your soul, for that is what the struggle is about."

Fulton J. Sheen


Stocks managed a bounce today in what was otherwise another wide-ranging day.

The Dollar chopped sideways, at a lofty 108+ handle.

Gold and silver managed to edge higher.

The VIX dropped.

Tomorrow is an option expiration for precious metals on the Comex.  Contract-wise it is more significant or silver than gold, but that may have little effect with those who manage the markets.

Jay Powell is speaking at Jackson Hole Fed Symposium on Friday, and the markets seem to be hlding their collective breath ahead of that performance.

I have never been to Jackson Hole or Wyoming.

But I used to really like taking the family on a road trip in the early autumn to visit the Skylands Resort on the Blue Ridge Parkway.   We would look at the leaves, make sidetrips to various attractions around the area, and day hike sections of the nearby Appalachian Trail. 

Be warned, the leaves turn and snows come early.

In a week or so it will be the fifth anniversary of when I bid a farewell to the queen.

Here's looking at you, kid.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - O Brave New World

 

“When we serve the poor and the sick we serve the Lord.  Apart from the cross, there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.”

Isabella Flores de Oliva

“God creates out of nothing.  Wonderful you say.  Yes but he does what is still more wonderful— he makes saints out of sinners.”

Søren Kierkegaard

"In concentration camps we watched and witnessed some of our comrades behave like swine while others behaved like saints.  We can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread.  They offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

Viktor E. Frankl

"Sin is not a distance, it is a turning of our gaze in the wrong direction."

Simone Weil

“The ordinary life is like the life of the saints.  They all seek satisfaction, and differ only according to the object in which they hope to find it.”

Blaise Pascal, Pensées

"The only real tragedy, at the end, is not to have been a saint."

Léon Bloy, La Femme Pauvre

Stocks had another wide ranging day, finishing mostly to the downside.

The Dollar fell back a bit off yesterday's grab at the 109 handle.

Gold and silver bounced back after six straight trading days of decline.

VIX was largely unchanged, hovering just below its 200 DMA.

I think we will see the risk markets continue to waffle back and forth until some additional guidance is given to them regarding the Fed's intentions, probably this Friday at Jackson Hole when Jay Powell speaks. 

Having no burdensome memory, and paying little attention to even recent history and reality, allows a people to go forward as if each day is brand new and open to their imaginative creation, without worry, moral impediments, and shame. 

In some ways the very definition of psychosis, formerly known as the 'lunatic fringe.' 

O brave new world, that has such people in it.

Have a pleasant evening.