Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Our Broken Hearts

 

The Penitence of Peter

"Only the man who has had to face despair is really convinced that he needs mercy.  Those who do not want mercy never seek it.  It is better to find God on the threshold of despair than to risk our lives in a complacency that has never felt the need of forgiveness."

Thomas Merton

"To enter heaven is to become more human than you ever succeeded in being on earth; to enter hell, is to be banished from humanity. What is cast (or casts itself) into hell is not a man: it is 'remains.' To be a complete man means to have the passions obedient to the will and the will offered to God: to have been a man – to be an ex-man or 'damned ghost' – would presumably mean to consist of a will utterly centered in its self and passions utterly uncontrolled by the will.

The real problem is not why some pious, humble, believing people suffer, but why some do not. Everyone has noticed how hard it is to turn to God when everything is going well for us. We 'have all we want' is a terrible saying when 'all' does not include God. We find God an interruption.

You can have no greater sign of confirmed pride than when you think you are humble enough.

Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world. No doubt pain as God's megaphone is a terrible instrument; it may lead to final and unrepented rebellion. But it gives the only opportunity the bad man can have for amendment. it removes the veil; it plants the flag of truth within the fortress of the rebel soul.

Mental pain is less dramatic than physical pain, but it is more common and also more hard to bear. The frequent attempt to conceal mental pain increases the burden: it is easier to say 'My tooth is aching' than to say 'My heart is broken'.

Pain provides an opportunity for heroism; the opportunity is seized with surprising frequency. But if suffering is good, ought it not to be pursued rather than avoided? I answer that suffering is not good in itself. What is good in any painful experience is, for the sufferer, his submission to the will of God, and, for the spectators, the compassion aroused and the acts of mercy to which it leads.

I have seen great beauty of spirit in some who were great sufferers. I have seen men, for the most part, grow better not worse with advancing years, and I have seen the last illness produce treasures of fortitude and meekness from most unpromising subjects.”

C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

“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

"Suffering is a means by which God saves us, afflicting us so we do not lapse into vain self-sufficiency, a pride and a perverse individualism that gathers us blindly into ourselves, and separates us from His own creation. 

To suffer is how we grow in humility, and conform ourselves to do what He commands, rather than as we may will.  Prayer is how we sustain ourselves in times of both suffering and joy, with humility in this life, as we resort not only to ourselves or to the world, but to all things with God. 

And so we find comfort in His will, and the conversations that we keep with His many tender mercies. The world can not see this, and in not seeing does not understand.   To the world we are fools.  

His consolations and comforts are hidden, delivered to us in quiet moments, heart to heart. And so He gathers us together to Himself, and keeps us safe, and slowly takes us from this world and the dark powers therein, that search endlessly for souls to make their own, and to devour. "

Jesse, 15 May 2018

 

The Bank of England came to the rescue of the gilts market this morning, pledging to buy 'an unlimited amount' of bonds.

While this was obviously just kicking the can down the road as they say, on the premise of easing pressures of dislocation and disorder in their markets, traders nevertheless chose to take it a sign of more general central bank intervention.

And so stocks rallied sharply and held their gains into the close.

Gold and silver were smacked down hard in the overnight, as gut punch to the new holders of futures contracts from the recent option expiration. 

But with their expiry manipulation done, gold and silver rocketed higher.

The Dollar fell sharply off the signal to the markets by the BoE and the new appetite for riskier assets..   It was very overbought.

Bully managed to take stocks off the danger of breaking down through the important second low.

Let's see if they can keep it up.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Vultures and Corruption - A Fairly Impressive Failure For Stocks to Rally

 

"As a country becomes industrialized, its governance and corruption challenges do not disappear. They simply morph and become more sophisticated: Transfer of a briefcase stashed with cash is less frequent.

Instead, subtler forms of capture and 'legal corruption' exist: an expectation of a future job for a regulator in a lobbying firm, or a campaign contribution with strings attached. In many countries this may be legal, even if unethical. In industrialized nations undue influence is often legally exercised by powerful private interests, which in turn influence the nation's regulations, policies and laws."

Daniel Kaufmann, Corruption And The Global Financial Crisis, Forbes, 27 January 2009

And they said to him, 'Where will this happen, Lord?'  And He said to them, 'Where death is, there will be a gathering of vultures.'”

Luke 17:37

"A credibility trap is a condition wherein the financial, political and informational functions of a society have been compromised by corruption and fraud, so that the leadership cannot effectively reform, or even honestly address, the problems of that system without impairing and implicating, at least incidentally, a broad swath of the power structure, including themselves. 

The status quo tolerates the corruption and the fraud because they have profited at least indirectly from it, and would like to continue to do so. Even the impulse to reform within the power structure is susceptible to various forms of soft blackmail and coercion by the system that maintains and rewards.

And so a failed policy and its support system become self-sustaining, long after it is seen by objective observers to have failed. In its failure it is counterproductive, and an impediment to recovery in the real economy.  The continuity of the structural hierarchy must therefore be maintained at all costs, even to the point of becoming a painfully obvious, organized hypocrisy."

Jesse,  What Is a Credibility Trap, 18 September 2014

 

Stocks made a serious attempt to rally off that deep low from yesterday.

And for the first half of the day they were doing fairly well.

But alas, a rally was not meant to be, and in the afternoon the stock rally failed impressively.

Gold and silver also attempted to rally off their oversold condition, but they too could not hold their gains, although gold did finish a bit higher.

The VIX rose.

The Dollar edged higher into the 114 handle.

In news after the bell sixteen Banks were fined $1.1 Billion for failing to maintain records of communications between their employees.  

The usual excuses were being made, yada yada.  But collusion between employees to break the law is a commonplace temptation that requires the Banks to maintain records of those communications.

Stock are at a 'must hold' point here on the charts, and a further decline from here may destabilize things further.

Needless to say, the markets are one event away from a panic.  

But that's how it is when journeying through experiments in lawlessnes.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Who Could Have Seen It Coming? - Comex Gold Option Expiration Tomorrow

 

"We looked into the abyss if the gold price rose further.  A further rise would have taken down one or several trading houses, which might have taken down all the rest in their wake.   Therefore at any price, at any cost, the central banks had to quell the gold price, manage it.   It was very difficult to get the gold price under control but we have now succeeded.  The US Fed was very active in getting the gold price down. So was the U.K."

Eddie George, Bank of England, From Reg Howe v. BIS, JPM et al.


"What is offensive is that they lie, and worship their own lying."

Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment


"It is in the gold lending market that the central banks of the world lend out their gold holdings to commercial bullion banks, where the physical gold is sold and shipped out, and where the central banks then claim to hold interest-earning ‘gold deposits’ with the bullion banks.   These gold-deposits (which are merely a claim on a bullion bank) then mostly roll over short-term, passed around indefinitely between the clubby LBMA cartel of bullion banks, in a totally opaque behind the scenes network.

The physical gold bars lent out are long gone to Switzerland and the Far East, and the central banks then deceptively claim that they still hold the gold on their balance sheets when in fact all they have is a liability to the bullion banks. In the middle of this market sits the Bank of England, offering gold custody and storage to other central banks (in the vaults under the Bank of England headquarters in London) and offering gold accounts to the bullion banks concerned."

Ronan Manly, French central bank and JP Morgan team up to boost Gold Lending


The Dollar jumped to take the 114 handle today, off the weakness in the Euro, Yen, Pound et al. 

This record Dollar strength poses serious earnings risks for dollar-based companies with international exposure.

Gold was hammered down to a multi-year low, along with silver.

Tomorrow is a fairly important Comex option expiration for gold, for the October contract. 

What a surprise.

The physical inventories in Hong Kong Comex warehouses remained very thin.   

Bonds are getting clocked by the rising interest rates, although the shorter term bills can be held to maturity.

Gold from the ETF selling may be some assistance, in addition to the usual Bank shenanigans.

Stocks were lower once again, with the SP flirting with the important CrashTrak prior low.

I don't think we have seen capitulation in the equity markets yet.

Or from the gold and silver cartels in NY and London either.

What is the old market saying, Sell Rosh Hashanah and buy Yom Kippur.

But the high ground seems to be a reasonable good position for waiting, as indicated many times here previously. 

Or perhaps even more appropriate for this year,  Sell in May and go away.

The atonement for the Wall Street financial assets bubble compels the Fed to continue to feed our children's future to the Moloch of the money men.

But in this as always, remember what is truly important.

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

Fulton J. Sheen

There are the three great gifts of His tender mercy. 

 Repentance - forgiveness - thankfulness.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - This Is Our Calling - Retesting the Lows

 

"God beholds you.  He calls you by your name.  He sees you and understands you as He made you.  He knows what is in you, all your peculiar feelings and thoughts, your dispositions and likings, your strengths and your weaknesses.  He views you in your day of rejoicing and in your day of sorrow.

He encompasses you round and bears you in His arms.  He notes your very countenance, whether smiling or in tears.  He looks tenderly upon you.  He hears your voice, the beating of your heart, and your very breathing. 

You do not love yourself better than He loves you.  You cannot shrink from pain more than He dislikes your bearing it; and if He puts it on you, it is as you would put it on yourself, if you would be wise, for a greater good afterwards.

Therefore I will trust Him. Whatever 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.  He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about.

Let us feel what we really are— sinners attempting great things.  Let us simply obey God's will, whatever may come.  He can turn all things to our eternal good. The more we do, the more shall we trust in Christ; and that surely is no morose doctrine, that leads us to soothe our selfish restlessness, and forget our fears, in the vision of the Incarnate Son of God."

John Henry Newman

"In the Incarnation the whole human race recovers the dignity of the image of God. Thereafter, any attack, even on the least of men, is an attack on Christ, who took on the form of man, and in his own Person restored the image of God in all.   Through our relationship with the Incarnation, we recover our true humanity, and at the same time are delivered from that perverse individualism which is the consequence of sin, and recover our solidarity with all mankind."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

Matthew 11:30

The hawkish Fed, economic troubles in Europe and the UK, and a fresh appreciation of risk, triggered heavy selling in the equity and commodity markets. 

The VIX rose sharply as one might expect on a 'risk off' day.

A look at the stock index charts, especially the SP 500 futures, shows that we retested the prior second low intraday.

If we break further past that low and stick a close or two down that way, things could get interesting, quickly.

Gold and silver were hammered by a much stronger dollar, which shot to just shy of the 113 handle.

This is the highest that the DX index has been since the dot com bubble bust.

There will be a lot of Fed speakers gadding about next week, apparently things to say.

Let's see if they say anything that soothes the nerves of investors, especially in light of the mess in the UK and the potential contagion effects.

Or not. 

It might matter which way the winds of insider trading are blowing, especially out of Washington and NY.

Lord, pierce our hardened hearts, enlighten our minds, heal our blindness, and break the self-imposed chains of pride and self-deception, so that we may choose life through repentance, forgiveness, and life.

Have a pleasant weekend.