Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Where Are We Going, Lord? - CPI Tomorrow

 

"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 may never know it in this life but I shall be told it in the next.  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.

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.  He may take away my friends.  He may throw me among strangers.   He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me — still He knows what He is about.

John Henry Newman

“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

“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.  

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 souls must admire and respect one another, saying: 'Let us each continue walking along our path to the same goal, united in purpose and with the help of God's plan which, in its great variety, is in us all.'

'But,' say you, 'what will become of me if ...?'   This is indeed a temptation of the enemy.   Why should you be so inventive in tormenting yourself beforehand about something which perhaps will never happen?  Sufficient for the day are its troubles.  Uneasy worries do us much harm; why do you so readily give way to them?   We imagine 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

Stocks caught a whiff of bullishness, and rallied hard into the close.

The VIX was largely unchanged.

The Dollar was unchanged.

Gold was unchanged, while silver edged a little lower.

The market has its eyes on the CPI data tomorrow morning.

The stock bullies are chomping at the bit it seems.

Everyone else, not so much.

I have no special insights.  Let's see what happens.

Have a pleasant evening.

"Cæsar was swimming in blood. Rome and the whole pagan world was mad.  But those who had had enough of sin and madness, those who were trampled upon, those whose lives were misery and oppression, all the weighed down, all the sad, all the unfortunate, came to hear the wonderful news of God, who out of love for men had given Himself over to be crucified, to redeem their sins.  When they found a God whom they could love, they had found that which the society of their time could not give to anyone— happiness and love. 

And Peter understood that neither Nero, nor all his legions, could overcome the living truth— that they could not overwhelm it with tears or blood, and that now its victory was beginning.  He understood with equal force why the Lord had turned him back on the road.   That city of pride, of crime, of wickedness, and of a lust for power, was beginning to be His."

Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Great Emptiness of Hardened Hearts -

 

"There was enslavement of men whose tribes came not from Rome, disdain for those who did not have the familiar visage.  And most of all, there was everywhere a contempt for human life.  What, to the strong, was one man more or less in a crowded world?

Then, of a sudden, there was a light in the world, and a man from Galilee. So the light came into the world and the men who lived in darkness were afraid, and they tried to lower a curtain so that man would still believe salvation lay with the leaders.  But it came to pass for a while in divers places that the truth did set man free, although the men of darkness were offended and they tried to put out the light.

Along the road to Damascus the light shone brightly. But afterward Paul of Tarsus, too, was sore afraid. He feared that other Caesars, other prophets, might one day persuade men that man was nothing save a servant unto them, that men might yield up their birthright from God for pottage and walk no more in freedom.

Then might it come to pass that darkness would settle again over the lands and there would be a burning of books and men would think only of what they should eat and what they should wear, and would give heed only to new Caesars and to false prophets.  Then might it come to pass that men would not look upward to see even a winter's star in the East, and once more, there would be no light at all in the darkness."

Vermont C. Royster, In Hoc Anno Domini, Wall St Journal, December 24, 1949

"What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?  Have you come to deprive us?  We know who you are—the Holy One of God.”

Mark 1:24

"They will be moved, to the sound of beautiful music, at Jesus’s sufferings, but His Cross, the reality of His Cross, will horrify them.  They want it all out of gold, bathed in light, costly and of little weight; pleasant to see, hanging from a woman’s beautiful throat."

Léon Bloy


The market is just treading water here, waiting for the CPI report on Friday.

There are some technical moves going on and a few responses to singular events, but trying to read trends here is like trying to predict the future from chicken bones.  

You my see what you wish to see.

We harden our hearts.  We look away.  We immerse ourselves in distractions.  We forget.

It's what all the finest people do.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - A Banquet of Consequences - CPI Thursday Morning

 

“Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.”

Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

“Is a people that elects as its president an icon that has never read a book all that far away from burning books itself?”

Joseph Roth, What I Saw: Reports from Berlin 1920-1933

“A fascist is one whose lust for money or power is combined with such an intensity of intolerance toward those of other races, parties, classes, religions, cultures, regions or nations as to make him ruthless in his use of deceit or violence to attain his ends. They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution.”

Henry Wallace

“Yet the victory of fascism was made practically unavoidable by the [neo]liberals’ obstruction of any reform involving planning, regulation, or control.”

Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation

"Words can be like tiny bits of arsenic: they are swallowed unnoticed and seem to have no effect, but after a while the toxic effect is there."

Victor Klemperer

"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


This remains a dangerous, highly-manipulated market.  

If you must, proceed with caution.

There will be a CPI read on Thursday morning. 

It may be leaked ahead as it was last time, and it may move markets.

Watch out for the 'tail risk.'

It was a 'pop and flop' kind of a day.   Pretty typical really for this beark market we have.

Stocks rallied hard in the morning, and then fell back to the red or essentially unchanged.

Gold managed to hang on to a slight gain while silver moved lower.

Neither has confirmed a breakout yet in my judgement from the charts.

The Dollar dumped.

Need little, want less, love more.  For those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them.

Have a pleasant evening.

Rest on the Flight to Egypt - or Martha's Vineyard

 

"They have become twisted in their reasoning, and their foolish hearts are darkened."

Romans 1:21

"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.’"

Matthew 25:41-43

“But now, we are witnessing a transformation: 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, we are not going to be judged.”

Czeslaw Milosz

"But Abraham said, ‘If they won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded, even if someone rises from the dead.’”

Luke 16:31

These are the words of our Lord.  

Our hardened hearts turn away from Him, into the darkness.