Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Desolation of Abomination

 

"It seems that under the overwhelming impact of rising power, humans are deprived of their inner independence and, more or less consciously, give up establishing an autonomous position toward the emerging circumstances.   The fact that the foolish person is often stubborn must not blind us to the fact that he is not independent.  

In conversation with him, one virtually feels that one is dealing not at all with him as a person, but with slogans, catchwords, and the like that have taken possession of him. He is under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in his very being.  Having thus become a mindless tool, the foolish person will also be capable of any evil and at the same time incapable of seeing that it is evil.   This is where the danger of diabolical misuse lurks, for it is this that can once and for all destroy human beings.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers From Prison

"As soon as men know that they can kill without fear of punishment or blame, they kill; or at least they encourage killers, with approving smiles."

Simone Weil

“Addiction might be the best word to explain the lostness that so deeply permeates society. Our addiction make us cling to what the world proclaims as the keys to self-fulfillment: accumulation of wealth and power; attainment of status and admiration; lavish consumption of food and drink, and sexual gratification without distinguishing between lust and love. These addictions create expectations that cannot but fail to satisfy our deepest needs.

As long as we live within the world's delusions, our addictions condemn us to futile quests leaving us to face an endless series of disillusionments while our sense of self remains unfulfilled. In these days of increasing addictions, we have wandered far away from our Father's home. The addicted life can aptly be designated a life lived in 'a distant country.' It is from there that our cry for deliverance rises up.”

Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son

“When you see the desolation of abomination standing where he should not be, let those who seek knowledge understand, then let those in Judea flee to the mountains."

Mark 13:14

Today was the end of May.  And the markets took a wild ride.

Let it suffice to say that these guys are shameless, and increasingly brazen.

And not just in the markets.  

They lie, and fall in love with their lying. 

Have nothing to do with them and their ways.

Non-Farm Payrolls and FOMC next week.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - And So For Now We Travel With You in the World

 

The Christian life is a pilgrimage.  At times the road is difficult, and we get lonely.  Sometimes we may become discouraged and consider abandoning the journey.  It is at such times that God will place a friend alongside us.  One of God’s most precious gifts to us is friends who encourage us and lovingly challenge us to 'keep going.'  According to Scripture, a friend is one who challenges you to become all that God intends.

The mark of biblical friends is that their friendship draws you closer to Christ. They 'sharpen' you and motivate you to do what is right. True friends tell you the truth, and even risk hurting your feelings because they love you and have your best interests at heart .

Be careful in your choice of friends.  Jesus did not look for perfect friends, but friends whose hearts were set to follow God.  It is equally important to examine the kind of friend you are to others.  Strive to find godly friends who will challenge you to become the person God desires.  When you have found them, be receptive to the way God uses them to help you become spiritually mature.  Strive also to be the kind of friend that helps others become more like Christ.

Henry Blackaby, Iron Sharpens Iron

We are not remote elites or ascetic philosophers, who dwell alone and exile themselves from ordinary human life.  We do not forget the debt of gratitude that we owe to God, our Lord and Creator.  We reject no creature of His hands, though certainly we exercise restraint upon ourselves, lest we make reckless or sinful use of His gifts.  And so for now we travel with you in the world.

Tertullianus, Apologeticum, Carthage, 197 AD

They devoted themselves to the teachings and to the communal life, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.  Awe came upon everyone, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one's need.

Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple area and to breaking bread in their homes.  They ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart, praising God and enjoying favor with all the people.   And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

Acts 2:42-47

Stocks were sagging today as the markets squared up for the end of the month, and the PCE inflation data coming out tomorrow morning.

This may move the markets, although the punters seem to be taking the Fed's jawboning a little more seriously.

VIX opened higher again but faded a bit as the day wore on.

Stocks went out near the lows.

The Dollar slumped back. It is all a part of the endless wash and rinse of modern money.

Gold was unchanged, but silver was hit harder by the wavering of risk that brought down stocks.

The pretense to humanity are falling away.  It's almost shocking at times what we have come to tolerate.

We may truly deserve the choice between Trump and Biden.  But we do not have to make that choice.

What all these very exceptional and impressive personages have in common is their lack of empathy for others, and an overwhelming lust for money and power.  

Our professional and moneyed class have deftly shed the constraints of morality and the obligations of duty.  This has always been their tendency, but of late it has become more acceptable, almost fashionable.

Not a good situation.  Most do not understand how perilous the times may be, and they do not want to know it.

But in the end we have each other, and the help of the Lord.  And so we cannot despair.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Masters and Monsters

 

Beware the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is hidden that will not be revealed, and nothing is secret that will not be made known. Whatever has been said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what they have whispered in private will be proclaimed from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more they can do. But fear the one who, after the killing, has the power to cast you into hell.  Fear this one!

Luke 12:1-5

Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot bear to hear my words. You are from your father, the devil, and you willfully carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he does not stand with the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks in accord with his nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

John 8:43-44

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

The root of it all is in the will to power, the desire of a select few to determine the value of all life, and to define both good and evil, with themselves as the ultimate good.  And their handiwork is not life, but a profound emptiness, the abomination of desolation.   They never have enough.  Not enough money, not enough power, not enough killing.  They cannot give life, so they will bring death.  They fear weakness and death, so they attempt to be its master.  They would be as gods.  And in their pride they make themselves, and all those around them, not masters but monsters.

Jesse, Social Darwinism, 17 September 2014
 

Stocks were hit with selling this morning, and it last in varying degrees throughout the day.

The Dollar rallied in a 'flight to safety' as the VIX rose higher.

Gold and silver were hit early, but silver shook it off and finished roughly unchanged.

Gold dropped a little.  It had the more significant option expiration yesterday, and this may have been the expected 'gut punch' that often follows a major expiration.

Gold was moving in and out even-handedly in the Hong Kong warehouses yesterday.

We'll be getting some GDP data tomorrow morning, and PCE inflation on Friday.

We had some storms roll through yesterday and they brought cooler weather in the 70's with a welcome breeze.  

The garden is all in now and growing well.

The young man is getting married in July, and so Daisy and I will be looking after things for a while.

For these are a rebellious people, deceitful children, unwilling to listen to the commandments of the Lord.
They say to their seers,‘Do not see!’, and to the prophets,‘Say nothing of what is right.
Tell us only things that please us— prophesy illusions.

And here it is, our world of monstrous realities, veiled in scolding deceits and thinly spun illusions.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Sliding Down Quietly Into the Abyss

 

Easy is the descent into hell;
Its dark doors stand open, night and day.
But to retrace one's steps,
To return to the upper air,
That is the task, that is our labour.

Publius Vergilius Maro, Aeneid

'Simon, Simon.  Satan has asked to have you, and to sift all of you, like wheat.  But I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail.  And when you have returned to the faith, you must help to strengthen your brothers.'

Luke 22:31-32

They spend their days in prosperity, and slide down quietly into the abyss.  They say to God, 'Leave us alone!   We do not want to learn your ways.   Who is the Almighty that we should serve him?   And what would we gain by praying to him?  Is not the prosperity of the wicked the result of their own efforts, since they have never sought God’s help?'

Job 21:12-16

The Lord reached down and rescued me;
      he drew me out from raging torrents.
He delivered me from powerful adversaries
      who hated me, and were too strong for me.
They assaulted me in the time of my distress.
      But the Lord sustained me and brought me to safe harbors.
      Because he delights in me, he saved me.

Psalm 18:16-19

Fathers and teachers, I ponder, 'What is hell?' I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.

Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

Stocks were wobbling around, but managed to finish the day in the green.

Gold and silver in particular rallied.

VIX rose slightly.

Today was a quiet option expiration on the Comex for Precious Metals.

Most of the work had been done in slamming prices in the days leading up to today.

Sometimes we see another gut punch to test the new longs who were holding call options that were in the money, and have been converted into new futures positions.

Have a pleasant evening.