Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Where Are the Snows of Yesteryear?

 

"De loin en loin, elle vient jeter dans l'âme du profond artiste un peu de sa paix, de sa grandeur mystérieuse, puis elle retourne à sa solitude immense, au milieu des rues pleines de peuple.  Il n’y a qu’une tristesse, lui a-t-elle dit, la dernière fois, c’est de n’être pas de saints."

Léon Bloy, La Femme Pauvre, 1897

When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers,
      the moon and stars that you set in place—
What is man that you are mindful of him,
     and a son of man that you care for him?
Yet you have made him little less than a god,
     crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands,
      put all things at his feet.

Psalm 8:4-7

"Et Jehanne, la bonne Lorraine,
   Qu'Anglois bruslerent à Rouen;
Où sont-ilz, Vierge souveraine?
   Mais où sont les neiges d'antan."

François Villon, Ballade des dames du temps jadis, 1533

"Beauty is but a flower,
That wrinkles will devour.
Brightness falls from the air;
Queens have died, young and fair.
Dust hath closed Helen's eye.
I am sick, I must die.
Lord have mercy on us."

Thomas Nashe, A Litany in Time of Plague, 1593

"The broken wall, the burning roof and tower
And Agamemnon dead."

W. B. Yeats, Leda and the Swan, 1933

“The dead will lie on open fields,
like sheaves behind the reaper,
with no one to gather them.
So let not the wise boast of their wisdom
or the strong boast of their strength
or the wealthy boast of their riches,
but let the one who boasts boast about this:
that they have sought the understanding of my ways."

Jeremiah 9:22-24

“We'll always have Paris.”

Rick, Casablanca

Stocks tried to rally today, but fell off into the close to set new lows.

Gold and silver were hit overnight with selling in the futures, and this continued into the day.

As one might expect for an option expiration on the Comex.  Like clockwork.

FOMC and Non-Farm Payrolls next week, as indicated on the economic calendar below.

Gold has hit the fibonacci retracement target at 2350 intraday.

They may have to let the metals up a bit, to smack them back down again next week.

Or not.   Even a three card monte game falls apart every now and then.

VIX is relatively elevated.

The Dollar chopped sideways.

And because of the increase in lawlessness, the love of most will grow cold.

But those who remain standing, until the end, will be saved.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - In the Heart of Darkness

 

"There was war in heaven. Michael and the angels fought against the dragon. The dragon fought back, but he did not have the power, and so lost his place in heaven. The great dragon was thrown down – that ancient snake called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He fell to the earth, and his angels with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: ‘Now has come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the adversary of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down."

Revelation 12:7-9

"And he said to them, 'I saw Satan falling, like lightning from the sky.'"

Luke 10:18

"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."

C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, 1940

"Glorious Prince of the Celestial Host, Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in the battle which we have to sustain against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places.  Come to the rescue of men whom God has created to His image and likeness, and whom He has redeemed at great price from the tyranny of evil.  It is you whom the Church venerates as her guardian and protector; whom the Lord has charged to conduct redeemed souls into Heaven.

Pray, that the God of Peace will subdue Satan beneath our feet, that he may no longer hold men captive or do injury to the Church.  Present our prayers to the most High, that without delay they may draw His mercy down on us.  Seize the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, bind him and cast him into the abyss, that he may no longer seduce the nations."

Prayer of St. Michael the Archangel

Stocks took a dive today with a little bounce off the lows.

Gold and silver rallied, and held it for much of the day, but finally gave it up and slid a bit into the close.

VIX was elevated.

Comex option expiration for the precious metals tomorrow.

We are under the heel of powers and principalities, in the heart of darkness.

Only love will allow you to keep standing.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Lost Souls In the Court of Nero

 

"Diversity in the Democratic Party means politicians of various races, faiths and sexual persuasions lining up dutifully and immediately in support of the candidate and agenda selected by Wall Street billionaires."

Max Blumenthal, X, July 22, 2024

"The even larger problem is that there is a kind of chronic complacency that has been rotting American liberalism for years, a hubris that tells Democrats they need do nothing different, they need deliver nothing really to anyone – except their friends on the Google jet and those nice people at Goldman.  The rest of us are treated as though we have nowhere else to go and no role to play except to vote enthusiastically on the grounds that these Democrats are the 'last thing standing' between us and the end of the world.  It is a liberalism of the rich, it has failed the middle class, and now it has failed on its own terms of electability."

Thomas Frank, Trump to the White House, and liberals put him there, The Guardian, 9 November 2016

"The end result was to be a new Imperial Order and a New World Empire run by elite, self-perpetuating oligarchies from the leading nations of the earth."

Dr. Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope, 1966, p. 860

"It violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system.  Now it’s just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or to elect the president.  And the same thing applies to governors and U.S. senators and congress members.  So now we’ve just seen a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors, who want and expect and sometimes get favors for themselves after the election’s over."

Jimmy Carter, Citizens United Decision, The Thom Hartmann Show, July 2015

"Seneca had made the bargain that many good men have made when agreeing to aid bad regimes.  For many, this has been a bargain worth making, even if it has cost them—as it may have cost Seneca—their immortal soul.”

James Romm, Dying Every Day: Seneca at the Court of Nero

Stocks had the wobbles for most of the day, but managed to jump back to nearly unchanged after the close.

Earnings season is upon us, and the big names like Alphabet are pulling them in.

Tesla continues to struggle.

Gold and silver held a little bounce.  The miners as well.

Too early to call a turn.  Comex expiration for the precious metals on Thursday.

The Dollar edged higher. 

VIX fell.  

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Jesting Pilate

 

“God's truth judges created things out of love, and Satan's truth judges them out of envy and hatred. Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"Be merciful, just as your Father in heaven is merciful. Judge not, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured for you. For as you measure, it will be measured to you."

Luke 6:36-38

Then Pilate went back into the praetorium, and having summoned Jesus he asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”  Jesus answered, “Are you saying this on your own, or have others told you about me?”  Pilate said, “Am I a Jew? Your own people and the chief priests have handed you over to me.  What have you done?” Jesus replied,

“My kingdom does not belong to this world.  If my kingdom did belong to this world, my followers would have fought to prevent me from being handed over to the Jews.  The fact is that my kingdom is not here.”

Pilate then said to him, “So you are a king!”  Jesus answered, “It is you who say that I am a king. For this was I born, and for this I came into the world: to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

And Pilate asked, “What is truth?”

John 18:33-38

"It is important to observe that nowhere is it suggested that Dives' [the rich man] wealth is ill-gotten nor that Lazarus was his victim. The sin of Dives is that, cushioned by his lavish life-style, he was simply oblivious to the presence of a beggar at his gate."

Wilfrid Harrington

Pilate asked, 'what is truth?' while staring at truth in the flesh, and then turned and washed his hands of it.

To the proud peacocks of this attractive but deceitful world, virtue is a stranger, and truth a beggar. 

But even they must bend the knee to their master, money and power.

Stocks rallied.   And they went out nearer to their highs.

The VIX fell sharply.

I suspect the suspension of Biden's candidacy was viewed as removing some risk off the table, or at least some uncertainty. 

It was fairly obvious the Joe was past his 'sell by' date, but these things take time to resolve.  Even among us plebeians, no one wants to tell grandpa that he is too old to drive.  And he surely doesn't wish to hear it.

Gold and silver were hit early on, but managed to finish up fairly close to unchanged.

The Dollar also chopped sideways.

Comex metals option expiration this week.

Have a pleasant evening.