Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - 'The Judgments of the Lord'

 

"The way we may be sure that we know him is to keep his commandments.  Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.  But whoever keeps his word, the love of God is truly perfected in him.   This is the way we may know that we are in union with him: whoever claims to abide in him ought to live as he lived.

Beloved, I am writing no new commandment to you but an old commandment that you had from the beginning.   The old commandment is the word that you have heard.  And yet I do write a new commandment to you, which holds true in him and among you, for the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.

Whoever says he is in the light, yet hates his brother, is still in the darkness.  Whoever loves his brother remains in the light, and there is nothing in him to cause a fall.  Whoever hates his brother is in darkness; he walks in darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes."

1 John 2:3-11

"There are six things the Lord hates, no, seven that are detestable to him: proud eyes, a lying tongue, hands that harm the innocent, a heart that plots wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness whose mouth pours out lies, and most of all, a person who stirs up conflicts in a community."

Proverbs 6:16-19

‘Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord', will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only one who does the will of my Father in heaven.  On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and accomplish great things in your name?'   Then I will declare to them, ''I do not know you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.'”

Matthew 7:21-23

"'Woe unto the world because of offenses for it must needs be that offenses come but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.' ... Fondly do we hope ~ fervently do we pray ~ that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.  Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said 'the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'

With malice toward none with charity for all with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan ~ to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865


The ordinary mind is capable of and accustomed for executing the daily tasks of life.  And at times as we have seen, it surmounts even the most daunting and extraordinary challenges.  The practical mind of man has been able to produce almost astonishing mechanical wonders.

But when momentous events are upon us, we cannot recognize them for what they are.  Only the distant view of time can discern the patterns of history. 

We are now in such a time, where forces of political and spiritual struggle long in the making are coming to a confrontation, a climax perhaps, in which a resolution, a turning point, may be struck.   And it is likely that there will be forged a turn in the path of progress, and the fortunes of a people, with lasting consequences.

Hearts are inflamed with anger, and greed, and madness and malice towards the other, through which they blindly and unknowingly seek to escape the heavy weight of events which they do not comprehend.

But if enough of us can rise above ourselves, and see things with the wisdom in which we have been instructed and commanded through the ages, can we not hope that selfish and unspeakable lawlessness can be turned aside, and a covenant with the truth and a bond of faithfulness be forged among us once again?

Can we let go of these insults and abuses towards everything we have been given that is good?  Can we avoid the reckoning, the suffering, distress, and regret, the awful hand of God, that we are bringing down upon our children and the world?

Shall we stop this bleeding? 

The Dollar dropped back down towards the 104 handle.

Stocks rallied but then slumped after Trump announced new 25% tariffs on non-US manufactured automobiles.

Gold and silver soared from the open, and went out near the highs.

If they can hold up into the weekend I might see some significance in this break from the usual trading pattern.

I actually came in this morning with a modest bet in that direction, based on nothing but the 'feel of the tape' n the futures trading.

February 19, 2025 AP Newswire:

THE PRESIDENT: We’ll see what happens. But one of the things — we do want to look. I mean, we hope everything’s fine with Fort Knox, but we’re going to go to Fort Knox — the fabled Fort Knox — to make sure the gold is there.
REPORTER: Where would the gold have gone?
THE PRESIDENT: If the gold isn’t there, we’re going to be very upset.

I tend to take the things that the Donald takes with a grain of salt, even while he is the President.

He likes to speak expansively and 'off the cuff.'  

Most politicians in the US and Europe lie these days, and love their own ability to lie.  But Donald is a bit more 'flamboyant'.

But let's see what happens with all this.  I was watching this current Comex option expiration carefully, the huge influx of 2000 tonnes of gold into the US, enough to knock some percentage points off US GDP, and of course the CME retreat from the physical delivery market of Hong Kong.

I suspect that change, even greater than we might have expected, is on the horizon.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Their God Who Is Unloving and Vile

 

"God will invade.  But I wonder whether people who ask God to interfere openly and directly in our world quite realize what it will be like when He does.  When that happens, it is the end of the world.  When the author walks on to the stage the play is over.  

God is going to invade, all right: but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else - something it never entered your head to conceive - comes crashing in; something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left?  For this time, it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature.  It will be too late then to choose your side."

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 1944

"It is blasphemy to separate oneself from the earth and look down on it like a god. It is more than blasphemy; it is dangerous.  We can never be gods, after all — but we can become something less than human with frightening ease.”

N. K. Jemisin, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

"As everything in what used to be called creation becomes a commodity, human beings begin to look at one another, and at themselves, in a funny way, and they see price tags. There was a time when people spoke, at least occasionally, of 'inherent worth'— if not of things, then at least of persons.   It is sometimes said that since everything is for sale under the rule of The Market, nothing is sacred.  The Market is not omnipotent— yet.  But the process is under way and it is gaining momentum.

The Market is becoming more like the Yahweh of the Old Testament—not just one superior deity contending with others but the Supreme Deity, the only true God, whose reign must now be universally accepted and who allows for no rivals."

Harvey Cox, The Market as God, March 1999

"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, Discreet Charm of Nihilism

“The truth is that we were so spiritually and morally bankrupt that we could not even see some of those lines: we stepped over them blindly.  Other times we saw the lines alright, but we wanted to cross them.  It wasn’t God who was dead.  We were."

Ray A., Practice These Principles

 

To whom does our Lord address his stories of how people reduce themselves to beasts, and damn themselves to the abyss, for so little.

Not the person whom one consider a deviant, a lowlife, less than human, some dirty foreigner, a heathen like the Pharisee thought in the temple, while looking with the hypocrisy and the delusional self-righteousness of pride at the tax collector, who was repenting of his sins..

This is a good time of year to step back, and try to look at ourselves as we are.  And not to presume on a father whom we have come to feel free to use and abuse for our own purposes, as we would like to do to everyone else.

The hour grows short.   And then we will see things as they are, and not as our vanity imagines them.

Stocks were slumping today as expected.   This is classic bubble 'wash and rinse' action.

Gold and silver held up much better than we might have expected.   

But those holding new contracts often get a 'gut check' on the next trading day, depending on how the thrashing of the market had gone.

VIX popped higher, as is the usual thing when it hits that lower moving average.

Hate is hate, anger is anger, greed is greed, and murder is murder, despite the lies we tell ourselves, and hold close to our hearts.

“You cannot play with the animal in you without becoming wholly animal, play with falsehood without forfeiting your right to truth, play with cruelty without losing your sensitivity of mind. Your cravings as a human animal do not become a prayer just because it is God whom you ask to attend to them. God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity. But we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder the source of which is beyond all reason."   Dag Hammarskjöld, Markings, 1963

And there is no more certain outcome, more inevitable than for each of us, than when we will face our God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every one of his creatures.   

And then we will see the strength and quality of our presumptions, and the vain imaginings, which god it is that we have served.  The God who is love, or the god of our hardened hearts.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Hidden in Plain Sight - The Interests of Empire

 

"We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies.  Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow."

Lord Palmerston, speech, House of Commons, 1 March 1848

"On Tuesday following the [1987] crash, with the futures market indicating a significantly lower open, Alan Greenspan and the Fed came in buying SP 500 futures in order to turn the markets around. And it worked. And it continued, with the Fed supporting the equity markets with jawboning, persuasion, and occasionally direct intervention, so that by the end of the year all was well with the markets. On the advice of his financial advisors, President Reagan formed The Working Group on Financial Markets (colloquially referred to as the Plunge Protection Team) was created by Executive Order 12631, signed on March 18, 1988. And thus came the era of bubble-nomics."

Jesse, All Is Well: 1987 and It's Consequences, October 19, 2017

The Working Group On Financial Markets consists of:

• The Secretary of the Treasury, or his or her designee (as Chairperson of the Working Group);
• The Chairperson of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, or his or her designee;
• The Chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Commission, or his or her designee; and
• The Chairperson of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or his or her designee.

Wikipedia, Working Group on Financial Markets

Washington: The Trump administration is arranging a phone call on Monday with top regulators to discuss financial markets amid a rout on Wall Street. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will host the call with the president's Working Group on Financial Markets, known colloquially as the 'Plunge Protection team.'

Jason Lange, 'Plunge Protection Team' to convene amid Wall Street rout, Reuters, December 24, 2018

"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."

Edward George, Governor Bank of England 1993-2003, from Reg Howe v. BIS, JPM et al.


Stocks were in rally risk on mode today, with the big cap tech bubbles leading the way.  The broader market was just so-so.

 

VIX has fallen now to the area which, like a low barometer reading, suggests some stormy weather may be heading our way.

 

Gold and silver rallied higher, but were pressed a bit into the close.

 

Tomorrow is an option expiration for precious metals futures on the Comex.

 

Shenanigans are usually expected, either tomorrow or the day after.   Or both.

 

Bear in mind that the wiseguys not only see what each other are doing, and will signal their intentions in various ways to the lesser denizens of the pits, but they also are able to see in the aggregate what you are holding in your hand.

 

It does matter.  And that's why they don't let you see it, but pay well for their own ability to watch the order flows and reconstruct relative positions.

 

Yeah, it's not fair.   That's the point.  And its very confusing to 'bull market geniuses'.

 

So let's see how the next couple of days go.  I think a drop in stocks is in the wind, as well as a gut check for the precious metals.

 

But timing these sorts of things for those who are playing the game according to 'the rules'.

 

Empires and the powerful do not have friends, or allies, or favorites.   

 

Those who worship money and power have abiding interests of their own.  And you are not one of them.

 

But there is One who loves you, as you would love yourself, if you were wise..

 

Have a pleasant evening. 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Their Perfect Possession - Comex Expiration

 

“Once they’re in power, narcissists consolidate their position by firing everyone who challenges them. In their place rise a plague of toadies, opportunists, and enablers equally guided by self-interest and short on scruples. So you end up with these individualistic cultures with no teamwork and low integrity.

True narcissists are self-serving and lack integrity. They believe they’re superior and thus not subject to the same rules and norms. Studies show they’re more likely to act dishonestly to achieve their ends. They know they’re lying, and it doesn’t bother them. They don’t feel shame. These people aren’t going to change."

Charles A. O’Reilly, as quoted in How Narcissistic Leaders Destroy from Within, Stanford Business School, April 30, 2020

“The greatest evil is not done now in sordid dens of crime. It is not even done in concentration camps and labor camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered in clear, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices by quiet men, with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks, who do not need to raise their voice.

The surest road to Hell is the gradual one — the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts."

C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, 1942

"Love does not make you weak, because it is the source of all strength— but it makes you see the nothingness of the illusory strength on which you depended before you knew it."

Léon Bloy

"Nor will love be seen coming from the hearts of those who are fallen into wickedness: they are the fruit of hate, deceit, greed, fear, pride, possession, and aggression. And they will not only forsake love by washing their hands of it, they will eventually come to condemn it, and persecute it— and thereby condemn themselves."

Jesse, Love is the Refuge of the Way, 24 June 2017

"We live in a world where love itself is condemned.  People call it weakness, something to grow out of. Some are saying: 'let each one become as strong as he can, and let the weak perish.'  The neo-paganism [of the Nazis] may well cast-off love but, in spite of everything, history teaches us that we shall be the victors over this.  Do not yield to hatred.  We are here in a dark tunnel, but we have to go on.  At the end, an eternal light is shining for us.  We shall not forsake love."

Titus Brandsma, Statement, Dachau, 26 July 1942

"The demon's target is not the possessed; it is us the observers.. everyone in this house. I think the point is to make us despair..to reject our humanity: to see ourselves as ultimately bestial, vile and putrescent; without dignity; ugly; unworthy."

William Peter Blatty, The Exorcist, May 1971


It was risk on today.

Stocks rallied, gapping up at the open, and going out near the highs.

The VIX fell.

The Dollar rallied a bit to take back the 104 handle.

Gold and silver suffered some further weakness.

There will be an April futures contract option expiration for precious metals on the Comex on Wednesday the 26^th.

We should be ashamed of what we are becoming.  

It puzzles us that there are many ardent believers in what is the worst in us, yielding to hate, anger, and greed.

How easily it is for the proud to fall, gradually into the abyss, according to that infernal plan.

We shall see the gradual downfall of nations to the unthinkable, one by one after another.

Repentance, forgiveness, thankfulness.   These are our three great gifts.

Have a pleasant evening.