Gold and silver paused today, after bumping their heads for most of the New York trade against overhead resistance.
The dollar rallied back a bit today, at least as measured by the DX index. Why? Because the euro was lower, based on the European stance towards additional easing and a weaker currency to aid German exports.
The Bucket Shop was deadly quiet on deliveries, and the gold warehouses continue to look like wax figures in Madame Tussauds'. See how paper gold used to be hypothecated and traded in the 20th century.
There was the usual slow leakage of silver bullion.
Let's see if the metals can form a new base here and consolidate their recent gains.
You can skip over the unemployment claims figures, and take them with a grain of salt. They do not show a 'strong labor recovery' to anyone who has an open, reasoning mind. They show an economy of low paid stagnation with a sizable portion of the labor force laid out with exhaustion and giving up the pursuit of jobs.
But the Empire Manufacturing and Philly Fed numbers were chilling.
And that is why stocks rallied so hard today, because except for the inimitable servant of the New York Banks first and foremost, Bill Dudley, there won't be any rate increases from the Fed anytime soon.
However, the Fed's presumed lack of further action, caught as it is in a credibility trap of policy error, does not do much for the rest of the world, particularly China.
And in that we may find a scapegoat, but no respite or relief from the mismanagement of the economy by the kleptocratic elites and their minions.
Where to next?
Let's see if hope floats.
Especially since tomorrow is an option expiration for equities.
Gold and silver both had nice rallies today as they moved even deeper in the overhead resistance of the long bear market.
I have updated the gold chart with some new indicators of where we are.
The next big level for gold is at 1210, although 1200 is likely to be a significant 'psychological' barrier. And of course, gold needs to hold within the new uptrending channel it is establishing on any retracements and corrections.
The Bucket Shop is becoming very quiet, like a museum, but empty, devoid of humanity. More like a ghost town perhaps, an artifact from a place that time and custom are passing by.
As of today, gold and silver are outperforming stocks year to date.
Let's see if gold and silver can truly break out from here, or just form a different trading challenge. I have not noticed any genuine reform in the paper markets.
I wonder how the fellows who say that gold and silver 'have no fundamentals' would explain this? I am sure it would be misleadingly distracting.
That seems to be the currency and major export of America's elite ruling class and their servants these days.
As I indicated the other day, based on the extreme reading in skew, and intraday today on the warning from Walmart and the general lack of economic recovery which is seemingly invisible to the upper crust and their media minions, I think that sometime within the next year or two we are going to see quite a surprising correction in terms of real valuations of stocks.
Whether that is nominal or just real depends on the dollar.
Our kids are going to live so much better than we do now."
Warren Buffett
“Among 21 countries in the study the U.S. ranks second-to-last in the percentage of its GDP spent on benefits for families, despite one of the highest relative child poverty rates of the comparable high-income countries. [only Turkey was worse because it failed to provide any data]”
Walmart warned on its profit outlook for 2016 and the stock dropped about 8 percent.
As the pampered princes of financial television put it:
"To say that Wall Street was surprised by what Walmart had to say is an understatement.'
The spin is that Walmart is 'brick and mortar' and that it is losing ground to Amazon.
And amongst the worst analysis, Walmart ought not to have given its employees, who are among the lowest of the working poor, a raise in wages.
Walmart merely needs to 'reinvent' itself.
Maybe that is true.
Or maybe it is tied into the overall retail results which we saw this morning.
Walmart is at the sharp point of the failing US consumers, who are un- or under- employed with stagnant wages and shrinking benefits, pinned by rising rents and healthcare costs, possessing little discretionary income, almost no savings, and living virtually paycheck to paycheck.
In the new retail models, like Walmart and Amazon, the vast bulk of the income goes directly to the top, to a fortunate few like the Walmart family and Jeff Bezos, with a little to shareholders, and crumbs to the employees who are driven harder to be 'competitive.'
There will be many more surprises for Wall Street, and for the very comfortable ruling elite.
The banks must be restrained, the financial system reformed, and the economy brought back into balance, before there can be any sustained recovery.
Let us pray for those whose hearts are hardened against His grace and loving kindness by greed, fear, and pride, and the seductive illusion and crushing isolation of evil.
We pray that we all may experience the three great gifts of our Lord's suffering and triumph: repentance, forgiveness, and thankfulness. And in so doing, may we obtain abundant life, and with it the peace that surpasses all understanding.
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