Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - First Trading Week of the New Year - Non-Farm Payrolls Report

Stocks, led higher by big cap tech, were on an absolute tear higher today.

Volatility as measured by the VIX was crushed lower.

The dollar continued to show weakness.

Gold rallied up through the overhead resistance, and made a stab at some levels we have not seen in some time. Silver showed its penchant for beta and was up a bit higher on a percentage level, firmly nailing down the 17 handle.

It will be interesting to see if we can crack 1330 in gold/dollars. What a powerful move we have had off the last FOMC meeting. But as noted, this has been the usual thing so many times last year.

There will be a Non-Farm Payrolls Report on Friday.

Have a pleasant evening.

Acceptance and Forgiveness

What is a proper disposition towards life?  It is to accept God as a loving father, who is full of tenderness and forgiveness for us, despite our willful blunders and hardened hearts. He yearns for us, as a father and mother yearn for the return of their most beloved child.

It is to accept that we are not lost, we are not abandoned.  We are wandering like a wayward child, full of our own headstrong delusions.  And our father waits expectantly, calling out for us through the darkness.   He sends the spirit out to find us, a light to find our way home to him out of the gloom of the night.

It is to accept that his door is always open, and that he will not abandon us, until he has at last welcomed us into his house.

How do we know what he is doing? Talk to him. He is always listening. He delights in our presence, and notes everything about us, as a loving parent does to a sleeping child. His love is boundless, but will not overwhelm us. Because that is how deep his love is for us.

God is our loving father.  If only we will accept it, and accept our life as it truly is meant to be, beyond the images and the shadows of the world.  For he has already humbled himself, and in his loving forgiveness laid down his life for us.

What more can we ask, what additional proof of his love can we require of him? ?

What's for New Year's Dinner

I am having roast duck for New Year's dinner.   A roast pork seemed to be too large, and I found a nice young seven pound duck on sale.  It has been some years since I have made one.

It is just Dolly and me.   And Dolly seems to have a case of the dolly flu, and is spending most of the time hiding from the cold snuggled up by my side.

I am using this Roast Duck recipe as a general guideline for the cooking mechanics.

I stuffed the duck with cubed root vegetables, garlic and herbs including ginger. I did add some honey and balsamic vinegar to that mix but lightly.

I had cut off the rather substantial piece of skin from the neck area, and fried it in a skillet slowly to extract the duck fat.  And then I sauteed the giblets and some finely diced vegetables in it. I deglazed the skillet with sherry, and added bullion (Rachel Ray's which is Dolly's choice for her food) and poured that over toasted sourdough bread and white bread to make a stuffing on the side.

I did baste the duck with a glaze of my own creation for the last forty-five minutes of cooking in order to give it that crispy look and texture without raising the heat or broiling.

I poured off the duck fat from the roasting pan and saving it for the rest of the week, to use in making breakfast eggs etc.

I ate (does one serve a dinner for one?) the duck with the roast vegetables from the duck, Brussels sprouts,  the stuffing, and a gravy made with the non-fat drippings from the roasting pan added to a packet of Knorr's turkey gravy.  And I was keen to use my new OXO fat separator which worked wonderfully.  It came out quite well. 

I just finished and thought it turned out rather well.

Have a happy New Year's day.

An Artist's Conception of My New Year's Dinner

Happy New Year

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."

Genesis 1:1-2


"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not."

John 1:1-5


"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling place of God is with His people. He will dwell with them, and they will be His and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.'

And he who was seated on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.'"

Revelation 21:1-5

Suffering, Sorrow, Loss, Hopefulness, Faithfulness, and Prayer

This morning I came across this excerpt below in William Barclay's Daily Commentary on the Gospels.

I normally do not read this commentary.  This encounter today was by a happy accident, and a tender mercy, in a response to my own ongoing thoughts and prayers.    I wanted to share it with you because it speaks to many of us, and certainly most of those with whom I have shared conversations, especially over the past year.

Luke 2:36-40  There was a prophetess called Anna. She was the daughter of Phanuel and she belonged to the tribe of Asher. She was far advanced in years. She had lived with her husband ever since seven years after she came to womanhood; and now she was a widow of eighty-four years of age. She never left the Temple and day and night she worshipped with fastings and with prayers.

At that very time she came up and she began to give thanks to God and she kept speaking about him to all those who were waiting expectantly for the deliverance of Jerusalem. When they had completed everything which the Lord's law lays down they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew bigger and stronger and he was filled with wisdom, and God's grace was on him.

"Anna was one of the Quiet in the Land.  We know nothing about her except what these verses tell but even in this brief compass Luke has drawn us a complete character sketch.

Anna was a widow. She had known sorrow and she had not grown bitter.  Sorrow can do one of two things to us.  It can make us hard, bitter, resentful, rebellious against God.  Or it can make us kinder, softer, more sympathetic. 

It can despoil us of our faith; or it can root faith ever deeper.  It all depends how we think of God.  If we think of him as a tyrant we will resent him.  If we think of him as Father we too will be sure that:

A Father's hand will never cause
His child a needless tear.

She was eighty-four years of age. She was old and she had never ceased to hope.  Age can take away the bloom and the strength of our bodies; but age can do worse— the years can take away the life of our hearts until the hopes that once we cherished die and we become dully content and grimly resigned to things as they are. 

Again it all depends on how we think of God.  If we think of him as distant and detached we may well despair; but if we think of him as intimately connected with life, as having his hand on the helm, we too will be sure that the best is yet to be and the years will never kill our hope.

How then was Anna such as she was?

She never ceased to worship. She spent her life in God's house with God's people. God gave us his church to be our mother in the faith. We rob ourselves of a priceless treasure when we neglect to be one with his worshipping people.

She never ceased to pray. Public worship is great; but private worship is also great. As someone has truly said, "They pray best together who first pray alone." The years had left Anna without bitterness and in unshakable hope because day by day she kept her contact with Him who is the source of strength and in whose strength our weakness is made perfect."

The prophetess Anna is not much remarked or remembered.  She is 'the quiet of the land.'  I believe that there is a beautiful little church, on the slope of the Mount of Olives, the Church of Dominus Flevit, that was built on the site of an ancient Byzantine church that was dedicated to her.

Do you wish to know what God is thinking, what He is doing?  Talk to Him.  Talk also to His people, those who are yours to walk with you on the way.   And do not allow a wayward heart to make you hardened, deaf and blind.