Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Sleepwalking To a Wipeout

Word has it that Goldcorp is eyeing Newmont (at these price levels and reserves) with covetous eyes. Can't say I would blame them.

Markets shook off the scare of a new cold to medium warm war yesterday as conflicts took their toll on innocents in the Ukraine and in Gaza.

The beleaguered Espírito Santo International has declared bankruptcy.

The Anglo-American financial system's moral bankruptcy is already a generally recognized fait accompli, except by those caught up in the credibility trap.

Today was a stock market option expiry. The next expiration on the Comex will be for the August contracts on July 28.

This next song goes out to Bubbles, from the Moondog.  If you do right, everything will come out right. aaaaaahwoooooo...

Things might look bad, but there is still room to dance if the music is good.  We'll save a table for you.

Have a pleasant weekend.

 

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Nothing Can Stop the Market, Until it Does

"Government is, or ought to be instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation, or community; of all the various modes and forms of government, that is best which is capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety, and is most effectually secured against the danger of maladministration."

George Mason

The markets bounced back today as the algos shook off yesterday's Ukraine and Gaza jitters, and the momentum players came back in.

Volatility fell on this options expiry.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - The Fog of Currency War

"Violence, less and less embarrassed by the limits imposed by centuries of lawfulness, is brazenly and victoriously striding across the whole world, unconcerned that its infertility has been demonstrated and proved many times in history. What is more, it is not simply crude power that triumphs abroad, but its exultant justification. The world is being inundated by the brazen conviction that power can do anything, and justice nothing."

Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn

There was a flight to safety in the precious metals this morning on the news of a commercial airliner being downed near the border of the Ukraine and Russia, and that Israel has launched a ground invasion of Gaza.  Volatility spiked on wars and rumours of war.

Violence and disorder tends to trump the printing press. Truth is led down a blind alley and strangled.

Apparently the markets have not read the memo that there are no fundamentals for the precious metals.  I expect a bravado confidence to return to the markets soon enough.  Until the next 'big event.'  These fellows have no limits.

Well, Bubbles has had her say, and the fog of currency war descends again on the Pax Americana.

Have a pleasant evening.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Skittish, Toombs, Skittish...

In this morning's commentary on The Recovery I ended with, "Time for more distractions. What time's the next 'big event'?"

About 45 minutes later I edited it out, as the news from Ukraine was breaking.

I do not wish to traffic in human tragedy.   And I remember the families and those who have suffered loss.

There is a bull market in chicken hawks.  It serves to distract and divert the jaded,  and besides, one must never waste a crisis.

May the odds be ever in your favour.

Have a pleasant evening.

The Recovery™ In One Chart

"Plunderers of the world, when nothing remains on the lands to which they have laid waste by wanton thievery, they search out across the seas.  The wealth of another region excites their greed; and if it is weak, their lust for power as well.  Nothing from the rising to the setting of the sun is enough for them. Among all others only they are compelled to attack the poor as well as the rich.

Robbery, rape, and slaughter they falsely call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace."

Tacitus, Agricola

Funny thing, human nature. Despite all the trappings of progress nothing ever seems to change except the names.

Empire is now called 'war on terror.'

Panem et circenses. Washington is certainly a circus, and we know who is getting all the bread.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Mum's the Word

This is a verbatim comment from a principled conservative economist friend who will remain nameless and blameless.

"Was at a Cato/Mercatus conference on The Way Forward in GSE Reform. I stood up and asked  'Every solution I have heard is just enriching government cronies and rent seekers. Is this all you've got?'

Dead silence. Yes, it's all they got.  Rent-seekers and heart-breakers."

Today I am reminded of the saying, 'if you don't have anything nice to say, then it's better to say nothing at all.'

Truly, there is none good but God.

Have a pleasant evening.