NAV Premiums of Certain Precious Metal Trusts and Funds

 

The gold/silver ratio has come back down a bit from the stratosphere, but it is still historically a bit high.

The premiums/discounts have certainly picked up a bit, from the very depressed levels of last year.

The cash level in the Sprott Silver Trust continues to fall, indicating a secondary offering ought to be in the works.

 

 

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Early Days

After a morning smackdown gold was able to hold its level just below 1300, with silver showing a little more resilience.

Tomorrow we should hear the official word from the ECB, after the 'leak' today of over a trillion in QE per year.

The central banks of the West are 'plowing the oceans.'

The Bank of Canada gave us a surprise rate cut, justified by the shocking slump in oil revenues.

This interview with Jim Rickards is worth a look.

Next week we will see an option expiration on the Comex which *could* be a test for this rally.

For this precious metals rally, it is still early days.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

 

Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Exceptional Delusions

Stocks managed to work out a ragged rally after poor economic news, and triumphalism about The Recovery in the State of the Union speech.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

 

 

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Sailing - Greek Elections, Europe's Identity Crisis

"Every man has a right to his own opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts...

Gold has worked down from Alexander's time. When something holds good for two thousand years I do not believe it can be so because of prejudice or mistaken theory."

Bernard Baruch

“What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”

Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan

I think you might replace the word 'cynic' in Oscar Wilde's famous quote with the word 'trader.'  Especially the traders we have out and about in today's markets, who are better conmen than policy advisors.  Of course one might say the same thing about our esteemed Congressmen, so perhaps it is better to say nothing, except to grasp your wallets more firmly.

President Obama will be giving his State of the Union tonight. Expect to hear some nice headline making proposals that will not have any impact on real legislation or policy. And this is by intent.

The plutocrats of Europe will be watching the Greek elections carefully on January 25.  You may wish to keep an eye out for them as well.  The EU is concerned that a left leaning government may be voted in that will buck the austerian trend.

American leadership has dementia, and is going to keep blundering around doing the same old, ineffective things, until something happens to change the situation.

Middle class income has been stagnant for forty years. Expect this to get a little attention, talk-wise. But little will be done.

Gold continued to climb today, which is remarkable given how far it has come. It has now taken out all of its more widely watched moving averages including the 260 DMA which I watch.

I would like to see it break out above 1320 and firmly put a stake into the old trading range from a couple years ago.

Longer term gold may very well have much more upside. However, until we see at least a de facto default on the price-rigging scheme involving leverage and paper gold, I am not ready to assume that the banking cartel has thrown in the towel.

It is fascinating though, to see the congruence between the collapse of the Swiss franc-euro rig and the gold-dollar rig. I don't believe that the Swiss were the major leader of that gold pool. They do not have enough gold or throw weight in terms of the precious metal. They are more of a handler, a facilitator.

Rick Harrison, the 'star' of Pawn Stars, was a bit more on his 'home turf' as the conversation continued to turn to things he understands from his day to day business.  Rick is a retail merchant of gold.  And he said, flat out, that his biggest trouble now is that his suppliers in the US have no supply for him.  They are out. 

And the continuing depletion of the West's readily available gold inventory by China has put pressures on the banking cartel that have caused the price to rise.  Again, one has to remark on the timing, with gold rallying as the Swiss peg to the euro, failed.

This I can believe, because I have heard this and seen circumstantial evidence of it.  Higher prices would ordinarily be the remedy for a shortage in the supply of something.

The problem is that supply has to catch up with over leveraged speculation and multiples of rehypothecation and undisclosed risks, which is what caused the capital markets to freeze up in 2008  This market does not need more paper gold.  It needs bullion.

Let's see how gold and silver proceed from here, to see something on the charts that might help us to determine what the upsides might be, and how good this breakout is.

Have a pleasant evening.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Financial TV Wasteland

Stocks managed to pull out a little counter-trend gain today. 

This is a light week for economic news.

We are getting into the earnings season. 

After the bell, both Netflix and IBM beat their earnings estimates, but missed on top line revenues.

Both are fine examples of low growth companies using accounting games to provide the appearance of vitality.  IBM has been shrinking for quite some time, and Netflix, while it has potential, needs to change its model badly. 

Or perhaps it would be more correct to say it should expand its portfolio of activities.  But not being a true content provider, or a supplier of the pipe that carry its products, it is an interesting strategic position. 

Let's see how the wash and rinse cycle proceeds.  The Street would like to see stocks move higher now. 

I turned to CNBC for relief from Trish Regan's pretty but nasal banality.

I noticed that CNBC had Rick Harrison, the purveyor of a Las Vegas pawn shop, and reality show star on as a guest commentator on macro-economics, providing policy advice.   He may know the retail trade, but public economic policy, not so much.

 

I kept waiting for Steve Liesman to come on and provide the comic relief that Chumlee ordinarily delivers to give some entertainment value to Pawn Stars.  Larry Kudlow was doing his schtick earlier on as 'Pops.'  

The intellectual poverty of financial television is appalling:  five miles wide, and an inch deep.  No wonder the ratings were plummeting.  See the quote from my friend Arby at the top of the page.  Our elite ruling class is in the throes of cultural dementia. 

Have a pleasant evening.

 

 

To a Power Drunk Generation, the Vista of Eternity

"Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ And Jesus said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?’ And the lawyer answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.’

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbour?’

As you know, this passage above is the introduction to one of the greatest and most memorable of the parables from our Lord's own lips while He walked on earth, that story of The Good Samaritan.  And the introductory passage itself is therefore sometimes overlooked, but it ought not to be.  "Do this, and you will live."

Our Lord did not offer us an exemption from sin if we call on His name, but forgiveness if that request is offered in true repentance, a recognition of our fault, and faith, and an active response to His command to 'go and sin no more.'  Otherwise calling on His name would be in the manner of an incantation and a compulsion, and not a plaintive call for His forgiveness with a right and repentant heart.  "Not every one that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father who is in heaven."

It might be better to have been born without any knowledge of His word and His commandments, than to hear His words and then hypocritically parade in them and His sacraments, with intricate invocations of His holy name on your lips, as a call to hatefulness, pride, division, self-justification, and oppression.

For the first is the natural state of man, and weakness of the human condition, that might still hold out some hope of forgiveness and redemption, if the heart does not become too self-possessed and hardened through wickedness.

But for those who take great pains to drape themselves in the words of God and his faithful, in order to satisfy their own lust for power, righteousness, and superiority, dealing out hate, violent words, and scandal to others from their fearful and hardened hearts, there will be much less chance of forgiveness.

For this is the sin against the Spirit, about which our Lord himself warned when He walked on this earth.   It is not ignorance or weakness, but rather a willful distortion and perversion of the Word that gives scandal to others and spreads hatefulness.

I am speaking now, more directly, to those who embrace hatred and spread thoughts of violence and repression in the name of God, giving scandal to His faithful on earth. 

And I am not speaking merely of murder, and the more obvious atrocities that fanatics may commit in His name.  No these are terrible enough.  But I am speaking to those who stoke the fires of hatefulness, and violent words, gossip and namecalling, insults and hardness towards their brothers and sisters in this world, smugly asking, Who is my neighbor?

And you know who you are, if you are not already completely dead to the Spirit. 

Even a dog can love its offspring, and gratefully lick the hand of the master that feeds it. But if you cannot love those who may not have offended you but may do not deserve it,  who you do not know, or whom you look down upon, for the sake of the Lord, and give a reverent obedience to His two great commandments, then you may be truly lost, and perhaps even beyond any sorrow and reparation, God forbid this, in the life to come.

I caution you today, to look into your own hearts, and especially if you think you are without sin, to beg God to open your eyes, to chastise your conscience, to show you the many times you have wronged Him, and not been one of His faithful servants.   For no one is good, but God.

It is better to do this now, and to open your hearts and minds to forgiveness, that to persist in your stiff-necked pride, until a time when you hear the awful truth.

Pray for each other, and especially for those who may try you, or tempt you in any way to anger or violence. But try even harder to not look about judging others, and feeling satisfied with yourself.  For the love in your own hearts has grown cold, and selective, prideful and chastising of others.  Do not compare yourself to this one or that one, to justify yourself in your own eyes.  Pray for others, and judge only yourself, weighing your own conscience carefully in these perilous times, setting God and not yourself as the judge of your own righteous action.

When you have a hard thought or a harsh judgement for one of your brothers and sisters, pray for them.  Make yourself pray for them at each and every temptation to hatred and self-justification, for whatever sinfulness and weakness you may see in them, you have it in you.    I can assure you that if you commit yourself to doing this, every day and at the moment that such a hard thought may occur, it will at the very least keep you prayerful and well occupied.

We must do this, and be especially vigilant for our own souls and actions.   For His people are under a tremendous assault.   This truly is a generation made drunk with the will to power, that has been foretold for these dark times.  Do not worry so much about the wealth you may have on this earth, that you forget the only real and lasting possessions you may take with you to the next.

Don't worry about what they do, how they worship.  Don't worry about what I do, and what I think.  Rather, Let each person concern themselves with what they do, and how well they respond to their own call from God.   Examine your own actions and thoughts and behaviours first and foremost.  For you will not be called upon to answer for what they do, but what you have done.  Before you dare to try to convert and persuade and argue with anyone else, first make yourself perfect, so that they might be drawn to goodness by your very example.

May God have mercy on any who provide provocation and false teachings to others, and scandalous examples to their brothers and sisters, children and grandchildren, especially because of their willful selfishness, stubborn greed, and foolish pride.   And you know who you are, if you are not already completely dead to the life of the Spirit.

"You must come to see that it is possible for a man to be self-centered in his self-denial and self-righteous in his self-sacrifice.  He may be generous in order to feed his ego and pious in order to feed his pride.  Man has the tragic capacity to relegate a heightening virtue to a tragic vice.  Without love benevolence becomes egotism, and martyrdom becomes spiritual pride.

So the greatest of all virtues is love. It is here that we find the true meaning of the Christian faith. This is at bottom the meaning of the cross. The great event on Calvary signifies more than a meaningless drama that took place on the stage of history. It is a telescope through which we look out into the long vista of eternity and see the love of God breaking forth into time.

It is an eternal reminder to a power drunk generation that love is most durable power in the world, and that it is at bottom the heartbeat of the moral cosmos."

Martin Luther King, St. Paul’s Letter to the American Churches, November 4, 1956