Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Goodbye to February, Non-Farm Payrolls on Friday

And so we close the door on the leap year-lengthened month of February, which was a particularly good month for gold.

And as always with the end of one month and the beginning of another, there will be a Non-Farm Payrolls report at the end of this week.

Gold is clearly in a symmetrical triangle, trying to decide which way to break, up or down, from this potential 'cup and handle' formation.  And remember right now it is all potential, not having set a firm handle and broken up and out from that retest.

I included some material from a few years ago that shows the formation when it works in both a textbook and a 'real life' example.  You may read about it here.

I have included the box scores from The Bucket Shop, both for the end of February and the piddling deliveries seen so far on the March contracts.

If you are looking for the web site Confounded Interest and are puzzled why it is missing in action, be advised that dissenting from the Federal Reserve and the established economics hierarchy of thought is not tolerated well amongst the very serious people, and those who do not pay their respects to the established orthodoxy can find themselves dispossessed of platforms.

Especially if they say things that draw the ire of those for whom free speech and thought is merely a theoretical concept, for themselves mostly.  No, we are in the age of political and economic power, the rawer the better.   And we could get quite an object lesson in this from either the Donald or the Hillary.  Could there be two better symbols for what is going wrong with us?

No wonder they 'never see it coming.'  They have their eyes closed, or just firmly on themselves and their possessions.  And they would like you to close yours too.

Have a pleasant evening.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Twenty Lords a-Leaping

The US economic news this morning was not particularly good.

Stocks attempted to continue their rally, but fell back on global jitters and concerns about the overhang of risky debt.  They went out in the red, near to the lows of the day.

There will be a Non-Farm Payrolls report later this week.

Have a pleasant evening.

Gold Cup and Handle From the Prior Leg of the Bull Market

As a reminder, here is what a 'successeful' activation and execution of a cup and handle formation looks like.

And as another reminder perhaps, this particular bull rally was later ruthlessly crushed by an avalanche of synthetic gold derivative selling that over time significantly depleted the 'gold float' of physical bullion available to the Asian markets.

Wall Street and The Clintons

The Clintons turned the Democrats into the Republicans, while the Republicans were turning into a mob.

Do not be a partisan for either party. Be a partisan for justice. Be committed to fairness, transparency, liberty, and the truth.

The Banks must be restrained, and the financial system reformed, with balance restored to the economy, before there can be any sustainable recovery.

The Clintons and Wall Street: 24 Years of Enriching Each Other
by Richard W. Behan
February 26, 2016

For twenty four years the Clintons have orchestrated a conjugal relationship with Wall Street, to the immense financial benefit of both parties. They have accepted from the New York banks $68.72 million in campaign contributions for their six political races, and $8.85 million more in speaking fees. The banks have earned hundreds of billions of dollars in practices that were once prohibited—until the Clinton Administration legalized them.

The extraordinary ambition displayed in the careers of Bill and Hillary Clinton defies description. They have spent much of their adult lives soliciting money from others for their own benefit...

Hillary Clinton’s net worth is forty five million dollars; Bill Clinton’s is eighty million. Measured by family wealth, this puts the couple in the top 1% of American households by a factor of 16.  (and they claim to have left the White House 'broke')

The Clintons’ ambition is reinforced by arrogance. Their behavior in the Monica Lewinsky affair is only the most glaring example. Sexual frivolities while holding office are scarcely unusual, having spiced the lives of public figures for centuries, but if the dalliance is exposed, the scarlet official typically resigns in shame and scuttles into obscurity...

That performance pales, however, compared to the Clintons’ self-serving transformation of the Democratic Party, from the champion of working people to the lapdog of Wall Street—and of corporate America in general. Cleverly the Clintons still pander to the traditional constituency, but in serving its new clientele the transformed party abandoned the less fortunate strata of American society, especially the communities of color...

Read the entire article at Counterpunch here.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts -

The economic news this morning was 'better than expected,' showing an upward revision in 4Q GDP and stronger consumer spending.

And the dollar rallied, the Fed hawks like Cleveland's Mester were out talking the likelihood of rate increases, and stocks rallied, but then flopped badly into the close.

And so we say goodby to February, as we leap over Monday of next week, and toddle bravely into the great unknown, often wrong but rarely in doubt.  This is the way things are when you are living on credibility in the age of the long con.

Speaking of cons, Chris Christie endorsed Donald Trump this afternoon.   Birds of a feather, like grackles and starlings.

It was a reasonably strong month for gold, at least on paper.

There are some interesting things going on in silver, which the usual suspects will firmly deny are of any such interest. I direct your attention to the intraday commentary about that here.

I think silver might be a little more interesting going forward than it has been.

Nothing has changed. Not one thing. And that, alas, is the pity of it.

Have a pleasant weekend.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - The Violence of the Scams

"This nation is getting remarkably adept at turning its less affluent citizens upside down and shaking them, until literally every single cent falls out of their pockets. And then it induces them to take on debt so they can be shaken down some more."

Malcom McMichael

The 'better than expected' economic data this morning sparked a rally, that was then sold off, leaving the major indices red into the close.

How amazing that the backward looking data from this morning shows that Americans are spending more, near a record, and that spending is on recreation!

No wonder there is such job growth in the services, like bartenders and waitstaff.

Does this mean that the more than half of our citizens who are subsisting in poverty and food stamps are having a secret good time of it?   Or that the government statistics and the economic models are a bunch of self-serving, cockeyed nonsense.   No question mark on purpose, the question is rhetorical.

Let us bear in mind that for the privileged and the shameless, nothing is too low, or too ridiculous when faced with the alternative of surrendering their greatly undeserved advantages.

Have a pleasant weekend.