"The problem with movies and books is they make evil look glamorous, exciting, when it's no such thing. It's boring and it's depressing and it's stupid. Criminals are all after cheap thrills and easy money, and when they get them, all they want is more of the same, over and over. They're shallow, empty, boring people who couldn't give you five minutes of interesting conversation. Maybe some can be monkey-clever, some of the time, but they aren't hardly ever smart."
Dean Koontz
Stocks were in a bit of a chop in edgy trading with eyes on the US non-farm payrolls report tomorrow.
Traders want to see if a good number will give the Fed cover to start making noise about raising rates at least another 25 bp this year.
As a reminder, the Fed wishes to raise rates to get off ZIRP far enough to have the latitude to cut rates later next year when their latest asset bubble starts to implodes in the continuing cycle of bubble-nomics.
Gold was booming this morning, but as stocks turned around in a short squeeze gold gave back some of its early gains but still finished higher for the day, and a new high for the year.
I was out from late morning to late afternoon and so I missed the comments on the Fed minutes. No great loss.
Stocks sold off in Europe, and were selling off in the US in the early hours.
And then stocks turned around. I have heard several reasons for this. I think the most compelling is that the turnaround was led by the 'most shorted stocks.'
Healthcare sector picked up the ball and provided leadership to the upside after the initial short squeezing was dissipating.
And here I thought that July would be a quiet month for gold here in NY.
You can see from the delivery report below that the metal is moving, at least in the sense of changing hands in ownership, if not actually going anywhere in the physical sense. And that assumes it is physical in the first place, and not some hypothecated illusion.
Gold is breaking out. Silver gave us a thrill over the holiday weekend with a run to 21, but has since backed off, but held on to the 20 handle, by its fingernails.
The Non-Farm Payrolls for June will be out at the end of this week. Along with a few other economic goodies that could open the door to further shenanigans.
The British pound dropped to a 30 year low against the dollar at 1.30. Thoughts of a trip to London are crossing my mind on this, but air travel has become so tedious as compared to prior days that I hate to subject ourselves to it. And the queen, while doing well, is still a bit on the fragile side, and requires more rest than usual.
Gold needs to hold prior resistance. Let's see if it can do it. Silver needs to break out. And that looks promising.
Stocks were in a bit of a slump today, understandable after the sharp run up in the post-Brexit surge of devil-may-care confidence by the ubermenschen.
So, all in all, just a minor swing, a brief setback in the technocracies plans to rule them all with the one ring of neoliberal economic nonsense.
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.
It is available for your use at no cost, but with attribution and a link to the original posting.
I make every attempt to respect the rights of others. If you feel that something here has infringed your work please let me know and I will correct it immediately. It is not always easy to determine the status of material posted to the Internet with regard to fair use and public domain.
