Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Payrolls Come In Weakly - Media to Blame for Slowdown

"The Economy is great.  The only thing adding to 'uncertainty' is the Fake News!"

Donald J. Trump

Now we toddle on into September.

The Jobs Report came in unexpectedly weak this morning, and even weaker if one backs out the government census workers, showing a private payrolls growth of only 96,000.

The markets sloughed off this newest piece of data, but in general they just held their ground, although the flushing out and strafing of the safe havens continued somewhat.

Let's see how things go next week.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Flush Out the Safe Havens - Non-Farm Payrolls Tomorrow

"As everything in what used to be called creation becomes a commodity, human beings begin to look at one another, and at themselves, in a funny way, and they see price tags. There was a time when people spoke, at least occasionally, of 'inherent worth'— if not of things, then at least of persons."

Harvey Cox, The Market as God


"Those who are at present so eager to be reconciled with the world at any price must take care not to be reconciled with it under this particular aspect: as the nest of The Unspeakable. This is what too few are willing to see."

Thomas Merton


"He had a history of screwing anyone who relied on him, whether we’re talking about the investors in his Atlantic City casinos or a bevy of small business types and others who worked for him — plumbers, waiters, painters, cabinet makers — and were later stiffed. In other words, Americans elected a bankruptcy king as their president and character will tell.

There really are no secrets here. In the end, Donald Trump clearly cares about nothing but himself (and perhaps his family as an extension of that self). Whether in his first or second term (should he win again in 2020), if things start to head south economically, count on this: he’ll repeat his well-documented history and jump ship, leaving the American people, including that beloved base of his, holding the bag."

Tom Engelhardt, Donald Trump Will Bankrupt America

News of scheduled talks between China and the US in October, a better than expected ISM Service Index number, and a stronger than expected ADP Private Payrolls report combined for a massive reversal of the risk off trades into safe havens.

Bonds and gold and silver were sold, stocks were bought en masse, and short stops were run with aggressive abandon.

Something had for the banks who were holding bleeding short positions, to help get them off the hook.  And this is just the group of crony capitalists and lowlifes to do it.

And so it is, and not one thing has changed.

But we were overextended in some of the safer assets, technically speaking.  The recent run up in silver had me concerned, especially when the usual suspects came out this week with their gleeful calls of silver to $50 and gold to $10,000.

And the wiseguys love this environment where the SEC and CFTC are asleep at the switch, and the pigmen are private labeling and branding the swamp.

Do as you will, believe as you wish, but own the consequences.  And you most certainly will own them in the long run, whether you realize it or want to or not.

I had been laying back in cash for my short term trading, and filled up some of the empty position slots during the day.

Better for most to take a unleveraged position, to get right and sit tight, and to stop reading the clickbait sites that seek to stir up your emotions, your fear and hate and envy.   Life is too short.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Silver Continues to Rip Higher - Release the Kraken

Wow.

It was a 'risk on' kind of a day, as stocks managed to hold their early ground and power higher into the close.

The SP 500 and NDX are both running into the key overhead resistance that has kept them rangebound in the past few weeks.

Gold held its recent gains and moved slightly higher, bumping into the upper bound of its consolidation pattern.

The Dollar continued its slight decline.

The VIX fell sharply with this new risk appetite in the short term punters.

But the real story was in silver, which continued powering upwards, going out on its highs.

This has all the signs of a short-covering rally.

I was reading the latest from Ted Butler today, to see if he could shed any insight on the reasons for this incredible silver rally.

His take is pretty much the same as my own.  He does not know of any particular event that is driving this, although there could be one.

I also took a look at the usual suspects.  The mainstream financial media continues to run their pom-poms for equities.  Most of the usual sources don't know or aren't saying.  I am chasing down rumors but haven't come up with anything that seems credible.

Most likely, given what we do know, this is an intense technical reaction to a breakout from a long period of price suppression driven by a few major players who were gaming the markets. Ted goes into much more detail and names the players, with the specifics of the market structure, but you'll have to read it on his site. (subscription)

I think the incredible out of norm level of the gold-silver ratio was a tipoff that at some point silver would shake off its market made bindings and bolt higher, following and exceeding gold.  Or that gold would get crushed, which was a bit of a concern all things considered.

And so it has done. This is a familiar scenario to old market hands. Silver may be kept lower, but at some point the beta is unleashed.

There will likely be a correction at some point, but I would not wish to try and get in front of this. I'll leave that up to the banks who can stomach billions in paper losses. For a while.

Chart-wise silver looks to have its sights set on 22ish.  It may go parabolic(er) and overshoot.  

Slack, of recent IPO fame, was monkey hammered after the bell as its results did not nearly support its current valuations.

We may be hearing a lot more stories like this in days to come.

Have a pleasant evening.

'Silk Road' Gold Demand

Gold is flowing from West to East.

Year to Date Performance of Certain Assets - Silver Takes the Lead

And a few mining funds for good measure.

The gold:silver ratio was just off the hook out of bounds before this latest silver rally. I was beginning to despair. lol

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Silver Takes the 19 Handle - Markets On Edge Before Payrolls and Powell

The Gathering Tweetstorm

"U.S. factory activity unexpectedly contracted in August for the first time in three years as shrinking orders, production and hiring pushed a widely followed measure of manufacturing to its lowest level since January 2016. The Institute for Supply Management’s purchasing managers index fell to 49.1 in August, weaker than all forecasts in a Bloomberg survey of economists, data released Tuesday showed.

Figures below 50 signal the manufacturing economy is generally contracting. The group’s gauge of new orders dropped to a more than seven-year low, while the production index shrank to the weakest level since the end of 2015. Faltering manufacturing could complicate President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign as recent data undermines one of his signature promises for a strong economy.

Stocks extended declines and the yield on 10-year Treasuries fell sharply Tuesday after the data was released. The dollar weakened."

Bloomberg, U.S. Manufacturing Contracts for First Time in Three Years


“Because silver and gold have their value from the matter itself, they have first this privilege, that the value of them cannot be altered by the power of one, nor of a few commonwealths, as being a common measure of the commodities of all places. But base money may easily be enhanced or abased.”

Thomas Hobbes

Gold and silver are the antithesis of the primacy of the power of the state to arbitrarily and sustainably mandate value and create wealth as it wishes at will.

Anyone who has personally witnessed the collapse of artificially managed maintained exchange rates into black markets knows this.

Tariffs and a marathon tweetstorm had US equities reeling a bit over the weekend.

Even an effort to turn it around during the quiet futures overnight trading hours couldn't help, and so stocks finished lower after the three day weekend.

The Manufacturing ISM missed this morning, and at 49.1 actually showed a slight contraction.

Risk off was the big story, with the Dollar and Gold higher.

But the real mover and shaker was once again silver, which took out the $19 handle in the morning with some authority, and then held it during the afternoon and into the close.

Wow.

Jay Powell will be speaking in Zurich near the end of the week.

There will be a Non-Farm Payrolls report on Friday, which may play backup to Fed Chair Powell's remarks.

It is fairly obvious that a market crash and a recession would have seriously negative effect on Trumpolini's 2020 election ambitions.

Let's see how the bulls respond to this. And who may decide to give them a helping hand.

And oh by the way, Insiders Are Selling Stock Like It's 2007

Have a pleasant evening.