Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - In the Shadows

 

"Extremist ideologies are again growing around us, and we hesitate to describe them in their own language, for fear of provoking them to pursue their aims.  Reading von Hildebrand reminds us that there is only one sure remedy against an ideology of hate, and that is to expose it to public criticism and to affirm what it denies.

The ardent faith that inspired von Hildebrand is not easily recovered in our skeptical times. But through his love of truth and his brave opposition to a public culture of deception, he bore witness to values that we still share. " 

Roger Scruton, foreward to My Battle Against Hitler

“Love is not concerned with a person’s accomplishments, it is a response to a person’s being:  This is why a typical word of love is to say: I love you, because you are as you are. 

Love typically gives rise to responsiveness regarding the beauty of a very specific individual taken as a whole rather than for values taken individually.   Happiness is love’s outcome, never its motive.  Where someone is loved they are an end in themselves, and certainly not a means toward something else. 

It is therefore of love’s essence, wherever it is found, that the loved one seem precious, beautiful, and worthy of love." 

Dietrich von Hildebrand, The Art of Living 

 

"He immunized and protected us from the philosophical waves that swept across Germany in those days.   Whoever understood von Hildebrand was saved.  Despite the many factors at work, I think one can rightly say that history might have been quite different had there been more professors like him."

Paul Stöcklein, student of von Hildebrand at the University of Munich

 

"That damned Hildebrand is the greatest obstacle for National Socialism in Austria.  No one causes more harm."

Franz von Papen

"If God permits evils such as Bolshevism and National Socialism, then of course, as St. Paul says, it is to test us; it is precisely our struggle against evil that God wills, even when we suffer external defeat."

Dietrich von Hildebrand,  My Battle Against Hitler: Faith, Truth, and Defiance in the Shadow of The Third Reich 

 

It is certainly an irony of history that so many without some external and independent moral grounding to save them will flee the devils of the left by embracing the devils of the right and vice versa, lurching from one to another, with a high moral hypocrisy, even into the abyss. 

Truly at times in history, perhaps such as our own, the increase in wickedness and cynical selfishness will provoke the love of most to grow cold.  But even then, and especially then, we have the moral imperative to stand our ground, even to the end, and be saved in saving others while serving that which we have been given that is lasting.

Stocks managed to rally into the close on another summer trading day.

Gold was down a little, silver was up.

The dollar largely chopped sideways after rising a little bit.

It seems that the miners were taking a bit of a hit in selling in the afternoon.

There will be an option expiration on Friday.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

 

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Rinse Cycle Complete

 

"Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction." 

Erich Fromm

 

"Poor and content is rich, and rich enough,
But riches fineless is as poor as winter
To him that ever fears he shall be poor."

William Shakespeare, Othello 

"Greed, I say, is a great flood; it is a whirlpool that sucks a person down, a constant yearning, always seeking a hold, continually in movement." 

Siddhārtha Gautama

 

“The real conflict is the inner conflict.  Beyond armies of occupation and the catacombs of extermination camps, there are two irreconcilable enemies in the depth of every soul: good and evil, sin and love.  And what use are the victories on the battlefield if we are ourselves are defeated in our innermost selves?” 

Maximilian Kolbe

 

When the precious metals get their big run, remember that the game is still afoot, and the field is not yet won.   

For what does it profit a man...

Stocks rebounded sharply today.

Gold and silver also rallied sharply.

The Dollar drifted lower all afternoon, but managed to hold on to the 92 handle.

These jokers are running the market through wash and rinse cycles like it is a laundromat.

Stock option expiration next week.

Have a pleasant weekend.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Great Moneto - Markets Wobble in the Wash and Rinse Cycle

 

"It would convert the Treasury of the United States into a manufactory of paper money.  It makes the House of Representatives and the Senate, or the caucus of the party which happens to be in the majority, the absolute dictator of the financial and business affairs of this country.  This scheme surpasses all the centralism and all the Caesarism that were ever charged upon the Republican party in the wildest days of the war or in the events growing out of the war." 

James A Garfield, Speaking on the Greenback Party Monetary Proposal, April 1880 

 

Stocks were loopy again today, for whatever reason one may wish or care to assign.

Silver and the Dollar declined a bit in value.

Gold managed to finish essentially unchanged. 

I still think that this is second half positioning (a kinder word for churning) by the well supplied and under-regulated financial interests that dominate Wall Street.

But let's keep our eyes open for any 'trigger events' even though this is an unlikely time of the year for major trend changes to the downside.

With thunderstorms running in its advance, the storm Elsa is going to be rolling over the NY metro area in the early morning hours tomorrow.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Markets Wilting in the Summer Heat

 

The Fed Minutes today sent, or perhaps reinforced, a message of interest rate dovishness to the markets.

Stocks managed to hold some further gains, although the NDX big cap techs are appearing a bit stale.

Gold pushed up and managed to hold its gain.

Silver took a bit of a further decline.

We are in summer trading now, although it was a bit more lively as more senior traders came back from holiday.

The weather in the Northeast has been brutally hot, and even a wave of fairly impressive thunderstorms failed to cool things off.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Whipsaw - Starting the Second Half With a Wash and Rinse

 

It was a ranging day in what seemed likely to be a 'technical trade.' 

The financiers, flush with cash, felt like having a wash and rinse just to start the second half right.

Gold finished up, silver was lower.

Broader stocks were lower, but big cap techs managed to hold a decent gain.

The specs were likely whipsawed, by design.

Welcome to Thunderdome.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Calling of Matthew - US Markets 'Goldilocks' Rally Into Holiday Weekend

 

"As Jesus left there he passed by a man named Matthew, sitting at his desk in the tax-collector’s office. “Follow me!” he said—and the man got to his feet and followed him. 

Later, as Jesus reclined at a table in Matthew's house sitting, a good many tax-collectors and other notorious sinners came in and sat with him and his disciples. The Pharisees noticed this and said to the disciples, 'Why does your master have his meals with tax-collectors and sinners?' 

But Jesus heard this and said, 'Those who are strong and flourishing do not have need of a physician, but rather those who are weak and afflicted.   Go now, and think about what this Scripture means: ‘I desire that you show mercy, and not sacrifices.'”

Matthew 9:9-13

 

"It is very easy to get drunk with hate. Hate is like the glass of whisky which is given to the soldiers before a bayonet charge. Whisky stimulates but does not nourish.  Hate is not creative, only love is creative.” 

Maximilian Kolbe, Auschwitz

 

"Kolbe looked directly and intently into the eyes of those entering the cell.  Those eyes of his were always strangely penetrating.  The SS men couldn’t stand his glance, and used to yell at him, Schau auf die erde, nicht auf uns!  Kolbe was a psychic trauma, a shock for the SS men who had to bear his look, a look that hungered not for bread, but to liberate them from evil."

Bruno Borgowiec, a prisoner at Auschwitz

 

A good solid 'Goldilocks' number. 

This was the pom-pom punctuated chant of the Wall Street pundits and spokesmodels today.

The SP 500 and particularly the big cap tech laden NDX rose to new highs today.

But on lighter than usual volumes.

The adults in the room went on holiday around mid-day and closed the door to the bond market behind them.

Gold and silver bounced briskly off the end-of-quarter smacking they took the other day.

What a surprise.

Let's see if they can build off this latest event driven double bottom.

Survey says 'probably.'   lol

Barring some unforeseen event, it looks like a teeth-chattering correction in the markets will be due around mid to late August, with echoes into September, and perhaps beyond. 

So until then, all is well, right?

The US markets will be closed for the July 4^th holiday weekend on Monday.

Have a pleasant weekend.