Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Zzzzzzzzzz....

After the bell the New York Attorney General Schneiderman filed a 31 page suit against Barclays for running a securities fraud in their dark pool, favoring HFT traders with inside information and other advantages while misrepresenting their actions to other customers.

 

Barclays may be forced to go to bed without dessert, or perhaps even give their servants a day off.  Oh the horror.

There is not a lot of doubt that the other big trading houses are doing similar things in their own dark pools, given their penchant for selling advantages to HFT machines, as well as dissembling about the nature of their execution processes. But Barclay's apparently lacks that all important 'home court advantage.'

Today's option expiration was a half-hearted snoratorium.

It feels like the dog days of summer already. While it was good to see gold and silver holding their new levels, the lack of meaningful activity on the Comex, as attested to by the clearing and warehouse reports below, does not exactly inspire confidence in the integrity of its price discovery.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

 

 

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - GoPro IPO Getting Priced

The latest revision to 1Q GDP was horrific.

And it had little effect on equities. How come?

This was the third revision of 1Q14 GDP. In this market near the end of 2Q14 that is ancient history.

If we had gotten an initial print for 1Q14 GDP of -2.9% the markets would have been freaking out. So they slowrolled it, and it worked. No one paid attention.

There is a very cynical game going on here. The government pretends to put out legitimate measures of economic activity, and the markets pretend to believe them where it suits their purposes.

There is a general understanding that 1Q passed the test of believability that it was all due to the weather, so the bureaucrats piled on the bad news making it a 'kitchen sink' quarter.

Everyone can ignore all that bad news because it was a while ago, and was due to a one-off, a very bad winter. And so this terrible quarter will provide a very favorable comparison for the next quarter, and probably the one after that, which will be conveniently in time for the November elections.

The real economy is what it is, despite all the fluff and papier-mâché. And it will have consequences. But for now, it is all happy time in New York and Washington.

GoPro is pricing their IPO after the bell tonight. Aereo was crushed by a Supreme Court ruling that knocked down their prevarication of a business model.

Have a pleasant evening.

NAV Premiums of Certain Precious Metal Trusts and Funds - Silver Holds Its Level

There is little question that a major short interest position in silver that had built up in the first part of this year was taken out and pummeled by the power players in the market.  Gold was also oversold on paper, but not to the extent of silver.

Today is a quiet options expiration so far, probably because of this.  The urge to sell silver by going short has been tempered by the beating administered to those who went a bit too far in their antics. 

There is some chance that a gut check will be delivered to the longs at some point before the end of the month, just to keep them orderly.   But the real question is if the trend followers and momentum players will take to the long side now, having run out the clock on the big short.

The irony here is that while funds and specs play their paper reindeer games with each other, the Comex is largely ignoring the physical bullion market.  A little more leverage here, some strategic papering over there, and the band plays on.

These self-absorbed games, and the hubris of the banking cartel, are setting up a monumental dislocation in the global markets.   Try not to exhaust your funds by chasing short term returns and risks through all this nonsense, until the fundamentals becoming overpowering and bend the paper trade to the inevitable reckoning. 

These are dangerous markets, badly regulated, and overlaid with traps and tricks.  Spend your money on more useful endeavors.  Get out of debt, and take your money as far away from Wall Street as is possible.  The oligarchy is not only audacious, but is increasingly rapacious, which for the public is an unfortunate combination, and a terrible burden on the real economy.

As Peter Bernstein said about trading, 'The trick is to survive.'   Until they do not.  And then they go on television. 

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Silver Option Expiration Tomorrow - Fear Indicator

Cap, cap, cap. The metals are up against some key technical resistance.

They'll never learn. Their pretty charts and paper markets are not the real deal.

Comex will have the July option expirations for the precious metals tomorrow. This is more of an issue for silver than for gold.

There was a little actual movement of gold bullion in the Comex warehouses yesterday. These jokers could supply a decent sized retail coin shop, maybe.

Amazing markets, considering that the Credit Suisse Fear Indicator has just hit an all time high.

Have a pleasant evening.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Pop n' Flop

Stocks were rallying this morning on the 'better than expected' news about housing and consumer confidence.

As the day wore on, the punters apparently looked behind those numbers and did not like what they saw, and stocks ended up selling off on the day.

VIX has climbed back up a bit to a more 'normal' level of risk.

I had played an advantageous short position from last night, and cleared it out near the close.

The Dubai stock market crashed yesterday. Add that to the list, along with Argentina.

There is risk in these markets. It is just a question of what the trigger event might be, and of course when.

Have a pleasant evening.

The Recovery™ In One Graph

"Gentlemen! I too have been a close observer of the doings of the Bank of the United States. I have had men watching you for a long time, and am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country.

When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank.

You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin!

You are a den of vipers and thieves. I have determined to rout you out, and by the Eternal, (bringing his fist down on the table) I will rout you out!"

Andrew Jackson, On the Bank of the United States

"...supply-side economics was merely a cover for the trickle-down approach to economic policy — what an older and less elegant generation called the horse-and-sparrow theory: If you feed the horse enough oats, some will pass through to the road for the sparrows."

John Kenneth Galbraith

Recovery.  For some.

I am not sure what is trickling down in this recovery.  It is not oats, or wealth.

But I am fairly sure that I know why the recovery is so disjointed and selective.  

It is one of the oldest stories.  It is about the abuse of privilege, of foolish people led in herds shouting slogans crafted by the clever and the unscrupulous, of the treacherous and self-destructive fury of unbridled greed.

It is about the lust for power, the deceptiveness of hubris, the blindness of pride, and the lessons from history that have been carefully and intentionally unlearned.  It is about the madness that brings the fire, in hearts and minds of men.

 

 

h/t Anthony Sanders, Confounded Interest

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Standing on the Deck of the Titanic

"Legitimate if you can, coerce if you have to, accommodate if you must."

Jürgen Habermas, as paraphrased by Robert Johnson

There was some interesting back and forth in the media about Germany's gold being held by the Federal Reserve today. You may read about it here.

The  objections to the article by Peter Boehringer seem to be a bit thin in parts.  While he stresses the 'independence' of the Bundesbank from the political process, he fails to note that the Buba never wanted to pursue the repatriation of the gold in the first place. 

It bowed to public political pressure after the embarrassment of their visit to New York in which they were not permitted to view the gold for 'security reasons.'  It seems fairly clear to me that the gold has been committed to the markets by the bullion banks.

Oh yes, it 'looks bad' for the Fed and the Bundesbank, but the real question is 'do they care?'  Perhaps it is time for a pressure check.

 

The US Congress has an approval rating of 7%.   Do they seem to care?  No, and the reasons why they do not care are not that hard to understand, even though we may not like them.  Nothing will change unless the existing equilibrium of the status quo and ruling elite changes, along with their sources of power and money.  And the same applies to Germany and the UK.

Nothing of note occurred in the Comex warehouses or deliveries on Friday.   But the Comex is becoming a Punch and Judy show.

The activity in the precious metals for this week's Comex July option expiration may be driven by silver which is in an active futures contract month.   Gold is not.

"The active contract months for silver will be March, May, July, September and December."

"The active contract months for gold will be February, April, June, August and December."