SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Hope and Redemption

 

Thanks for the kind words from those who were concerned by my absence yesterday. It really was not all that much.

The family came down, one by one it seemed, with a 36 hour virus that was almost like a concentrated, flu-like illness.

The aches and chills, and inability to eat, or to hold on to any nourishment taken even in liquid form, were trying to say the least. There are certain foods that I had on Sunday afternoon that I should not like to see or taste again for quite some time. Ouch, and when I laugh now my ribs really hurt!

But at least we still have a warm home filled with warm hearts that care for one another. My goddaughter and I were the last to become ill on late Sunday afternoon, and by then my wife and son were already past the worst of it. I was attentive to both of them, because my wife in particular is recovering from thoracic surgery and I was concerned with her health and comfort. But that ability to share, that loving comfort, is a real joy and a genuine gift and consolation, because this sort of physical illness passes quickly enough.

There are those whose illness is a sickness unto death, the hell of being unable to love and to be loved. They are deep wells of alternating despair, rage, and fear, that bubble over like a boiling geyser of dark emotions.

How terrible it must be-- suffering, without hope or redemption. I cannot imagine anything worse.

Remember the poor during this season, but also those who suffer the worst poverty of all, that is, the inability to love. There are worst things that the temporary inability to accept and retain nourishment, although it may not seems that way when it is upon us.

Hope and redemption. These are the great gifts of Easter. The tomb is empty, and death is overthrown, and we are the heirs to eternal life. How can anyone ask for more?

Have a pleasant evening.

 

 

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - That Was The Week That Was

"Over a protracted period of good times, capitalist economies tend to move from a financial structure dominated by hedge finance units to a structure in which there is large weight to units engaged in speculative and Ponzi finance. Furthermore, if an economy with a sizeable body of speculative financial units is in an inflationary state, and the authorities attempt to exorcise inflation by monetary constraint, then speculative units will become Ponzi units and the net worth of previously Ponzi units will quickly evaporate. Consequently, units with cash flow shortfalls will be forced to try to make position by selling out position. This is likely to lead to a collapse of asset values."

Hyman Minsky, The Financial Instability Hypothesis

Gold and silver had a very positive day today, running up to their short term overhead resistance intraday, and holding most of those gains.

There was intraday commentary on gold and silver here.

The moves next week will be much more meaningful than this short term run up off a very oversold condition.

I am ready for anything, given that the character of the bucket shop has not been improved.

 

I have included the economic calendar for next week.  There will be the *third* revision to 4Q GDP which, unless it is markedly revised lower to give some headroom for the next 1Q estimate, will likely be a trip to the snoratorium.

 

The macroeconomics and global situation are much more significant, even if the domestic trade and commentary barely gives it an exceptional nod or acknowledgement.

 

Remember me in your prayers, as I remember you.

 

Have a pleasant weekend.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - /Bubble On

/Bubble on.

Have a pleasant weekend.

 

 

NAV Premiums of Certain Precious Metal Trusts and Funds

Gold has hit my short term objective of the overhead resistance at 1185, albeit in three steps of up, down, up.

Sprott silver has taken its cash levels up to a much more healthy level with the sale of a bit more silver from its trust.

I think a lot of bearish sentiment was leaning into the FOMC day trade in both stocks and metals, and a number of other markets as well.    And with the expected deletion of 'patient' happening, but with the Fed whispering some rather dovish words, the markets were able to run to the upside and take the bears for a ride.

Market rigging does worth both ways in the short term. And it is easier when you get to see into the other fellow's hand.

And the shills and trolls provide the chorus.   Remember Jim Cramer's infamous video about how to manipulate the market 'legally'?

Longer term fundamentals manner. Short term only money and power matters. Intermediate is a mixed bag.

 

There is not a lot of doubt that the intermediate trend in the metals is and has been a policy thing, while providing a backdrop for the self-serving antics of the usual suspects.

 

It is all a part of the 'currency war.'

 

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Restless

"Granted that we face a world crisis which leaves us standing so often amid the surging murmur of life's restless sea. But every crisis has both its dangers and its opportunities. It can spell either salvation or doom. In a dark confused world the kingdom of God may yet reign in the hearts of men."

Martin Luther King

 

Gold and silver were up again on the overnight with physical buying from Asia, and then hit early by paper selling in London and New York.

I believe that we will see a new 'fix' in London tomorrow for gold. What a fitting name.

I do not think that this new structure will change much, but I am keeping an open mind.

Things will not change while the Comex remains the bucket shop that it has become.  There is little genuine reform in the financial system, mostly window dressing and pious platitudes that mask the very heart of darkness.

We have taken the hope and light of the free world, and turned it into a den of thieves, and murderers.

 

Try to maintain a steady heart, and not be tempted to give yourself over to the madness. 

 

It will not be worth it by any rational measure. 

Have a pleasant evening.

 

 

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Need Little, Want Less, Love More

"What have we achieved in mowing down mountain ranges, harnessing the energy of mighty rivers, or moving whole populations about like chess pieces, if we ourselves remain the same restless, miserable, frustrated creatures we were before?"

Henry Miller

The economic news this morning was a bit to the grim side.

There is no recovery.

 

To call it the result of policy errors is probably overly-generous.  It is the result of a careless selfishness and greed that have found deep roots in our hearts. 

 

We do have a generous surplus of well-crafted lies, spun with great effort by shills and sociopaths.  They are never more loud or more evident than around the watering holes of money and power.

We are a ship of fools. And a generation of madder and even more self-deceiving Ahabs are in the wheelhouse, hell bent on their own destruction, heading full speed in the night through uncharted waters.

 

It would be better for them if they had never been born.

 

Lord have mercy on us.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

 

 

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Currency Wars and Credibility Traps

The Fed not only blinked today. They were twitching like someone afflicted with Tourette's syndrome.

The reasons are pretty clear.

The Fed had to take out the word patient today, or lose all credibility, and risk scaring the markets back into reality.

As I pointed out earlier today, in the assessment of an agency in the Treasury, the markets are at a two sigma level of potential volatility, ie like 'quicksilver.'

And of course, as is apparent to anyone who actually reads anything with a critical eye, the real economy is wallowing all over the place.

Finally, the recent moves by most of the rest of the world's central Banks have been to fully engage in the currency war by cheapening their currencies. The Fed would have looked like flaming idiots if they had raised rates today, given all the weak economic factors, the exceptionally low interest rates because of inbound capital flows from abroad in search of yield and safety, and the subsequent undue strength of the dollar that was already stifling exports and manufacturing.

So the Fed did the only thing it could do. It took out patient, and gave plenty of signals that they would not be raising rates anytime soon.

They also took metrics like the unemployment figure off the table. They have bought into Stanley Fischer's proposal that the Fed must resume the cloak of 'mystery' in its policy actions in order to be able to more effectively manipulate markets to achieve its policy ends.

I will say that I think this mystery is going to extend mostly to the public. I believe that they will be keeping the biggest insiders very informed through a variety of side and back channels. The better to eat you with, my dear. Pity the small players and investors in these markets.

Gold and silver took off like a scalded cat as the dollar dumped. The only surprise I had was that we did not test resistance around 1185. But who can predict the movements in these paper markets?

Nevertheless, the Fed has just tipped its cap, and bent its knee, and acknowledged that they too are in the currency war. Like so many other things they have screwed up they cannot fully admit it. They are caught, like most of the world's bankers and financiers, in a credibility trap.

Gold and silver will ultimately prove to be the last resort in a global game of 'beggar thy neighbor,' no matter how much fog and mystery the money masters care to distribute to better mask their intentions.

 

So as I have done for so long, I get right, sit tight, and hunker down while the great currency game plays itself out on the global stage.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - More Policy Mystery, But the Yellen Put Intact

The Fed took out the word 'patient' as almost everyone had expected.

You can see the intraday commentary on this here and here.

With an agency of the Treasury itself saying that they see a heightened risk of a 'quicksilver market' in equities, you can bet that the Fed is going to be treading lightly on their raising of interest rates to satisfy their policy needs.

Their conundrum is how to control the asset bubble which they have caused without crashing the markets, again.

What is most significant is that, especially in light of the Yellen post statement press conference, the Fed is moving back to the pre-crisis guessing game, where they will have much more flexibility to respond to changing circumstances without tying their policy changes to external measures.

This is an acknowledgement that the economy has grown much weaker, and that the Fed finds themselves at a bit of a loss in trying to determine just exactly where we are, and where they need to be.

And with that nod to 'exports' in their statement, they are certainly signaling that they are aware of what Japan and the ECB are doing with regard to their currencies.

Have a pleasant evening.