Jesse's Café Américain

21 October 2013

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Cap, Cap, Cap Ahead of Non-Farm Payrolls

“The term propaganda rings melodramatic and exaggerated, but a press that, whether from fear, careerism, or conviction, uncritically recites false government claims and reports them as fact, or treats elected officials with a reverence reserved for royalty, cannot be accurately described as engaged in any other function.”

Glenn Greenwald

Silver and gold chopped sideways today with silver a little higher and gold a little lower.

Action was light.

Tomorrow is the Non-Farm Payrolls report from September that was delayed because of the Beltway antics.

There is a definite divergence between paper and physical gold, but the two are still related and influence one another. The notion that they are completely unrelated now is incorrect based on the data which I see. Even with premiums, the spot price of gold and the price you will pay or sell for plain bullion is definitely related.

I am sure some traders believe that the two are completely unrelated and shorting gold against the dollar is a nice paper trade. In some ways it is compared to the other vehicles one might trade. But given the carry trade like returns, I think that they are chasing nickels on the freeway.

When and if the two do diverge significantly, we will definitely know it. They will be carrying traders out on stretchers.  When the gold price turns the short squeeze might become epic. And the privileged will be able to grab the available supply first.

It was JPM to the rescue again with another big chunk of 96,450 ounces of gold bullion for the COMEX warehouse in storage. I wonder where they are obtaining such large tranches of gold. Perhaps it has something to do with the price beating and disgorgement of metal by GLD last week.

A transfer of 24,218 gold bullion ounces out of deliverable into storage occurred in the Scotia Mocatta warehouse.

As you may recall Scotiabank cause a bit of a fuss when Harvey Organ and son went there with an auditor to verify the existence of some of their personal holdings for whatever reason. I believe that this was at the end of 2010 or very early 2011.    The scandal was that when they went to the vault, there was very little actual bullion there, compared to what the total holdings there were reported to be.

And Scotiabank has had one of the better reputations in the industry.

Well, they repaired that. But the point that Harvey often makes is that just because you hold a title or a piece of paper for something, does not mean you can obtain it readily when you need it.

Just ask the people of Germany.

Have a pleasant evening.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

Stocks shook off some early morning economic news on housing that was weak and managed to close unchanged to slightly higher ahead of tomorrow's big Non-Farm Payrolls Report for September that was delayed by the government shutdown.

After the bell Netflix turned in higher than expected earnings, which gave a little extra lift to the tech futures.

Have a pleasant evening.

20 October 2013

An American Injustice

Although one might just attribute this to the peculiarities of small town life, for it was a microcosm of how ordinarily decent people can be prompted to do indecent things to outsiders and the other, and then turn and demonize them to justify their unjust persecution.

These sort of injustices were routinely displayed during my childhood, when local fiefdoms pled 'States Rights' and 'local rule' in order to continue to carry out the persecution of outsiders. And the perennial outsiders in America had been African-Americans, Catholics, and Jews, oftentimes as proxies for immigrants. If you read the link to the history of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920's you know this.

People forget what it was like. Times change, and so do the targets, but the hatred and abusiveness remain the same. This is not to say that this is a uniquely American problem, not at all.

In the US there was greater popular support for this sort of hateful behaviour towards minorities than one might imagine. In 1968 George C. Wallace ran on a platform of States Rights and the status quo in segregation and the routine oppression of minorities and 'outsiders' and was able to garner 13.5% of the vote.

This type of 'might makes right' attitude never really goes away. It comes back under various names and with different rationalizations, too often falsely cloaked in familiar symbols like the flag and cross, or in some hypocritical theme of the individual freedom to act, horrendously. But we also see this on the far left where ideological rigidity makes inhumanity just as defensible, merely with different targets. It is a weakness of human nature and a common characteristic of fanaticism.

People may be decent overall, but there are a small minority of people who are to easily given over to anti-social actions, for whatever reason. Ordinarily decent people can be led to do and say remarkably indecent things, especially if they enjoy the approval of the powerful and some measure of anonymity, as afforded by the crowd.

The Kansas City Star
Nightmare in Maryville: Teens’ sexual encounter ignites a firestorm against family
October 12
By DUGAN ARNETT

MARYVILLE, Mo. — There wasn’t much left by the time she arrived, just a burnt-out structure and the haze of smoke that lingered around it.

The siding and gutters had melted. The roof was gone. Inside, piles of ash filled the rooms that had once bustled with the pleasant sounds of a family.

That morning last April when Melinda Coleman received word that emergency vehicles were gathering around her Maryville house, she had hoped for the best.

But if the events of the past year and a half had taught her anything, it was that when the town of Maryville was involved, that seemed unlikely.

Since the morning her daughter had been left nearly unconscious in the frost of the home’s front lawn, this northwest Missouri community had come to mean little besides heartache.

Few dispute the basic facts of what happened in the early morning hours of Jan. 8, 2012: A high school senior had sex with Coleman’s 14-year-old daughter, another boy did the same with her daughter’s 13-year-old friend, and a third student video-recorded one of the bedding scenes. Interviews and evidence initially supported the felony and misdemeanor charges that followed.

Yet, two months later, the Nodaway County prosecutor dropped the felony cases against the youths, one the grandson of a longtime area political figure.

The incident sparked outrage in the community, though the worst of it was directed not at the accused perpetrators but at a victim and her family. In the months that followed, Coleman lost her job, and her children were routinely harassed. When it became too much, they left, retreating east to Albany...

Read the entire story here.

18 October 2013

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Big Moves In and Out of Comex Bullion Warehouses

Yesterday saw two big withdrawals of gold bullion from the Comex warehouses.

62,050 ounces came out of HSBC and 16,556 ounces left Scotia Mocatta, both out of eligible storage.

But never fear, JPM came to the rescue with a whopping deposit of 192,900 ounce of gold bullion into eligible storage. I wonder where that came from. Wink wink, nod nod.

I just want to be able to watch the next leg up in the gold market, if and when it comes. It could be impressive, and put some serious pressure on bullion supply.

Michael Kosares has a new piece out titled China’s London-Zurich-Hong Kong gold conduit — a major financial coup d'état.

Gold and silver were both capped today, chopping sideways after the big pop from yesterday.

As a reminder the government will be releasing the September Non-Farm Payrolls Report on Tuesday. Antics are customary.

Try to keep a clear head as others tend to lose theirs, overwhelmed by the phantoms of their imagination. I get tired of reading about the imminent collapse of nearly everything as we know it. I cannot help but note how many 'legends' are seeing imminent dangers growing more terrifying nearly every day.

I suspect that this excess of nervous energy is the result of not having enough to do. Spending too much time listening to financial opinions and to the uber-wealthy whining about nothing in particular can be nerve wracking. But that is financial television.

Having a sick dog helps one to maintain a well-grounded perspective. Young children are an effective sink for excess energy as well. Grandchildren work, but it is a bit of a cheat because at the end of the day you get to send them home, at least most of the time.

It appears our shitzu has contracted Lyme disease, which is quite common in this area amongst the canine class. She is so naturally lazy that it was hard to tell at first. I have been serving as her caregiver, as well as for she-who-must-be-obeyed, and loved beyond all others. Tomorrow she gets her comeuppance in a trip to the vet, which will confirm her illness and a shot of antibiotics in the rump. The shitzu that is, not my dearly beloved. She is in for her own set of treatments again on Monday.

Have a pleasant weekend.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - New All Time High On the SP 500

The SP 500 ran to a new all time high today as the bulls were stampeding on the delay of the budget/debt crisis, and broad expectations of no taper until March of next year.

They were hot and bothered by the results from Google, GE, Morgan Stanly, among a few of the usual suspects.

Notice that VIX has fallen back down into the complacent zone.

Next Tuesday we will be getting the delayed September Non-Farm Payrolls Report. The consensus of economists is for a net add of about 183,000 jobs. I think we will fall short, and that the Street will slough that news off if it does not miss too badly. If it comes in fat, then look for renewed talks of 'taper.'

Have a pleasant evening.