Gold Chart - Fingers Crossed

It would be nice to see an actual chart formation take shape and be activated.

This has the makings of a slanted double bottom or a slanted W, or a 'cup' although there is a lot of work to be done to fill that one out.

Or nothing, if gold cannot follow through.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Triumphant!

Gold and silver were hit pretty hard this morning.  I am sure you know this by now.

 

The Fed and their Banks could not abide a negative reaction to their latest policy pronouncement.

 

So the Gold and Silver futures were crushed, and handily so.

 

And stocks, which were selling off for much of the day, caught a determined bid that seemed to come from futures buying that lifted those prices higher, and turned the day in the favour of the triumphant masters of money. 

 

Huzzah!

 

As you may know from the calendar provided we are now getting into the active contract month of February.  Today was 'first position' day for February.

 

Let's see if the carney game on the Hudson gets any more actual activity in the Comex warehouses and futures pits, besides the usual game of Liar's Poker.

 

I understand that there is a lot of bullion activity for silver in the Comex warehouses, but I think that is more likely due to CNT, which is a registered warehouse, using the Comex to get their deliveries together since they are now a major supplier to the US mint.

 

A correction was due, and as I took some pains to point out last week, this FOMC meeting with the option expiry the day before was likely to provide a decent test of the recent rally.

 

Let's see how we go next week.

 

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Love That Shake Shack

Stocks were in the dumps most of the day, despite the 'better than expected' new unemployment claims report that was probably some kind of seasonal anomaly, but let's keep an open mind on that one.

Stocks found a footing and rallied into the afternoon, finishing in the green.

There were a lot of earnings reports in hot stocks after the bell. GOOG missed everything, AMZN hit EPS but missed the topline, but said good things about their margins, VISA is splitting. Yowza yowzers, get yer hot stocks and nekkid ladies.

Perhaps more importantly, Shake Shack is pricing its IPO tonight, and the Street has to make it look good to take it to market.

And besides, the Fed cannot have the markets selling off, even if their policy guidance was banal and largely ineffective.

Let's see how the macroeconomic issue sort themselves out, and not forgetting the geopolitical issues. This will help us to keep some sort of equilibrium in all this carney noise.

 

 

NAV Premiums of Precious Metal Trusts and Funds - Post FOMC Antics

 

My comment from last night remains just as applicable today:

"And you might wonder that gold did not participate in the safe haven move.  And unless you have been listening to what I have been saying here, you will not understand it.  The Western central banks are loathe to allow gold and silver to run free, because it would hamper their fiat financial engineering.

That their schemes will collapse on their own is probably a good bet.  But they are more than willing to expend their energies on hiding their mistakes in the meantime, rather than fixing the real problems.

No wonder the vast portion of the world that is not among the 'attendant nations' to the New American Century is recoiling in disgust from the antics that the Fed and its Banks have been playing with the dollar."

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Fear Trade and The Sickness Unto Death

“The greatest hazard of all, losing one’s self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all.  No other loss can occur so quietly; any other loss - an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc. - is sure to be noticed...

What we call worldliness simply consists of such people who, if one may so express it, pawn themselves to the world.”

Søren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death

 

I see where the Chinese RMB has broken into the top five of world currencies for payments.

 

There seems to be a vacuum in the world economy.  And it is probably being created by the black holes of economic policy and monetary thought that are centered in Washington, New York, Berlin, Tokyo, and London.

 

Speaking of lukewarm, ambiguous shit, here is the 'money shot' from the Fed statement today:

"This assessment will take into account:

1. a wide range of information, including measures of labor market conditions,
2. indicators of inflation pressures and inflation expectations, and
3. readings on financial and international developments."

The individual reactions to the statement depended on which one of these three measures you chose to focus.

If it was number 1, the report seemed hawkish, because earlier the Fed referred to 'labor market conditions have improved further, with strong job gains and a lower unemployment rate.'  Between that and rosy expectations for GDP, and some see the Fed moving as early as June.

If it was number 2, the statement was dovish.   Inflation is hardly an issue, with disinflation and downright deflation being more of an issue.  And certainly the dollar needs no help from interest rates.

And if it was number 3, you joined the mad rush into Treasuries, taking the 30 Year down to a record low.  It holds out the fear/hope of international troubles with the dollar being waved as a safe haven. 

 

By the end of the day it was the fear trade that prevailed in stocks and bonds.

 

And you might wonder that gold did not participate in the safe haven move.  And unless you have been listening to what I have been saying here, you will not understand it.  The Western central banks are loathe to allow gold and silver to run free, because it would hamper their fiat financial engineering.

That their schemes will collapse on their own is probably a good bet.  But they are more than willing to expend their energies on hiding their mistakes in the meantime, rather than fixing the real problems.

 

No wonder the vast portion of the world that is not among the 'attendant nations' to the New American Century is recoiling in disgust from the antics that the Fed and its Banks have been playing with the dollar.

In summary, to paraphrase Samuel Johnson, 'The Fed is an ass.' 

But like most of their financial sector, I do not think it to be a benign influence on the real economy.  The Fed, and the banking corporations that have risen up around it, are like a cankerous sore, an abscess that needs to be lanced.

Like the privileged class has learned from their earliest days, when you have screwed a good thing up royally through your own greed, pride, and serial stupidity, the thing to do is lie, cheat, and steal and above all, lawyer up, sow confusion, and then deny knowing anything about everything.  As a matter of fact, you are not sure that you were even there, or what words mean anymore.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

 

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Policy Errors by Hacks, Par Excellence

Please see the gold/silver commentary above for my take on the FOMC statement.

Some called it a 'balanced statement.'

I considered it a muddied statement, with a little something for everyone.  This is not due to some serene objective wisdom on the part of the Fed.  Rather, they were purposely vague and misdirecting, in order to keep their options open, because they have no idea what they hell is going one or what they are doing.   As a default they are serving their masters in the Banks, that's all. 

They are, in the vernacular, 'scared shitless.'    And well they should be, since they are standing on a wreckage of their own devices.  And I doubt that there will be rooms for them at the compound in Paraguay.

By the end of the day, the fear trade dominated bonds and equities.  Stocks went out on their lows.

 

Perhaps some of the financial results from puffballs like Facebook will help to distract Wall Street from the gathering storm.

Changing the subject from vacuous statements by hacks about economic realities and policy that miss the mark, here is a link to an open letter that I posted today from the new Greek PM Alex Tsipras. It says much about modern economics and public policy that is worth noting well. You may read it here.

The Fed, and the fiscal authorities commonly known as policy making politicians in consultation with the corporate paymasters, are not only proving to be ineffective in nurturing The Recovery.

They are almost sociopathic in their pursuit of further misery and oppression of the public by propping up a financial system that is the cause of many of our current woes, because it is shamefully corrupt. And they wrap it all in bunkum, secrecy, and lies.

This will not end well. I just hope that out of all of this comes a renewal of the freedom, and a change in our priorities. But in the short term, as Yeats put it so well, 'the best lack all conviction, while the worst are filled with passionate intensity.'

Have a pleasant evening.

 

 

 

 

 

The Fed's Forecasting Methodology: Making Astrology and Weathermen Look Good