Charts for Stocks and Metals - Three Kings

Interesting divergence in stocks today as the tech sector led the way to new highs there, but the SP 500 was lower on the day, and the Dow Industrials, industrial in name only these days, once again not only failed to close above that 20,000 level, but actually gave up some additional ground.

This is bubble action.  Whether it is late stage or not remains to be seen, but I keep thinking that the Wall Street wiseguys are just executing the same gameplan they would have followed regardless of who won the election, with perhaps some variation on the sectors they pushed.

So, in other words, can we expect them to 'buy the election, and sell the inauguration?'

That would be an appropriately cynical outcome for very cynical times.

Gold and silver managed to inch higher after the December drubbing they took into deeply oversold territory.

I suspect that was an 'end of year' thing.

The Comex warehouses and deliveries were the usual snooze.  The real metals action is taking place in points East.

Yesterday marked the end of the Christmas season with the feast of the Magi, or the Three Kings.

But hopefully the Christmas spirit will live in our hearts throughout the year.

Have a pleasant evening.

Charts for End of the First Week of the New Year - A Hazy Shade of Winter

Here Homer with his nervous arms
Strikes the twanging harp of war,
And even the western splendour warms,
While the trumpets sound afar:
But, what creates the most intense surprise,
His soul looks out through renovated eyes.

John Keats, Ode to Apollo


"Love does not make you weak, because it is the source of all strength, but it makes you see the nothingness of the illusory strength on which you depended before you knew it...

In the end, the only real tragedy is not to be a saint."

Léon Bloy


But my own abilities would not have been enough for this,
If in my mind there had not been struck
A flash of lightning, from which came this wish.

Here my strength has failed my utmost dreams:
But now there is a change, in my will and my desire,
Even as a wheel that turns around is moved,

To that Love alone which moves the sun, and other stars.

Dante, Divina Commedia, last verse

Can there be any sound more plaintive, than a lost soul crying out for its love.

Stocks drifted upwards, and the metals downward, in another session of lazy trading.

The Non-Farm Payrolls report came in light on the numbers added, and shows a weak 'weekly hours worked' as would be characteristic of the part time servants recovery.

I would have expected a stronger hit on the metals.  Let's see how they do next week.

There was little activity in the metals on the Comex, except for the usual ins and outs for silver in the warehouses, which is more of a sign that they are used as a delivery mechanism adjunct to the casino.

I enjoyed Koos Jansen's article, paraphrasing the title that the West Is Selling Physical Gold Into an Asian Black Hole.

Sounds like 'gold is moving from west to east.'   In a big way, with high leverage and distorted pricing.  And it is not likely to be coming back anytime soon.  What could go wrong?

But like most of the big changes and what happens next, 'no one could have seen it coming.'

Try to remember God's little ones, all of His creatures, when the weather is hard.

How many of us have left, and how many will be left standing at this time next year?

One thing for certain is that all of us will one day will truly understand what it was all about.

And what may create the most intense surprise, our souls will look with renovated eyes.

Have a very pleasant weekend.

Charts at 3:00 PM - Non-Farm Payrolls Report Tomorrow

“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”

William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well

Stocks are mixed today with tech up against overhead resistance, and the SP 500 backing off from its own.

Gold has a nice pop today to 1180ish. Let's see if it can hold its gains through the December Non-Farm Payrolls report tomorrow.

Snow tonight. And so I am baking something appropriate for such nasty weather. It fills the house with good smells and warmth.

Have a pleasant evening.

Nomi Prins with Lars Schall on the Next Financial Crisis

Two of my favorite people, financial expert and author Nomi Prins and investigative journalist Lars Schall, discuss the ongoing financial crises, how the Banks play a key role in creating them through monetary existentialism, and why the next crisis will be the worst yet.

Charts at Market Close - The Duty of Delight - Cup and Handle

"How necessary it is to cultivate a spirit of joy. It is a psychological truth that the physical acts of reverence and devotion make one feel devout.  The courteous gesture increases one's respect for others.  To act lovingly is to begin to feel loving, and certainly to act joyfully brings joy to others which in turn makes one feel joyful. I believe we are called to the duty of delight...

People say, what is the sense of our small effort? They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time. A pebble cast into a pond causes ripples that spread in all directions. Each one of our thoughts, words and deeds is like that."

Dorothy Day

Today was the weekly trip to the butcher and the baker. We tend to be a little picky about quality, so we do drive a little distance but it is well worth it.

It is the little things that make life worth living.  Maybe that is why those who have too much, and think too much about themselves, are so often rather hard to please, and among the most miserable of God's creatures.   Greed can never be filled, and therefore the greedy heart is never at rest.

Stocks were in a lazy upward drift for the better part of the day, with silver following and gold in a sideways chop.

Kohl's and Macy's cut forecasts after the bell, and both stocks are getting slammed lower. Just another sign of the great and glorious consumer recovery.

The first one hundred days of Trump's administration are sure to be interesting. He is not even sworn into office and is already making a big splash.

Just to reiterate what I said yesterday, if gold and silver can break out from here, it will look like a rather long handle (ladle?  lol) in a cup and handle, with measuring objectives as initially indicated, and most likely much higher from here by year's end 2017.

But first the breakout attempt and a confirmation.  One step at a time.

Have a pleasant evening.

Charts at the Market Close - Things You May Not Want To Hear, But May Wish To Know

This year I think that I am going to be publishing all of the charts in one posting, rather than splitting them up between stocks and metals.

Today was a lazier trading day than the numbers might have indicated. It was easy to lift stocks today, in other words.

There was little of note in the Comex reports from the last day of 2016.

I was looking over some old charts over the weekend, and I think that the direction of the gold and silver markets in the first couple of months will be quite telling for the rest of 2017.

The key level will be for the metals to break out above their 'election night' highs when the markets realized that Trump had won.

This atmosphere and tone of the markets reminds me of the period during which the big cup and handle retraced 50 percent or thereabouts in gold, and then took off on a steady run to its all time high.  Remember that?

Still, without the breakout, we have nothing but what we have, which is a sideways chop.

A long time reader sent me this link to this live updating chart that compares the metals prices on the dollar and yuan markets.

Another honored patron introduced me today to the twitter feed of Harald Malmgren, a former presidential adviser to JFK, LBJ, Nixon Ford, US Senate Finance.

I thought quite a few things that he said about stocks and other matters were quite to the point.

Some of Harald Malmgren's tweets from earlier today in descending order by time:

His [Ben Bernanke] continuing denial that QE wrought damage suggests it is he who cannot handle the truth.

Correlation of 1 across all asset classes combined with high leverage & narrow exits means catastrophically fast implosion, sooner or later.

Gold a really big subject. I'll save my thoughts on gold for another day.

What i am trying to point out is that markets and even the Fed are acting on unreliable,overoptimistic official data (aka fake news).

World trade contracting,growth stalling, but CNBC advertisers, Bloomberg customers & political leaders don't want downbeat news. Market illusions.

BEA uses own unique, low deflator (never CPI) to get higher inflation adjusted GDP growth rate, higher consumer spending, hiding feeble real growth.

Most jobs data cherry picked, manipulated, guessed. Declining payroll tax deductions published every day ignored. Job gains illusion.

Occasional glimpses of real economic news reminds how misleading is WH economic recovery spin and its adoption in the form of MSM fake news.

Financial leverage higher now than 2008, systemic risk greater, most jobs created part time, median income down, debt multiple, wealth gap bigger, etc.

On that we seem to agree. A phony recovery reliant on contrived fake data transmitted as fake news, now becoming "post truth".

At this stage of my life you get my views unadulterated with hidden ambitions.

What more can I say after that?

Have a pleasant evening.