Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Metals Hold the Line

Despite some intraday action, stocks finished largely unchanged.

Precious metals managed to hold their key levels in the face of the 'better than expected' Jobs Report.

The FOMC will be announcing their decision on rates next Wednesday.  I have included the economic calendar for next week below.

The SEC has rejected the Winklevoss twins proposal for an ETF for Bitcoin, sending the value of the digital currency lower after hours.   I am not a fan of Bitcoin for anything but a trade.

I have taken down my short position off the Russell 2000, which I had placed at the end of the first trading day for the SNAP IPO.   What a piece of crap.

I did pull the trigger on some silver purchases.   As I said, I will be much more impressed if silver can hold its level here and start moving back higher.  I have the '30' target in mind as a measuring objective on the chart as you can see below.  But first silver must break out above 21.50, again as you can see on the chart.

I wish them well, but if the Trump administration does not implode sometime in the next two years I will be very surprised.  They are in a tough position, surrounded by willful ideologues on both the left and the right, and in the calmer moments they do seem to seize the initiative to figuratively shoot themselves in the foot.

We are in the typical wacky weather month for March, with 70 degree days followed by snow.  Next week I hear we might be enjoying a classic nor'easter blizzard.  Let's see if that develops, as it may affect the NY trade.  It may also impede activity in Washington DC, but that is often a good thin.

Please remember God's creatures in this hard weather, and the poor both materially and spiritually as always.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Non-Farm Payrolls Tomorrow - Don't Fear the Reaper

As you may have noted from the side links last night the Sprott Funds have made an unsolicited takeover bid for the Central Funds of Canada. They are obviously eyeing that gold and silver bullion priced at a good discount to net asset value.

I have included the fifteen minute chart for trading in CEF for the last two days below. I wonder how many shorts were caught a bit in this surprise offer?

Gold and silver fell again today, along with the dollar DX index, while volatility VIX was up again.

If these markets are honest and efficient, then I am the king of Siam.  And if you think Swamp-Drainer is going to do anything about reforming the financial markets and the Banks, then you might be greatly mistaken.

Tomorrow will be the Non-Farm Payrolls report, made all the more important because of the FOMC meeting this month. It is widely thought that the Fed will raise 25 bp. But there may be more focus on anything they say about what they might do next.

These are crazy weather times here, fitting well with the lunacy in our national capital. Today it is almost 70 degrees, but tomorrow we are expecting six inches of snow. And next week early they are forecasting a nor'easter that may bring a foot of snow to the east coast.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Vain and the Inglorious

“Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else. For I don’t cheat, I don’t sin, and I don’t commit adultery. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’

But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’

I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home saved in the eyes of God.”

Luke 18:10-14


“A true opium of the people is the belief in nothingness after death, the huge solace, the huge comfort of thinking that for our betrayals, our greed, our cowardice, and our murders, we are not going to be judged.”

Czesław Miłosz

Stocks were mixed today, with big tech attempting to rally while the broader markets were sluggish.

Traders were impressed with the print on new jobs added in a report from ADP this morning. I had thought that ADP was obtaining their numbers from actual data from their payroll services business. Instead I find from reading this article that it has become more of an educated guess in the manner of the BLS imaginary jobs report.

Although VIX volatility (risk) indicator moved higher, gold and silver moved lower in an inverse correlation to the dollar.

I am liking silver here. I will like it quite a bit more if it can hold 17 and rally back from there after this Payrolls and FOMC nonsense is past us.

I hear India has been buying gold again, as a portion of the general phenomenon of Asia buying the hardest, least counterparty contingent currencies known throughout history.

The Beltway Bandits have gone barking mad. Hypocrisy and deception are their meat and potatoes. Of course I think everyone can now see it, but it has been a long time coming. This is what happens when fraud becomes fashionable.

I was so disgusted with the new 'healthcare' proposal from Ryan and the GOP house that I really could not say much yesterday except 'justice is coming.'

Justice is coming. That is an interesting phrase. How we react to it says something about ourselves to ourselves, in how we interpret it. What is just, and who will it affect?

And that may be the most useful thing of all.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Bonfire of the Banalities

“Then the rich man said, ‘I beg you, Father Abraham, send Lazarus to my father’s house. For I have five brothers for him to warn, so that they also will not come to this place of desolation and torment.’

But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets. Let them listen to them.’

But the rich man again said, ‘No, Father Abraham, but if someone from the dead comes back and speaks to them, they will repent.’

And Abraham said, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they listen if someone tells them who has risen from the dead!’”

Luke 16:27-31


And would it have been worth it, after all,
After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
Would it have been worth while,
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it towards some overwhelming question,
To say: 'I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all'—

T. S. Eliot, The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock


"Those among the rich who are not, in the rigorous sense, damned, can understand poverty, because they are poor themselves, after a fashion; but they cannot understand destitution. Capable of giving alms, perhaps, but incapable of stripping themselves bare, they will be moved to the sound of beautiful music, at Jesus’s sufferings— but His Cross, the reality of the self-denial of His Cross, will horrify them.

They want it all out of gold, bathed in light, costly and of little weight; pleasant to see, hanging from a woman’s beautiful throat."

Léon Bloy

Justice is coming.

Have a pleasant evening.

NAV Premiums of Certain Precious Metal Funds and Trusts - Front Running

For those of you who wondered why there was such concentrated selling in the mining stocks a few weeks ago, perhaps this latest bear raid on the precious metals provides an adequate explanation.

See the second chart below.

As a reminder, Non-Farm Payrolls this week, and the FOMC the next.