Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - June Gold Contracts Active - Can't Touch This

Stocks were weak most of the day with Chinese economic data having come in rather weakly.

A late day rally pushed them into largely unchanged.

Gold caught a flight to safety and was into downtrend breaking territory much of the day, but was pushed down into the close.

As you can see from the CME clearing report below there were quite a few gold contracts changing hands as we are now into the active month of June.

There are many things in life which you may experience and enjoy. Being short physical gold, when it goes limit up with none offered, is not one of them.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Swing Fever

Swing Kids - The Swing Kids (German: Swingjugend) were a group of jazz and swing dance fans in Germany in the 1930s, primarily in the port city of Hamburg and Berlin. They were 14 to 21-year-old boys and girls. They admired the British and American youth culture, defining themselves with swing music as opposed to the National-Socialist fashions and behaviours, especially those of the Hitler Youth (German: Hitlerjugend).

Their dress consisted of long, often checked English sports jackets, shoes with thick light crepe soles, showy scarves, Anthony Eden hats, an umbrella on the arm whatever the weather, and, as an insignia, a dress-shirt button worn in the buttonhole, with a jeweled stone. The girls too favored a long overflowing hair style. Their eyebrows were penciled, they wore lipstick and their nails were lacquered.

The Swingjugend rejected the Nazi state, its ideology and uniformity, its militarism, the 'Führer principle' and the conformity of the Volksgemeinschaft (people’s community). They rebelled against all this restriction of personal freedoms with jazz and swing, which stood for a love of life, self-determination, non-conformism, freedom, independence, liberalism, and internationalism.

On 18 August 1941, in a brutal police operation, over 300 Swingjugend were arrested. The measures against them ranged from cutting their hair and sending them back to school under close monitoring, to the deportation of the leaders to concentration camps. The boys went to the Moringen concentration camp while the girls were sent to Ravensbruck.This mass arrest encouraged the youth to further their political consciousness and opposition to National Socialism. They started to distribute anti-fascist propaganda. In January 1943, Günter Discher, as one of the ringleaders of the Swing Kids, was deported to the youth concentration camp of Moringen.

On 2 January 1942, Heinrich Himmler wrote to Reinhard Heydrich calling on him to clamp down on the ringleaders of the swing movement, recommending a few years in a concentration camp with beatings and forced labor.

The Swing Kids of Hamburg at some point had contacts with another famous resistance movement, when three members of the White Rose (German: Weiße Rose) developed a sympathy for the Swing Kids. No formal cooperation arose, though these contacts were later used by the Volksgerichtshof ("People's Court") to accuse some Swing Kids of anarchist propaganda and sabotage of the armed forces. Their consequent trial, death sentences and executions were averted by the end of the war.

There will be a Non-Farm Payrolls report on Friday of this week.

The inventory of physical bullion in Hong Kong continues to decline.

Stocks were little changed in a very quiet trade.

The Western establishment continues to grind against the impulse of democratic populism.

Swing heil.

Have a pleasant evening.

Discussing The Recovery™ and Financialization With Alan Greenspan and the Limited Liability Establishment

"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it."

Mark Twain

Here is an encounter during a Congressional hearing that Bernie Sanders had with Alan Greenspan in 2003.

In the light of history, how do you think that events have shone any light on these two different perspectives?

The pity is that Senator Sanders could have this same conversation with Janet Yellen, and  most of the mainstream media, and the professional elite, and certainly the majority of his political colleagues on both sides of the aisle, today.  And their responses would still be substantially the same.

That is the shameless hypocrisy of the credibility trap.

And what excuses will they offer after the next financial crisis?

And I've Got One More Silver Dollar...

Well, I've got to run to keep from hiding
And I'm bound to keep on riding
And I've got one more silver dollar
But I'm not gonna let them catch me, no
Not gonna let 'em catch the midnight rider.

And I don't own the clothes I'm wearing
And the road goes on forever
And I've got one more silver dollar
But I'm not gonna let them catch me, no
Not gonna let 'em catch the midnight rider.

And I've gone by the point of caring
Some old bed I'll soon be sharing
And I've got one more silver dollar
But I'm not gonna let 'em catch me, no
Not gonna let them catch the midnight rider.
No I'm not gonna let 'em catch me, no
Not gonna let them catch the midnight rider...

Celui qui est mort.

RIP Gregg Allman

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Drawdown in Hong Kong Physical - Non-Farm Payrolls Next Friday

"Today, the top one-tenth of 1% owns nearly as much wealth as the bottom 90%. The economic game is rigged, and this level of inequality is unsustainable. We need an economy that works for all, not just the powerful.

The problems we face, did not come down from the heavens. They are made, they are made by bad human decisions, and good human decisions can change them."

Bernie Sanders

Stocks went mostly unchanged in a trade that became very quiet after noon in the US.

As a reminder this is a three day holiday weekend with the markets closed on Monday for Memorial Day.

There will be a Non-Farm Payrolls report for May next Friday 2 June.

VIX has once again fallen to single digits. This has been a sign of relative complacency in recent months.

As noted in the report below, the level of physical gold in Hong Kong has fallen to a lower level than usual.  This most likely is nothing of significance, but I like to keep an eye on such things.  Typical the inventory level has been closer to a million ounces.

Please remember God's creatures as best that you can, and those created in His image, the poor, the weak, the sick, and the lonely.

Have a pleasant weekend.