Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Quiet Metals Options Expiration on the Comex

"Will I say there will never, ever be another financial crisis? No, probably that would be going too far. But I do think we’re much safer and I hope that it will not be in our lifetimes and I don’t believe it will."

Janet Yellen

Yellen issued what sounds on the surface like the kind of statement that Irving Fisher made famous in 1929.   Hi ho!

Today there was a quiet options expiration on the Comex for gold and silver.

The July contract is active for silver, but the gold action is already moved to August.

Stocks took a dive today and the VIX was up as you can see below.

The US Dollar took a real dive relatively speaking as well.  I have not looked at the key cross currency results to see what drove it, but the reaction in the precious metals priced in dollars was relatively subdued.

I am not going to say what I expect the price of gold and silver to do for the rest of the year.  But I do have a keen eye on the charts, and will let you know when the market tips its hand.

I came to the realization today that the US has largely given up its pretenses to a higher moral standing.    'Immoral' is the best way one could describe a healthcare reform bill that inflicts pain and suffering on the poor and vulnerable, almost gratuitously, in order to provide even more tax breaks for the wealthiest few who already have been taking the lion's share of growth in the national income.

Karma.  Ain't it a bitch.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Fat Fingers

"Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing."

John Stuart Mill

The 'fat finger' of fairly raw and obvious market manipulation hit gold in the early hours.

No one dumps that many contracts against a much thinner bid side without intent. We have exposed that here many times before.

There are those who are greatly exercised by the consequences of a system gone corrupt when it affects them. 

But they too often say nothing, or even nod pridefully according to some ideological formulation of their superiority, when that same corrupt system first preys on the weak and vulnerable.

Have a pleasant evening.

Seymour Hersh: Trump's Red Line

The intelligence made clear that a Syrian Air Force SU-24 fighter bomber had used a conventional weapon to hit its target: There had been no chemical warhead. And yet it was impossible for the experts to persuade the president of this once he had made up his mind.

“The president saw the photographs of poisoned little girls and said it was an Assad atrocity,” the senior adviser said. “It’s typical of human nature. You jump to the conclusion you want. Intelligence analysts do not argue with a president. They’re not going to tell the president, ‘if you interpret the data this way, I quit.’”

The national security advisers understood their dilemma: Trump wanted to respond to the affront to humanity committed by Syria and he did not want to be dissuaded. They were dealing with a man they considered to be not unkind and not stupid, but his limitations when it came to national security decisions were severe.

"Everyone close to him knows his proclivity for acting precipitously when he does not know the facts," the adviser said. "He doesn’t read anything and has no real historical knowledge. He wants verbal briefings and photographs. He’s a risk-taker. He can accept the consequences of a bad decision in the business world; he will just lose money. But in our world, lives will be lost and there will be long-term damage to our national security if he guesses wrong. He was told we did not have evidence of Syrian involvement and yet Trump says: 'Do it.”’


Read the entire article by Seymour Hersh here.

Love Is the Refuge of the Way

"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles."

Nor will love be seen coming from the hearts of those who are fallen into wickedness: they are the fruit of hate, deceit, greed, fear, pride, possession, and aggression. And they will not only forsake love by washing their hands of it, they will eventually come to condemn it, and persecute it—  and thereby condemn themselves.

For the people of God love is the touchstone of faith, the way to know if what we believe is with Him, or from something else;  if we are walking with Him, or with something else;  if the one who speaks is speaking for Him, or for something else;  if we are keeping Him in our hearts, or something else; if we love Him, or ourselves, or something else.

Love does not speak with hate or fear or derision, but with the fullness of existence which is joy and mercy.

Love is ridiculed and trampled upon by that which is in opposition to His creation.

When you are in doubt or confusion about what is true and what is false, look for the light of love. This is the hallmark of the spirit in the world.

And if it is not there, if an act is wrapped in the hardness of pride, disguised even as an elaborate ritual observance and Pharisaical pride, then you will know what it truly is. It is a sin against the spirit.

Love is not easy; it is not a natural state. It seems weak and foolish, and despicable to the fallen of this world and the next who by declaration of their hearts and minds non serviam, will not serve.

Love is an attitude of the mind and of the heart, a living for oneself in the other, an act of acceptance of grace, not by but through the will.  Love is a shield against temptation.  It is a predisposition, a habit of acting and looking at things in a certain way.

The disposition to love becomes easier and more comfortable as we carry that yoke, that restraint on our weaker nature and our harsher emotions. Over time the yoke that restrains our anger and pride becomes lighter, and a light to steady us in life's darker moments.

But it is rarely easy or natural, which makes it the stuff of the brave, of the spiritually and emotionally hardy, and especially of God's knights. The way of the world, of anger and oppression and power, is the easy path. But it is not the way of the truly human.

So we remember that we are sinners, but reaching out to the eternal, and thereby attempting great things— if but clumsily and with a number failings and denials like the apostle himself.

This is how the people of God may guide themselves and their own actions along the way.  If there is no love evident in the words and the heart, then the words and the actions are not of God, but of something else.

Love is not what we do, but how we do what we do. Love is found in the most ordinary things, not in grand gestures and elaborate mannerisms.  It resides in small daily acts of kindness and fellowship, done lovingly and with care, for His sake. It is how we carry our cross, not in front of a cheering crowd, but in the quiet moments, and the little things, while walking with Him.

The hardened heart judges others, while ignoring its own sins, thinking itself good.   Love is mercy, as it shows us our commonality with our fellow humanity as a weak and sinful creature.

We do not need to hate and reject the world, and despise and subdue His creation. Creation is a gift from God, to which we bring our own good use and order in His name. And if we are wise, with our reverent humility and wonder.

We can work with His gifts lovingly, and not abuse them from an excess of greed.  It is not the world itself that is a source of evil, but the willfulness of our hearts, hardened by pride.

Only love is creative and productive. Only love is accepting and uplifting, able to bring all things forward to His plan and make them new. Love consecrates, while sin desecrates and destroys in its lust for possession and the will to power.

Obviously this law of love is applicable to all people, but is of particular attention to those whose hearts have been already touched by God's mercy.  It is the way to be abundant and merciful, in a time of spiritual wickedness, and dark powers in high places.

God is the essence of all existence, which is His love. The pity for those who would otherwise be faithful to the word, the spirit of the Logos, then, is not to love.    Love endures all.

Because of the increase in wickedness, the love of many will grow cold. But those who stand firm to the end will be saved. And the gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations. And then the end will come.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts

Here are the charts updated for the close.

Have a pleasant weekend.

NAV Premiums of Certain Precious Metal Trusts and Funds

"Man does not control his own fate. The women in his life do that for him."

Groucho Marx