Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Hi Ho Nickel? - The World Is Mad

Put another nickel in
In the nickelodeon
All I want is having you
And music, music, music.

Teresa Brewer, Music, Music, Music


"A nickel's not worth a dime anymore."

Yogi Berra

The FOMC did nothing with rates, but remarked that in their judgement the growth in the economy has changed from 'moderate' to 'solid.'   The market is looking for a rate increase at the December meeting.

I am solidly willing to speculate that the Fed will flip their judgement faster than a flapjack in a NJ diner in the not too distant future. But let's see what happens.

The markets are widely pricing in a rate increase from the Bank of England this week.  Let's see if they get it.

Donald l'Orange will be spilling the beans on his pick for Fed head tomorrow.  Presumably it will be someone not currently under indictment.   It is said by insiders that his pick will be Jay Powell.  As the Wall Street hot money hopheads say, 'Pass that J my way.'

I have included the chart for the little followed industrial metal nickel futures directly below.  It has been on a tear of late. And, (want yearn), is taking a crack at the kind of breakout attempt that we have looking for in gold and silver.   From what I hear this is an electric car play.  Or blockchain. lol

We are still looking for the results and effects of the Non-Farm Payrolls report on Friday.

Here is a link to a paper from Artemis Capital titled Volatility and the Alchemy of Risk. It does a decent job of describing the setup for a hyper-correction that may occur based on the systematic mispricing of risk and market manipulation by the Banks, both global and central.  In other words, the third collapse of a major financial asset bubble since the repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1999.

At some point in this correction I expect the Bankers to try and stop it, and restore confidence, in the manner of what was done in 1929.  They will have more time and ways to do this than in 1987, if they wish to avail themselves of it.  Circuit breakers, cooling off periods and all that.  Still, fortunes may be lost, and made.

That no one can see it coming is utter rubbish, although the timing is problematic.   But as Walter Bagehot once famously observed, 'Life is a school of probabilities.'

Or in other words, as Dirty Harry phrased it, "you've gotta ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?"    Since we have established the principles of too big to fail (or jail) and government bailouts, they may indeed be feeling rather lucky, playing heads I win and tails you lose with other people's money. And that is the moral hazard of the system as it feeds the snakes of Wall Street today.

Have a pleasant evening.

Further Down the Russian Rabbit Hole...

"They're all corrupt, and they all work together."

John Kiriakou

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Twilight of the Gods

Lord, it is time.  Let summer lushness go,
Lay longer shadows on the trees,
And over harvests, winds resplendent blow.
Tell fruits to fully ripen;
Give them a final southerly hour,
Urge them to essence, and with power
Gift sweetness to the laden grapes.
Those who linger, for a time remain alone,
No place to rest their weary hands,
They'll wake, read, write longingly to friends
And walk spackled streets, up and down,
Pacing restlessly, while leaves in falling, dance.

Rainer Maria Rilke, Autumn Day


"Heaven has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turned, Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorned."

William Congreve, The Mourning Bride

And the dark rage of an arrogantly confident candidate spurned knows no bounds.

Around the market close there were reports of a vehicle traveling down a bike path that runs along the Westside Highway, knocking down pedestrians and bicyclists.  The NYPD reports eight fatalities and several injuries.  The suspect, Sayfullo Saipov of Florida, originally from Uzbekistan, was taken by police armed with a paintball and pellet gun.

In NY Times Writes Its Own Indictment for the Russia Probe, Pam and Russ Martens shine a light on a very interesting twist in flagship journalism. If it turns out that the reporter had received a leak of the unrevealed substance of the indictment through some source, well then, that is a nice scoop gotten through aggressive reporting.

But if it turns out that this story is just a speculation woven from the whole cloth of  innuendo without substance, printed as fact by the NY Times to advance a partisan meme of one political party member, then the reporter and his editor ought to resign or be dismissed in disgrace.  The credibility of the mainstream media has already fallen low enough without such partisan tabloid antics from the 'papers of record'.  So let us see which it shall be.

Speaking of soulless hypocrisy, the CME has announced it will be offering Bitcoin futures by year end.  Bitcoin futures.  Good grief.

Dolly and I placed some flowers on the queen's niche in the Lady Chapel for the second monthly anniversary of her passing.  Eternal rest grant unto her O Lord...

The Fed will be making some pronouncements tomorrow afternoon.  Donald of Orange may be naming Janet Yellen's successor on Thursday.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Per Ipsum et cum Ipso et in Ipso

“Like a snake eating its own tail, the equity market cannot rely on share buybacks indefinitely to nourish the illusion of growth."

Chris Cole, Artemis Capital


"Of course big bank stocks are 'overvalued' in terms of earnings or revenues, but do such measures really matter in a world without value?   When you have global central banks gunning all asset prices in a desperate effort to avoid a sovereign debt default starting in Japan and then Europe, pedestrian metrics like price/earnings ratios and net-present value have little relevance...

The growing pile of public debt in the US is why price stability will never be part of the mix— unless and until the Treasury is forced to live within its means.   This is also why dollar-alternatives like bitcoin, imperfect and even fraudulent as they may be, will continue to capture the attention of those seeking to escape the economic tyranny of fiat paper money."

Chris Whalen, Institutional Risk Analyst

If you did not watch the World Series game last night, with the walkoff 13-12 win by the Astros, you missed one of the best offensive battles in postseason play that I have ever seen.

The east coast certainly did not miss out on rain this weekend.  We had a steady downpour intermingled with cloudbursts that lasted nearly all day, and late into the evening.  We certainly needed the water, and it did quite a bit to start the leaves falling which are several weeks behind the norm.

But like most storms it brought a glorious sunny day here, with a steady breeze to help to dry things out.   Dolly and I procured some flowers which we intend to place at the queen's niche in Lady Chapel tomorrow.

Gold bounced a little today and silver held steady.  Stocks made an early push higher, that faded for the most part into the afternoon and the close.

Gold continued to remain at low levels in the Hong Kong CME licensed warehouses. 

This is a week heavy with economic data.  The calendar for this is included below.

There will be a Non-Farm Payrolls report for September on Friday.   The FOMC is conducting a two day meeting with an announcement of their weighty economic meditations on interest rates on Wednesday.

Donald of Orange is said to be announcing his pick for the new Fed Chairperson on Thursday.  The Special Prosecutor was announcing indictments for his underlings and associates today.

And the band played on.

Have a pleasant evening.

Hysteria Used to Censor Progressive and Counter-Corporate Messaging

"The ruling elites, who grasp that the reigning ideology of global corporate capitalism and imperial expansion no longer has moral or intellectual credibility, have mounted a campaign to shut down the platforms given to their critics. The attacks within this campaign include blacklisting, censorship and slandering dissidents as foreign agents for Russia and purveyors of “fake news.”

No dominant class can long retain control when the credibility of the ideas that justify its existence evaporates. It is forced, at that point, to resort to crude forms of coercion, intimidation and censorship. This ideological collapse in the United States has transformed those of us who attack the corporate state into a potent threat, not because we reach large numbers of people, and certainly not because we spread Russian propaganda, but because the elites no longer have a plausible counterargument."

Chris Hedges, Silencing Dissent

This is the logical progression of the credibility trap.

When one has no credible counter-argument to facts and logically framed critiques, the resort is too often to ad hominem attacks, smearing, and suppression up to and including censorship. 

This is the reaction of careerists and ideologues when there is a perceived power imbalance, that is, when they think that they can get away with it.