Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Tendency Is To Push It As Far As You Can

the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unfaithful

"What will you do on the day of reckoning, and in the time of desolation which follows?  To whom will you flee for relief?   Where will you safeguard your riches?"

Isaiah 10:3


"Since the earliest stages of human history, of course, there have been bazaars, rialtos, and trading posts—all markets. But The Market was never God, because there were other centers of value and meaning, other 'gods.'

The Market operated within a plethora of other institutions that restrained it. As Karl Polanyi has demonstrated in his classic work The Great Transformation, only in the past two centuries has The Market risen above these demigods and chthonic spirits to become today's First Cause...

Does anyone doubt that if the True Cross were ever really discovered, it would eventually find its way to Sotheby's?   The Market is not omnipotent—yet.   But the process is under way and it is gaining momentum."

Harvey Cox, The Market As God: Living In the New Dispensation


"Do you not know that to whom you yield yourselves as servants to obey, his servants you become, whether of a corruption unto death, or of a righteousness unto life?"

Rom 6:16

Today was another whippy day in the markets.   The usual suspects juiced the SP 500 markets higher in an attempt to reassert the exceptionalism of the American economy.

Alas, it was not to be.  After European markets closed and before Asia opened, the powers of big money withdrew their support, and the gains of the day were mislaid.

I do not want to make too much of it, but just watching the action on the futures seems to show a series of fingerprints all over the tape.

And why not, when the stock market has become the equivalent of the economy, and of empire?  Stocks are the mother's milk of inequality.

The US Dollar, la douleur du monde, rallied higher today, in what seemed to be a further technical gain from a deeply oversold condition.

Gold put in what may prove to be a tradeable bottom at 1311 today. Silver has been lagging, but at some point will act like the beta rabbit which it is and catch up in a furious pace.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves.  This is far from over, and the story continues to unfold.   It is engaging to watch the confusion over the deflation of yet another bubble in financial assets is causing. It seems so obvious you have to wonder why even people sitting in the best seats in the house don't seem to understand it.

I am afraid that true believers in false idols will be drinking the koolaid of their own desires to the very end.

"Once you get locked into a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can.”

Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Who could have seen it coming? 

Have a pleasant evening.

The US Tax System: How It Works and What It Does and The Greenspan Betrayal

"Today the United States is by far the most unequal rich democracy in the world...Inequality is associated with more frequent and more severe boom-and-bust cycles that make our economy more volatile and vulnerable.”

David Cay Johnston, Divided: The Perils of Our Growing Inequality

Although this video was made in 2015, it describes the recent 'tax reform' bill with some precision in respect to its methods and purposes.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Intervention in the Overnight Futures Market Turns the Tide on Stocks' Wild Ride

“In a world where success is the measure and justification of all things the figure of Him who was sentenced and crucified remains a stranger, and is at best the object of pity... Worldly history appeals in its own cause to the dictum that the end justifies the means. The figure of the Crucified invalidates all thought which takes success for its standard.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer


“These people honour me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
they follow rules of their own making.”

Mark 7:6-7


“Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into the places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears. Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.”

Henri J.M. Nouwen

Stocks were swooning overnight. Early in the morning hours buying started turning the tide, with the SP 500 futures leading the way.

As we know from the past crises and statements, buying the SP 500 futures was the remedy recommended by Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin.

But we did have a significant correction, and it may not be over. One day's bounce does not a bull market make.

The problem was that the underpinnings of the market were so thin that it  took very little to set the market spinning on a wild ride as volatility, long suppressed, began to revert to the mean.

Trump said he would love to 'shut the government down' if the Democrats do not give him what he wants on immigration, and that 'the world is laughing at the US.'   Yep, but maybe not for the reasons he thinks.   His act is getting tired.

The Dollar managed to get a little boost higher and hang on to it, but silver and especially gold were methodically sold. Gold was smacked into the close, but bounced back three dollars after the close.

The XIV inverse to volatility ETN, marketed to retail investors by Credit Suisse, was incinerated in the market drop, and is said to be in liquidation.  Other funds were suspending redemptions.

Nothing has really changed. Arrogance and a disregard for the proper treatment of risk has once again been reinforced.

I am afraid that this is just a taste things to come.

Have a pleasant evening.

US Stock Market Futures Slumping Overnight After Initial Plunge

After further declines to support levels after hours, that reached down well below the parabolic breakouts, the SP 500 and NDX futures have rallied back a bit to try to find support.  But the gains of this year and much of the rally from the end of 2017 have been erased.

I have put updated charts in tonight's regular posting showing some more aggressive correction levels.

Tomorrow is likely to be a pivotal day, as the bulls will attempt to find a footing and buy the dip.  They made an attempt yesterday that failed.

I think that they will try again tomorrow and most likely will have some help from their friends in the Exchange Stabilization Fund, aka the Plunge Protection Team.

But even for those with money to burn, it can be hard to catch a falling knife.

Let's see what happens.