Memorial Day 2018

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower


“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.”

G.K. Chesterton


"When the rich wage war, it is the poor who die."

Jean-Paul Sartre


“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war.

We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow, this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us: that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, November 19, 1863

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Sleepytime

The trading volume has slowed to a crawl as most of the adults have left for the Hamptons and various shore points for the long Memorial holiday weekend.

If anything significant happens I will add it later on.

Non-Farm Payrolls Report next week.

Need little, want less, love more.

Hav a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Nemesis

"The Fates are just: they give us but our own; Nemesis ripens what our hands have sown."

John Greenleaf Whittier


“Through pride we are ever deceiving ourselves. But deep down below the surface of the average conscience a still, small voice says to us, something is out of tune.”

C.G. Jung

It was an interesting Comex options expiration for precious metals today, thanks to Trumpolini who cancelled the upcoming summit with North Korea.

The markets initially slumped on this, and there was a run for the safe havens in the precious metals.

The Dollar sold off a bit from its recent highs. According to Bloomberg there was a flight to safety in the yen. Say what? lol

The US is heading into a three day weekend, with Monday being Memorial Day.

There will be a Non-Farm Payrolls Report for May next Friday.

I would not be surprised to see the precious metals longs get at least one 'gut check' for those new positions they may be hold post-expiration.

The markets are pricing in a 100% chance of a Fed rate increase in June, so look for it. If they do not then something is going wrong with The Recovery™.

Equities are priced for complacency and the masters of the universe are feeling fully in control.

This is not going to end well.  But no one will have seen it coming, again.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - This Forgotten Babylon - Small Things and Tender Mercies

"Remember, my brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you.   God chooses those that the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise.  And He chooses those that are powerless to shame those who are powerful.

God has chosen things despised by the world, small things counted as nothing at all, and has used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important.   As a result, no one can ever presume to boast in the presence of God."

1 Corinthians 1:26-29


"In Egypt's sandy silence, all alone,
Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws
The only shadow that the Desert knows:
I am great Ozymandias, saith the stone,
The King of Kings; this mighty City shows
The wonders of my hand. — The City's gone,
Nought but the Leg remaining to disclose
The site of this forgotten Babylon."

Horace Smith, Ozymandias


"Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks into the heart.”

1 Samuel 16:7


“We have been called to heal wounds, to unite what has fallen apart, and to bring home those who have lost their way.”

Francis of Assisi, Fioretti di San Francesco

Stocks were weak in the early going, but caught quite a bid after the release of the Fed minutes. The Fed is determined to keep raising rates, but made sufficiently dovish noises to make stock punters feel frisky.

This is no surprise here, because the Fed is raising rates to give themselves some room to perform policy actions with rates when this latest asset bubble which they have created implodes.  And it will.

The Dollar also was higher, bumping up against the 94 handle.

Surprisingly enough gold not only held its ground but moved a little higher. It had a funny little dipsey doodle in the early going which is a classic trading move designed to shake out the stop loss orders.

Tomorrow is an expiration for precious metals on the Comex.

Need little, want less, love more.

Have a pleasant evening.