Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Risk On! - For Now, As Optimism Balloons

“Faith is rare because fear is rampant.  For faith will demand that I step into places that fear itself fears to go.”

Craig D. Lounsbrough


“When political leaders set a negative example, professional commitments to just practice become more important. It is hard to subvert a rule-of-law state without lawyers, or to hold show trials without judges. Authoritarians need obedient civil servants, and concentration camp directors seek businessmen interested in cheap labor.”

Timothy Snyder


"If economies collapse and lawlessness rules and resources are scarce, many people who claim with their mouths that they follow Jesus will abandon him with their lives.”

Brandon Andress, And Then the End Will Come


“We're going to meet a lot of lonely people in the next week and the next month and the next year. And when they ask us what we're doing, you can say, We're remembering. That's where we'll win out in the long run."

Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

It was risk on all the way, today.

Moderna put out a news item that waxed optimistic about a coronavirus vaccine. While we can hope, the markets seem to be far exceeding the near term promise of an effective vaccine and its effect on the economy.

At least the Trump coronavirus vaccine czar should be happy, given his equity position with Moderna.  Ca-ching!

So stocks soared, and the dollar fell.

Gold and silver reached for a high note early on, and then were sold off hard for losses.

I suggest that we wait to see how the week progresses.  That looked like just another gut punch ahead of the almost inevitable breakout.

Lawlessness and hysteria are both in the air.

People are trying to fill the emptiness of their lives with sensations, and sensationalism.

I will remind all of us to think first, and keep our priorities in order, with first things first, as always.

It is always tempting to toss reason aside and jump into the fray.

Much easier than thinking and sorting things out.

Do what you will, but be aware of the consequences to yourself.

There is no saving someone who is determined to serve the madness.   And the madness serves none but itself.

Remember who it is that you are, and whom it is that you serve.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Hi Yo Silver, Away! - Silver Takes the 17 Handle

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”

Leo Tolstoy


"If you pray and love, that is where happiness lies."

John Vianney

Silver put on its high beta afterburners this week, and took out and held the 17 handle. Wow.

Gold is making an attempt to break out as well. It needs to take out 1770, and then it too may run with an eye towards the all time highs.

Stocks managed to take back their losses in the quiet afternoon trading, recovering from the shockingly bad retail sales numbers this morning.

It was in the low 80s here today with a decent breeze, the perfect time to do that much-needed touch up painting on the house.

The tree pollen is just brutal out there. It is powdering the cars with green.

Need little, want less, love more. For those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them.

And that is what really matters.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precioius Metals Charts - Lies, Dark Powers, and Redemption

“Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of the man who can fabricate it.”

Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism


"Seneca had made the bargain that many good men have made when agreeing to aid bad regimes.  On the one hand, their presence strengthens the regime and helps it endure.  But their moral influence may also improve the regime's behavior or save the lives of its enemies.  For many, this has been a bargain worth making, even if it has cost them—as it may have cost Seneca—their immortal soul. The Rome he has been trained to serve, the Rome of Augustus and Germanicus, was gone.   In its place stood Neropolis, ruled by a megalomaniac brat.”

James Romm, Dying Every Day: Seneca at the Court of Nero


“Fascists rejected reason in the name of will, denying objective truth in favor of a glorious myth articulated by leaders who claimed to give voice to the people. A nationalist is not at all the same thing as a patriot.  A nationalist encourages us to be our worst, and then tells us that we are the best."

Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny

Stocks rebounded from their lows.

Gold and silver moved higher.

The dollar finished nearly unchanged.

Stock option expiration tomorrow.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - My Will Be Done

"Liars often set their own traps."

Aesop


“There are only two kinds of people: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, ‘All right, then, have it your way.’”

C. S. Lewis

It was a risk off day today, as the Dollar and gold gained, while stocks swooned again.

Although the major stock indices managed to finish off the lows with a little kick higher in the afternoon.

There will be a stock market option expiration on Friday.

Have a pleasant evening.