Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Book of Jobs

 

"To escape the pain caused by regret for the past or fear about the future, this is the rule to follow: leave the past to the infinite mercy of God, the future to His good Providence, and give the present wholly to His love by being faithful to His grace.”

Jean-Pierre de Caussade

 

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is carrying a heavy burden.”

Ian MacLaren 

"Wonderful providence indeed which is so silent, yet so efficacious, so constant, so unerring. This is what baffles the power of Satan.  He cannot discern the Hand of God in what goes on; and though he would fain meet it and encounter it, in his mad and blasphemous rebellion against heaven, he cannot find it." 

J. H. Newman

 

Another ranging day in stocks with big moves both up and down, and a finish that was mostly unchanged.

The Dollar chopped sideways.

Gold and silver got slammed again, just because they can. 

All eyes on the December Jobs Report tomorrow.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Hawkish Shock Syndrome

 

"This elite-generated social control maintains the status quo because the status quo benefits and validates those who created and sit atop it.  People rise to prominence when they parrot the orthodoxy rather than critically analyze it.   Real change in politics or society cannot occur under the orthodoxy because if it did, it would threaten the legitimacy of the professional class and all of the systems that helped them achieve their status." 

Kristine Mattis, The Cult of the Professional Class 

 

"Monetary and regulatory policy encourage asset bubbles to proliferate.  Hot money seeks out the conscious mispricing of risk.  Capital, in the form of both money and personal talent, increasingly flows into malinvestment and the gaming of markets.  

The productive economy languishes, left wanting for the lack of creative resources and attention.  The bubble rises to unsustainable valuations— and fails, and a nation's capital is consumed."

Jesse 5 August 2019, The Men Who Sold the World

 

Stocks were wobbly for the morning trade.  

And then the Fed's more-hawkish-than-expected meeting minutes came out, and stocks went into a melt down as Treasury yields rose.

Gold and silver got smacked down from their rally attempt.

The Dollar had been selling off during the day, but rallied sharply higher on the 2 PM news, finishing almost unchanged.

The VIX moved higher.

What a surprise.

Is the rinse cycle over yet?

Never have so many paid such an exorbitant price for so few.

Non-Farm Payrolls report on Friday.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

 

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Liars and Pipers

 

"Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.   In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him."

1 John 4:7-8

 

“Each day we are becoming a creature of splendid glory, or one of unthinkable horror.” 

C. S. Lewis

 

“The pull of fascist politics is powerful.  It simplifies human existence, gives us an object, a 'them' whose supposed laziness highlights our own virtue and discipline, encourages us to identify with a forceful leader who helps us make sense of the world, whose bluntness regarding the 'undeserving' people in the world is refreshing.  Fascism thrives under conditions of economic uncertainty, where fear and resentment can be mobilized to set citizens against one another,

When you legitimize yourself entirely by inventing enemies, the truth ceases to matter, normal restraints of civilization and decency cease to matter, the checks and balances of normal politics cease to matter.

The dangers of fascist politics come from the particular way in which it dehumanizes segments of the population. It limits the capacity for empathy among other citizens, leading to the justification of inhumane treatment, from repression of freedom, mass imprisonment, and expulsion to, in extreme cases, mass extermination."

Jason Stanley, How Fascism Works

 

"Fascism begins the moment a ruling class, fearing the people may use their political democracy to gain economic democracy, begins to destroy political democracy in order to retain its power of exploitation and special privilege." 

Thomas Clement Douglas

 

Ask God to show you your sins, especially those to which you have been blinded, and so easily explain away and rationalize, out of habit and pride.

This is the beginning of our salvation, when we still have a choice for acceptance and true repentance.

Stocks were volatile again today, with deep lows and a bit of an afternoon recovery.

Big cap tech, the flag-bearers of this particular market bubble, led the way lower.

Gold and silver caught a bounce after the mugging dealt to the metals yesterday.

The Dollar chopped sideways.

As I have said before, underlying the equity market is a simmering volcano of mispriced risks.

Lies and manipulation are prevalent in far too many areas of our society. 

As people grow more cynical, abandoning their souls of themselves and their children for some material fear or advantage, the instability in the markets and social discourse will become more pronounced.

Of course they do not believe it, preferring to see the fault in 'them' and not in the madness of their own hardened hearts, often wrapped in fantasies of 'righteous anger' in response to some grievance.

It is a story as old as Babylon, and evil as sin.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

"Then it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature.   It will be too late then to choose your side.   That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realised it before or not." 

C. S. Lewis, 1944