13 February 2018

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - CPI Tomorrow


"When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites,
who love to stand and loudly pray in their churches and on street corners
so that others may see them.
Amen, I say to you,
they have already received their reward.
But when you pray, go to a quiet room,
close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.
And your Father who sees all things will repay you."

Matt 6:5-8

And so today is already Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday.

And that means tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the 40 days of the Lenten vigil.

The queen and I attended a Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans one year in the 1990's. I forget exactly when. It was for a corporate event at the Fairmont Hotel, right next to the route of the parade. I think I still have some plastic coins stashed in my desk somewhere as a memento.

And it is also St. Valentine's Day.  So don't forget that one guys.  I sent roses to some of the ladies who were of special help and comfort while the queen was having in-home hospice last year, a dark and concerning period of life.  They were like angels, and their unselfish kindness made a deep impression.  Some of them bordered on what I like to call heroic virtue.

It only takes a moment to say thank you to someone who deserves it. We are so often quick to criticize and find fault, but so ungrateful for the many, many little things that others do for us. And when we thank them we start to note the little good things, instead of swelling on a bunch of silly inconveniences.

No matter how difficult life may seem, God's angels are always about to help, as well as His tender mercies and consolations, if we are open to seeing them. God is always there, always listening. And when one door closes, another door opens.

The Dollar continued to go lower today, down to 89.60.

This had a positive effect on gold and silver.

Stocks had an upwards bias, but cautiously.

Tomorrow we will be getting the latest Consumer Price Index data. This is important because markets are concerned about the pace of interest rate increases by the easy money Fed, which is at the root of this latest financial asset bubble.

There will also be the Producer Price Index and the Em-Im prices data later this week.

And so we wait, with bated breath.

Just like we are still waiting for any genuine, significant evidence of 'Russian meddling' in the US elections, despite the continuous hysteria from the media.

Have a pleasant evening.


12 February 2018

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - A Nation Willfully Blind


"The 2008 financial crisis unleashed a chain reaction that turbo-boosted the influence of central bankers and triggered a massive shift in the world order. Central banks and institutions like the IMF are overstepping the bounds of their mandates and directing the flow of money without any checks and balances.  Meanwhile, the open door between private and central banking ensures endless manipulation against a backdrop of government support."

Nomi Prins, Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged the World


Gentlemen! I  too have been a close observer of the doings of the Bank of the United States.  I have had men watching you for a long time, and am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country.

When you won, you divided the profits among you, and when you lost, you charged it to the Bank.  You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter I shall ruin ten thousand families.  That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin!

Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves.   I have determined to rout you out, and by the Eternal, (bringing his fist down on the table) I will rout you out."

From the original minutes of the Philadelphia bankers meeting with President Jackson February 1834, from Andrew Jackson and the Bank of the United States (1928) by Stan V. Henkels

According to the spokesmodels "the correction is over and everyone is back into buying."

Maybe so.  But the market remains poorly founded, and vulnerable to even a relatively mild external shock.

When any market is this poorly regulated and overfed on hot money, one might well expect higher volatility and swings. 

Let's see how the CPI number comes in later this week.

And not ignore the low rumbling boil coming out of the Middle East.

The Dollar gave back some of its recent gains, falling from overhead resistance back down to the 90 area from 90.33.

Gold and silver drifted up a bit.  The stocks of physical gold available for immediate delivery remain rather low.

The huge 'infrastructure' proposal was the usual thinly disguised farce we have come to expect from a congress and white house with their noses firmly buried in the swamp of their big donors.

Have a pleasant evening.


















09 February 2018

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Something Wicked This Way Comes


“Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.   Everything beautiful has a mark of eternity.”

Simone Weil


"Come, Lord, let your face shine upon us so that we may peacefully enjoy all good things.  May your powerful hand be a roof over our heads, and may your strength preserve us from all evil.  Free us, Lord, from those who would hate us without cause.  Give peace and harmony to us, and to all the inhabitants of the Earth, as you gave them to our fathers, who called upon you with faith and trust."

Clement of Rome, Letter to Corinth, 95 AD


"Double, double toil and trouble,
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Cool it with a baboon’s blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes."

William Shakespeare, Macbeth


“Hell is empty
And all the devils are here.”

William Shakespeare, The Tempest

Stocks had another wild day, ranging down to test the lows, and then rally back to positive gains after the rest of the world had gone to bed for the week. I am not so sure that we are done with this. The lack of conviction in the buying is palpable.

I am not sure where this short term correction will go. I did say it was coming as a reaction to a blow off top. No matter what happens in the short term, I think unless we get a cleansing of the system and some meaningful financial reform that we will see something that will be remembered as 'a crash' once again, as we had seen in 1997, 2001, and 2008.

And this next one is likely to be of an even greater magnitude, as each of the prior financial collapses have been.  And I am concerned that the next one is going to leave a tear in the social fabric, and the balances in the global relations and economics.  People will only take so much. And the reaction of the status quo will set the tone and theme for where it goes from there, and how deeply.

Gold and silver continued to slide sideways, with each rally attempt being firmly pushed down to what looks like a long trading range. The physical inventories of gold offered for delivery in the Comex warehouses is once again getting a bit lean.

The Dollar managed to rally just a little bit higher.  It has worked off its deeply oversold condition now.

Next week we will be getting quite a bit of economic data, including the PPI and CPI, and Import and Export Prices. This may tend to affect the markets, and their recent epiphany about higher interest rates— or not.

Devils' Hands in Hell, Rong Khun Temple, Thailand
The Congress critters never cease to amaze. After having recently slashed taxes for the wealthiest few, and increased military spending while once again forbidding the government from negotiating cheaper prices with Big Pharma, the campaign has already started to cut Medicaid and Medicare in order to make up for the deficits.

They are certainly not shy about being hypocrites, and not too lazy to steal from the weak and the disadvantaged.  All these things are for the benefit of the powerful and the wealthy, whom it is that they serve.  It would have been better if they had never been born, than to betray their oaths and sacred trusts.  And you would spend an eternity with these?

The weather is hard on all of God's creatures, but especially the least of these.  Please remember to care for them.  It may help to open your minds and hearts, making you into a more attractive and happier person.  Or at least less miserable.  And in the end to save your life.

For until we look with pity and love on the unfortunate we cannot see God, who comes to us quietly, in order to save us, through the overlooked and the despised.  And so the worldly and the proud do not see Him, and are consumed by themselves.

Need little;  want even less;  love more.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Related: Biggest Two Week Decline in SP 500 Momentum Indicator Since 1928






08 February 2018

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Dead People, Seeing Only What They Want to See


"I was being called to surrender the very citadel of my self. I was completely in the dark. I did not really know what repentance was or what I was required to repent of.  It was indeed the turning point of my life.

God had brought me to my knees and made me acknowledge my own nothingness, and out of that knowledge I had been reborn. I was no longer the centre of my life and therefore I could see God in everything."

Bede Griffiths


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

Rom 6:16


"I see dead people.  Walking around like regular people.  They don't see each other.  They only see what they want to see.  They don't know that they're dead."

Cole Sear: The Sixth Sense

People love the sentimentality of their beliefs, the traditions and tribalism and forms of a self-conception, the good feeling that they get from believing that they are better than and different from the great body of mankind.  Religions do this  Even atheists and political parties and schools of economics and philosophy do this, since theirs constitutes a belief as well.  We can be wonderfully profane.

But when it comes to applying those higher principles of  belief in their daily lives, most people are highly selective, and in general want nothing to do with them, except as it is convenient, and serves their purposes without sacrifice.   For many religious faith is at most a moderate restraint on their willfulness. And so they become spiritually dead, dried husks of souls that have slowly starved the love from their hearts.

These are among the most difficult to persuade, because everything that comes to them is turned into a justification of their own wicked, lifeless souls. They view themselves as superior, and therefore victims of their inferiors.  They cling to their hypocrisy like a drowning man might cling to an anchor, down to the depths of the abyss.

And in these days of increasing wickedness, this is most of us.  Misery loves company, even if it is only to have someone else to despise, someone lower on the ladder to kick in the face.

Stocks were plunging again today, with the Dow Industrials finishing down over 1,000 points (4.15%), and the SP 500 down over 100 (3.75%).   Index futures went out on the lows, but are rebounding a bit after hours.  I will sort out any discrepancies and later action tomorrow.

The Dollar was largely unchanged, with gold and silver up a bit.   Gold and silver are interesting to say the least.  They seem to be coiling.  The gold registered for delivery has fallen quite a bit again on the Comex.  Silver remains an almost cornered supply with one large bank dominating identified physical supply.  As to the character and quality of that supply, who really knows but them?

Most of the pundits continue to urge the public to stay fully invested,   This is just some passing phase, a 'healthy correction' in a still vibrant bull market.

Americans are not immune to the pressure of living under a lie created by their elites.   US life expectancy has had an 'alarming drop.   The primary causes are drugs, alcohol, and suicide.

How are the mighty fallen, and broken their instruments of oppression.

Have a pleasant evening.