Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Breaking You

You've been let down, it's true
Your pain is so easy to see
You're haunted by your history
And it feels like you've got no escape.

Your life left you high and dry
You used to be sure of yourself
But then your whole world went to hell
And tomorrow looks just like today.

Lift up your eyes
Love is on the way
And it won't pass you by
You just gotta reach out your hand.

Audrey Assad, Breaking You

Stocks 'extended the bull market' as the spokesmodels on Bloomberg TV were saying in their adept analysis after the bell.

I have an itch to put a modest short back on to the equity market, but I resisted it for now.  These things tend to have a time of their own.

And besides, it is not yet clear to me that all the suckers are back in, and the pros are looking to hand this third generation stock bubble off.

Volatility has come back down quite a bit once again.

Gold and silver were weak today. There will be an option expiration on the Comex this week Thursday the 25th. June is a more important month for gold than silver.

The GOP and the talking yam did not fail to disappoint with their initial budget proposal. They are going after the weak, the poor, and the sick in order to provide more of everything to their masters of wickedness in high places.

I suspect that they will be making many of those who voted for Trump's promises howl in pain with their heartless policies before this is over. Too bad the Democrats cannot find a progressive spot in their own greed hardened hearts.

Difficult times for simple honorable souls indeed. But a thorough reading of history suggests that this is how things most often are. But it is better to struggle in goodness than to accumulate in heartlessness, at least in God's economy.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - And Where They Make a Desert, They Call It Peace

“He felt that he had known them all, those strange terrible figures that had passed across the stage of the world, and made sin so marvelous and evil so full of subtlety."

Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray


“In a nation run by swine, all pigs are upwardly mobile and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely.”

Hunter S. Thompson

Stocks were drifting higher today on light volumes and the good news of a very large arms deal with Saudi Arabia.   Few things are so immensely profitable for us than war, because its products contain their own need for replacements.

Gold and silver saw a little upside on weaker economic outlooks based on stagnant wages, weakening demand, and the continuing printing of money by the unproductive bushels in pursuit of mad and discredited economic theories.

There will be a Comex precious metals options expiration this Thursday the 25th.

Trump's budget was revealed in absentia today.

It presents a diligent effort to strip the weak, the poor, and the disabled of what little they have in order to give the wealthiest few even more. This would be more surprising if one were to forget that this has been the general theme since the rule of Bill Clinton, who while serving the vile interests of mammon could at least make us feel better about it, make us think that he too felt our pain.

I was wondering today, was Hillary really the lesser of two evils? She certainly has the credentials, if not the polish of her spouse and predecessor who were exceptional orators and performers. Even W managed to memorize his lines, and effect the steely gaze when mouthing the watchword, 'terror.'

This is the shortcoming of Trump that so infuriates the more accomplished fakers, swine and hypocrites among our ruling elite—   he is a clumsy liar and a terrible actor, and so rarely fails to spoil the public's illusions about our goodness.

Have a pleasant evening.

Reprise: How Elitist Democrats Betrayed Their Traditional Working Class Base And Gave Trump the Presidency

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Between the Crosses, Row By Row

"One of the common failings among honorable people is a failure to appreciate how thoroughly dishonorable some other people can be, and how dangerous it is to trust them."

Thomas Sowell

Today was an option expiration, and we had an additional pop in stocks in order to complete the routing of the bears who piled on to the 'Trump dump.'

The putative reason for today's rally was a statement by the Fed's Bullard about the role that additional QE may play.  I am not sure if this was 'real' or just another reasons to wash and rinse the public.

Next week will be the June option expiration for precious metals on the Comex.

Stocks are at a bit of a crossroads here.  The SP 500 futures and big cap tech in the NDX, for example, have retraced approximately fifty percent of the recent drop, and are both at the midpoint of their respective bull trend channels.

There will be the second estimate of Q1 GDP next week.  I do not think it will be a big mover, since we tend to be forgetful of where we have been, even most recently.

Memorial Day is coming up at the end of this month.  As the poem says, 'take up our quarrel with the foe.'  

Who is 'the foe' of liberty and the pursuit of happiness?  In the answer to that question lies maturity, and wisdom.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Burning Down the House

"Most of us are still too sane to piss in our own cistern, but we allow others to do so and we reward them for it. We reward them so well, in fact, that those who piss in our cistern are wealthier than the rest of us. How do we submit? By not being radical enough. Or by not being thorough enough, which is the same thing."

Wendell Berry


"Our future could be one in which continued tumult feeds the looting of the financial system, and we talk more and more about exactly how our oligarchs became bandits and how the economy just can’t seem to get into gear.

Recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform. And if we are to prevent a true depression, we’re running out of time."

Simon Johnson, The Quiet Coup, May 2009


"But there is a sort of 'Ok guys, you're mad, but how are you going to stop me' mentality at the top."

Robert Johnson, Audacious Oligarchy


"Isn't it a riddle and awe-inspiring that things can be so beautiful, despite the horror? I've seen something wondrous peering through my joy in the beautiful, a sense of its creator...Only people can be truly ugly, because they have free will to separate themselves from this song of praise. It often seems they will drown out this hymn with cannon thunder, curses, and blasphemy. But I have realized they will not succeed. And so I want to throw myself on the side of the victor.”

Sophie Scholl, Munich 1942

Stock options expiration tomorrow, and a precious metals option expiration on the Comex next week.

The action today looked like a dead cat bounce, with a little whiplash to give the amateur options betters a thrill. Here's a suggestion. At least the booze is free in Las Vegas.

Steve Mnuchin and Paul Ryan proved one thing in their respective testimony and press conferences today.

Trump is not the problem— he is a symptom. And so is Hillary.

Let's see what happens tomorrow.

Have a pleasant evening.