Just Charts - The Walking Dead Markets

The market action is beyond dull, almost sleep-walking.

Understandable for mid-August, but certainly it is not good that they are ignoring the risks in the real economy.

But why should they be any different from the Fed and the rest of the political and financial establishment in their attitudes towards the 'new normal.'

As a reminder, there will be an option expiration tomorrow.

Here is the scorecard for today.

Have a pleasant evening.

Charts at 3:30 - A Really Dull Market

"Even the broader stock market has moved into the gray area beyond rationality, ruled by hype and 'adjusted' earnings and monkeyed accountings, financial engineering, and feverish hopes for central-bank market manipulation. Everyone loves a rigged market, as long as it’s rigged the right way. We’ve come to call it, consensual hallucination."

Wolf Richter

We have a break in the weather, and I do not wish to waste it watching this inconsequential nonsense today.

Without significant financial and political reform there will be no sustainable economic recovery.

Paul Krugman was a guest speaker on Bloomberg television today, and he is a willfully blind, walking, talking poster child for the credibility trap.

Have a pleasant evening.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - De Trop - The Great Gold Hoax

Today was a very sleepy day, and the markets were 'dull.'

As noted below, there is a stock option expiry on Friday.

I put the finishing touches on an interview with Lars Schall for Matterhorn Asset Management today, answering some final questions. It was more heavily into presidential politics and some other world events than I normally address.  But of course the conversation turned to gold and silver.

And I have to admit that thinking about these things and putting them into words over the weekend left me in a bit of a funk.  In general, most politicians make me nauseous, and this particular election between these two creatures and their minions can be a bit disheartening.  As Jean-Paul Sartre observed:

Que fais-je ici?  Pourquoi ces gens sont-ils là?  J'ai envie de partir, de m'en aller quelque part où je serais vraiment à ma place , où je m'emboîterais...  Mais ma place n'est nulle part ; je suis de trop.

The trick to regain a healthy equilibrium is by praying for others, especially for those whom you do not like, or who have acted badly.  At times it is the only thing that works, when one falls too far inwardly, to pull yourself back out of it.  People are so foolish sometimes, but then you look and see the same tendencies in yourself.  So it is a good habit in general, that when you feel negative feelings about someone, to pray for them as you would for yourself.

Lars was very kind in allowing me to do this in writing rather than in person, which gave me the latitude to do it when I had the time available without interruption.  Luckily my time this week is not being employed with the healthcare system and its strange ways and billing mysteries, and for that I am grateful.

I will put up a link to it when it goes online.

Gold is coiling.  As is silver.

Stocks are at a precarious crossroads.

Here is a new video from Jim Rickards called 'The Great Gold Hoax.'

Have a pleasant evening.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Stock Options Expiration This Week

As a reminder, there will be a stock option expiration this Friday.

We can probably expect some shenanigans leading up to it, although August is a sleepy month.

Stocks are largely drifting now, trying to digest a remarkable run to new highs.

The valuations look very full.  But the Fed et al. are printing money overtime.

Have a pleasant evening.

Links For Tuesday 16 August

The mechanism by which I add links to the sidebar under Matières à Réflexion seems to be broken today. This happens on occasion when the blogger platform software people fiddle with it.   I have been waiting for them to repair this, but it does not seem to be forthcoming.

So I will be adding links here in this post throughout the day.  As I recall this happened once before.

Debt Collector Thwarts Wrongful Practices Lawsuit By Buying the Lawsuit on the Cheap, Judge Agrees

TTIP:  The Suicide of Nations

Windows 10 Tracks Almost Everything You Do - Here's How to Opt Out - 'Settings' is reached by clicking on the Windows icon on the lower left

Core Consumer Price Inflation Up Over 2% For the 9th Straight Month    (It takes a policy error. Or a series of errors. Stagflation is not easy to achieve. Well done, Fed)

Industrial Production Down Year over Year, Negative Growth for the 11th Straight Month

SEC and Stock Frauds - Can This (NeuroMama) Dog Hunt?

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Crossroads

Gold and silver were drifting today, along with the markets in general.

Risk is low now as measured by the VIX. But it is really not 'risk' that is being measured, but rather 'uncertainty' in the markets.

And since the markets are massively mispricing the real economy and global situation, their certainty about their own ascendancy and the enduring power of paper assets is a little less than reassuring.

Have a pleasant evening.