DJIA

open 10,809.17

close 10,858.14 up 46.10

day high 10,886.21

day low 10,728.64

today's volume 167,112,601

3mo avg. daily volume 191,533,394

DJTA

open 4,511.16

close 4,531.19 up 22.48

day high 4,538.64

day low 4,460.94

today's volume 19,681,334

3mo avg. daily volume 17,247,576

 

Options expiration yesterday on metals.  That's not something I care enough about to keep forefront on my mind, but admittedly I was wondering why it finally decided to bounce above $1,300 today, and it makes since that some expirations occurred yesterday.  No one wants to be the guy who blows through that "double aught" number.  However, 24 little hours later and we're thirteen-aught-nine and rising aftermarket.  Doesn't hurt that Consumer Confidence was down.  Treasury rises with gold, and surprisingly so do the equities.  This market makes no sense from a practical standpoint, and all the sense in the world when viewed through monetary-policy-colored glasses.  I'd park a high for gold at $1,325 or in that range, per-chance $1,350 as a top end, but the drop wont be significant, so it's irrelevant.  I still side with Sinclair, as he's often correct, and consider a $1,650 high with a legitimate 50 - 60% retrenchment to follow, perhaps bringing us back to the high $1,300 to low $1,400 range.  Anything under $1,300 today is a good buy, but I'm always a buyer so it doesn't matter what prices are to me.  

My speculating is less in gold (which is about accumulating, not speculation) and more in how much can I turn my back on the equities and housing markets before we see our black swan event.  Chips are stacked against the markets, volume down, incredibly high monetary creation and the claim that it's nothing, and global currency devaluation to continue the fist fight to be the worlds lowest bidder speaks only one language to me, hyperinflation.  When the average American wakes up and realizes that our major concerns are inflationary not deflationary, it will be too late for us, and then we will be playing catch up with the rest of the world.  Europe has inched that direction, Asia leads the way.  Don't believe me?  Then why has even good-ole' Switzerland increased it's exports to the bulk of their GDP?  How many US Dollars you have is becoming far less important these days, and the only think keeping them afloat is our consumption.  Until the rest of the world has bled us dry, "measured" inflationary concerns remain a political issue... in countries other than ours, the political issue is that of avoiding bloodshed and starvation, in this country, doesn't mean much more than a few sour grapes tossed around on the networks.

A single step backwards for us can equate to tens and hundreds of steps forward for almost everyone else, so no one will argue with us as we crush our currency.  China has no problem following suit.  Asians expect currencies to occasionally be destroyed, and it's happened in Europe enough that they prepare, no wonder demand for physical assets has skyrocketed in places like China.  Here, however, we have multiple generations nursed on the sweet milk of reserve currency status, a milk far harder to quit than heroine.  

My rant ends here, forgive me, but it's frustrating and exciting all in the same breath.  Very few people get the pleasure of witnessing in their lifetime what could equate to a complete shift of global domination.  From Africa to the Middle East, to Europe to Western and across the Pacific to the East.  The last 6,000 years or so, there have been a great number of battles won and lost over small plots of land, a few million acres here and there, but only a few times have entire ways of existence been destroyed.  It is both fascinating and terrifying.  Get to know your neighbors, at some point in this generation, you may be glad.