Was September 1st a Market Reality Check? Gold Hits One-Year High

On Friday, after it was announced that August non-farm payrolls had increased by a less-than-expected 156,000, stock futures ramped higher heading into the opening bell on Wall Street.

Stocks did indeed gain, on the twisted hope that a soft labor market would chill Fed ambitions to raise interest rates and/or begin to wind down their massive, $4 trillion balance sheet when the FOMC meets September 12 and 13.

Those were the thoughts of traders in the morning, but, when the NASDAQ fell briefly into the red mid-morning, sentiment seemed to take on a more sober tone, as the reality of a stuttering recovery over the past eight years - fueled primarily by massive infusions of freshly-created cash by central banks and historically-low interest rates - might actually be - rather than good news - bad news.

All of the major indices finished with gains, but they were hardly of the kind that one could take comfort in as the long Labor Day weekend commenced.

Rather, the afternoon session was mild, largely belonging to fixed assets, as precious metals traded briskly. Gold went into the weekend trading at a one-year high, $1320.40 the ounce, silver, while it didn't make any historic high marks, gains 16 cents, ending at $17.50, a mid-point range advantageous to speculation on both sides of the trade.

The 10-year note firmed up at a 2.15% yield and crude oil, in the aftermath of hurricane Harvey, regained its footing, trading higher in the afternoon to $47.35 per barrel.

Was this a wake-up call for equity traders and general market participants?

Doubtful. But, it is somewhat instructive to take into account that the second-longest bull market in history has been built on promises, fallacies, distortions, and the conjuring of more than $14 trillion worldwide.

Bull markets all end. And this one, 101 months old, is more likely to end sooner than later.

At the Close, 9/1/17:
Dow: 21,987.56, +39.46 (+0.18%)
NASDAQ: 6,435.33, +6.67 (+0.10%)
S&P 500: 2,476.55, +4.90 (+0.20%)
NYSE Composite: 11,918.08, +42.39 (+0.36%)

For the Week:
Dow: +173.89 (+0.80%)
NASDAQ: +169.69 (+2.71%)
S&P 500: +35.50 (+1.37%)
NYSE Composite: +106.05 (+0.90%)

Great News! August Jobs Numbers Miss; Stocks Aim For Moon Shot

Bad news is still good news on Wall Street.

According to the impeccable source of all financial excitement, Yahoo! News,

The August jobs report is out and it’s a miss.

The U.S. economy added 156,000 nonfarm payrolls in August while the unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.4%, according to the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Economists were looking nonfarm payrolls to grow by 180,000 in August while the unemployment rate was expected to hold steady at 4.3% near a post-crisis low. The BLS noted in its report that Hurricane Harvey had “no [discernible] effect” on the employment data for August.

Wage growth was also a disappointment, with average hourly earnings rising 0.1% over the prior month and 2.5% over last year. Earnings were expected to rise 0.2% over the prior month and 2.6% over the prior year. A rise in wages is seen by economists as portending an uptick in inflation, which has disappointed this year.

The rest of the story is here.

After ten years of the most tepid "recovery" on record, and despite $14 trillion of magic money creation by the central banks of the developed countries (adding in China, it's more like $18 trillion), poor employment data is still greeted with smiles by stock jockeys, because it means the economy is not really recovering and the Fed and other globalist central banks cannot realistically raise interest rates.

That means the punch bowl will be refilled with easy credit and the bubbly stock market can advance to every higher levels of insanity.

Forget that the average P/E of S&P 500 stocks is four standard deviations above the norm, that government pension shortfalls threaten the retirement of millions of aging Americans. Forget that wages have been stagnant for 17 years running. Just buy more stocks and everything will turn out just fine.

It's madness. Nothing, absolutely nothing will change until the day comes when it all changes at once. But that day may still be years away because the central banks and government number crunchers will see to it that the veil is never removed from the eyes of ordinary people who will be taxed and regulated into the ether.

There are no jobs. Party on!

At the Close, 8/31/17:
Dow: 21,948.10, +55.67 (+0.25%)
NASDAQ: 6,428.66, +60.35 (+0.95%)
S&P 500: 2,471.65, +14.06 (+0.57%)
NYSE Composite: 11,875.69, +70.62 (+0.60%)

Stocks Post Gains As August Winds Down; Nomi Print On Central Bank Collusion

Investors put their money down as the major indices posted small gains heading into the end of the month. The NASDAQ was, in particular, on fire, posting the largest increase on the day, a more then one percent rise.

Non-farm payroll data for August will be released Friday morning in advance of the three-day Labor Day weekend, so that should color the final two days of the week, the last day of August and the first day of September.

As mentioned in prior posts, there's nothing stopping stocks from posting gains until congress comes back in September to begin debates on the debt ceiling, tax reform (that's funny, they always talk about tax reform and the tax code just keeps getting larger), and the federal budget (another fat boy).

To get an idea of just how far afield the world's central bankers have gone in trying to maintain a broken global financial system, Nomi Prins puts perfect spin on the topic, in her latest blog post, A Decade of G7 Central Bank Collusion... and Counting.

At the Close, 8/30/17:
Dow: 21,892.43, +27.06 (+0.12%)
NASDAQ: 6,368.31, +66.42 (+1.05%)
S&P 500: 2,457.59, +11.29 (+0.46%)
NYSE Composite: 11,805.07, +13.19 (+0.11%)

Stocks, Gold, Silver, Bonds Ominously Reverse Course

As noted in the previous post, stocks were poised - via lower futures pricing - for a major downdraft on Tuesday, but, oddly enough, or, thanks to the good folks at the PPT, that never actually occurred to any great extent.

Instead, stocks did indeed start the session lower, but quickly reversed course and ended mostly on the upside. Additionally, the dollar dropped then popped on the widely-watched dollar index, crushing the gains in gold, silver and bonds, with the 10-year note ending at 2.14% yield.

It's amusing to see such theatrics carried out by those mostly "in charge" of global finance, i.e., the central bankers and government operatives in the Treasury Department, SEC and State. It's going to get more amusing, if that's what one wants to call outright market manipulation via direct, clandestine equity purchases, once congress comes back from vacation following the long Labor Day holiday.

One obvious feature of late has been the decline of the dollar over the past six months. It's been steady and in a bear market since July, but yesterday's rapid descent was apparently too much, too soon.

At the Close, Tuesday, August 28, 2017:
Dow: 21,865.37, +56.97 (+0.26%)
NASDAQ: 6,301.89, +18.87 (+0.30%)
S&P 500: 2,446.30, +2.06 (+0.08%)
NYSE Composite: 11,791.88, -8.34 (-0.07%)

Stocks Flat, Gold, Silver, Bonds Explode Higher

Editor's Note: Money Daily is eventually going to move to its own server at dtmagazine.com, but issues implementing the blogging platform while integrating ad serving has kept the blog from being fully integrated. Thus, for the time being, until these issues resolved, the blog will appear here.

Stocks were relatively unmoved as the world's central bankers wrapped up their annual economic symposium at Jackson Hole, Wyoming over the weekend.

What did move were precious metals and bonds, both boosted by ambiguous speeches by Fed Chair, Janet Yellen, and ECB president, Mario Draghi.

Both speakers failed to address the bubbling equity markets, and instead opted for a can-kicking, all is well, "stay the course" approach. Markets were effectively unimpressed, though fixed investments saw massive gains.

The benchmark 10-year note was bid, knocking the yield down to 2.16, and to levels not seen since before last year's November elections, at 2.09% just prior to the Tuesday open.

Gold has blown through resistance at the psychologically-important $1300 level, kicking up to $1325 in early Tuesday futures trading. Silver also advanced, blasting through $17, hovering in the $17.60 range at this time.

Stock futures are down massively, setting Tuesday up for a massive downdraft.

With congress coming back to debate the debt ceiling and federal budget and the FOMC meeting in September, the final days of August appear to be presaging the volatile days and weeks ahead.

Hang on to your hats. This looks to be a wild ride.

At the Close, August 28, 2017:
Dow: 21,808.40, -5.27 (-0.02%)
NASDAQ: 6,283.02, +17.37 (+0.28%)
S&P 500: 2,444.24, +1.19 (+0.05%)
NYSE Composite: 11,800.22, -11.81 (-0.10%)