You know the old saying, right? “Man who keeps ear to ground risks being run over!”
And yet, there is so damn much going on that a little “ground sounding” seems like a useful thing to do in here.
Starting with a look at the markets in the Pre-Open with our Aggregate Index to see where we are…
Four Channel Monte
Your “Personal Best” way to invest, may be related to the type of brain Nature (and Randomness) have seen fit to equip you with. Some people are farmers. Others are fishermen, while I’m more of a hunter. If HR paid any attention to natural proclivities, they’d focus more on natural inclinations in hiring – and not ESG pap – which would make the world a better place over time.
Hunters – hands up – like charts because they appeal to our natural hunting skills which involve the cerebral cortex – the GPU for the brain. Thus, when looking at a semi-complex chart, we immediately see…what?
There are four trend channels. The Green one is the longest-running and we’ve been in that one for a good long time. Being well above it now, the odds of it breaking in a single day are near zero.
The next channel higher (higher take-off angle) is the white one. Again, not quite up to the top of that channel, but not all channels have to be filled. The pink channel – the next-steeper slope, is where we get into trouble.
Futures pricing early had us opening on the bottom of the pink channel and – if the market should happen to fall out of bed late in the session as firms get ready for the bi-weekly Bank Reserve Settlement (tomorrow) then we could bust out of a key trend channel.
And last – the smallest and steepest channel – the yellow one is “on the line” today as well.
None of this, of course, is financial advice; rather it’s more how a hunter’s eye will see the game that’s afoot.
Dirty Politics and Filthy Lucre
With the electile dysfunction two weeks out, there’s a certain eau d politik for the nose held while reading Goldman Sachs Says Euro Could Drop 10% Under Trump Tariffs and Tax Cuts. Which seems to have set off the BS alarms at Bloomberg which counters with The Case Against Goldman’s Post-Election Stock Bounce.
Markets are doing shades of Joe Harnell’s famous (if you were aware in 1963) song Fly me to the moon…(Which begs for me to mention for BCN that Joe Harnell’s son – Jess – was a voice actor in the Crash Bandicoot and did many of the voices on the (unredacted Disney) Splash Mountain ride back in the day…) No doubt BCN would also love to see us mention Bitcoin flashes rare ‘double super signal’ – Why this is important, but we’ll go with the choice characterizations and whatever’s behind curtain #4.
That’s where we see what one of the regional Fed chiefs is saying (which sounds suspiciously like what we’ve told you about crypto from the get-go): Fed President Says Crypto ‘Almost Never’ Used Outside of Drug Deals, Illegal Activities – Decrypt.
We will remind you that cyrpto’s also cause Global Warming and Climate Change (it’s an energy pig) which we claim the right to point out owning, um about 40 solar panels now. (*Will they work in nuclear winter? Aye, there’s the gamble…)
So much for lining up things comical and market-wise. The rest of the day is a yawner.
BRICS Bat
Knock-knock. Who’s there?
South Africa: Ramaphosa tours Russia: Push for BRICS to end US dollar dominance, enabling settlements in local currencies
Armenia: Pashinyan to attend BRICS summit hosted by Putin.
India: PM Narendra Modi lands in Kazan to attend 16th BRICS Summit.
And of course, China: How China promotes global development, governance through BRICS.
Knock-knock. “Who’s not there?”
Blinken we’re thinking: Antony Blinken in Israel as U.S. looks to renew cease-fire efforts after the killing of Hamas leader. We don’t know why Blinken had to go – there are these things called phones or you could hit the J Post online and read Israel tells US conditions for end of war with Hezbollah – The Jerusalem Post. But what is the operating cost per hour of a C-32? You’re a taxpayer, so we know you’re good for it… The Leaked Secret Documents Regarding Israel’s Attack Plans For Iran & Attempts To Assassinate Netanyahu – Scott Ritter w/ Judge Napolitano (Video) worth taking in – as there’s not much rolling today – yet.
More or Less Useless
Looking free advertising in the mouth: McDonald’s didn’t give Trump permission to serve fries. It didn’t need to. Did Mickey D’s ever give out an HR summary of Kamala’s claims?
After Lightfoot, what’d you expect? ‘Playground for rats’: Chicago crowned ‘rattiest city’ in America for 10th consecutive year. How’s that new S.A. gang industry going?
How are America’s political prisoners doing? Liz Cheney Faces Growing Scandal After Expert Exposes Key J6 Evidence As Likely Fake. Who was it who said “Examples must be made”? Abigail Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 29 January 1787. Although, “The Dft arranges the first three sentences found in the RC paragraph somewhat differently and identifies Lt. Col. (Jonathan) Jackson as a man Jefferson had met in France and Lt. Col. (Stephen) Higginson as a former member of Congress before closing with the sentence: “It is not unlikely that some examples must be made before the riots will be totally quelled and peace and good order restored.”
And guess what we’re 18th in the world in thanks to Biden and the free-spending Congress? 2024 International Tax Competitiveness Index | Tax Foundation
And, just in time to vote: A group of 2,000 migrants in southern Mexico depart for the US weeks before election.
At the Ranch: How Dry We Are
Last week’s Drought status didn’t get much attention in the mainstream, but it’s mighty important for those “options” in life. Like drinking water and a bit of food, now and then. Here’s the picture from last week:
“The U.S. saw a huge expansion of drought for the second week in a row. Every state in the Plains and Midwest worsened except Kentucky. Parts of the West, South/Southeast, Northeast, and Hawaii worsened too. As of October 15, 2024, 37.65% of the U.S. and Puerto Rico and 45.02% of the lower 48 states are in drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.’
The National Integrated Drought Information System says as of last week 95.5 million people in this country were living in drought conditions.
We mention this because we’re hard at work this week getting our “waterworks” set up with the first 450 gallons of backup water installed. We’ll keep you posted as this week’s data is updated, but it’s a good prepper move to check and change out water every few months. Plan to gallons per person for basic hydration and more for cooking, laundry, toilet flushes and the like.
We can’t help but notice that one inch of rain in the past two months HERE puts us in the same precipitation rate as, oh, Phoenix, or so.
Seems to us that a “new dimension of prepping” is coming along with the weather wars and multi-canes. Just saying…
Write when it rains, or one of us gets rich,
Read the full article here
