The tiny double bottom that occurred shortly after the close of Comex trading on Wednesday afternoon may have been the low in gold for this move. Both were ever so slightly below $900. From there, gold rose gradually until about an hour after the London a.m. gold fix on Thursday morning. Then it declined gently until shortly after the London p.m. fix was in. From there, away it went…until a not-for-profit seller showed up in after-hours Globex trading in New York and capped the little price spike that occurred at 3:30 p.m. New York time.

click to enlarge

Silver’s antics were the same as gold’s, although the price action was more exaggerated. Silver began to rise once the London a.m. gold fix was in…then declined until shortly after the London p.m. fix…and then, it too, was off to the

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Fed up with the homeowner bailout?

You can actually do something about it.  And I don’t mean write your congressman or buy a bumper sticker.

You can stop paying your own mortgage, free of fear that you’ll be kicked out of your home, provided you play it right.

And that’s not me making the suggestion.  In fact, it was all over the place just last fall.

You say you missed it?  You find the suggestion morally offensive?  Just hang with me a bit.

In October Peter Schiff wrote an op-ed for the San Diego Union-Tribune titled, simply enough, “Stop Paying Your Mortgage.”

After supposedly bailing out the fat cats on Wall Street, no politician wants to be accused of evicting struggling families. Once you understand this, all of your anxiety should melt away. Why pay your mortgage if foreclosure is off the table, and if you know that lower payments, and possibly

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Much on my mind on a Friday morning.  So let’s dive right in.

Item: GDP contracts an annualized 6.2% in the fourth quarter.

Comment: Let’s break down the four major components of GDP.  Consumer spending?  Down the worst since 1980.  Business investment?  Down the worst since 1975.  Exports?  Down the worst since 1971.  Government spending?  Up slightly.  Lots more where this came from, I’m afraid.

Item: U.S. government taking 36% stake in Citi.

Comment: I love how in journalistic shorthand, these sorts of stories become, “U.S. taxpayers will soon own a big share of Citigroup (NYSE:C).”  Like hell I do.  If I own a piece of it, where do I sign up for the dividend checks?

Item: War spending no longer to be done off-budget.

Comment: As much as the new president’s first budget proposal is an abomination, let’s at least give him credit for declaring an end to the practice of “supplemental” appropriations for

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It seems I’ve touched a nerve.

The comments queue for my musing yesterday titled “Why I’ll Sit Out the Chicago Tea Party” was filled with people heaping invective on me because I said CNBC’s Rick Santelli failed to take a vigorous stand against bank bailouts, even as he gained fame for opposing homeowner bailouts.

Au contraire, I was reprimanded.  “You’re just plain wrong,” said one of the gentler comments.  “You might want to check on Rick Santelli a bit more carefully,” said another.

And so I have.  I’ve double-checked my homework.  I have searched long and hard for the sort of full-throated condemnation of the $9.7 trillion of bailouts, guarantees, backstops, etc. for irresponsible financiers that Santelli gave of the $275 billion bailout for irresponsible homeowners.

And I’m just not finding it.  A lot of his defenders in the online universe (and one of the commenters) point to this

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Rick Santelli is a chump. It pains me to say so.  I wanted so much to watch his infamous “Rant” video on CNBC and say, “Hear! Hear!”  But I can’t bring myself to do it.

It’s not that I take issue with his opposition to the Obama housing plan:  Absolutely, responsible homeowners who kicked in a hefty down payment on a 30-year fixed mortgage should not have to bail out those who bought more house than they could afford.

But I won’t be taking part in any “Chicago Tea Party” he might plan for this summer.

Santelli has walked straight into a trap, one I daresay Obama aides David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel cleverly set.

For all the popular support The Rant has garnered for Santelli, a backlash has developed.  “Watching Rick Santelli’s embarrassing diatribe at the expense of the American people made me realize that these Wall Street frat boys still

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Despite gold’s best attempts to rally in the Sydney market, a determined seller took the price down once Hong Kong opened. It rallied a bit until 1:00 p.m. in Hong Kong (midnight in New York) and then got sold off again until shortly after London opened. A rally commenced until shortly after the Comex opened…and that was it for the day…as gold was capped every time it tried to rally over $980. Estimated volume was 121,349 contracts, with a switch effect of 8,040.

Silver was similar…with its top price coming at 1:00 p.m. in Hong Kong. A small rally in London was crushed…as silver came under selling pressure about an hour before the Comex opened. After the Comex close, silver did manage to gain a bit in electronic trading on the Globex.

The precious metals trading pattern sure looked like prices wanted to rise, but were beaten into submission by one or

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Highlighted stocks include The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (MHP), Moody's Corp. (MCO), JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Wells Fargo & Company (WFC) and General Motors Corp. (GM).Yesterday on CNBC, Rick Santelli went on a rant about the unfairness of the Obama mortgage relief program. It has gone viral and has been replayed on virtually all of the network news shows.Clearly he has touched into a deep nerve. However, while he makes some valid points, I really don't agree with him.In war, there is inevitably "collateral damage," which is a nice euphemism for the fact that in any war, innocent civilians get maimed and killed. What separates a good professional Army from a bunch of storm troopers or war criminals is that a good professional Army will do what it can to minimize collateral damage, storm troopers don't ...

Here at “A Dash” we like the comparisons between analyzing sports and analyzing markets.  There is much more data in sports, and the risk/reward calculations are similar.

When it comes to the NBA, we are zeroed in on the Michael Jordan era.  To celebrate a birthday party for a famed Chicago options trader, one of our friends sent invitations to a party — dinner and Bulls tickets for a playoff game that night.  Attendance was excellent!

Can We Learn from the NBA?

Shrugging off the current Bulls record, we try to remain open to new information.  In particular, is there any relevance for investors?

Investment experts are weighing in on the Shane Battier article by Michael Lewis.  In a reprise of Moneyball, Lewis shows how Battier is more valuable than his obvious stats indicate.  Briefly put, he makes everyone on his team better — …

All eyes were on Washington this week. President Obama signed the stimulus package into law and unveiled a new housing rescue package.

Neither is perfect, but perfection and the federal government are an oxymoron. Let us just hope that if things don't work as planned, the president stays true to his word and comes up with a different plan.

Stimulus Package

The stimulus package was both too small and too bloated.

A smaller stimulus package that garnered true bipartisan support would have been better. Specifically, a bill with a bigger focus on tax cuts, especially payroll taxes, and infrastructure spending.

Conceivably, such a plan would have gotten broader support. If Republicans felt they had more of their ideas factored into the bill, the White House might have had more leverage to ask for additional stimulus funds in the future. < ?DART(15);?>

On the other side of the aisle, some Democrats

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February 19, 2009 The Fryguy usually features many technical charts and today will be no exception. But first let’s listen and view some important and timely fundamental outlooks from our friends at Business Monitor International (London). Greg Newton and I conducted this much anticipated interview yesterday and it’s available in the following YouTube segments. Why all the segments? Because YouTube only allows 10 minute recordings and it also provides viewers the opportunity to view the topics they want. Our discussion focuses on important hot spots of the world and the various economic risks investors will confront in global regions and countries. Are gold and silver safe haven assets at this time? Terry Alexander, Head of Country Risk, addresses this issue and much more with his macro view. Are China and India ...