Gold attempting to get to that "16" Handle

Gold put in a decent performance in today's session but was stymied at that psychological resistance level of $1600. It seems as if traders are basically standing around looking at each other to see who is going to commit first to buying it above this level.

Right now there is a general hesitation to get too aggressive as there is yet another, (sigh!) summit this week in Europe, this time in Brussels on Wednesday, where the market will have to digest whatever fodder these clowns want to utter. Look for more of the same talk that we got from this weekend's gathering in Chicago - namely - growth instead of austerity which translates to money printing.

At some point this will have the anticipated inflationary impact but not until we see something actually take place besides more talk. The moment, and I do mean the moment, we get confirmation that the ECB and the Fed are going to do the only thing that they can do, gold will move higher and start another leg in an uptrend. Until then we may have to be content with it marking some time here and allowing dip buyers to come in at appropriate moments barring some unexpected news.

I have not had to change the notations and resistance and support levels on the price chart as of yet but you can see where the resistance is located near the $1600 level. Above that, $1625 or so is next.

Downside support comes in at the $1575 - $1565 level.

Whistling Pass the Proverbial Graveyard

Remember when you were a little child and had to walk past a graveyard or cemetery on the way home? The process was rather unnerving particularly if it was in the evening. So along comes the advice of your seniors..."Just strike up a pleasant tune and whistle it out loud. It will perk you up and chase away any fears".

I got the distinct impression that this is what occurred in today's S&P 500 futures pit. Oh I know what the "perma bulls" will tell us. "Equity prices had gotten too cheap. The economy is not as bad as the stock markets are indicating" and so on and so on. But the "whistling tune" I loved the best today was this one:

"European leaders are going to go at their problems by employing a 'GROWTH' strategy and are moving away from 'AUSTERITY'.

NOTE: INSERT MELODY HERE TO AID WOULD-BE WHISTLERS AS THE AIR RUSHES PAST THEIR LIPS".

Why not just cut the crap and state the obvious - these short-sighted politicians and monetary officials will do anything to prevent themselves from getting booted out of office by a public ADDICTED TO GOVERNMENT SPENDING. Look at what happened to Sarkozy. He was replaced by a Socialist who LOVES DEBT AND MORE TAXES to apparently try to fund it all.

Hard choices?! Forgeddabout it! That's for the poor chump stupid enough to think that the public will give him a chance to do so.

Either way, the result of this "pursuit of growth" instead of austerity was the supposed reason that we had an enormous short squeeze in the US equity markets today. My guess is that the powers that be made sure that they had their "pals" bid the market high enough to trip the algos into buying and then sat back and laughed at what they had managed to pull off once again.

With the FACEBOOK IPO smell still souring the air, one has to wonder how much more contempt these elites have for the general public whom they just led to the slaughter touting that piece of junk stock. Didn't matter however - today was "All these European problems are so overblown Dude  - Day".

The timing of the big BULLISH OUTSIDE REVERSAL DAY just happened to coincide with a market approaching the critical 50% Fibonacci Retracement Level. That level also happens to not be very far away from the 200 day moving average. Surprise? I doubt that. Now we watch and wait to see how much, if any, staying power, today's contrived equity rally is going to have.

China flips the Finger to Wall Street

The following article appeared today on Reuters which is well worth your read. In a move that illustrates the growing clout of China, approval was granted by the US Government for it to bid DIRECTLY through the auction system of the US Treasury, completely bypassing the PRIMARY DEALER BANKS.

My guess is that the Chinese were sick and tired of being front-run by these unscrupulous banks and issued a stern but quiet demand to either allow them to go this route, OR ELSE!

This further underscores the fact of the growing economic clout of China and just how utterly dependent our nation has become on its funding of our outrageous and downright contemptible indebtedness.

Exclusive: U.S. lets China bypass Wall Street for Treasury orders

By Emily Flitter
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/21/us-usa-treasuries-china-idUSBRE84K11720120521

NEW YORK | Mon May 21, 2012 3:35pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - China can now bypass Wall Street when buying U.S. government debt and go straight to the U.S. Treasury, in what is the Treasury's first-ever direct relationship with a foreign government, according to documents viewed by Reuters.