Stocks and Precious Metals Charts -

"A demagogue must be neither an educated nor an honest man; he has to be an ignoramus and a rogue. You possess all the attributes of a demagogue:  a screeching, horrible voice, a perverse, cross-grained nature and the language of the market-place."

Aristophanes, The Knights

Trump announced the withdrawal of the US from the Paris climate accords today.  At the end of the day it was mostly a symbolic act in withdrawing from a largely toothless agreement.

He missed a wonderful opportunity to actually announce something with teeth in it, like major infrastructure initiatives to improve the power grid in the US, and encourage the use of renewable energy and new technologies.

He might even have suggested that the US will start looking at the trade inflows from countries that are major polluters and abusers of human rights with a less favorable eye.  That might have some real bite to it.  And not a collection of voluntary agreements from politicians who are above all artful liars.

Trump says he is doing this for the average working people of the US.  If only this was true.

Doing things for the common people of the US is a fig leaf that the GOP perennially likes to use when they are doing some fairly despicable things in the service of Big Business.  If you think that they care about the public, watch what they are doing with healthcare and taxes and fiscal policy initiatives to create living wage employment.

Stocks were rallying today on expectations that America is becoming great again. And after what The Donald says the Street is expecting a nice fat Non-Farm Payrolls report on Friday. That at least would follow from DT's bragging about the stock market showing what a great recovery is already underway.

Gold and other risk assets were weak, and VIX fell back down to single digits again.

Have a pleasant evening.