Monday Morning

At 12 PM in New York, markets seemed to be righting themselves after an indescribably volatile overnight session in China and then Europe that bled over to Wall Street. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) exploded to 53 after having tread water in the 10-to-20 range for most of the year.

Runaway train never going back
Wrong way on a one way track
Seems like I should be getting somewhere
Somehow I'm neither here nor there
                – Soul Asylum

Crude oil right now reminds us of those apocalyptic movies where an asteroid hurtles toward Earth and everyone watches as it grows bigger and bigger while a countdown to doomsday pops up on every television screen from Siberia to South Florida. Moreover, the general populace engages in antic behavior ranging from screaming at the neighbors to promiscuous sex.

Editors note: We have opened up today's Trending Market video report for all Gold Forecast members to view.

Frogster is an early video game where a cute little amphibian valiantly tries to cross a heavily trafficked street. The player’s job is to get Froggy across without letting him get squished.

Maybe it’s just too hard to focus on hard data. Maybe the lazy in the world like to talk a good game and get their panties in a bunch over opinions (in the FOMC minutes) that we’re all familiar with by now. 

Every day, fundamentals analysts are called upon to divine the future. So, a theory has to be found for almost everything. Drought? Gold rises. No, wait: drought plus wildfire? Gold falls. It can get a little silly.

However, there are some cyclical movers of markets that border on technical forces but aren’t, of course.

We’re watching crude oil prices, especially West Texas Intermediate, as we head into the middle part of August because in a secondhand way it will be the deciding factor in whether the Federal Reserve raises interest rates in September.

WTI and Brent North Sea were both down on the day and week. Today, though, Brent took the brunt of the punishment, losing almost ½ of a percent.

The China seas calmed themselves today, basically on talk from the People’s Bank Of China.

Summers Are For Roller Coasters – Welcome To The One Called China

After taking a tremendous beating today, the Dow, S&P 500 and NASDAQ slipped back up to near even by the close. The plunge was precipitated by shakiness in oil, but as crude stabilized, U.S. equities recovered.

Whom Fortune wishes to destroy she first makes mad.

• Publilius Syrus, Maxim 911

No doubt everyone one is familiar with today’s yuan devaluation by China, the one big inescapable driver in all markets – except in Shanghai equities.