Although Silver broke out around mid-morning on Friday, it spent the remainder of the session idling in a shallow pullback. This behavior reflects the preference of strong, confident buyers who could use a little rest. The quiet end to the week was deceptive, since it featured a decisive push through a 58.45 midpoint Hidden Pivot associated with a 'D' target at 70.81. (Please note that this number was incorrectly given here last week for the January contract as 63.39). A pullback to the green line (x=52.27), however unlikely, would be a screaming 'mechanical' buy. Here's a chart showing the futures' crucial progress last week.
Stocks looked leaden as the week ended, adding to the impression that the aging bull market is topping. The Dow tacked on a perfunctory 104 points, or 0.22%, and it wasn't pretty. There was little life in the lunatic sector (aka 'the Magnificent Seven'), which until recently could be relied on to celebrate its wildest flights of fantasy on Fridays. The biggest winner in the bunch was META, which rose 1.80% on news that Zuckerberg is having second thoughts about his all-in bet on a metaverse. If you're unfamiliar with the term, it refers to a virtual world in which users interact online through avatars. Zuckerberg evidently thought there were hundreds of millions of us, if not billions, eager to escape the pain and drudgery of day-to-day life. He was so certain about this that he changed the name of his company in 2021 from Facebook to Meta. But after sinking $70 billion into the concept, there has been precious little payback. Even more troubling to investors is that there are no obvious ways to make back what has been spent already, nor to recoup any further sums Meta might pour into the idea. Counting on Investors' Stupidity To cover up this boo-boo, and to avoid being thought clueless, Zuckerberg did what any muckety-muck CEO in the digital world would have done: a twisting somersault onto the AI bandwagon. "AI is the most important technology we are working on," he said, evidently hoping investors have forgotten that he spent the last four years taking pains to separate the supposed;y lucrative potential of metaverse from the vague and so-far profitless promises of AI. This latest statement to the press was a smart move if you believe that the $10 gain recorded by META on Friday was the beginning of a lasting
Although Bitcoin ended the week in a mild selloff, it occurred in the context of a bullish cycle begun two weeks ago from 80,526. The correction would need to hit d=84,819 to set up an attractive buy, and a run-up in the meantime to x=91,840 would trigger a 'mechanical' short. This would be a one-level trade with p=89,500 as the profit goal, although that doesn't rule out additional downside to p2=87,160, or even to d=84,819 over the very near term. _______ UPDATE (Dec 8, 12:12 p.m.): The short sale detailed above worked out nicely and could have been covered this morning for an overnight profit of around $2,300. As expected, Sunday's rally was short-lived and exceeded the green line by just 0.4% before receding to within a hair of p=89,500. The recommendation was explicitly detailed and, presumably, clear enough for any subscriber to have done the trade. Any reports?
Bears dove for cover last week after a three-day short squeeze left them with the dim prospect of trying to obstruct a missile bound for new record highs. The 6907.50 target shown was a lock by Tuesday afternoon, when the futures not only punctured the midpoint Hidden Pivot resistance at 6226.25, but closed slightly above it. The question now is how much stopping power the target will show. If little or none, we can expect the rally to continue to at least 6938.00, a target calculated by sliding the 'a' low five bars to the left, to 6540.25. Above it there is only one logical target left: 7499.75. It comes from a blended monthly chart (A=3502.00, on 10/31/22), and although it will be good enough for government work, we shouldn't expect it to show precise stopping power.
When a correction fails to reach its 'D' target as could occur here, it implies the dominant trend, a 16-year-old bull market, will continue. MSFT could still relapse to d=431.89, but we'll give bulls the benefit of the doubt for now with a rally projection to at least 526.24. That's the 'd' target of a pattern on the weekly chart begun on 9/5/25 from 492.37, and it will become an odds-on bet to be achieved when the stock pops though 495.57, a midpoint resistance that comes from the same pattern.
This is the first chart I've drawn that projects a gold price above $5000/oz. The pattern is probably too obvious to work precisely, but that won't negate its ability to keep us confidently on the right side of the trend. A theoretical buy signal has already been signaled with the thrusts through the green line (x=4234.40). However, we can't know how likely the 5126.10 target is to be achieved until we've seen buyers interacts with the midpoint Hidden Pivot resistance at 4529.79. For now, we can use it as a minimum upside projection. As always, a decisive move through p, and particularly a close above it, would shorten the odds of a continuation to D.
The 63.39 rally target is ambitious, considering we've yet to see how bulls handle the pattern's midpoint Hidden Pivot resistance at 57.60. It became a logical minimum objective two weeks ago, when the futures first popped through the green line (x=51.70). The pattern is unusually elongated, but because of the rough visual symmetry between the two down-legs at either end, it winds up being the only ABCD configuration available on the weekly chart. Regardless of its quality, price action at p cannot but tell us whether bulls have the energy to power this vehicle to the target. Since the trend is so well-developed, however, jumping on and off will be difficult at best and should be managed using 'camo' (i.e., small-pattern) trade triggers in either direction.
There's little doubt that GDXJ will achieve a minimum 114.22 in this run-up (see inset). Although it struggled for a while to get past the midpoint Hidden Pivot at 100.80, the ballistic breakout that ended the week should prove well-nigh unstoppable. However, because a 'd' target at 111.59 maxes out the monthly chart (a=96.72 on 2/26/10), we'll have to do the best we can with lesser charts and patterns if and when the ascent surpasses 114.22.
Like UFOs and Bigfoot, far more bear market sightings are imagined than real. I thought I'd spotted Papa Bear myself when Nvidia announced terrific earnings a couple of weeks ago, only to see their shares reverse and dive sharply after a deceptive spike higher. Was this the needle prick that burst the AI bubble? It certainly seemed like it; for it was not merely plausible, but logical, given that Wall Street and the entire investment world were desperately counting on a single company, albeit a $5 trillion one, to turn sagging markets around. They got their wish, but it was a delayed reaction that must have spooked many investors. Stocks plunged for several days after the announcement before catching a bottom and reversing steeply. Your editor was one of the non-believers who were certain stocks had entered a bear market that was long overdue. It wasn't just Nvidia's performance, either. Trump's fortunes, if not to say his very credibility, seemed to be ebbing, in part because his nemesis Epstein was creeping back into the headlines. The President was uncharacteristically back on his heels, seemingly in synch with falling stocks. But within a few days, NVDA appeared to be basing, Trump was masterfully diverting the news media toward a possible peace pact between Russia and Ukraine, and stocks were in a steep recovery. It was sufficiently ferocious to seem like a classical bear rally, and that's what I assumed it was -- until, that is, in just three days, the broad averages had already maneuvered to within easy distance of new highs. That was on Friday, and there's no point pretending the rally is a fake, destined to end with a whimper. Place Your Bets I continue to believe, nonetheless, that stocks are in a topping process. However, a bear market
A minor rally target posted in the chat room on Wednesday caught Friday's spike high within 0.04%, but there's more rally room to at least 94,155 once Bitcoin completes its pullback. The whipsaw reversal to the downside shaved nearly $3,000 from the peak price in under three hours, underscoring the nasty volatility that occurs in this vehicle between swing highs and lows that have been precisely predictable. For those who trade BTC over the weekend, look for a reversal from 89,980 to leverage. Be aware, however, that a decisive breach of this midpoint Hidden Pivot support (15m, a= 92,804 on 11/28) could send Bitcoin down to at least 88,688 in search of traction. _______ UPDATE (Nov 30, 7:30 p.m.): Bitcoin's slide through the 'hidden' supports given above implies more slippage to 86,884. If that Hidden Pivot gives way, the next support would be at 83,746, and thence 80,607. _______ UPDATE (Dec 1, 8:52 p.m.): The low of today's plunge came within 54 points, or six-hundredths of one percent, of the 83,746 target given above. The lowest number in the sequence, 80,607, remains valid as a minimum downside objective if BTC relapses, and a run-up to 90,023 would trigger a theoretical 'mechanical' short, stop 93,163.
