Everyone was taking a big breather today rfom the precious metals markets in the aftermath of yesterday's sell off. This will give traders and investors some time to convince themselves they over-reacted to the sparse information in the FOMC minutes released yesterday (prematurely). 

The big question right now is whether the U.S., which has had a recovery based on exporting manufactured goods, energy products and services to some extent, will allow the Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank to undercut the effects of the weakened dollar through their own robust stimulus programs.

Perhaps it is time for the world's truly developed nations to co-ordinate in a loose way their fiscal policies. To wit, if Europe had executed monetary easing two years ago, the world would be fully recovering now. 

That the price of gold firmed and has even gained a little today is good news for bulls looking for re-entry into the market at some point in the near future. We would hope that gold and silver currently offer enough bargain pricing to invite bigger investors back in. 

There is little news otherwise that might drive the markets. Some more money did migrate into equities but that was most likely left over sentiment from yesterday. North Korea has not done anything stupid yet, although their words are ridiculous. Our favorite insult of the day is the backwards country's calling the United States "a boiled pumpkin." But news from the Asian peninsula is not affecting precious traders in the least.

Labor still seems sluggish according to today's new unemployment filings report released that reflect last week's numbers. Yet there are Fed members who are saying that the labor picture is improving rapidly. Easy enough to say if you're making seven figures per year. But someone might want to ask the 21 million still unemployed how they think the labor market is doing.

The jobless are the real experts. And we haven't even felt the full effects of sequestration yet. As they say in the military, SNAFU. You'll have to look that one up because we can't publish the meaning here.