Stationary Bicycle

Some days you hop on those bikes in the gym, and you pedal and pedal and you end up asking yourself: "Why am I doing this? Shouldn't I be going somewhere?

Today was just that sort of day in gold. One would have thought that bargain hunters and short covering players would have made a stronger stand, but they didn't. Perhaps everyone is waiting for the proper entry point.  

Meanwhile...Double, double toil and trouble. Fire burn and cauldron bubble. Can Ukraine heat up anymore? It sure can. The Russians are playing it very cozy and the Ukrainian west/center seems to have a big problem on its hands.

Putin is - for him - very restrained. This, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel keeps ratcheting up her economic threats. We believe if Putin budges or sends overt aid to the breakaway cities and counties in Ukraine, she will pull the trigger despite what the business community in Germany says. If a rich country can't be moral, what good are its riches?

The U.S., and the E.U. and their combined military arm, NATO, are beefing up military presence in eastern Europe.  

We're not conspiracists but there is something particularly galling that the day before extremely robust U.S. manufacturing data came out, gold prices fell the most they have in one day since last year.

Since everything else is leaked, it seems all too believable that economic data is leaking to some as well.  

Industrial growth in the U.S. surged by 0.7%, a figure that, if continued for a year would amount to an 8.4% rise. Additionally, China unexpectedly reported out better growth, although at this point we still wonder if such  

As always, wishing you good trading,