According to Wikipedia, it ain’t over till (or until) the fat lady sings is a colloquialism which is often uses a proverb. It means that one should not presume to know the outcome of an event which is still in progress. More specifically, the phrase is used when a situation is (or appears to be) nearing its conclusion.

President Trump announced today that the U.S. has come to a “very substantial phase one deal” with China. After 14 formal negotiation sessions, which have lasted over 15 months, today it was announced that the two superpowers have reached a basic agreement regarding parts of the trade disputes.

As a market technician and analyst, it is days like today that I would really like to be

The minutes from the September FOMC meeting were released today. They indicated an elevated level of concern by Federal Reserve members not conveyed in either the statement released immediately following the conclusion of the September meeting, or the following press conference held by Chairman Jerome Powell.

According to Wikipedia, there is a simple test that is a form of a deductive reasoning. This is the usual expression: If It looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quakes like a duck, then it probably is a duck. The test implies that a person can identify an unknown subject by observing that subject habitual characteristics.

This month is absolutely ripe with upcoming fundamental events that could profoundly shape the financial markets through the remainder of the year.

This morning the U.S. Labor Department released its monthly jobs report. It seemed to follow the trend created earlier this week when the ADP jobs report indicated that only 135,000 new jobs were added last month.

Although gold is trading higher on the day, it is most definitely well off of the intraday high achieved when gold futures hit $1525.80. As of 5 PM EDT gold futures basis the most active December contract are currently bid at $1511.10, which is a net gain of $3.20 on the day.

U.S. equities sold off sharply today having the worst performance in a single day since August 23. As of 4:06 PM EDT the Dow Jones industrial average has closed down 494.42 points, a net decline of 1.86% today with the average currently fixed at 26,078.62. The Dow is having the worst weekly performance since May, with all 11 sectors closing lower on the day.

Gold had a solid performance today following the release of the ISM index (manufacturing) data which contracted from 49.1 in August versus 47.8 in September. Gold futures traded to its lowest price point today when it traded to an intraday low of $1465 before recovering. The net result of this data put significant pressure on U.S. equities and was highly supportive of gold pricing.