Gold

U.S. equities shrugged off a mammoth new jobs number, clinging instead to the rate ramifications of the swaggering data. The report showed that new positions created in December numbered 292,000, a data point that will sure be revised upward (as were the numbers for October and November).

The question of the day is whether U.S. equities are in a real (corrective) contraction, meaning a bear market, or is this just a little sweeping out of the ashes from the fireplace of 2015.

The release of the Federal Open Market Committees minutes from its December policy meeting did little to affect trends in today’s markets.

When it comes to crude oil, oversupply, overproduction and immense in-the-ground reserves are trumping the chaos in diplomatic relations between two key players in the Middle East.

You can dismiss any notion that today’s rolling and tumbling equities were in any way affected by the brouhaha over the execution of a Shiite cleric by Saudi Arabia. It probably was an inordinately stupid thing to do by the Saudis, but Iran did react swiftly on the official level to muffle the crazy protests that “the man in the street” conducted.

The U.S. dollar and oil share the end of year spotlight but for two very different reasons.

Crude oil, although up modestly today – 50 cents or so per barrel – is down more than $20 per barrel on the year. Oil is in a pricing crisis but it is not in a production or consumption crisis, an interesting turn of events.

With very little else happening to give the equities fundamental direction, crude stepped in and influenced the U.S. and European bourses.

Crude prices were down. West Texas Intermediate and Brent North were both down and are selling for about the same amount per barrel. They are at parity and trading in tandem.

The sell-then-buy effect is in gear as we end the year. Sell your losses hard to take losses that will be reflected in your tax liability come 2016, then immediately buy back your favorites out of the stocks you just sold. Nifty, eh?

Blessed are they who expect nothing during holiday weeks, for they shall not be disappointed.

Excess supply weighed on crude oil prices and that drove West Texas Intermediate down more than 3.30% and Brent North Sea just a touch more. (Brent is still trading below the Texas black gold, by the way.)

It’s no surprise that on this half day of trading before Christmas, U.S. equities barely moved. The biggest change was in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which was down a bit more than 0.25%. About the only market trading higher on the day was gold.