Gold

Well, natural gas was up today.

All major stock indices were down from Asia, to Europe to New York. The NASDAQ seemed as if it were going to make it into the green zone as a result of positive developments in biotech issues but gravity proved to be too much for it. As of 3:30, the NASDAQ is also in negative territory.

Brent North Sea and U.S. crude futures went into free fall today by as much as 6% before recovering a small bit of their losses. The drop seems to have been in belated reaction to OPEC’s inability at a policy meeting on Friday to conclude an agreement to lower production and thereby push prices higher, or at least prevent a further decline.

The big, big surprise today was the precious metals complex, which exploded and caused brains to freeze around the world. Two questions arose: “Why” and “For how long?”

Palladium was the biggest mover, soaring to the upside by 6.5%. Platinum was close on its heels, moving 4.00% to the upside. Silver and gold rose 3.40% and 2.25% respectively.

All hell broke loose as the European Central Bank lowered interest rates but not as much as anticipated. Additionally, head of the ECB Mario Draghi essentially said he would pull out all the stops in order to stimulate the continent’s lackluster economic performance.

In exactly two weeks, the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States will most likely enact its first interest rate hike since Theodore Roosevelt was president… oops, no… it’s not been quite as long as that, but it is years and years.

Speaking from prepared remarks at the Economic Club of Washington, Janet Yellen seemed quite tilted toward a rate hike.

OK… maybe just one shot of rate rise serum will be called for. Not two, and certainly not three.

That seems to be the story on equities today, which maintained sturdy gains despite a bad print on the Institute Of Supply Management (ISM) November Manufacturing PMI. That came in at 48.6, which signals contraction.

In spite of a rising U.S. dollar, gold, perhaps in a corrective mode after a month of losses, made some headway today. In this case, corrective would also mean tempting to bargain hunters.

Regardless, the yellow metal was the only component of the precious metals complex to enjoy a healthy rise on the day.

In subdued trading on the post-Thanksgiving half-day session, U.S. equities are managing to eke out some gains in spite of a 3.5% fall of Disney shares. Lower crude oil prices once more dented share prices on the Dow and S&P 500.

No one wants a headache on a holiday. Generally then, traders and investors slip out the side door early, especially the movers and shakers. Even Europe and Asia know the drill when the U.S. takes a deep breath, stuffs its collective face and lays back to watch some football and engage in the high-drama of family political discussion.

The shooting down of a Russian fighter-bomber by a Turkish F-16 sent powerful ripples through the world from the diplomatic and military side to the financial side. Although one never knows, let’s hope that cooler heads will prevail and we will return to the previous status quo.