Gold slipped a bit more today in the face of comments from the Federal Reserve and one data point that could point more strongly in the direction of a rate hike in December. Equities moved higher on oil price spike, but we feel they are probing new tops and the pullbacks we are seeing are “technical” in the broad sense of the word.

The general assessment of at least the markets is that Hillary Clinton “won” last night’s debate. That sent the U.S. dollar higher and gold prices lower. It also helped equities rise, although there the story is more nuanced.

It seems unreasonable to believe that investors and traders are worriedly waiting on the outcome of tonight’s debate, but many analysts are saying it is so. We’re serious doubters.

The end of an anxious week gave us tumbling oil prices as Saudi Arabia publicly said it did not see a strong possibility there would be a production freeze agreement among OPEC and big on-OPEC producers.

If there is any doubt that the United States Federal Reserve is the big dog among central banks, behold the aftermath of yesterday’s decision to hold interest rates steady until the next meeting (at least).

Here are the three main reasons the Fed held pat. Lack of inflation. The absence of inflation. The disappearance of inflation.

In the run-up to the Fed’s September announcement today, equities held steady to lower and gold rose over $11.00 per ounce.

Equities are holding mildly higher as the Federal Open Market Committee’s meeting commences today. It is largely expected that the Fed will maintain rates as they are, but will perhaps add a sterner, more-hawkish statement concerning a rate hike come December’s meeting.

Just ahead of the FOMC meeting that begins tomorrow, there is a bit of retrenchment, a small move toward safety, but nothing that indicates more than a bit of the jitters.

The mindless mood swings continue regarding the upcoming FOMC meeting, which concludes on Wednesday. Today many markets once again overreacted to the scantest “hawkish” data release, that of the Consumer Price Index for August.

We were treated not to just a raft of soft U.S. data but a flotilla of it. Initial jobless claims were steady, representing the only positive news on the day.