Gold is off $8.40 in late afternoon trading while silver is down 18¢ or 0.90% per ounce. This is in spite of assistance from a weaker U.S. dollar, which drives prices up.

A 0.6% rise in U.S. retail sales for June, blew the 0.1% rise predicted by economists out of the water. It’s yet another reminder why economics is called “the dismal science.” The rise was the third straight monthly increase. Sales are up 2.7% from a year earlier.

Gold is off around $8.00 today, but the heart of the story is that the price point reflects a nearly $3.50 positive assist from a weaker U.S. dollar. Otherwise gold would have been off $11.00 in total. Silver was also off today as it too felt the sting of hungry stock investors.

Gold found help in a mildly weaker dollar and semi-enthusiastic regular trading. It added up to a modest 0.80% gain on the day. Silver was up around 1.15% and ever-eccentric palladium rose 2.80% on the day.

Asia opened the celebrations with the Nikkei jumping 2.45%, Shanghai up 1.80% and Hong Kong rising 1.60%. Good way to start the proceedings for equities bulls.

The French CAC rose 1.60% and the DAX was higher by 1.30%. The FTSE was marginally off, but, given great Britain’s precarious economic perch, it was really a win.

There is a handful of relatively simple reasons why it took till today for the stock markets to churn and burn higher.

The big news today in trading, of course, is the jobs report from the U.S. Department of Labor.

June's huge jobs number beat predictions with a stick. It was surprising, given May's disappointing data. The U.S. economy added 287,000 non-farm payrolls last month, 112K more than estimates.

It has been our contention that gold, rather than functioning recently as only a safe haven or store of value, has been operating as a growth investment. Granted, it may be in a limited scope but that is what’s happening.

We may be seeing the British pound heading for parity. Perhaps it will be propped up. Perhaps it will finally rest where it belongs as Great Britain assumes its place as an economy in 10^th or 12^th place in the world ranking.

We do know that a lot of money is streaming out of European equities and into gold, silver and into U.S. bonds (to a lesser extent.)

Crude oil is off by a spectacular 4.60% in afternoon trading. Failing confidence in global growth, and therefore demand for energy, weighed on West Texas Intermediate and Brent North Sea. Indicative of the general fear of lower demand was the associated plunge in natural gas futures, which were down 7.70%.

There is another factor that beat energy prices down.