It’s best to start with U.S. dollar weakness today because it has affected most other markets. The greenback is down against the euro, yen, British pound and Swiss franc. The dollar is sliding because of a thousand small cuts to its strength rather than some large crisis of confidence.

It’s not unusual to get a bit of a whipsaw effect on the day of the release of minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee meeting. Many who were betting one way or another suddenly shift to the diametrically opposite positions. And then they possibly shift back as volatility increases and traders take advantage.

The schizophrenic views of the Fed and its inability to stay steady on advisement can summed up as follows. Today this was also compounded by flat-lining consumer prices in July.

The U.S. dollar hit its lowest levels in more than seven weeks against the euro, yen and Swiss franc on Tuesday a day after dovish comments from a San Francisco Fed President John William.

The week started off on a positive note for gold. It rose $3.00 per ounce (at 4PM Eastern Time) with a tangible assist from a weaker dollar. Silver rose as well, more or less in the same fashion, but with more upward momentum provided by regular trading.

In spite of early-day trading optimism, gold turned negative after noontime, even as a weaker U.S. dollar gave it some underpinning and is off about $4.00 at 4PM in New York.

For most of the day, seeking firmer fundamental trading direction and finding little to none, gold found itself at the mercy of a slightly more robust U.S. dollar. As we reached the end of the trading day, though, gold succumbed to regular trading declines brought on by optimism in the stock markets.

Sentiment that an interest rate increase is moving farther and farther out on the time horizon continues to throttle back dollar strength. This, in turn, helped gold rise today.

Provocatively, regular trading showed a loss, small as it was.

While there is going to be continuing speculation regarding the possibility of an interest rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve, there are some countervailing reasons as to why one should hold gold in a balanced portfolio.

Oil-producing nations in and out of OPEC are beginning to rattle their sabers again about production cuts. That helped oil rise about 3.50% on the session.

We’re all familiar with central banks talking their currency up or down for self-serving reasons. Think of oil as a currency and ministries of oil as something parallel to a central bank in petro-states.

The first print of July employment data shows an extremely strong labor market, one that can see sustained growth for some time, and one that just might be the harbinger of meaningful inflation in the near future.

The 255,000 new-jobs figure is impressive enough. Beyond the raw numbers though, we are seeing big, important details.