In a classic risk-on day, equities, oil and the U.S. dollar rocketed up as gold fell and bond yields rose. On such a briskly upbeat day, it was only natural that the Japanese yen would fall against the dollar about as strongly as did the euro.

The 800,000-pound Godzilla in the room at the moment is the fear of a Federal Reserve interest rate hike.

As of Friday, interest-rate futures were pricing in a 30% probability of an increase at the June 14/15 meeting, up from 5% several days earlier, according to the CME’s FedWatch Tool.

Although the fear-factor index lightened up today, (the oft-cited VIX index on the CBOE), there is quite a bit of uncertainty and therefore volatility stalking the markets.

It seems that even safe havens are not attracting the kind of money we might normally see when equities take a turn down and seem to be overvalued.

The day after a release of somewhat controversial Federal Reserve meeting minutes finds us with markets in reconnoitering mode.

The wait for and the actual release of the Fed minutes from the April FOMC meeting has been steering the ship of finance as of late and definitely throughout today’s sessions. Gold has been particularly sensitive to the fears surrounding the perceived hawkish mood at the Fed.

While we await the Fed minutes – fingernail-biting positions, everyone – we are faced with a boatload of conflicting information, currents and crosscurrents.

As West Texas Intermediate soared 3.25% and Apple finally found its wings again today, equities in the U.S. jumped.

The price of precious metals this week have been on an absolute roller coaster ride, with dynamic upside surges, and substantial price corrections. 

US dollar strength and weakness have been a prevalent factor throughout the week influencing the price of precious metals.

It’s hard to label recent action in markets across the board as volatile. It is more a matter a sort of indecisive approach first by traders in equities, switching then to precious metals, then crude, then currencies, then bonds – round and round and round we go.

Today’s trading is another example of a number of contradictory currents running through markets.

For our purposes, though, the price of gold is of great interest because, as the U.S dollar tumbled, the yellow precious metal profited. It also was helped by a slight change in sentiment in regular trading.