Gold

The euro turned bullish today and that drove the U.S. dollar down, thus pushing gold prices up.
The tensions in Ukraine between, on one level the eastern and western parts of the country, and on the other between Russia and the West, are rising.

German economic sentiment index rose by 15.1 to a four-month high of 11.5 this month over October's reading of -3.6.

 Gold rose at the hands of traders and investors early in the day, until they eased up and a stronger dollar weighed on gold prices.

An unusual day in gold trading, without argument.

Our favorite precious metal fell in morning's session, teasing some price-sensitive buyers into the market. Then the winds shifted and gold rose a bit. The light-feeling rebound quickly turned into a gale wind.

After today's weekly new unemployment claims, many investors thought gold would make a good bet. The one-week snapshot seemed to be talking awfully loudly to them. In fact, the texture behind the weekly claims is much more positive. Job openings are increasing and some of the above-expected numbers in unemployment seem to be the result of job hopping, not weakness in the labor market.

Wherever you look there is a battle raging - except in equities, which seem to be steamrolling their through the autumn. The lure of the stock markets has been pushing just about every other kind of investment down, although we all know the U.S. dollar is going gangbusters as well.

There was a federal holiday in the United States to mark the service of veterans who have served in American wars. Not everything closes but many people like to take the day off. Very cold weather is settling over the country, a bit early in the season, as well.
That adds up to small volume and larger, quicker swings in trading prices.

As we projected, the short-covering rally we saw late last week flopped. In fact, it wasn't really a short-covering rally, but rather a small uptick that was seized upon by opportunistic buyers who bid gold up and then sold out at the first quavering moment.

No fundamentals are in place to help with the promise of a big gold rally. (Unless you count eastern Ukraine.)

A slightly less-than-cheering October jobs report gave traders pause as to whether they were jumping the gun on anticipating higher interest rates from the Fed. But, in fact, the job report was (or more accurately, will be) much better than raw numbers indicate.

Although there were gold buyers a-plenty today, they were fighting an uphill battle against an implacable, rampaging foe. The dollar has become an untamable wild horse, rampaging here and there without effective resistance.

Gas under $3 a gallon. Unemployment under 6%. Stock market breaking records every day.
No wonder Obama is so unpopular.