In exactly two weeks, the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States will most likely enact its first interest rate hike since Theodore Roosevelt was president… oops, no… it’s not been quite as long as that, but it is years and years.

Speaking from prepared remarks at the Economic Club of Washington, Janet Yellen seemed quite tilted toward a rate hike.

OK… maybe just one shot of rate rise serum will be called for. Not two, and certainly not three.

That seems to be the story on equities today, which maintained sturdy gains despite a bad print on the Institute Of Supply Management (ISM) November Manufacturing PMI. That came in at 48.6, which signals contraction.

In spite of a rising U.S. dollar, gold, perhaps in a corrective mode after a month of losses, made some headway today. In this case, corrective would also mean tempting to bargain hunters.

Regardless, the yellow metal was the only component of the precious metals complex to enjoy a healthy rise on the day.

In subdued trading on the post-Thanksgiving half-day session, U.S. equities are managing to eke out some gains in spite of a 3.5% fall of Disney shares. Lower crude oil prices once more dented share prices on the Dow and S&P 500.

No one wants a headache on a holiday. Generally then, traders and investors slip out the side door early, especially the movers and shakers. Even Europe and Asia know the drill when the U.S. takes a deep breath, stuffs its collective face and lays back to watch some football and engage in the high-drama of family political discussion.

The shooting down of a Russian fighter-bomber by a Turkish F-16 sent powerful ripples through the world from the diplomatic and military side to the financial side. Although one never knows, let’s hope that cooler heads will prevail and we will return to the previous status quo.

If anything characterizes movement in markets today, it could very well be the phrase “trimming the sails.” There are a number of reason investors and traders are cutting positions, or consolidating positions whether on upside or downside bets.

Jockeying for next week’s Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S. has already begun. Come Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, Europe and Asia will be left fairly much to their own devices. (Of course only Thanksgiving Day itself is a full on market-closed holiday, but between the run up and the lethargy of the day after, don’t expect much from New York or Chicago.

Many of the major trends in markets that we have been watching closely turned around today, although we feel that the shift is more in the way of consolidation than a strong change of sentiment.

Nature abhors a vacuum. People do, too, and generally seek to fill vacuums. With the world drifting under recent terroristic attacks and the threat of more, plus news of beheadings, torture and general mayhem wherever ISIS spreads its grimy wings, no wonder that investors and traders seem relieved and even happy about the particulars of the minutes of the last Fed meeting.