If you look closely at the manufacturing data released today by the U.S. Department of Commerce, you’ll quickly see that the worst of the industrial slump is over or almost over.

Non-defense capital goods (excluding aircraft), a crucial measure of business confidence and spending plans, slipped a mere 0.1% instead of the 0.3 percent drop reported last month (August).

The Commerce Department said that U.S. construction spending rose 0.6 percent in September to the highest level since March 2008, pushed up by a surge in apartment building.

A week that started with fear over what the Federal Reserve might do in its meeting just concluded this past Wednesday, ended up being a good week for equities, and, in spite of major bumps in the road, a very good week for crude. Gold seems to be puzzled by what went down at the Federal Open Market Committee meeting on Wednesday.

What the U.S. Federal Reserve sees in an apparently weak Q3 GDP report is entirely different from what currency traders and equities traders think they are seeing. (It’s possible that precious metals traders got it right.)

The central bank concluded this month’s FOMC meeting earlier today, alluding to the potential that rate hikes or “lift off” could still begin in December 2015.

Whether or not the initiation of rate hikes will begin this year is not off the table according to recent statements made by the Federal Reserve.

Conventionally, people would say: “The dollar is steady before the Fed statement Wednesday afternoon.” We would say: “The dollar, like other markets – with a few exceptions – has no idea what it’s doing.”

The Federal Open Market Committee begins its latest meeting tomorrow. Although some jitters are rippling mildly through markets, there is not much to worry about regarding an immediate rise in U.S. interest rates.

There sits the U.S. dollar versus the euro, only a couple of 100ths or so from 1.10/1.00. Much has happened since yesterday afternoon and much of it can be explained by the People’s Bank of China’s 25-basis-point cut in interest rates.

Head of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, made dovish comments about the ECB’s position regarding quantitative easing and rates.

Gold seemed ready to stand its ground overnight but then crude oil, a bearish outside market, tumbled and helped drag gold down.

U.S. dollar strength also helped to weaken gold and indeed the entire precious metals complex. The metals are off their earlier lows, however. Palladium was hit hardest, down more than 2.5% in mid-afternoon trading.